“Yes. Again. Oh, please don’t stop. It’s so hot… so good… More. Now.” Bristol didn’t know if she was speaking the words aloud or if they were only being shouted in her mind. A small part of her knew it wouldn’t matter, Israel would hear them either way. The slow pace he set felt good, but she wanted more. She needed more. Maybe… if she could shift her position…
“Stay where I put you, little sub. When I want you to lift your glorious ass, I’ll tell you.” Israel’s pace never changed, but his voice was pure sexual dominance. “Who is in charge of your pleasure, Beautiful?”
“You, Sir. You’re in charge.” Bristol finally understood the needy tone she so often heard in other submissives’ voices during scenes. The begging tone often came off as manipulative whining, but now, it felt more sincere. Holy handmaidens, she wouldn’t have been able to speak in a normal tone if her life depended on it.
“Talk to me, mate. Tell me what you need. I may be able to hear your thoughts, but the heat we’re generating creates static, making telepathy unreliable, at best. I want to feel your pussy milking my cock the way it did my fingers. The liquid rush of your release coating my fingers was one of the most erotic things I’ve ever experienced, and I already know feeling it coat my dick is going to blow my mind.”
Bristol could feel her body slipping deeper into arousal, the pressure in her womb winding tighter and tighter. It was only a matter of seconds until the spring inside her sex snapped… Damn, she hoped her brain cells didn’t fry. There was a very real chance she was going to be left a mumbling shell of herself.
“Harder… please… Sir.” Surprise whispered through her mind. She wasn’t sure how she’d managed to push the words out, but his response was immediate—and perfect.
“My pleasure, little sub.” Israel’s voice was laced with satisfaction and tenderness, but his body’s response was the polar opposite. The muscles of his back were sheets of steel beneath his sweat-dampened skin.
Bristol could feel the subtle increase in tension as his hips thrust harder and faster. Once… twice… The third time their bodies met, hers erupted in a blinding release. A keening wail in the distance registered in the back of her mind, but whoever the woman was, she was on her own. Bristol was too caught up in her own glitter storm to worry about someone else. Bright, sparkling lights behind her eyelids burst into colors so brilliant, they defied description.
“Open your eyes, Bristol. Now. I want to see into your soul when you come.” Her eyes opened on their own, and she was astonished how quickly the muscles responded to his command. “Your body recognizes its mate and Master, Bristol. Let go. I’ll catch you.”
His reassurance was the last thing she heard before a second orgasm hit her with even more force than the first. Bristol felt her back arch involuntarily, a millisecond before everything around her disappeared in a blinding flash of white, sending her tumbling into darkness.
Israel was wrapped in the most intense heat he’d ever experienced. He’d been sexually active since he was a teen and never experienced anything close to the mind-melting release he’d just had with Bristol. Reading about the deeper connection hadn’t done anything to prepare him for the reality. Mustering the last vestiges of his strength, Israel rolled to the side without pulling out of his mate. It didn’t matter he hadn’t officially claimed her—Bristol Banks belonged to him.
A brief flash of a woman’s face moved through his mind so fast, it didn’t register, but a spike of fear followed so close behind, he knew they were connected. His thinking was so fogged by all the happy chemicals free-floating in his brain, Israel wasn’t sure he’d be able to fight his way out of a wet paper bag. Whoever she was, she needed to tread carefully. Threatening Bristol wouldn’t be tolerated—ever. The Adlers hadn’t become a force to be reckoned with by rolling over and playing dead.
“Wow.” Bristol started to stir against him, but he tightened the arm he’d slung over her back.
“Stay where you are, Beautiful.” He wanted to give their heartbeats a chance to synchronize. The fastest way he knew to deepen their connection was to let their hearts beat as one. A deeper link between them would bring her around faster—preventing physical distance was easy, stopping her emotional retreat was much more difficult.
“Why did you think about Clovia Wilson?” Without the enhanced hearing of a shifter, Israel wouldn’t have been able to hear her whispered question. It wasn’t so much the query he hated as the defeated tone and raw pain he could hear in her voice.
“I saw a flash of a face, but it was gone before I could make it out. Who is she?” The name sounded vaguely familiar, but his brain wasn’t fully online yet, so he hadn’t been able to figure out why the name would mean anything to him.
“She’s a nurse in the OB ward at the hospital and a shifter. I’ve heard she is a member of the club, but I’ve never seen her there.”
“Wait, let me check something.” Israel picked his phone up from the nightstand and checked his messages. Turning the phone to her, Israel showed Bristol the message he got hours earlier from Austin. “I’m not as worried about this message as I am the one from Bronx.” Turning the phone back to her, he felt her tense as she read the text.
There was a woman standing outside the front entrance who said she’s your mate. Sorry, bro, but don’t think that sailor has both her oars in the water. My crazy meter pinged off the chart. You better pull up the security feed and check her out.
When Bristol struggled to move, Israel let her go, but he wasn’t going to allow her out of his reach. Bristol turned to the master bath, intent on retreating, but he captured her wrist. Giving her a quick tug, so she was standing between his splayed knees, he brushed the backs of his knuckles over her lower jaw. Her knees barely touching his erection, and he was pleased when her eyes drifted closed, a pink tinge staining her cheeks.
“Yes, I want you again, but you won’t be able to concentrate until we get to the bottom of this. I’d feel the same if our positions were reversed.” He gave her a reassuring smile but wasn’t convinced she bought it. “I’ll bring you something to wear. When you’re ready, come to my home office. I can access the outside security footage from my laptop.” She gave him a quick nod but refused to meet his gaze. When she tried to move away, he held tight.
“No, Beautiful. That isn’t how this is going to go.” She didn’t respond for several seconds but finally lifted her face to his. Worse than the pain he’d heard in her voice was the self-recrimination he saw in her eyes. Fucking hell.
“I’d like to get dressed and head home. You are more than capable of sorting this out without my help. I’m already embarrassed enough. Good heavens, I had sex with a coworker’s boyfriend.”
Israel was shocked. Did she really believe his moral character was that despicable? Fuck, he wanted to pull her over his lap and paddle her until she understood how wrong she was, but that wouldn’t help him build the relationship he was striving for.
“No, Sweetheart. I want you right beside me while I figure out what’s going on. I have not been in a committed relationship for several years, and even then, I knew she wasn’t my mate. We both knew it was a temporary convenience and remained friends after it ended.” Now that his head had cleared, Israel was convinced he knew who he was dealing with, but he wasn’t going to say anything to Bristol until he was sure. “You don’t know me well enough to know I’d never cheat on my mate—I understand that it takes time—but I assure you, I was raised to have more integrity.” Moving to the dresser, he picked up her phone and dialed.