Jaxson(32)

He gently placed her on her feet and held her up because she didn’t quite have her legs yet. His voice was hoarse with need for her. He whispered into her hair, “I want to bend you over my desk and take you from behind. Please, God, say yes.”

She didn’t answer, just twisted out of his arms and prostrated herself on his desk, sending her phone and keys crashing to the floor. She was offering her gorgeous body to him, exposed and waiting, looking over her shoulder with a half-lidded look of pure desire.

He grabbed her hips and slammed into her, just as he’d dreamed of doing since he first laid eyes on her. Her muffled cry sent even more satisfaction coursing through him, and he kept thrusting, slamming harder, losing his mind in this moment. His mouth watered, and his fangs came out. His wolf howled in triumph and growled in his need to claim her. He wanted to make her his forever. This was how it should be—her giving herself over to him so freely, him taking her higher than she’d ever gone, him claiming her with his bite and his love.

His love.

Goddammit. He was so in love with this woman. Not being able to claim her—never being able to have her, not like that, not bound magically—hurt like nothing he’d ever known. He pushed that aside and picked up his pace, finally allowing himself to rush toward that climax he prayed wouldn’t be the end—the end of this hasty tryst; the end of her giving herself wholly and freely to him. He prayed when he told her the truth, that he could still keep her, even if she wasn’t the mate his wolf dreamed of and howled for.

Olivia screamed his name as she came, and that tripped him over the edge with her. Pleasure coursed through him and chased away the worry, just for a single, glorious moment that stretched and stretched. He kept rocking into her until the last waves of her orgasm had subsided. Then he drew her up into his arms and folded her into his lap on the chair again. He kissed all over her beautiful face.

“Olivia, Olivia.” He said her name over and over, hoping that would press upon her the depth of his feelings. Such a short time since she had come into his life, and already she had completely upended it. Laid bare how empty it was. How much he had let the curse ruin living for him.

The curse.

It was time to tell her the truth.

Her breathing was still ragged, as was his, but he didn’t want to wait any longer.

“Olivia.” He stroked her cheek and lifted her chin so she would look up at him and not just snuggle into his chest. Although that feeling of completeness—of connection—was exactly what he hoped they would continue to have. Forever. If she would let him.

“Yes?” She peered up into his eyes, a smile glowing on her face, and he couldn’t resist kissing her once more, just lightly.

“I need to tell you something.”

Her eyes went slightly wide, then she dropped her gaze to his chest again. “Okay,” she said, but there was a new tremor in her voice that he didn’t care for at all.

He frowned and adjusted her in his lap so he could see her face. “I have a secret I’ve been keeping from you.”

This made her face draw down, like she was afraid to hear it. That stabbed into him, but she didn’t say anything more.

He stroked her cheek again. “Don’t take it personally. I’ve been keeping this secret from everyone for a long time.” He couldn’t help a sardonic smile at how true that was.

That seemed to banish some of the fear in her eyes. “Then why are you telling it to me?”

His smile grew. “Because it affects you. Because you’re part of it? Because there’s something about you that made me realize that keeping this secret even one more day was stopping me from actually living my life.”

That perked her interest considerably. She looked at him with something like wonder and gently touched her beautiful fingers to his face. “Whatever your secrets are, Jaxson River, I promise to keep them.”

“That’s just it.” His smile dimmed a little. “I don’t want to keep it anymore.” He drew in a deep breath and let the words just tumble out. “I’ve been cursed, Olivia. A long time ago, when I was barely old enough to drive, a witch laid a curse on me that would forever change my life.”

She drew back, horror on her face. “A witch?”

“I told you they sometimes went after female shifters, right?”

Olivia nodded, but the horror-stricken look on her face just grew.

“Well, this one wanted my heart as well—or at least my body, as a slave to hers. I found out later that it’s much more common than I knew.”

“I don’t understand,” Olivia said, but her face had lost color, and her body was tensed up into a tight ball. “She wanted you for a slave?”