"Mine," I growled, fisting her hair and pulling her head back so I could see her face. Tears streaked her cheeks, mouth open in silent cries of pleasure. "Say it again."
"Yours," she gasped. "I'm yours."
I released her hair only to grip her hips with both hands, fingers digging in hard enough to bruise. Good. I wanted her marked. Wanted anyone who looked at her to know she was taken. That she belonged to someone who would blaze a trail for her. The tension coiled tighter in my spine, pressure building as she clenched around me, her body already climbing toward release.
"Come for me," I commanded, reaching around to circle her clit with rough, demanding strokes. "Now, princess. Let me feel it."
She shattered with a broken cry of my name, her entire body seizing as the orgasm tore through her. The sensation pushed me over the edge, and I buried myself deep, grinding into her as I came hard, marking her from the inside out. Making sure that I fucked my seed into her where it needed to stay. Not a single drop wasted.
Mine. All mine.
I collapsed over her back, both of us breathing hard, sweat-slicked and satisfied. I pressed a kiss to her shoulder, then another to the nape of her neck.
"Say yes already," I murmured against her skin. "Marry me."
She turned her head, catching my eyes with hers. She was soft, trusting, absolutely wrecked. "Dmitri, I…"
“It’s not because I’m balls deep inside you. Not because you’re so soft, that you smell good, or that I want to protect you.”
"Then why?" she asked. I could see that this moment was a make or break it kind of situation.
I pulled out slowly, turning her to face me. Her legs were unsteady, so I lifted her, carrying her to the couch and settling her across my lap. I needed to see her eyes for this. Needed her to understand.
"Because you're the only person who's ever made me want to be human again," I said, my thumb tracing the curve of her jaw. "Before you, I was going through motions. Breathing but not alive. Existing in darkness because that's all I knew."
Her breath hitched, eyes searching mine.
"I want to marry you because you looked at the monster I am and didn't flinch," I continued, my voice rough with emotion I rarely let surface. "You saw me for who I am—and you didn't run. You walked toward me anyway. Well, until my family cornered you."
"Dmitri…"
"I'm not finished." I gripped her chin gently, making sure she couldn't look away. "I want to marry you because every time I think about anyone trying to hurt you, I realize I'd rather die before I let them touch a hair on your head. That's not just protection, princess. That's devotion."
A tear slipped down her cheek, and I caught it with my thumb.
"I want to marry you because when you told Georgi I was yours, something inside me that's been broken my entire life finally clicked into place," I admitted. "I've never belonged to anyone. Never wanted to. But with you? I want to be claimed. Owned. Possessed just as completely as I possess you."
Her lips parted, trembling.
"You make me want to build something instead of just destroy," I said, pressing my forehead to hers. "You make me want tomorrow when I've spent years only caring about today. You make me believe I could be the kind of man who deserves you—even though we both know I don't."
"You do," she whispered fiercely.
"No, princess, I don't. But I'm selfish enough not to care." My hand slid to her throat, not squeezing, just resting there—a dark reminder of what we were. "I want to marry you because I need everyone to know you're mine. I need a ring on your finger, my name replacing yours, legal proof that you belong to me in every way that matters."
I leaned in, my lips brushing hers.
"I want to marry you because loving you is the most terrifying thing I've ever done, and I want to be terrified of losing you every single day for the rest of my life," I confessed. "Because that fear? That's how I know you're real. That what we have is real."
Her hands came up to frame my face, fingers threading through my hair.
"I want to marry you because you're my salvation and my damnation wrapped into one beautiful, infuriating package," I said. "Because you're the prayer I never deserved to have answered. Because you're mine, and I'm yours, and I want the whole fucking world to know it."
I pulled back just enough to meet her eyes fully.
"So yes, Natasha. Marry me. Not because I'm inside you or because I protect you. Marry me because we're both willing to make this work. Because our darkness recognizes each other. Because I will love you with a violence that would scare anyone else, and you'll love me right back the same way."
My voice dropped to barely a whisper.
