“There is nohow. It justis.” He sat up with ease, shifting their angle so he hit her deep in that exquisite spot. Echo gaspedand shivered around him. He slid his hand between them, feeling where he moved inside her. “I’m inside you in more ways than one. But you’re inside me too. You belong to me. And I belong to you.”
She nodded frantically, the tears spilling freely down her cheeks. “I know.”
Elijah grabbed her by the nape, holding her to him as he poured everything he felt into his kiss. Echo moved over him, faster, harder, their mouths meeting and parting, meeting and parting.
“Mine,” he grunted between each kiss. “Echo Payne, you are mine.”
“And you are mine,” she growled right back.
“Yes.” Elijah’s eyes flared bright. “I am yours. Always.”
Lights exploded behind Echo’s lids as her orgasm shook through her entire body. Her muscles clenched around Elijah, wave after wave of pulsing pleasure.
Suddenly, she found herself flipped to her back. Her eyes flew open as Elijah pressed her into the mattress, her hands imprisoned above her head. His features were strained with uncontrolled need and something like love, and as he crushed his mouth against hers, he began to stroke deep inside her, his movements rough and hard.
When his lips left hers, she stared up in awe, their harsh gasps seeming to echo all around them as Echo pushed up against his thrusts. He let go of one of her arms, his hand disappearing between their joined bodies, and as soon as his thumb pressed down on Echo’s clit, she flew apart, her cries filling the room.
Satisfaction hardened Elijah’s expression seconds before his lips parted on a shout of release. His hips juddered as he came, his shout turning into a long groan as he ground himself into Echo and growled, “Mine.”
27
The glaring sunlightof a new day disoriented Echo in more ways than one. She attempted perhaps unsuccessfully not to let the others see how she couldn’t help but be distracted by the heat and light on her face.
But it brought more than the continual shock of her new Daywalker existence.
The phenomenal, supernaturally intense sex she’d had with Elijah had overwhelmed her in the moment. In his arms, it was easy to forget reality.
She was the vampire daughter of an obsessed megalomaniac while Elijah was raised by two of the best humans Echo had ever met.
She’d permanently scarred his wrists with iron cuffs when she’d held him against his will.
She’d endangered his entire family to get what she wanted.
If that wasn’t enough to question seriously if Echo deserved him … there was the fact that neither of them might survive what was coming.
Echo more than anyone.
William would kill her for her betrayal.
And she’d die rather than let him take any more from her birth mother or the people she found herself among now.
She would die before she’d let William hurt Elijah and his family.
Hating herself for it, she couldn’t help but rebuild her protective emotional walls as the morning hours passed and they readied to leave for London. She could sense Elijah watching her. His confusion. His frustration.
His hurt.
The others strode toward the private jet on the single airstrip. The tiny airport was situated twenty-five minutes east of Torridon, and Conall had commandeered it so Fionn’s pilot could land his private plane.
She knew the once Celtic king was rolling in it, but she hadn’t quite realized it was private jet levels of rolling in it.
Everyone seemed vigilant, hypertense, and aware of their surroundings as they climbed the steps into the vehicle. But Elijah grabbed Echo’s elbow before she could ascend.
“Really?” He glared at her in disappointment. “After this morning … we’re back here again?”
Emotion thickened in her throat and she knew he could hear her suddenly racing heart, could sense all of her emotions. Her gaze dropped to the leather cuffs he’d worn once as a fashion accessory, and now as a means to hide the scarred bands around his wrists.
“You can shut me out all you want … but I will never stop fighting for you, woman.”
