The smile that crossed his features was radiant as sunrise. Then he began to move, slow and careful at first, withdrawing almost completely before pressing back in with deliberate precision. Each thrust sent waves of sensation through me, pleasure so intense it bordered on religious experience.
As my body adapted to his rhythm, the discomfort faded entirely, replaced by building ecstasy that made me arch and writhe beneath him. He found the spot inside me that made me cry out with pleasure, and from then on he aimed for it with every stroke, driving me steadily toward a climax that promised to shatter me completely.
"You're mine now," he growled against my throat, his pace increasing as his own control began to fray. "My bonded, my partner, my everything."
"Yours," I agreed breathlessly, wrapping my legs around his waist to pull him deeper. "Always yours."
The bond between us flared to life with new intensity, no longer just a connection but a living thing that pulsed with our shared pleasure. I could feel his approaching climax as if it were my own, could sensethe way his restraint crumbled with each desperate thrust.
When he reached between us to wrap his hand around my neglected cock, the dual sensation was too much to bear. I came with a shout that echoed off the marble walls, my release painting my chest and stomach while my body clenched around him with rhythmic pulses.
The sensation of my climax triggered his own, and he buried himself deep inside me with a hoarse cry, his cock pulsing as he filled me with his seed. The feeling of being marked so intimately, of being claimed in the most primal way possible, sent aftershocks of pleasure through me that seemed to go on forever.
We collapsed together on the silk-draped altar, both of us trembling from the intensity of our joining. The bond between us sang with completion, no longer forming but fully realized, binding us together in ways that transcended the merely physical.
"It's done," Kaelen whispered against my hair, his arms tightening around me possessively. "We're truly bonded now."
I could feel the truth of it in every cell of my body—the connection that would link us for the next twenty-eight days, the awareness of his presence that would never completely fade. But more than that, I could feel the rightness of what we'd created together, the perfect harmony of our complementary natures.
We lay entwined on the sacred altar as the moon traced its path across the sky, our bodies cooling butour connection burning brighter than ever. Whatever challenges awaited us in the days ahead, we would face them together—dominant and submissive, leader and follower, two halves of a perfect whole.
The ceremony was complete. The bond was sealed.
And for the first time in my life, I was exactly where I belonged.
Chapter
Nine
KAELEN
The moonlight had shifted across the marble floor by the time our breathing finally steadied, painting new patterns of silver and shadow throughout the sacred chamber. Rion lay beneath me, his chest rising and falling in the slow rhythm of deep satisfaction, dark hair spread across the crimson silk like spilled ink. His eyes were closed, lashes casting delicate shadows on his cheekbones, and there was something so utterly peaceful about his expression that I found myself reluctant to disturb him.
But the bond hummed between us with a new urgency, not desire, though that simmered beneath the surface, but something deeper. An awareness of his needs that felt as natural as breathing, as instinctive as reaching for sunlight. He required care now, attention that went beyond the physical pleasure we'd just shared.
I could feel it through our connection: thelingering ache where I'd filled him, the stickiness of our mingled releases cooling on his skin, the bone-deep satisfaction warring with a vulnerability he'd never experienced before. His body had been opened, claimed, marked in ways that left him raw and sensitive to every sensation.
He needed tending. And I needed to provide it.
"Stay still," I murmured against his temple, pressing a soft kiss to the salt-sweet skin there. "Let me take care of you."
His eyes fluttered open at my words, his gaze finding mine with an expression of such trust it made my chest tight with emotion. "Kaelen..."
"Shh." I smoothed a hand over his cheek, thumb tracing the sharp line of his cheekbone. "You were perfect. So perfect for me. But now you need care."
I eased away from him carefully, my softened cock slipping free of his body with a wet sound that made us both shiver. The loss of connection felt profound despite its necessity, the bond pulling taut between us like a string under tension. But his comfort came first—it would always come first.
Near the altar, ceremonial attendants had left everything required for the aftermath of bonding: soft cloths woven from the finest linen, a basin of water kept warm by heated stones, oils blessed by both our Orders for healing and comfort. I gathered these supplies with reverent hands, acutely aware of how sacred this moment was.
This was more than mere cleanup. This was the first act of care I would provide as his bonded partner,the beginning of a dynamic that would define us for the next twenty-eight days.
"Spread your legs for me," I said softly, settling beside him on the silk with the warm, damp cloth in hand.
He obeyed without hesitation, thighs falling open with a trust so complete it took my breath away. The evidence of our joining was visible between his legs—the slight swelling where I'd stretched him, the slow seep of my seed mixed with oil that spoke of how thoroughly I'd claimed him.
The sight sent a bolt of possessive satisfaction through me so intense it bordered on primal.Mine, some primitive part of my brain whispered.Marked. Taken. Owned.
But louder than that possessive voice was the need to provide comfort, to ease any discomfort my claiming might have caused. I began to clean him with gentle strokes, the warm cloth soothing against his sensitized skin.
