Something inside me snapped. I pulled her to me, crushing my mouth to hers, pouring everything I couldn't say into the kiss—my desire, my devotion, my desperate need for her. She melted against me, her fingers threading through my hair, her body molding to mine like she'd been made to fit there. When we finally broke apart, both breathing hard, I rested my forehead against hers.
"Harper," I breathed her name like a prayer.
My hands slid beneath her shirt, fingers splaying across the bare skin of her back, and she gasped at the contact. Her skin was impossibly soft, warm silk beneath my touch, and I needed more. I needed all of her.
"Tell me to stop," I rasped against her mouth, giving her one last chance to pull away, to save us both from crossing this threshold. "Tell me you don't want this."
"Don't stop," Harper breathed, her hands tugging at the hem of my shirt with trembling fingers. "Don't you dare stop."
I growled low in my throat, the sound primal and possessive, and claimed her mouth again as I tugged her shirt over her head. She lifted her arms to help me, and then she was there before me, her pale skin glowing in the dim light, her breasts barely contained by a scrap of lace that did nothing to hide her hardened nipples.
"Beautiful," I breathed, my hands cupping her breasts, thumbs stroking over the sensitive peaks through the fabric. She arched into my touch, a soft moan escaping her lips that went straight to my cock.
Her fingers tugged on my shirt, insistent and I took my hands from her perfect flesh for the breath of time it took to pull the shirt over my head, almost ripping the fabric in my haste. I watched her blue eyes widen, breath escaping in a soft gasp and then her hands were on my chest, exploring, mapping the ridges and planes of muscle. Her touch was reverent, worshipful, and it made me feel like something more than the scarred warrior I'd always been.
I reached behind her, fumbling with the contraption hiding her flesh until lust overtook me and I sliced the aggravating fabric free with a snip of a claw. Her breasts spilled free, full and perfect, and I couldn't resist lowering my head to take one peaked nipple into my mouth.
Harper cried out, her back arching, her hands fisting in my hair as I sucked and laved attention on the sensitive flesh. I switched to the other breast, giving it the same treatment while my hand kneaded the one I'd abandoned, and she writhed beneath me, her hips grinding against mine in unconscious need.
"Xabat," she gasped, and hearing my name on her lips in that breathy, desperate tone nearly undid me.
I kissed my way down her stomach, my tongue dipping into her navel, my hands working at the fastenings of her pants. She lifted her hips to help me slide them down along with her underwear, and then she was completely bare before me.
I sat back on my heels, drinking in the sight of her. The curve of her hips, the softness of her thighs, the glistening evidence of her arousal between them. Mine. She was mine.
"You're staring," Harper whispered, a blush coloring her cheeks and spreading down her chest.
"I'm memorizing," I corrected, my voice rough with need. "Every inch of you."
I spread her thighs wider, settling between them, and pressed a kiss to the inside of her knee. Then higher. Then higher still. Her breathing quickened, her fingers gripping the towels beneath her as I kissed my way up her inner thigh.
When my mouth finally reached her center, she bucked against me, a strangled sound escaping her throat. I held her hips steady and tasted her, my tongue stroking through her folds, circling her clit, dipping inside her. She was sweet and tangy and intoxicating, and I couldn't get enough.
"Oh god," Harper panted, her thighs trembling on either side of my head. "Xabat, please—"
I slid two fingers inside her while my mouth worked her clit, and she clenched around me, hot and wet and perfect. I pumped my fingers in and out, curling them to find that spot that made her cry out, and sucked her clit between my lips.
She came apart with a scream, her body convulsing, her inner walls clamping down on my fingers as waves of pleasure crashed through her. I worked her through it, extending her orgasm until she was begging me to stop, oversensitized and shaking.
I kissed my way back up her body, licking and nipping at her skin, and when I reached her mouth, she kissed me hungrily, tasting herself on my lips.
"I need you inside me," she whispered against my mouth, her hands working at the fastenings of my pants. "Now. Please."
I helped her strip away the last barrier between us, my cock springing free, thick and hard and aching. Harper's eyes widened slightly as she took in the size of me, but there was no fear there, only hunger.
I positioned myself at her entrance, the head of my cock nudging against her slick heat, and forced myself to pause. "This will bind us," I warned, my voice strained with the effort of holding back. "Once I claim you, there's no going back. No matter what Xytol might believe, you'll be mine and I'll be yours."
"Good," Harper didn’t hesitate, her legs wrapping around my hips, urging me forward. "I want that. I want you."
I pushed inside her slowly, inch by inch, feeling her stretch around me, her body adjusting to accommodate my size. She was tight, so impossibly tight, and the sensation of her heat enveloping me made my vision blur at the edges.
"Harper," I groaned, my control hanging by a thread as I finally seated myself fully inside her.
She moaned, her nails digging into my shoulders, her body trembling beneath me. "Move," she commanded, her hips rolling against mine. "Please, Xabat, move."
I withdrew almost completely, then thrust back in, and we both cried out at the sensation. I set a rhythm, slow and deep at first, savoring every stroke, every clench of her inner walls around me, every gasp and moan that fell from her lips.
But slow wasn't enough. The need riding me was too fierce, too primal, too consuming.
