“You’re taking me so well,” he praises, his hips snapping harder now that he feels me relaxing into it. “My perfect little human, made to fit me. Such a good girl.”
The dirty talk, the possessiveness in his tone, make me clench around him. He notices immediately, his eyes blazing.
“You like when I talk about how you’re mine?” he growls, angling his hips to hit that magic spot inside me. “When I tell you how good this tight little pussy feels wrapped around my cock?”
“Yes!” I’m beyond embarrassment, beyond anything except the pleasure building inside me. “Don’t stop, Ryder, please—”
His hand slides between our bodies, his thumb finding my clit with unerring accuracy. The combination of his thick cock filling me, and his skilled fingers is too much.
“Come for me, my Solarin,” he commands, voice rough with his own impending climax. “Come on my cock. Let me feel you milk me.”
I shatter, crying out his name as my orgasm crashes through me with devastating force. My inner walls clench around him rhythmically, and the intensity is almost frightening in its power.
He follows almost immediately, growling something in Orcish as he buries himself deep and pulses inside me. The feeling of him coming, filling me with his wet heat, extends my own pleasure until I’m trembling and gasping beneath him.
We collapse together afterward, hearts hammering against each other as we struggle to remember how to breathe. His arms wrap around me, holding me close as aftershocks continue to ripple through both our bodies.
“Holy shit,” I finally manage, face buried against his throat.
His laugh rumbles through his chest. “Better than holy shit, I hope.”
I pull back to look at him, taking in his satisfied expression, the way his eyes have gone soft and possessive as they trace my features. “Much better. Earth-shattering. Life-changing.”
“Good.” His smile is pure male satisfaction. “Because I meant what I said. You’re mine now, Sunshine. No more running, no more hiding from what we have.”
The dominant certainty in his voice should probably alarm me. Instead, it sends another pulse of heat through my still-sensitive body. This is what I’ve been afraid of—not his size or his otherness, but my own desire to surrender completely to someone who might leave.
But looking into his eyes, seeing the tenderness beneath the possession, I know with absolute certainty that Ryder isn’t going anywhere.
“No more running,” I agree, sealing the promise with a kiss. “I’m exactly where I belong.”
Outside, Christmas night settles over the mountain in perfect silence. Inside, wrapped in Ryder’s arms by the dying fire, I finally understand what home feels like.
It feels like forever.
Chapter Twenty
Laney
The growl of snowplows pulls me from sleep, dragging the world back into motion. For a week, the mountain was a cocoon—just us, firelight, and silence. Now reality’s outside, scraping its way back in.
I’m sprawled across Ryder’s chest, skin still warm and tender from all the ways we loved each other last night. His arm tightens around me as he wakes, and I can feel the contentment radiating from his massive frame.
“Roads are being cleared,” I murmur against his throat.
“I hear them.” His voice is rough with sleep, but I hear the disappointment in it. “Means people will be able to get their pets soon.”
“And you’ll be able to get back to the Zone,” I say it without the panic that would have accompanied those words a week ago. “You still have a few days left before you have to go back, right?”
“Chief Brokka gave me through New Year’s,” he says. “Told me to take care of the animals and check in after the holidays. So, I’ve got about a week left before I need to head back.”
Relief floods through me. A few more days. Time to figure out how to make this work, time to ease into the reality of our situation instead of being thrown into it all at once.
“Good,” I breathe, pressing a kiss to his collarbone. “Because I’m not ready to share you with the real world yet.”
His chest rumbles with laughter. “Possessive this morning?”
“Maybe.” I shift to look at him, taking in the way the morning light spills through the cabin windows, gilding his green skin in gold. It’s such a juxtaposition, those tusks and features that could be described as harsh, yet the look on his face is pure, soft affection. “Is that okay?”
