“No.” I touched his lips. “Last time . . . last time we touched, the fever came. I don’t want the same to take you again. It was horrid to see you suffer in such a way.”
Jonas cupped the side of my face, pressing a kiss to the corner of my mouth. He held his mouth there, words warm on my skin. “I’ve never had the same mesmer attack twice. I don’t understand it. Seems to burn out, then those dreams merely become a nightmare from the Mare demons.”
“I don’t want you to have those either.”
“Can’t be helped. I broke my last defense against you, Fire,” he said. “I’ve nestled you beside any soul that matters to me. Once you’re there, it’s for good. Don’t ask me to let you go.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Good.”
I rolled my eyes. Naked and wanting, I refused to get into a battle of final words. I tilted my head and kissed him, silencing that horridly beautiful tongue of his.
Jonas dragged his nose alongside one breast. “I want to taste your skin again.”
“Please.” I cried out, trembling under his larger form when his tongue lapped at the hardened point of my breast. He rocked his hips against my aching center. A frantic need, an obsession to join with him in every way took hold.
“Jonas,” I breathed out in a rough gasp. What was I trying to even say? I shook my head and simply blurted, “I need you.”
He lifted his head from my chest, tugging at my nipple with his teeth before releasing me. “Open these pretty thighs for me.”
With one hand, he pushed one of my knees to the side, spreading me out beneath him. His fiery eyes roved over my body, head to foot, stalling between my legs.
Jonas used both thumbs to run along both sides of my slickened core. “So perfect. I want every bleeding piece of you.”
“Yet I’m still waiting for you to take one.”
He chuckled. “Ah, be careful what you ask for, Wife.”
The silky darkness of his voice rumbled through my bones, my blood, to my very soul.
The tip of his tongue slipped out, wetting his lips, as he watched me recline on my elbows and slowly let my knees drop to the sides. If he had not proven his gentle hands and words time and again, I might shudder in fear at the way Jonas looked at me, the way he hovered over me, like he had every plan to destroy me before sunrise.
Gods, I hoped he did.
Jonas fitted his hips between my thighs. Unable to stop, my body snapped in an arch to feel him, to kill any distance between us, and guided the crown of his length to the heat of my slit.
In a painfully sensual crawl, he nudged into my dripping center, but when he was met with resistance, he hesitated. “Skadi, I know you said this was not a first, but . . .”
I shook my head. “It’s just been some time.”
He lifted more, watching where we were connected. “Tell me if I hurt you, yes?”
“It doesn’t hurt.” I moaned and wriggled beneath him, as though to prove it. “You’re . . . you’re indescribable. Please, Jonas.”
As though something snapped, Jonas let out a rough breath and rolled his hips in a quick thrust. He sank into me, tip to hilt.
“All right?” he rasped.
I nodded, digging my fingernails into his hips. Jonas set the rhythm; slow to build, but it wasn’t long before our pace quickened to a frenzied rush, and the slap of skin against skin echoed through his bedchamber.
When he pressed his body down, I arched up, like we were hoping to dissolve into each other. His length filled me, consumed me, and every thrust sent bright shocks of tantalizing pleasure surging through my veins.
“You’re mine,” he gritted out. Jonas bit down on my bottom lip, quickening his thrusts. “Gods, I am soglad you’re mine.”
Our breaths, our heat, the rush of our bodies, it all burned together until a tremble of delicious warmth flowed from my skull to my belly; like molten ore, it spilled between us until I shattered.
I cried out his name. My claws left red scratches across his arms as I lost control.
