She smiled, that mischievous smile that made him want to kiss her senseless, and continued her exploration. When she leanedforward and pressed a kiss to his chest, right over his heart, he felt something inside him shift permanently into place.
Then her mouth dropped to his cock and he groaned.
“You’re going to kill me.”
“I hope not. I still have so many questions.”
Despite everything, he laughed. Only Liora would maintain her scientific curiosity in the middle of having her first intimate experience. Only Liora would treat pleasure as another experiment to observe and analyze.
He loved her for it.
I love her.
Not just desired her, not just felt protective of her, but genuinely, completely loved her in a way he’d never loved anyone before.
His beast howled in triumph.
Claim her,it demanded.Make her ours forever.
But he couldn’t. Not yet. Not when she didn’t know what it meant. Not when she deserved a choice.
Instead he gently pulled her mouth away from him, and stripped off her clothing. She didn’t flinch or cover herself. She just watched his face, cataloging his reaction the way she cataloged everything.
“You’re staring,” she whispered.
“I can’t help it.”
He traced the curve of her breast with one finger, watching the way her nipple tightened in response. She made a small, startled sound and arched into his touch.
“That feels...” She trailed off, searching for words. “I don’t know how to describe it. Like lightning, but gentle. Like everything is more awake than it was before.”
“It gets better.”
He kissed her slowly, thoroughly, committing every gasp and sigh to memory as his hands roamed her body. After their nights together, he knew every sensitive spot, every place that made her gasp and every place that made her moan. The sounds she made were going to destroy him.
He worked his way down her throat, across her collarbone, lavishing attention on each breast until she was writhing beneath him. When he finally parted her thighs and sucked gently on her clit, she came almost immediately, her body bowing off the bed as she cried out his name.
He inserted one finger, then two, stretching her as he continued working her clit. She was so responsive—years of isolation meaning she had no defenses, no learned inhibitions, no expectations about how she was supposed to feel or act.
She just felt. Purely, completely, without restraint.
“Baylin—” Her voice cracked. “That’s—oh, that’s?—”
“Too much?”
“Not enough. I want it all.”
He couldn’t have refused her anything in that moment.
When he settled himself between her thighs, the head of his cock pressing against her entrance, her eyes widened.
“You’re... larger than I expected.”
“We can stop.”
“Stop saying that.” She put her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. Even though she was wet and ready, her body still trembling with aftershocks of her previous climax, he forced himself to pause.
“This might hurt,” he warned. “The first time?—”
