I slide one hand down between us to where our bodies join, circling my thumb against her most sensitive spot. Her walls clench around me in response, drawing a savage groan from my throat.
"You're mine," I tell her, the words a declaration, a vow, an incontrovertible truth. "This body…” My hand moves to caress the swell of her belly again. "This child. All mine to protect."
Her back arches as she nears her peak, and I can feel her tightening around me. The sight of her abandoned to pleasure, carrying my child, sends a molten surge of desire through my veins. My vision blurs at the edges, heart hammering against my ribs like a war drum. Each pulse of her body around mine threatens to unravel me completely.
With each thrust, I’m branding her from the inside out, as if I can somehow mark her so deeply that nothing—no curse, no fate, no power in all eight worlds—could tear her from me.
Through our bond, her pleasure crashes into mine. I groan, sweat beading across my brow as I hold her there, prolonging the exquisite tension. My muscles tremble with the effort of restraint, every fiber of my being screaming for release, but I refuse to surrender.
I need her to remember and to feel this when doubts creep in again. I need her to know, bone-deep, that no force will ever keep me from returning to her arms. "Tell me who you belong to," I demand, slowing my movements to a torturous pace.
"You," she gasps, her nails raking down my back. "Gods, Hawke—only you."
"And who does this child belong to?" I press my palm more firmly against the slight roundness of her abdomen.
Her eyes lock with mine, fierce despite her submission. "Us," she answers, a challenge in her voice even as she yields to me. "Our child. Made from both of us."
I reward her answer with a particularly deep thrust that makes her cry out. "Yes," I concede, my control slipping. "Ours. But you—you are mine, Melinda."
She wraps her legs around my waist, pulling me impossibly deeper. "Then take what's yours," she challenges, her voice a seductive whisper that shatters the last of my restraint.
I lose myself in her then, driving us both toward completion with relentless determination. My thrusts become harder, faster, more erratic as pleasure builds at the base of my spine. The sounds she makes—half-gasps, half-moans—push me closer to the edge.
I feel her pleasure build in tandem with mine, a rising tide threatening to drown us both. "Now," I command against her ear. "Come for me now."
Her body obeys as if my words themselves hold power over her. She shatters spectacularly, her inner walls pulsing around me as she screams my name. Her release triggers my own, and I drive into her one final time, burying myself to the hilt as I fill her with my seed.
For several heartbeats, I remain perfectly still, savoring the sensation of her body trembling beneath mine, around mine.
"Mine," I murmur against her neck, placing a possessive kiss over the mark I left when I first bonded her. "Forever mine."
She smiles, languid and satisfied, her fingers tracing idle patterns across my chest. "Yours," she agrees, her voice soft with contentment. Through our bond, I feel her pleasure, her love, her sense of completeness that perfectly mirrors my own.
The worry lines that had creased her forehead earlier have smoothed away, replaced by a serene calm that eases something tight in my chest. The jagged edges of her fear have dulled, not gone completely, but manageable now. It's enough. It has to be enough for tonight. Tomorrow will bring its own battles, but for now, I've given her this reprieve, this sanctuary in my arms where curses and prophecies cannot reach.
"What are you thinking?" she asks, her voice soft with contentment.
I press a kiss to her temple. "That I'm the luckiest man in all the worlds."
She laughs, the sound light and musical. "Even with chimeras and the Enclave and curses on the loose?"
"Even with all of them." I tug her closer. "Sleep, my love," I say instead, holding her close as her breathing deepens. "I'll be here when you wake."
And I will be—for as long as the universe allows.
But as I lie awake, listening to Melinda's soft breathing, my own doubt creeps in like a shadow. What if the curse is stronger than our bond? What if all my determination, all my love, all my strength is not enough? What if no one can help us?
I press my lips to her forehead, a silent vow in the darkness. If my life is the price for our child's birth, so be it. But I will not go quietly. I will fight with every ounce of power I possess to stay with her, to watch our child grow, to build the family we both deserve.
And if I fail... if the curse claims me despite everything... then at least I will die knowing I have loved and been loved by the most extraordinary woman in all the worlds.
It is enough. It has to be.
CHAPTER 34
Got You Now
* * *
