FALLING FOR THE LYCAN BIKER: MY BESTFRIEND BROTHER

Chapter 53

Lumi

My throat felt dry as I laid on the bed, but I was too lazy to get up.

Thinking about it, I hadn’t drank any water throughout the previous day. I had been so consumed by the terror over Theo that basic things like staying hydrated hadn’t even crossed my mind.

I laid there staring at the ceiling, finding it difficult to fall asleep. I’ve been like this for the past thirty minutes, listening to the quiet hum of the hotel AC while my tongue felt thick and heavy.

Eventually, the thirst became too much to ignore.

I threw the duvet off, my bare feet hitting the floor. The suite was quiet and dark, lit only by the gray city lights coming through the gaps in the curtains.

I cracked my bedroom door open and stepped out, aiming straight for the kitchen. I wanted to grab a bottle of water from the small fridge and get right back to bed.

The rules were simple, avoid Ren at all cost.

But when I rounded the corner, I froze.

Ren was standing by the counter. He was wearing a dark singlet and sweatpants, his broad back to me as he leaned heavily against the marble, staring down at an empty glass in the dark.

My stomach did a quick flip. I immediately took a step back, wanting to slip away before he saw me, but my heel clipped the edge of the floorboards.

"Lumi?" His voice was low and rough, cutting right through the quiet room.

I stopped. "I just came to get some water," I said, my voice tight.

I forced myself to walk past him, keeping my eyes locked on the fridge. I opened the door, the bright yellow light flooding over my legs. I grabbed a plastic bottle, closed the door, and turned around to leave.

I didn’t even make it two steps when I suddenly felt him right at my back. He closed the distance so fast I could feel the intense heat radiating off his chest.

My tummy made a stupid flutter. Betrayal.

He tilted his head down, his mouth right against my ear.

"Are you avoiding me?" The words were a low growl.

My eyes closed instinctively at the sensation, a sharp, violent shiver running straight down my spine.

"What... what... are you doing?" I asked, my voice trembling.

He didn’t respond to my question. Instead, his breath brushed hot against my skin again as he murmured,

"Why do I feel like you’re avoiding me, Lumi?" I was entirely speechless, my mind scrambling for any sort of defense.

"What... what are you talking about?" I managed to force out. I stammered, completely unable to believe myself.

Before I could even blink, Ren reached out. His large hands gripped my waist, his fingers digging into my skin, and he slowly turned me around to face him.

He forced me back a fraction until my spine hit the edge of the kitchen counter, and he stared straight into my eyes.

"You didn’t even look at me when you walked in," he explained, his gaze heavy and intense in the dark. "You’ve been looking anywhere but at me."

I parted my lips to lie, to give him some stupid excuse, but absolutely nothing came out. I was caught, and we both knew it.

His large hands tightened on my waist, and he took a few heavy steps forward, completely covering the little gap that was left between us.

He pinned me against the counter, his massive chest rising and falling hard against mine.

"I couldn’t sleep," he murmured, his eyes dropping to my mouth. His voice sounded completely spent. "I can’t think straight. Every time I close my eyes, I just keep thinking about you."

"Stop," I said, my fingers tightening on his shirt. I wanted to push him away, but my body wasn’t listening. "Please... don’t say that."

"I’ve tried," he said, pressing his weight even firmer against me. "God, Lumi, I’ve tried to stop it. I know who you are. You’re my elder sister’s best friend. We shouldn’t be doing this. I know that. But I can’t stay away from you. I’m a guy who is big on control, but when I’m around you, I lose all of it." I tried to say something, anything at all but nothing came out.

He brought his hand up, his heavy thumb gripping my jaw and tilting my face higher until my lips parted slightly under his touch.

"I’m hopelessly lost," he whispered against my mouth, his gaze burning into mine. "And I do not care anymore, Lumi."

"This is wrong," I choked out, the thought of Victoria and Neve trying to surface, but it was getting harder to care.

"But it feels so right." He replied, dropping his face that last inch.

I should push him away, give him all the reasons why this was wrong but I didn’t. I wanted it too.

