Chapter 219: Chapter 219 After the Aurora
Author
"You said you’d massage my legs," she muttered.
"I am."
His thumb moved from her ankle to her calf. Slow. Steady. He worked the muscle, pressing deep where it was tight.
Elara watched him. "Where’d you learn that?"
He didn’t look up. "Picked it up. Figured if your legs cramped up later, I’d know what to do."
She hadn’t expected that.
Warmth spread through her leg. The knots loosened. The cold numbness faded.
She turned and stared out the frosted window. Dark outside. Snow. Mountains. Nothing else.
Inside, he looked golden under the RV lights. Sharp jaw. Focused eyes. Beautiful in a way that made her chest ache.
"You’re staring," he said, without looking up.
She looked away. "No, I’m not."
The driver’s voice came from the front. "We’re here."
Elara yanked her foot back and pulled her sock up. "Come on. Let’s go."
Alpha Dominic checked her layers. Made sure everything was tucked in. Then he opened the door.
Cold air hit them. Sharp. Clean.
The mountains glowed under the moonlight. Blue-white. Quiet.
"Look." Alpha Dominic pointed.
Elara looked up.
The Milky Way stretched across the sky. Then a green ribbon appeared. Faint at first. Then brighter. It spread. Shifted. The whole sky turned into waves of green and purple.
She forgot to breathe.
She’d seen pictures. Videos. None of them looked like this.
The light moved right above them. Close. Like she could reach up and touch it.
"Babe." Alpha Dominic ’s voice was quiet. "Merry Christmas."
She turned. The aurora was in his eyes. Green. Gold. Shifting like the sky.
She reached for his hand. Squeezed it.
"Merry Christmas, Dominic."
---
The cold hit them again when they climbed back into the RV, but this time Elara barely noticed. She pulled out her phone and started scrolling through emails.
Alpha Dominic raised an eyebrow. “Seriously? We just watched the Northern Lights and you’re back to work?”
"Board members are fighting in the group chat about next year’s plans." She didn’t look up. "It’s a mess."
"It’s Christmas."
"Half of them are in Asia. It’s afternoon there. Time zones don’t care about holidays."
Alpha Dominic snatched her iPhone out of her hand. “Problem solved.”
“Hey!” She reached for it. “Give it back!”
“Nope.” He held it higher. “Not unless you admit you spent half the time watching me instead of the aurora.”
Elara’s face flushed. “I did not.”
“Liar.” He grinned and waved her phone. “I saw you taking pictures with me in the frame. Want me to check your camera roll?”
“Don’t you dare!” She lunged for the phone, but he dodged easily. She tumbled forward and landed against his chest.
They both went still.
He could feel her heartbeat, fast and frantic. Her body pressed against his, soft and warm. That scent he’d been craving for years drifted from the curve of her neck. Bergamot mixed with something purely her.
“Elara.” His voice dropped low. He swallowed hard. “You know these past few years I—”
His hand tightened without meaning to, palm flat against her waist through the thin fabric of her sweater. She could feel the heat of his skin burning through the wool, branding her.
“The driver’s still up front,” she interrupted. Her voice came out softer than she intended.
“He can’t hear us.” His breath ghosted across her ear, low and damp. “This thing’s got better soundproofing than my Bentley.”
His lips barely grazed the skin behind her ear. That soft spot erupted in goosebumps.
“Doesn’t matter,” she said. But she didn’t push him away.
“Why not?” His mouth traced along her jawline, each word leaving humid breath against her skin. “Afraid you’ll lose control?”
His hand slid from her waist to her hip, thumb drawing lazy circles through the sweater. The slow, deliberate touch sent shivers down her spine, like something dormant beneath her skin was waking up.
She pushed at his chest. Her face burned. “You’re imagining things.”
But her body didn’t cooperate. She didn’t move from his lap.
Alpha Dominic laughed, low and dangerous. His hand stayed where it was, settling more firmly against the small of her back.
“Elara.”
