“Good girl,” Ward said and kissed me with abandon. His hands roamed over my skin with purpose. My senses dazzled with his mead and honey taste. Everything tensed and Ward tightened too, capturing the knee, trying to dig into his side. I licked his bottom lip, inviting him to play. “That’s my good girl, hungry for my mouth and more?”
Ward waited, braced above me, giving me the choice to say no even as we burned. I didn’t know how my awkwardness was supposed to withstand such an assault.
I threw my worries to the wind. “More.”
“There she is, my best girl.” His voice drizzled over me like warm caramel. His grin dazzled me into a liquid haze. A begging whimper slipped out. He lifted me off the bed with frightening ease, his gigantic hands kneading all of my ass, pulling my legs apart in the process. Sitting on the bed, he took me with him, sprawling me across his abs, across his chest.
“My mate requested a permanent seat and my lap happens to be open. I only have one way to show you how much I love you. But you’re going to have to be a very good girl and come for me before you take this cock. I refuse to bring you pain.”
We were doing this? We were. I wanted something positive to come out of this day so badly; I shook with wanting. Ward sat up to kiss down my neck and bend me to get to my breasts.
Surprisingly, my limbs behaved. They twitched in his direction, but it was like he was already inside my mind and turned his guiding grip into lingering touches. That leaned me back until my clit lay hot and exposed between us right above a glowing rune on his skin.
I brushed it with my hand and his abs flexed.
“Pregnancy protection,” Ward said.
I blew out a breath I didn’t know I had been holding. That was just… sweet, amazing, a relief. Every fear I had melted under his assault. His knuckle caressed my clit, then stilled, letting me come to him. That seemed to give my whole body purpose, a direction toward pleasure rather than whatever it usually wanted to do. I rode his hand as he played with my breasts, each lick and nibble amplifying the flick between my legs until they shook and a sob stuck in my throat. I shoved his hand closer, harder, as the dam burst of my pleasure and Ward whispered praise that felt like a spell of its own.
The power of that orgasm should have exhausted me. My legs were certainly quivering hard enough, and I was trying to eat oxygen, but the heat where he touched me refused to cool.
“So beautiful,” Ward said, ghosting his breath over my sweaty skin.
I didn’t want this to end. I never wanted to go back to reality. “It’s not selfish? You haven’t come once.”
“Only if you think watching you fall apart for me isn’t getting me hard enough to repopulate a small nation.”
“Just a small one?” I teased.
His chuckle made me clench all over. It should be illegal to laugh like that. It made me crazy and daring. Bold enough to rub my core on his erection trapped between us. His pleasure rumbled so low I didn’t know if I should run or grip him tighter. I didn’t want to mess it up by clashing our bodies together like I usually did. This was going so well. I was doing it.
And I would finish it. I lined us up and shimmied down, barely getting the tip in before I froze.
“Ward,” I strangled out. “You’re not going to fit.”
“I will,” he snarled, every muscle of his body tense. “You can take me. We’re made for each other.”
I wanted him to be right more than anything. It would just take some convincing my body that my big-everywhere mate was made for the stretch I felt between my legs. It didn’t hurt exactly, but I had never been so full and he wasn’t even inside me.
“Do you need help?” he asked. Thankfully, there was no judgment in his voice, just impatient lust.
I nodded ‘yes’, not sure that my voice would come out as anything other than a squeak. He gripped my hips with his massive paws and took me off him. I almost protested until he stuffed his fingers in me, pulling forward on my sensitive spot until I coated his fingers, which he then used to spread the wetness all over his cock.
“You can scream if you need to,” Ward said. He dragged me down on top of his cock again and this time the tip worked forward in steady pressure until I thought I felt him touching my lungs. I didn’t have the breath to scream. Ward sliding out got me some of my breath back, but the inarticulate sound was hardly sexy. That barely seemed to matter to Ward, because he plunged into me with a snarl.
“Godds, Evie. You’re ruining me.”
It was a good thing his hands were under my ass because the hot, hot pleasure built so fast I couldn’t feel my legs anymore.
“Ward, Ward, Ward,” his name passed like a prayer on my lips. I wouldn’t let him do all the work. I moved as much as I could with his hands clamped on my hips.
“You’re going to beg me to bite you just like that, little viper.”
Even though the words were rough, almost a little mean, they actually stoked me higher into the type of orgasm that had me ready to bite him instead. I rocketed to the stars, straining away, grinding him deeper at the same time until my mind unspooled.
It penetrated deep this time: his acceptance, his love. He meant I love you in a way no one else ever had, not even Maggie, and he was willing to say it every day for the rest of our lives. I was drunk on the waves of pleasure, on the feel of his release filling me, on his love. He pulled me closer, and I snuggled into him, listening to our heartbeats, our harsh breathing. I definitely felt mate-markable.
I was almost asleep when Ward’s voice sounded through his chest. “Since we’re getting naked, show me your new form.”
