He didn’t. He worked her with methodical care, learning what made her gasp, what made her arch, what made her tighten around his fingers. His thumb found her clit and circled it, applying just enough pressure to make her squirm.
“Look at you,” he murmured, watching her face as pleasure built. “So responsive. So perfect. Icould do this for hours, Sera. Watch you fall apart on my fingers again and again.”
“Please,” she begged, hips rolling to meet his thrusts. “Alaric,please, Ineed—”
“What do you need?” He increased the pressure on her clit, and her muscles started to flutter. “Tell me.”
“You,” she gasped. “I need you inside me, need you—oh God—”
Her orgasm hit like a storm. She clenched around his fingers, back bowing off the bed, his name spilling from her lips in a broken cry that was the most delicious sound he’d ever heard. He worked her through it, drawing out every pulse, every shudder, until she collapsed back against the mattress, trembling and flushed.
“Alaric,” she breathed, eyes glazed with satisfaction. “That was—”
“Just the beginning,” he finished, withdrawing his fingers and bringing them to his mouth. He licked them clean, tasting her, and watched her eyes darken with renewed desire. “I’m nowhere near done with you.”
He reached for the nightstand, fumbling for a condom. His hands, normally so steady, shook slightly as he tore open the packet and rolled the latex down his length. When he settled back between her thighs, the head of his cock brushing against her entrance, they both groaned.
“Ready?” he asked, even though he could tell how ready she was, could feel her wetnesscoatinghim.
“Yes,” she said, wrapping her legs around his waist. “God, yes.”
He notched himself at her entrance, the blunt head of his cock sliding through her slickness. They both groaned at the contact. He was harder than he’d ever been, aching with need, but he forced himself to go slow. To watch her face as he pushed inside.
Inch by inch, he filled her. Her lips parted on a gasp, her eyes fluttering shut, and he captured herchin.
“Eyes on me,” he commanded. “I want to watch you take me.”
She obeyed, locking her gaze with his as he pushed deeper. The sensation was overwhelming—she was hot and tight and perfect, her body gripping him like she’d been made for this, made for him. When he finally bottomed out, fully seated inside her, they both stilled.
“Fuck,” he breathed. “Sera. You’re—” Words failed. There was no adequate description for this completion.
“So are you,” she whispered, nails digging crescents into his shoulders. “Amazing.”
He held still, letting her adjust, watching pleasure and need war across her face. Her inner muscles fluttered aroundhim, and his restraint wavered. He needed to thrust. Needed to claim her thoroughly.
“Move,” she urged, rolling her hips experimentally. The friction made them both gasp. “Please, Alaric, Ineed you to move.”
He pulled back slowly, watching his cock slide from her body, slick and glistening, then slammed home again. Deep. Measured. Her back arched off the bed, breasts pressing up toward him, and he bent to catch one nipple in his mouth while he set a steady rhythm.
“Yes,” she moaned, fingers threading through his hair, holding him to her breast. “God, yes, just like that.”
He sucked harder, scraped his teeth across the sensitive peak, and drove into her with increasing force. Not fast yet. Not brutal. But deep and claiming, making sure she felt every inch of him, making sure her body learnedhis.
The sounds she made—breathy gasps and low moans—drove him higher. He wanted to catalog every one, wanted to know exactly what made her writhe, what made her clench around him, what made her say his name like a prayer.
“You feel so good,” he groaned against her skin, kissing his way from her breast up to her throat. “So fucking good, Sera. So tightaround me. Perfect.”
She wrapped her legs higher around his waist, changing the angle, and they both cried out at the deeper penetration. He could feel her everywhere—her heat surrounding him, her breasts pressed to his chest, her breath hot against hisear.
“Harder,” she demanded, nails raking down his back. “I won’t break. Give me more.”
Restraint snapped. He braced himself on his forearms and drove into her with real force, the headboard hitting the wall with each thrust. She met him stroke for stroke, hips rising to take him deeper, and the friction was exquisite torture.
“Yes!” she cried out. “Alaric, yes, don’t stop—”
He couldn’t have stopped if he wanted to. The pressure was building at the base of his spine, pleasure coiling tighter with each thrust. But he wasn’t done with her yet. He wanted her shattered first.
He shifted suddenly, pulling out and flipping her onto her stomach before she could protest. His hands gripped her hips, pulling her up onto her knees.
