“I love you,” I murmur against her collarbone. “I love every inch of you.”
“Show me,” she breathes, arching into my touch.
I take my time, mapping every inch of her with my mouth and hands. I linger at her breast, circling until she’s panting. My palms span her waisteasily and hold her still as I drift lower. The soft skin of her inner thigh—I graze it with my tusks, careful and teasing, until she’s trembling beneath me.
Each touch is a promise, each kiss a vow. Her gasps and moans guide me, telling me exactly what she needs.
“Ryder, please—”
“Please what, my Solarin? Tell me what you need.”
“You. Just you. Inside me. Now.”
I position myself at her entrance, and the sight of us—green and tan, orc and human, two people who should be impossible but somehow fit perfectly—makes my heart clench. My cock throbs against her slick heat, and I have to force myself to go slow.
“I will love you forever,” I tell her as I push inside, slow and careful despite the urgency thrumming through my veins. “It’s terrifying how much I love you.”
“I love you too.” Her legs wrap around my waist, pulling me deeper. “Show me what forever looks like.”
So I do. I sink into her inch by inch, watching her face for any sign of discomfort. She’s tight—so tight—and I can feel every flutter of her inner walls as her body adjusts to accommodate me.
“Okay?” I manage, muscles trembling with the effort of holding still.
“More than okay,” she gasps, nails digging into my shoulders. “Amazing. You feel so good it’s hard to believe it’s real.”
I establish a rhythm—slow, deep strokes that make her feel every ridge, every inch of me. Our bodies move together as if we’ve been doing this for years, like we were made to fit this way. Each thrust draws breathy gasps from her lips; each withdrawal makes her tighten around me, trying to keep me inside.
“God, Laney,” I groan against her throat. “You feel incredible. So tight, so perfect.”
Her hips rise to meet mine, taking me even deeper. The sensation is almost overwhelming—the slick heat of her, the way she clenches around me, the little sounds she makes with each thrust.
“Harder,” she pleads, and I’m more than happy to comply.
I increase my pace, driving into her with controlled power. The cabin fills with the sounds of our passion—skin meeting skin, her gasping cries, my rumbling groans. I reach between us, finding that sensitive bundle of nerves with my thumb, and her whole body jerks.
“Yes!” she cries out. “Right there, don’t stop—”
The pleasure builds, coiling tighter and tighter in my spine. I can feel her trembling beneath me, can feel her inner walls starting to flutter.
“Come for me, Solarin,” I murmur against her throat. “Let me feel you.”
She shatters with a cry, her whole body arching as the orgasm crashes through her. Her inner walls clamp down around me in rhythmic pulses, and she screams my name—actually screams it—with such abandon that it echoes through the cabin.
“Ryder! Oh God, Ryder—”
The sensation of her clenching around me, the sound of my name torn from her throat in ecstasy, the way her nails rake down my back—it all sends me hurtling over the edge.
I come with a roar, burying myself deep as my release pulses through me. My hips jerk with each pulse of my climax, and I grind against her, wanting to be as deep as possible, wanting her to feel every throb of me spilling into her.
And in that moment—in that perfect crystallization of love and commitment and physical bliss—something shifts.
It’s like a door opening in my chest, a connection clicking into place. Suddenly I can feel her—not just physically, but emotionally. Her love, her joy, her lingering fear, her absolute certainty that this is right.
And then I see it—a shimmering red glow emanating from her skin, soft at first, then growing stronger until she’s bathed in warm, pulsing light that only I can see.
The red haze. The mark of a soulbound mate.
Still buried inside her, I collapse to my side, pulling her with me so we’re face to face, still joined. My heart is pounding so hard I’m sure she can feel it. I cup her face, thumb stroking her flushed cheek, needing to see her eyes, needing her to understand what just happened.
