Declan must have felt my shudder, because his hand tightened on my arm again.
“Service elevator’s right around the corner,” he said, his tone…kind? Not cutting, anyway, the way he’d been speaking to me a few seconds before.
He couldn’t possibly understand how I’d been feeling remembering two of the worst experiences of my life, could he? Especially since he’d been more or less responsible for both of them. And if he’d been trying to comfort me…
Well, I didn’t think I could deal with that.
The elevator did turn out to be right around the corner, and the doors opened immediately, for a miracle.
Declan didn’t let go of me as we entered, keeping me pressed up against his side, and in the small enclosed space the scents of his magic and his desire nearly overwhelmed me, drowning out even the musty odor of the elevator.
By the time we stepped out into the service hallway of our floor, my head swam and my cock had perked up enough to rub against my zipper. I clenched and unclenched the hand hanging by my side to try to get rid of that sweaty-palmed tingling feeling. It didn’t work. Declan’s fingers wrapped around my elbow burned through the long sleeve of my shirt and made my skin feel like it vibrated.
I didn’t know if I wanted to run away or run straight for Declan’s bed. To get it over with, right? I wanted to get it over with so I could send him back to work and get another couple of hours of relative freedom—maybe I’d even make it all the way out the door of the casino this time and manage to take a look at the sky.
Sweat prickled the back of my neck and all down my spine, my palms growing clammier. My face felt horribly flushed.
Declan unlocked the door to the suite and pulled me straight through the doorway and the living area and down the hall toward his bedroom, all without slowing his stride.
“Strip,” he said succinctly as we reached his bed, and finally let go of me to start tugging off his own jacket and tie.
The sudden lack of contact, of the heat of him even through that one place on my arm, jolted me enough that I started to obey him without even thinking about it. My buttons went quickly, my fingers seeming to have their own ideas about how much they wanted whatever he planned to dish out. I kicked off my shoes and toed off my socks, dropped my clothes on the floor, letting them pile around me, and then turned to find Declan standing naked to the waist, hands on his belt but not moving.
The look in his eyes as he stared at me was pure molten heat.
He might hate me, but he wanted me. Badly.
My spine and my knees seemed to go liquid all at once. I let myself collapse onto the bed, laying myself out like an offering, arms and legs spread. My cock hadn’t quite stood itself up straight—it stuck out at an angle, indicating its interest clearly and looking goofy all at once.
Declan didn’t seem to think I looked goofy. His eyes brightened, his alpha glow coming out to play. And for once, not because I’d pissed him off. This was all predatory intent.
I’m going to eatyou.
In that moment, cannibalism didn’t seem impossible.
And then he finally unzipped his trousers and pushed them down along with his boxer briefs, and I couldn’t think about anything else. Declan completely nude took my breath away, all hard muscles and gleaming tattoos and rough hair, and of course thepiece de resistance: that enormous cock, thick and flushed and straining in my direction.
Well, at least he’d be too aroused and ready to go to stop on the way to take bites out of me.
Except that apparently he had more patience than I’d thought, because once he’d stepped out of his clothes he put a knee on the edge of the bed, taking my ankles in his hands and pushing them apart—and then he didn’t fuckingdoanything about it.
Instead, he stared down at me, eyes fixed on…not my cock, I didn’t think.
Lower.
And another man gazing that avidly at my hole…it made me twitch, the thought of Declan scrutinizing that part of my body so closely.
Not to mention knowing what he had to be thinking as he did.
I knew how it felt to be inside someone. The heat, and the tightness, and the slick friction. How being on top of a partner, thrusting inside, fed the alpha part of my nature.
Declan was anticipating doing all of that.
And I was on the other side of it.
“I thought you were on a schedule,” I husked through my too-dry throat. “Get this show on the road.”
He grinned down at me, showing way too many teeth.I’m going to eatyou. Fuck.
