“I’m all for a ravishing, but for our first time like this...” She didn’t finish her sentence, instead burying her face in my neck.
Reaching my room, I used my shadows to open the door so I didn’t have to release my hold on her. “What, love? What do you want? Would you like me to cherish you as you deserve?”
I placed her on the bed and waited as she brought her gaze up to meet mine.
“I need to know this is real. That I’m not going to wake up and find out this was all a dream.”
My heart shattered at the raw vulnerability in her eyes. I’d done this to her, made her doubt herself and my love for her. I was such a fucking fool.
“It’s real,” I promised, my voice little more than a ragged whisper. “I’m not going anywhere. And I will remind you of that as often as you need me to.”
“Good.”
She reached for the hem of her T-shirt and pulled it over her head, revealing gorgeous, bare skin underneath. Covered in blood as she was, I held up a finger and went to the bathroom to get a warm, wet cloth so I could clean her before I made her mine.
Each stroke of the washcloth over her skin caused her nipples to tighten, and the way her eyes darkened made my cock harder than it had ever been. I’d seen her nude countless times, but knowing I had her all to myself and could take the weight of her breasts in my palms without fear of harming her made me itch to touch her again.
So I did.
I cupped the full globe and lowered my head, using my tongue to tease and taste, then my teeth.
Merri groaned and dragged her fingers through my hair, pressing me closer.
I laughed against her skin, delighting in the way my breath pebbled her flesh. “Need something, darling?”
“You. Just you.”
“We have all the time in the world. What’s the rush?” I pushed her back until she lay on the bed, sprawled out and at my mercy.
“Ineedyounow.”
I fucking loved the sound of that. And I would never deny my mate anything she needed. Not now, not ever again.
Tucking my fingers into the waistband of her sweats, I pulled them down her body. If you’d have told me even a year ago that the sight of a woman’s body would render me speechless, I’d have laughed in your face. But I understood now, in a way I’d never been capable of, what Botticelli had sought to capture with his art. She wasn’t just beautiful because of her body. She was beautiful because I loved her. Because she wasmine.
Being with her like this was unlike anything I’d ever known. The magic of loving someone the way I loved her made everything before her seem unimportant.
I’d only had one other lover before her, but that had been transactional at best. Nothing compared to this. Merri was it for me. She was everything.
“I love you,” I whispered, pressing my lips to her belly. “I love you,” I said again, this time kissing her hip bone. I’d denied the truth of the words for so long that we both needed this. Her to hear them, and me to speak them.
She arched her back as I made my way up to her nipple and sucked on the taut peak. When I released her flesh, I rolled my gaze up to meet hers and said one final time, “I love you.”
Merri’s eyes shone with emotion as she tugged me up and pressed her lips to mine. We fit together like two puzzle pieces, my hips settling perfectly between her thighs. With a whimper,she ground her pelvis against mine, wordlessly begging me to give her what she needed.
Part of me wanted to draw this out, to spend hours mapping her body with my hands, lips, and tongue. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t crave the connection just as much as she did. I needed her.
Pulling back just enough to complete my task, I unbuttoned my shirt and tossed it on the floor, then moved to the zip of my trousers.
Impatient little thing that she was, Merri reached between us and grabbed my aching length as soon as I freed it from the fabric. I groaned, a pained sound I couldn’t contain, as she stroked me from base to crown.
“Please, Grim,” she begged, guiding my tip to her entrance.
I’d denied her too much for too long. I couldn’t resist anymore. Not with her plaintive plea in my ear.
I slid home, my breath stalling in my chest at her perfect heat. I’d technically experienced this in our dreams, but it was different somehow, having her in my bed, watching her pulse thundering at the side of her throat, her hands roaming over my body in much the same way mine had hers.
Knowing that she was made for me and I for her.
