He pushed forward slowly. Just the tip, and it was already a stretch that bordered on pain. Her body fought to accommodate him. He pulled back, pushed forward again, working himself deeper bit by bit. Each small thrust opened her a little more. Her wetness helped, but not enough to stop the burn. She felt every ridge, every vein as he claimed her inch by inch.
Halfway in, he paused to let her adjust, then continued his slow advance. Her nails dug into his shoulders. The muscles under her palms were rock-hard with his effort to go slow.
“Breathe,” he commanded. “Relax for me.”
She felt split apart. Tears pricked her eyes as her body struggled to adjust. The pressure was incredible.
He stopped, his hands framing her face as his thumbs wiped away tears she hadn’t realized had fallen.
“Too much?” The note in his voice said he’d stop if she asked, but he wanted this, wanted her, bad.
“No.” She felt him pulse inside her. “Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”
He kissed her hard, swallowing her whimpers as he pushed deeper. She tasted herself on his lips. When he was finally all the way in, they both went still. She’d never felt so full. Stretched to her absolute limit and beyond. He was so deep she felt him everywhere.
“So draanthing tight,” he growled against her ear. “Like you were made for me.”
His hand found her throat. No pressure, just a reminder of his strength. It should have scared her. Instead, heat pooled low in her belly.
She was utterly at his mercy, and she’d never felt safer. This man had killed for her, would kill for her again, and now he was claiming her with that same intensity.
His thumb found her clit, working the sensitive bud until she whimpered. The combination of being so full and his touch on her clit made her walls flutter around him.
“That’s it.” His voice was gravel. “Take me. All of me.”
He started to move. Slow withdrawals followed by deep thrusts that hit places she didn’t know existed. When her body finally relaxed around him, accepting his size, he picked up the pace.
The sound of skin on skin filled the cabin. Their harsh breathing. Her broken moans. He fucked her with controlled power, each thrust deliberate.
“Mine,” he snarled against her throat. His teeth scraped her pulse point. “You’re mine now.”
The possessive words sent her over the edge again. Her second orgasm hit like a shuttle, her pussy clenching around him as she screamed his name.
He threw his head back and roared. The sound shook the walls as his cock pulsed inside her, filling her with hot cum that seemed to go on forever. Each pulse triggered another aftershock, the feeling of him marking her from the inside, keeping her climax going until she thought she might black out.
She lay boneless beneath him afterward, breathing in sex and woodsmoke. He shifted and pulled her against his sweat-slicked body until she lay sprawled across his chest and his heart beat steady under her ear.
The thought of anyone else touching her felt wrong now, like trying to imagine a color that didn’t exist.
A slow smile curved her lips as she pressed a kiss to his throat.
She was exactly where she belonged.
Chapter 9
Mine.
The thought blazed through Zeke as Michelle’s breathing tickled against his throat.
He lay stone still, her naked body molded to his chest, dark hair spilling across his shoulder in waves that released hints of scent whenever she shifted in sleep. The storm had passed sometime in the night, leaving behind a stillness that felt almost sacred.
He hadn’t slept. And he wasn’t going to, not when he could miss even a second of this. Michelle Trevor, brilliant and fierce, had chosen him. Had taken him into her body and marked herself as his despite watching him tear a bunch of ferals apart with his bare hands less than a day ago.
His hand moved up her spine, mapping the delicate curve beneath skin softer than anything he’d ever touched. She made a small sound, burrowing deeper into his warmth, and his chest tightened with a feeling he couldn’t name. It was more than possession, something deeper that settled in his bones.
She belonged to him now, this unexpected gift the universe had dropped into his life. He’d fought for her, bled for her, killed for her. And she’d given herself to him completely, without reservation or fear.
He’d never imagined having a female of his own. Growing up on Parac’Norr, surrounded by other exiled warriors, he’d accepted that loneliness was part of his curse. The Izaeans didn’t have females. The Latharian Empire had made sure of that, keeping its outcasts isolated on this barren planet. But humans were essentially smaller Lathar…
