Page 118 of Crucible
Gripping my neck, Thorin drags me close, but he doesn’t squeeze. He just wants to remind me that hecould. He just wants an excuse to touch me, and dammit, I’m panting for it.
“You liked it too, Aurelia. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re different from us,” he says in the low voice that I’ve come to know means sex is on his mind—hot, filthy, raw, animalisticsex.
My nostrils flare as I stomp down the urge to submit. My pussy will not be calling the shots this time, thank you.
With Seth, it feels like we’re two horny teenagers who’ve just discovered our bodies. With Khalil, I’m the outmatched novice being turned out and wrung dry by someone with far more experience. But with Thorin…God, it feels like we’re guided by carnal instinct alone. There’s no other reason why we feel the need to pick a fight whenever one of us wants the other. It’s foreplay that’s just for us.
“Those are my terms,Thorin.”
He shoves me away from him when he lets me go. “I’ll think about it.”
“Well, I’llthinkabout letting you touch me the next time your dick is hard.”
“As you love to remind us, wolf, what makes you think I’ll care if you want it?”
My nostrils flare. “Go to hell.”
“I’ll fuckingrunthere if it means I don’t have to listen to your ungrateful ass.”
“Ungrateful?” I shriek. “Ooooh! What do I have to be grateful for? Huh? Tell me, Thorin. Please explain to me why coming inside me equates to a half-empty bottle of conditioner. Am I really worth so little to you?”
His blue eyes flare in shock as if I’d slapped him, but the reaction is gone as fast as it appeared. He shoves a hand through his blond hair, his jaw ticking as he looks away briefly before meeting my gaze again. “Fine. You want the loft? Take it,” he says through clenched teeth. “But make no mistake. When we tell you to sleep in our beds, your ass better fucking run to it.”
“Fine!”
“Fine.” Tugging me forward by my corset, Thorin kisses me hard enough to bruise my lips before pulling back and glaring down at me. “And just so we’re clear,neverimply that you mean nothing to me again. It’s a fucking lie, and I won’t tolerate it, wolf.”
“If you want me to believe it, Thorin, it’s not enough to say it. You have toshowme. I want to feel it.”
Thorin stares at me, his gaze no longer angry. I’m unsure when he let me go and left me standing there alone.
SETH | EKEZ
Spring is only a couple of weeks away, and despite Mother Nature’s attempt to bury us one last time in snow and ice, her most willful flowers are already in bloom. Newly hatched butterflies, free from their chrysalis, flit around the snow, looking for those flowers to pollinate.
“Seth…what the hell are you doing?” Khalil gripes when I stop for the third time.
Crouching by a bed of perennials, I study the yellow flowers peeking out of the snow. “What does it look like?” I toss back. “Picking flowers.”
“Forwhat?”
I smile as I gently finger one of the dew-dropped petals. “For Sunshine.”
After selecting the best ones, I add them to the bunch I’ve already collected and stand. “You think Aurelia likes flowers?”
Khalil glances down at the colorful bunch clutched in my fist and then the flower bed I just picked. “I think they’re poisonous, Seth.”
“Dude, you don’t have to sell me on them. I already know they’re perfect for our girl.”
Khalil sighs and rubs at his brow. “Seth, we need to talk.”
Raising the flowers, I sniff them and bask in the different smells. “About what?”
“Your attachment to Aurelia for starters?”
I sniff the flowers again and wonder how I’m going to get them back to her without ruining them. I’ve never given flowers to a girl before, and neither has Zeke. I’ve searched his memories backward and forward, but the most romantic gesture he’s ever bothered to make to a girl is to remember her name. That part doesn’t bother me so much because I know Sunshine is territorial, but this is our first time giving her flowers. They have to be perfect.
“What about it?”
