That I loved him.
That my heart belonged to him. And probably my soul, if I was being honest.
Kaden trembled as I spilled my emotions into him, for once not caring that I was showing too much. Giving too much.Feelingtoo much.
I love you, he whispered down our mental pathway, gripping my hips and lifting me up just so he could slam me back down. I gasped as he hit the very end of my channel, and for a moment, I wondered if he could feel exactly what he did to me.
A low chuckle rumbling down the bond told me all I wanted to know.
A roiling pressure had begun to build deep in my core,and I rolled my hips into Kaden, seeking the friction I so desperately needed.
The fire crackled in the hearth, the only sound apart from our lovemaking. I lost myself in the scent of charred cedar and night that mixed with the musk of our arousal.
Reaching between us, Kaden swirled his fingers over the most sensitive part of me, and I stifled my cry by sinking my teeth into the meat of his shoulder. His low chuckle ghosted over my skin like summer rain as he began to move his fingers in torturous circles, all the while plunging into me with his cock.
I cried out as I came around him, digging my nails into his skin as I rode wave after wave of my pleasure.
Then we were moving — Kaden gripping the backs of my thighs as he flipped me onto the thick fur rug and thrust into me again.
My lips parted at the sight of him bathed in shadow and the muted glow of the flames. Kaden was a god made flesh, his silky black hair cutting across the sharp lines of his face and drawing out the silver in his eyes. His full lips were swollen from our kisses, his dark, membranous wings splayed out behind him.
But it was his expression that had me at a loss for words. Pure love and desperate need. Need to bury himself so deep within me that we could never be parted again.
My bottom lip quivered as my hands ghosted over his tanned skin, reveling in the bunch of his muscles as he snapped his hips into me.
“Don’t be gentle,” I murmured, reaching up to sweep one lock of dark hair out of his eyes. “Give me all of it, Kaden.”
I wasn’t sure if it was my command or the sound of hisname on my lips, but I saw a fire ignite in his expression a split second before he let go.
Kaden’s jaw clenched as he fisted my hair, drawing out delicious tingles of pain that mingled with the pleasure building inside me once more. He slammed into me like a man possessed, sweat beading along his skin as he drove toward his release.
I shuddered at the familiar tingle between my legs, followed by a cascade of sensation as I clenched around him again. Kaden came with a feral growl, and I felt a surge of warmth as he spilled himself inside me.
He collapsed on top of me, and I welcomed his weight pressing me into the floor. The steady rise and fall of his chest that told me he was alive.
A glimmer of love and satisfaction rippled down our bond, and I smiled as I wrapped my legs around him.
For several moments, we just lay there, each of my exhales moving with his inhales like waves crashing against the shore before slipping back into the sea.
When he finally pushed himself up, it was to grab a soft blanket from the back of the bench and a heavy fur pelt. He returned to the floor, tucking me against his chest as he covered us both. And for the first time I could remember, I felt wholly content.
Chapter
Thirty-Five
KADEN
The fire had burned down to coals by the time Lyra’s breathing became low and even. Her dark hair was fanned out in a million directions on the rug, and her face was softer in sleep.
She looked nothing like the deadly huntress from the Quarter who slayed demons as easily as she breathed. She just looked like the beautiful female who’d ensnared my very soul.
Careful not to disturb my mate, I slid out from under the blanket, donned an oversized yaga-hide coat hanging beside the door, and let myself out of the cottage.
Fresh snow blanketed the village, and I was surprised to see the glow of a single ember flaring like a beacon in the dark. A rich, earthy smoke wafted across the narrow road, no doubt emanating from the source of that glow.
Pulling the coat tighter against the chill, I made my way toward the inn and up the rickety stairs to the porch. Adriel stood slumped against the railing, smoking a rolled stick of tevash.
I’d only ever seen my best friend touch the stuff twice — once when we’d been foolish younglings experimenting with things we had no business touching, and once the night after my mother was killed.
