Chapter 4: Sealed With a Kiss

The heavy gold pen felt like live fire between my trembling fingers. Kael stood directly behind me, so close that every deep breath he took brushed his broad, solid chest against my shoulder blades. The intoxicating scent of dark pine, warm skin, and midnight rain wrapped around me like a velvet cage, making my head spin.

​"Sign it, Elara," Kael commanded softly. His lips were mere inches from the sensitive skin of my neck, his warm breath sending a wicked, electric shiver straight down to the pit of my stomach. "Give yourself to me, and your brother never has to know what fear feels like again."

​I bit my lower lip, trying to fight the bizarre, dizzying pull dragging me toward him. Looking down at the parchment, I pressed the gold nib to the signature line and wrote my name.

​The exact second the ink dried, a low, primal groan rumbled deep in Kael’s throat.

​Before I could even set the pen down, his large, calloused hands gripped my waist, spinning me around effortlessly to face him. With one fluid movement, he lifted me right off my feet and sat me down on the edge of the heavy mahogany desk, stepping right between my knees so I was completely trapped against him.

​My breath hitched as my hands flew up to brace against his hard, sculpted chest. Through the thin black fabric of his dress shirt, his skin felt like a furnace, and his heartbeat was thudding like a war drum beneath my palms.

​"What are you doing?" I whispered, my voice breathless and betrayed by how fast my own pulse was racing. "The contract said—"

​"The contract says you are mine for the next three hundred and sixty-five days," Kael murmured, his stormy gray eyes bleeding back into that molten, predatory gold.

​Slowly, deliberately, he raised one hand, his rough fingers tracing a burning path from my collarbone, up the side of my throat, until his thumb rested firmly on my lower lip.

​"Look at you," he growled softly, his gaze darkening with pure, unfiltered hunger as he stared at my parted lips. "Shivering like a leaf, yet your scent is practically begging me to ruin you right on this desk."

​"I'm not begging you for anything," I gasped out, though my fingers traitorously curled into the silk of his shirt, pulling him half an inch closer instead of pushing him away.

​A dark, devastating smirk curved his mouth. "Your mouth lies, little mouse. Your body doesn't."

​His other hand slid into my damp hair, cradling the back of my head and tilting my face up. "Rule number two of being the Alpha's bride: when we are in front of my pack, they need to believe I can't keep my hands off you. Which means we need to practice."

​I didn't even have a fraction of a second to protest before his mouth crashed down onto mine.

​It wasn't a polite, contractual kiss. It was scorching, possessive, and utterly intoxicating. Kael kissed me like a starving man who had finally found water, his warm lips moving against mine with a fierce, demanding rhythm that stole every ounce of oxygen from my lungs.

​A soft, involuntary whimper escaped my throat, and Kael swallowed the sound, pressing closer until there wasn't a single breath of space left between our bodies. His hand at my waist tightened, pulling me flush against the hard ridges of his torso while his thumb stroked the side of my jaw, sending molten heat flooding through my veins. For a terrifying, exhilarating moment, I forgot the alley, the blood, and the debt. All I knew was the taste of him.

​When he finally tore his mouth away from mine, we were both breathing heavily. My lips were swollen and tingling, and my eyes were wide and dazed.

​Kael rested his forehead against mine for a heartbeat, his golden eyes blazing like twin suns as he stared down at me.

​"Damn it," he rasped, his voice thick and rough with barely leashed desire. "One year isn't going to be nearly enough."

​Suddenly, the soft chime of the private elevator echoed across the penthouse lounge, breaking the spell.

​"Alpha," Vance’s voice called out respectfully from the foyer. "We secured the apartment. The boy is here."

​Kael’s eyes stayed locked on mine for one more lingering second, his thumb brushing over my kissed lips before he stepped back and lifted me smoothly off the desk.

​"Go hug your brother, Wife," Kael whispered darkly for my ears alone. "We’ll finish our lesson later tonight."