“You’re torturing me,” I groan.
His possessively dark chuckle warms my lips. “If that were true, you’d be screaming.”
“Bale!”
“Better,” he rumbles in a voice that sounds just like when he’s a beast. Then he works a finger inside me.
Moaning, I let my head fall back and move my hips. He trails his lips down my neck to my breast, taking a nipple into his mouth. Arching my back, I free my arms from what’s left of my dress and spear my fingers into his thick hair as he turns his attention to the other breast. Lavish kisses and searing words melt my skin and bones as desire turns into a drumming pulse right between my legs.
“Bale, I want you. Now.” We’ve already waited so long for this.
“I feel like I’m dreaming those words.” His kisses scorch my throat. He takes my mouth again, his tongue dominating mine in that way he dominates everything. Born to rule. His hands clamp down on my head, and he angles me for an even deeper kiss, a low groan building in his throat. “Are you ready?”
“I was ready the second you knocked on my door.” I pull my knees up and reach down, giving his thick shaft a few long, firm strokes. His jaw bulging, he inhales roughly. Our eyes lock as I guide him toward my opening. “All you have to do is push.”
He slowly thrusts, his eyes never leaving mine. It’s been so long that the hot stretch takes me off guard. He’s gentle but relentless, then suddenly, we’re fully joined.
With our bodies locked together, our next kiss feels completely different, like a promise. Bale moves, and my world tilts. I moan, pleasure sweeping through me. He thrusts, the shudder in his breath making me feel powerful and desperately wanted. I grip him close, our mouths still fused, and rock to meet his hips.
“Are you protected from pregnancy?” he murmurs against my lips.
“I’ll get something tomorrow.” Though with the low birth rate among our kinds, conceiving is rare.
“I’ll pull out,” he rasps.
“Don’t. I know what to take. It’ll be safe.” Just because I thought about having children recently doesn’t mean I want to start trying for them now. “You promised to mark me inside and out. Don’t disappoint me, Bale.”
Groaning, he dips his head into the curve of my neck as he holds me close and pushes into me with steady strokes. We both breathe raggedly. He kisses my shoulder. I feel a brief scrape of teeth and, in response, my fangs ache again. I’m too distracted by all the other amazing sensations to stop them from descending this time. Bale grips my hip, moving faster, and I tighten, ready to burst.
Emotion stings my eyes. All the longing. The reality of this. Every stroke brings me closer to completion. I rise to meet his thrusts, and white-hot sparks snap between my legs. My body trembles. My lungs are filled with Bale. My tongue thirsts for his blood, and I gasp, angling my head away from his hard-beating pulse.
“Stay with me,” he murmurs. “Never go.”
I barely hear his whispered plea or understand what he means. My mind is a blur, all my concentration arrowing to where his hard length pumps in and out. Climax rushes toward me, a flare igniting fast and hard. My breath hitches, and I tumble over the edge, my body convulsing around his. Stars streak my vision. I clench my muscles, gripping him so tightly that I pull every last sensation from my body and his.
Bale groans above me. His hot release thumps powerfully inside me, driving a second wave of tremors through my core.
We gradually uncoil our muscles and sink into the mattress with matching moans. My breathing is still a reckless hurricane, and Bale rolls to the side, leaving me more air. I curl into his body, and he cradles me there. I inhale woodsmoke and wind and know I smell the same now, his scent coating my skin.
A low sound hums in my throat, thirst still taunting me with the possibility of blood. Bale’s warm, delicious chest is right in front of my face, and I want to open my mouth and bite. Stemming the reckless urge, I fight my fangs back into place. We haven’t talked about consent again, and I have no intention of giving up sunlight. More tension leaves me once the sharp tips retract, and I prove to myself once again that I’m in control.
Bale’s breathing settles faster than mine. He strokes my shoulder. He idly kisses the top of my head, and I barely keep my heart from leaping straight out of my body and offering itself to him.
“What does this mean for us?” he eventually asks. “I don’t want you to feel…pressured in any way.”
My chest spasms like a muscle cramp. “What do you mean?”
His pause is too long, worrying me. “I mean I want to continue this, but I don’t want you to feel obligated. Nothing has to change if you don’t want it to. Your home, your position…I swear to you that nothing depends on this.”
A knot somewhere deep inside me unravels. Despite his earlier assurances about my birds, I still needed those words. I also still know for a fact that if this doesn’t work out, it won’t be easy, and everything will change. But whatever decisions I make will be mine. I trust Bale not to make them for me or my birds.
Leaning my head back to look at him, I draw a light line over his sculpted chest with my fingertip, lingering on the edge of a red crescent moon near the scars above his heart. He never did answer my questions. I’ll just have to keep asking until he does. “Didn’t you say you wanted me naked under your bed furs for weeks? I’ll be very disappointed if you don’t make good on that.”
Happiness flashes across his face before a wolfish grin replaces the quick shot of joy. “We’re on top of the furs.”
I smile back. I want to see his joy regularly. Bale’s smile is my new goal. “Then by all means, Dragon King, get me under them. Or better yet,” I say suggestively, “under you.”
I’m rewarded with a grin that’ll carry my buoyant heart straight into the next century as Bale rolls me onto my back and covers my body with his.