When his mouth hit mine, it wasn’t like the first kiss. That one had been a slow hesitant testing of boundaries.

This was a complete breakdown of them. This was hard, deep, and heavy. His lips moved against mine with an unyielding pressure that left me entirely breathless from the very first second.

He let out a low groan against my lips, the sound vibrating deep in his chest as his tongue slid forward, parting my lips seamlessly.

He tasted me hungrier than he ever had before, taking his time to map out the inside of my mouth, drawing out the kiss until my head began to spin.

For a long, drawn-out minute, neither of us moved our bodies. We just stood there trapped in that intense, suffocating kiss, the quiet kitchen filling with the sound of our ragged breathing.

My hands, still trembling against his chest, slowly began to relax. Instead of pushing him away, my fingers spread wide against the soft fabric of his dark singlet, feeling the solid, shifting muscle beneath the cotton.

I felt the explosive heat radiating off him, my palms soaking in the warmth as the reality of his strength settled over me.

Slowly, without breaking the kiss, his large hands slid down from my waist. His rough palms dragged slowly over the fabric of my robe, moving down the curve of my hips, down to the sides of my thighs.

He squeezed tightly, his thumbs brushing against my bare skin where the robe had parted.

Then, with one heavy, deliberate movement, he hooked his hands under my thighs and lifted me effortlessly.

My breath caught as he sat me hard onto the counter. The plastic water bottle I had been clutching slipped completely from my numb fingers, hitting the floor with a dull thud and rolling away unnoticed into the dark shadows.

The moment my bare thighs made contact with the cold stone, my legs acted on pure instinct.

I parted them, wrapping my legs tightly around his broad torso, locking him securely against me.

The sudden contact sent a jolt straight down my spine. I pulled him forward by his shoulders, burying my face into the crook of his neck for a brief second as we both gasped for air.

He pulled back just a fraction, his chest heaving violently against mine, his thumbs coming up to trace my cheekbones in the dim light.

His eyes were completely dark, intense, and filled with a raw vulnerability that made my chest ache.

"Your lips," he breathed, his voice trembling so hard it was barely a whisper. "They’re like the sweetest thing I’ve ever tasted, Lumi. God... I’ve been going entirely crazy wanting this."

Hearing him say my name like that broke the last anchor holding me back. I didn’t wait for him to kiss me this time. I leaned forward, my mouth finding his again in a deep, bruising kiss that completely consumed us both.

While our mouths locked together, my hands finally shifted. I slid my palms up from his chest, tracing the thick lines of his collarbone before my fingers tangled deep into the short, rough hairs at the back of his neck.

I held him there, pulling him into the kiss, anchoring him to me as if the rest of the world had completely ceased to exist.

We stayed like that for what felt like an eternity, just breathing each other in, our tongues tangling in a slow, demanding rhythm.

Only when the heat between us grew entirely unbearable did my hands reluctantly slide back down his neck.

My fingers brushed over his shoulders, feeling the incredible span of his back before moving down to the hem of his singlet.

I gripped the cotton fabric tightly, my knuckles brushing against his lower stomach.

Slowly, deliberately, I began to bunch the material upward. Ren immediately caught on.

He stopped kissing me, lifting his arms as I pulled the singlet up, over his broad shoulders, and tossed it blindly onto the kitchen floor.

With his shirt gone, the full view of his bare chest was completely exposed to me in the twilight.

I looked down, my hands moving over his skin in absolute awe. He was so incredibly strong and well built.

The heavy ridges of his chest muscles and the hard contours of his abs tightened beautifully under my touch.

The dark, intricate lines of his tattoo stretched across his shoulder and chest, and my fingers trembled as I traced the sharp, swirling patterns ink by ink.

I leaned my head forward, pressing soft, lingering kisses right over the dark artwork, feeling the heavy, rapid thudding of his heart beneath my lips.

Ren let out a ragged choke at the touch of my mouth on his chest, a low sound of pure surrender escaping him.

His large hands came up, threading gently into my hair to tilt my head back up so he could look at me.

"God, you are so beautiful," he growled, his voice thick with a deep, reverent worship as he stared down into my eyes. "Every single inch of you, Lumi."