TO TAME THE BRUTAL LYCAN BEAST-Chapter 67: LEAVE HIM WANTING

VALORIA WILDEROSE

"For a second, I almost forgot how much of a jerk you are."

I move too fast—almost slipping before I regain my balance. I step out of the pond, squeezing my dress dry and then my hair.

"That’s on you, you know, forgetting that I’m the worst person alive." He continues relentlessly with that smile that does nothing to help.

Suddenly I can’t help but remember small, unimportant details—like how he lingered a bit before taking his hands off her, and how Willow is exactly his type.

Half the women he’s married looked just like her, and I’m spiraling into crazy thoughts that shouldn’t matter.

"She’s basically begging for it, you know. Turns out someone in your family can actually do the work required to turn me on. And here I thought you were just a family of prudes. Oh wait—was that just you?" He doubles down, enjoying every second he’s under my skin.

I seethe, fuming even more. I take a step closer than we already are, showing I’m not the least bit intimidated.

"Fuck you," I curse under my breath. Each word drips with the resentment and hate I have for everything he is.

"Exactly what I’ve been waiting for you to do. Only, you can’t go past kissing to save your life. The only thing you can fuck up is every chance you have at winning me."

I’m vibrating—searing with heat, with anger, with rage—on the verge of exploding, erupting like a volcano, and our faces are barely inches apart.

Breath against breath.

"What is it?" he asks when I don’t say anything else, watching me eagerly.

"Y–You’re an infuriating piece of shit," I gasp for air.

His gaze suddenly drops below my eyes.

"And what are you going to do about that?"

What am I going to do?

I’ll mess with him the only way I know how.

I’m compelled by something dangerous, burning inside of me, and I lean forward to bridge the already narrow gap between our mouths—kissing Azrael fiercely.

It starts out rough and clumsy, sucking on his lips. He grants me immediate access to his mouth, and emboldened, I catch his tongue with my teeth—a gentle, claiming bite.

I taste the faint, cool mint of his breath and something darker, something purely him.

I feel him stiffen, a sharp inhale catching in his chest as he tries to hold back but fails miserably.

A low, guttural sound rumbles from his throat, a vibration I feel deep in my own core. Then his hands are on my waist, lifting me up and against his body as if I weigh nothing.

I’m pressed right on top of the hard, thick ridge straining against his pants, my legs wrapping around his waist instinctively, my back meeting the cool, rough stone of the wall behind us.

My hands fly from his shoulders into his hair, fisting in the dark strands, tilting his head because I need more—I don’t know what, but more.

I pour every bit of my frustration, my anger, and this terrifying, thrilling thing I can’t name into it. My tongue tangles with his messily, and each groan I pull from him feels like a small victory.

One of my hands slides down from his hair, over the muscle of his neck, down the front of his shirt—mimicking what I’ve seen, what I think might drive him as crazy as he drives me.

I feel the frantic, hammering beat of his heart beneath my palm. It’s wild, matching my own.

My hand slips lower between our bodies, trembling slightly as my fingers skim over the hard, toned plane of his torso.

When my palm presses against the overwhelming hardness in his trousers, he jerks against me, his hips giving an involuntary thrust.

"Fuck, Valoria," he breathes against my mouth, his voice ragged, stripped of all its usual control.

The sound of my name like that—broken, desperate—sends a thrill through me that’s half terror, half power.

"This is what you do to me," I whisper against his jaw, the words tumbling out before I can stop them. My voice shakes. "You make me—I can’t think when you—"

I can’t finish. I don’t have the words for what he does to me, how he makes me feel reckless and brave and terrified all at once. So instead I kiss him again, harder, letting my body say what my mouth can’t.

His head falls back against the wall with a soft thud, his eyes squeezed shut, his face twisted in something that looks almost like pain. I’ve never seen him like this—the ever-composed king completely undone.

Because of me.

I continue my assault, kissing a hot, wet path down his throat, licking the salt from his skin.

I suck a dark mark just above his collarbone. My hand moves from pressing to stroking him through the fabric, tracing his length, feeling him twitch and pulse under my touch.

He’s huge, and the power I feel in reducing this formidable man to a trembling, desperate mess is more intoxicating than any wine.

"Y-You feel that?" I murmur into his ear, my breath hot. My hand presses more firmly against the hardness straining his trousers. "That’s what I do to you."

His hands, which have been gripping my thighs like a lifeline, slide up to my hips, his thumbs digging into the sensitive flesh.

He’s trying to guide my movements, to take back control, but I don’t let him. I roll my hips in a slow, deliberate rhythm, uncertain but determined, a challenge I’m not even sure I understand.

I can feel the tension coiling in him, the precipice he’s balancing on. His breathing is a ragged mess, his whole body trembling with the effort of holding back.

And that’s when I stop.

I go completely still, my hand resting lightly on him, my lips an inch from his.

His eyes fly open, dazed and desperate with need.

"Valoria..."

A slow, satisfied smile curves my lips. I lean in, brushing my mouth against his once more in a ghost of a kiss.

"I think you’ve been warned enough." I pull away, gasping for air myself, flicking my hair out of my face as I watch disappointment and devastation settle over his features.

"W–Wait... what?"

I even have him stuttering.

I unwrap my legs from his waist, and he has no choice but to let me slide down his body, every inch a fresh torment for him.

My feet touch the damp grass, and I take a step back, putting a crucial few inches of cool morning air between our burning bodies.

I hold back my chuckle—barely—adjusting my dress while he watches, stupefied and dumbfounded.

"Valoria, wait... you can’t just leave me—"

"Taataa." I wave, turning to leave before he can stop me.