After a long moment, her body softens beneath me. Her hips shift experimentally, and we both groan.
“Move,” she whispers. “Please move.”
I pull back slowly, then slide home again. She whimpers, but it’s not pain anymore. I can tell by the way her legs wrap around my waist, pulling me deeper.
“More.” Her nails rake down my back. “I won’t break.”
The last thread of my control snaps.
I hitch her hips higher, changing the angle, and thrust harder.
She cries out, her head falling back, and the sight of her throat bared to me triggers something primal. Something that goes beyond desire into pure instinct.
Mine. Mark her. Claim her. MINE.
“Emma.” It comes out as a growl. “Fuck. You’re perfect.” My lips brush the curve of her neck, and she shivers.
Her eyes flutter open, glazed with pleasure, and I almost break when she tilts her head to the side, baring her throat completely.
“Yes. Take me.” Her voice breaks as I thrust deeper, hitting a spot that makes her whole body arch. “I’m yours.”
The wordyoursshatters whatever was left of my restraint.
I drive into her harder, faster, feeling her tighten around me as her climax builds. My mouth finds her throat, my tongue tracing over the spot where her pulse flutters beneath the skin.
“Come for me.” The words vibrate against her neck. “Come for me, and I’ll make you mine.”
She shatters.
The instant I feel her clench around me, my canines lengthen. The urge to bite is overwhelming, a drumbeat in my blood that drowns out everything else.
Her throat is right there. One bite, and she’ll be mine forever.
I bury my face in her shoulder instead, muffling my roar against her skin, as I spill inside her.
She cries out, not in pain, but in something beyond pleasure, beyond anything either of us has words for. The orgasm goes on and on, waves of it crashing through both of us.
For a moment, she’s there, inside my head, her ecstasy, shock and overwhelming joy flooding through me like sunlight.
When it finally releases us, I collapse beside her, gathering her against my chest. We’re both trembling.
“What...” She swallows, her voice wrecked. “What just happened?”
I press a kiss to her lips, still reeling from whatever has just passed between us.
“Fate.”
She’s quiet for a moment, processing.
“When this is over…” I promise, pressing my lips to her hair, “I’m going to explain everything. What I am. What this means. All of it.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.” She tilts her head back to look at me, and despite everything, the danger, the impossible situation we’re in, she’s smiling.
“Thank you,” I whisper, overwhelmed by her faith in me.
She settles against my chest with a sigh, and I feel her contentment flow from her, warm and bright. My arms tighten around her instinctively.
We should move. Should clean up, get dressed and pretend like none of this happened before someone comes looking. But I can’t bring myself to let her go.
