“You’re mine,” I growl against her throat. “Say it.”
“Yours.” She can barely breathe. “Always — oh gods,right there— always yours.”
I angle my hips to hit that spot again. Again. Again.
She screams.
“That’s it.” I’m losing myself. Losing everything except her, except this. “Let go for me, Kaia. I’ve got you. I’ll always have you.”
Her whole body tightens around me.
“Kieran— I’m— I can’t—”
“Let go.”
She shatters.
Her back arches off the furs. Her walls clamp down on my cock so hard I can barely breathe. She cries out my name — broken, beautiful,mine— and the bond blazes between us, golden light flooding through both of us.
I feel everything she feels. Every wave of pleasure. Every pulse of release. Every ounce of love she has for me reflected back through the bond.
It destroys me.
I bury myself deep and come so hard my vision whites out. Her name tears from my throat like a prayer. I spill into her in waves, centuries of longing cresting and breaking and flooding through me until I’m empty and full all at once.
We stay like that.
Tangled together. Trembling. Breathing.
I release her wrists, and she immediately wraps her arms around my neck, pulling me down against her. I bury my face in her hair. Breathe her in.
Her fingers stroke through my hair. Gentle. Loving.
“Centuries,” she whispers. “You waited centuries for me.”
I lift my head. Meet her eyes.
“I would have waited longer.”
She pulls me down into a kiss. Soft. Slow. The kind of kiss that saysI know. The kind of kiss that saysme too.
When we break apart, she’s crying again. But these tears are different — warm and quiet, sliding down her temples into her hair.
“I never forgot you,” she says. “Not really. Even before I knew your name… I remembered your dragon. The way you made me feel safe.”
I gather her against my chest. Press my face into her hair. Hold her so tight I’m not sure where I end and she begins.
“You are safe,” I murmur. “Always. I swear it.”
Her breathing slows. Her body relaxes into mine.
She falls asleep between one breath and the next.
I don’t follow. Not yet.
Instead, I hold her. Watch the soft rise and fall of her chest. Feel the bond humming warm and steady between us, brighter than it’s ever been.
Centuries.