“What?”
“Your heart’s beating faster now.”
She bit her lower lip and glared at him. “Shut up.”
“Want me to help slow it down?”
His palm started moving, sliding from her lower back down over the curve of her hip, following the line of her outer thigh. He moved slow, like he was memorizing every inch of her. He stopped at the back of her knee, thumb pressing gently into that soft hollow.
Elara’s breathing went ragged.
“Dominic...”
“Shh.” His voice was rough. “Don’t talk. Just let me.”
He didn’t finish. His mouth found the side of her neck.
The kiss was featherlight, just his lips touching where her pulse hammered. But it was enough to wreck her.
She felt his tongue, wet and slow, tracing the column of her throat.
Then he found that sensitive spot where her neck met her shoulder and lingered there, his teeth grazing lightly, marking her with the barest hint of pressure.
Not painful, but the electric shock of sensation shot straight up her spine and pooled low in her belly.
Her back arched without permission.
Alpha Dominic made a low sound in his throat, like he was fighting to hold something back. His hand returned to her thigh, sliding from outer to inner, lingering at the seam of her jeans near her hip.
His touch was maddeningly slow, fingers pressing just hard enough to make her squirm, the heat of his palm burning through the denim.
“You’re wearing too many layers,” he muttered, but there was laughter in his voice.
“Then stop touching me.”
“Not happening.”
His fingers traced the edge of her jeans, pausing at the button for half a second. Like he was asking.
Elara didn’t say yes. But she didn’t say no either.
In those few seconds of silence, she could hear the wind and snow outside the windows. Could hear her own heartbeat threatening to burst from her chest.
Then Alpha Dominic undid the button.The pop of the button seemed impossibly loud in the heated silence.
He moved unhurried, slipping his hand inside, palm flat against her lower stomach. The skin there prickled at the sudden contact. His hand followed the curve of her waist, thumb drawing arcs along her hip bone.
His fingers danced along the edge of her underwear, tracing the lace with agonizing patience, making her hips shift involuntarily toward his touch.
His mouth came down on hers again.This wasn’t tentative.
He poured everything he’d been holding back into that kiss—tongue, teeth, the faint taste of tobacco, and his Alpha pheromones thick enough to make her dizzy.
She fisted his sweater and pulled him closer.
He broke away first, forehead pressed to hers.
“Elara.”
“Yeah.”
“I want you. So fucking bad.”
Just that. His voice was so low the wind almost drowned it out. But she heard him.
Her hand moved from his chest up to the back of his neck, fingers threading into his hair. “I know.”
She kissed him.
He growled, hand sliding lower, slipping past the waistband of her jeans, pressing against the last thin barrier. The heat there made him curse.
“Jesus Christ, Elara—”
He pushed her back into the seat. Covered her body with his.
Outside the windows, snow and mountains stretched endlessly into the night. Inside, there was only the hum of the heater and two people breathing harder and harder.
He kissed down her collarbone, working lower.
His hands pushed her sweater up, exposing her bra. He didn’t bother removing it completely—just pulled the cup aside and took her nipple into his mouth, his tongue circling and flicking until she arched beneath him, her fingers tangling in his hair.
She gripped his shoulders, nails digging into the wool.
"Dominic, we only have half an hour—"
He looked up. His eyes had gone dark, pupils ringed with amber light. His lips were wet, his hair mussed from her fingers.
"Half an hour’s enough." His voice was wrecked. "But when we get to that hotel, I’m going to take you apart piece by piece."
The promise in his voice made her core clench with anticipation.
She could see the restraint in his expression, the careful control he was maintaining even as his hands shook with want.
Her stomach clenched.
He felt it and laughed low against her skin.
“Nervous?”
“No,” she said, still gasping. “Just think you’re overconfident.”
He looked at her, that golden glow in his eyes burning brighter.
“Baby.” He kissed her again. “We’re not even close to done yet.”
His mouth crashed down on hers again, and this time, neither of them held back.
