ChapterTwenty-Six
With Kaz’spredator’s vision, he had no trouble seeing in the semi-darkness of the car. He could see his mate in perfect clarity — her darkened cheeks, the glazed look in her eyes, the way her hair spilled out behind her in tendrils of deep, luscious mahogany.
She was all he saw, all he felt, and all he smelled. Sensual jasmine, salt, and the musk of potent desire clogged his throat, his nose. It clung to the back of his tongue, reminding him of how she tasted when he buried his face between her thighs and feasted.
It took every ounce of his willpower to keep from fucking her then. He didn’t have it in him to do it twice.
He ran the flat of his tongue along the curve of her jaw, tracing that sweet angle, before he got to her ear. She let out the sexiest little sound when he sank his fangs into her earlobe — not enough to hurt, just enough to sting and keep her attention honed on him at all times.
“I want you to say it,” he hissed. “I want you to say you’re mine.”
Her fingers danced down his back, making every fine muscle bunch, before they ended up at the waistband of his jeans. She dug her blunt nails into the slope of his ass when she asked, “What do I get if I do?”
Fuck.Kaz’s vision nearly whited out with the heady bite of pain. It was almost nothing — her little nails could never even hope to pierce his skin — but it wasenough.
Elvish instincts were in a riot.Pin her win her bite hold keep her down as you drive into her—
A deep growl rumbled out of his chest. Tightening his fingers around her throat until he could feel her pulse throbbing, he demanded, “What do you want, princess? Do you need my tongue on your needy clit again? Do you want me to fuck you until you can’t think anymore?”
In a voice that was pure need, she whispered, “I want you to fuck me like I’m yourmate.”
It was too much to process at once: the way he could have lost her that night, the misunderstanding that she couldpossiblybelong to someone else, how she looked at him like he really was her hero, the desperation in that soft voice.
It was like he was being sucked into an abyss, tumbling head over heels into the darkness of her eyes, the way she made himwantmore than he ever had.
While there hadn’t been any serious romantic relationships in his life, he loved sex. He had never gone more than a few weeks since he turned eighteen where he didn’t have it — right up until his brother’s wedding.
He never wanted for sex right up until the moment he simply… didn’t want sex anymore. He tried it once after the wedding and was so repulsed by the scent of another woman he felt his gorge rise. What had been a seemingly bottomless font of desire for partners evaporated overnight.
Before Atria, women loved his pretty face, and the kinds of places he tended to frequent were the haunts of those who knew to take a night for what it was.
He never brought women back to his apartment, and certainly never to the Tower. Kaz fucked in alleyways, bathrooms, benches, the backs of restaurants. He took control and gave women what they needed — which was, in general, a fast, hard fuck and a handful of mind-wiping orgasms.
Atria wasn’t asking for that. She was demanding everything he had, not just the brutish half-orc who knew how to make a woman scream, but the man, themate.
Even though it was terrifying, like he was revealing his soft underbelly to her claws, Kaz couldn’t say no to her.
He’d snatched her, defended her, pleasured her. She’d invited him into her nest, such as it was. Atria was in his pores and in his soul.
This was her due and his reward.
She snuck her fingers lower, over the curve of his ass, and then around, over his hip bones, to tease the base of his cock. “I was never supposed to have a mate,” she murmured, “but I always wanted one. Someone who belonged to me and only me. Someone who I could get drunk on, who I could touch all day every day for the rest of my life. Someone who would look at me and see more than my tattoos.”
“Every time I see them, I only think about how you were this—” he gave her bare throat a slight, proprietary squeeze and bared his teeth “—close to belonging to some imaginary god rather thanme.”
Atria arched her neck into his hand. “And what a miserable life that would have been.”
Kaz covered her mouth with his. It wasn’t quite a kiss, simply because he still had things to say. “I don’t know much about being a good mate, but I know that I belong to you and only you.” He traced her plump lower lip with his tongue, desperate for her taste. “I know that I’m so fucking hungry for your touch, all day every day. And I don’t give a fuck about what you used to be, as long as you are minenow.”
She made a needy sound in the back of her throat and then, soft as a breath, whispered, “I’m yours.”
Something inside him snapped.
Kaz crushed their lips together with a tearing, hungry noise. In the confined space of the car, with their web of wards in the dark, deserted rest stop, there was no room for doubt or fear.
He didn’t think about how he was terrified of destroying her when he lost control, nor that Atria would be disgusted with him if she saw how worthless he was compared to her.
All he knew was her soft fingers fumbling with the button of his jeans. The way her hot little tongue stole into his mouth like she couldn’t get enough of him. The silk of her hair when he fisted it, holding her head still so he could devour her.
