“Yes. Just…” She shifted, trying to find a more comfortable position, and the movement ground her hips against him in a way that made stars explode behind his eyes. “It’s a bit cramped.”
“Hold still.” It came out as more of a command than he intended, desperation bleeding through the words. “Just… hold still for a moment.”
He closed his eyes and focused on breathing, on the storm raging outside their tiny haven, on anything but the soft little female pressed against him. But it was useless. He was too aware of everything—of the subtle differences in their temperatures, of the way her damp diving suit clung to every curve, of the scent of cold sea and warm honey that surrounded him.
Her skin was glowing a soft violet in the dim light, pulsing gently with each beat of her heart. He wanted to taste that glow.
Mate,his beast whispered.Ours. Take. Claim.
I can’t,he snarled back.I won’t.
But she must have sensed the struggle warring inside him. She went still, her breathing shallow, and for a long moment, the only sounds were the howl of the wind and the frantic pounding of their hearts. The scent of her—that impossible, intoxicating mixture of sea and honey—filling his lungs with every breath.
Tell her,that treacherous inner voice urged.Tell her that she’s in your head. That you think about her when you should be sleeping. That you dream about her, about what it would be like to touch her, to taste her, to lose yourself in that strange, luminous beauty.
Instead, he cleared his throat. “This weather is common here. The cliffs channel the wind. It makes it dangerous to be exposed.”
“I noticed.” She turned in his arms—slowly, carefully, the position pressing her breasts against his chest. She shivered, and without thinking, he wrapped his arms around her waist, closing the last inch of space between them. She stiffened for a moment, then relaxed, melting against him like she belonged there. Like she was made to fit against him.
“I had a lot of dreams like this,” she said softly. “As a child, I mean. About finding a safe place to hide from the storms.”
His chest tightened at the thought of a small, frightened Ariella, alone in a sterile laboratory with nothing to shield her from the pain and the probing and the loneliness. “You have a safe place now.”
“Do I?” She tilted her head back to look at him, and their faces were so close he could see the individual specks of light in her eyes, the shifting colors of her bioluminescence. “I thought you said humans weren’t welcome here.”
“You’re not like other humans.” He brushed a thumb over her cheek, feeling the cool, silken texture of her skin. “You’re different. You’re… you.”
“And what does that mean?”
“It means that when I look at you, I just see Ariella.”
Her breath hitched, and the space between them seemed to shrink, charged with an energy that was as dangerous as the storm raging outside their narrow shelter.
“Valrek,” she whispered, and that was all it took.
His control, already stretched to the breaking point by proximity and her scent and the undeniable rightness of her body against his, finally snapped. He lowered his head and kissed her.
It was not a gentle kiss. It was not a cautious kiss. It was the kiss of a starving man finally finding food, of a parched man stumbling upon an oasis. He took her mouth with a desperate urgency, a need that had been building since their hands had touched on that storm-tossed beach. He poured all of his feelings into that kiss—all the loneliness, all the longing, all the fierce, protective instinct that had roared to life the moment he’d seen her rescue his daughter.
For a moment, she froze against him, her lips soft and unresponsive beneath his, but then she melted. Her hands came up to grip the front of his shirt, her fingers tangling in the damp fabric as she kissed him back with a matching desperation. She met his hunger with her own, her lips parting beneath his as she invited him deeper, and he groaned, a low, possessive sound that vibrated in his chest.
The kiss deepened, turning wild and untamed. Her taste was a sweetness like nothing he’d ever known, a flavor that was somehow both wild and comforting, like honey and rain. His hands roamed over her body, tracing the curve of her waist, the line of her hip, memorizing the shape of her through the thin, damp fabric of her suit. She was sleek and strong, a creature of the sea, and every touch only made him want more.
Her hands slid up to his neck, her fingers tangling in the hair at the base of his skull, and she made a soft, needy sound that went straight to his head, straight to his groin. He was painfully hard, a fact she couldn’t possibly miss, pressed together as they were in the narrow confines of the crevice. But she didn’t pull away. If anything, she arched against him, a small, deliberate movement that sent a jolt of pure electricity through his entire system.
She wants this. She wants me.
The thought was so potent, so overwhelming, that it almost brought him to his knees.
The world narrowed to the space between them—to the taste of her mouth, the feel of her skin beneath his hands, her scent filling his lungs. The storm raging outside faded to a distant roar, the cold rain forgotten in the heat they were generating. This was the only thing that mattered. This was the only thing that was real.
My mate. Mine. Ours.
His beast howled in agreement, and for the first time in a very long time, he didn’t try to silence it.
She pulled back slightly, her breathing ragged, her lips swollen and wet from his kiss. Her nipples were taut and swollen beneath the thin fabric of her suit, and the small specks on her skin blazed with a brilliant, pulsing light.
“Valrek,” she whispered, her voice husky and low. “This is… I don’t…”
