“I know. I read about it.” Her hands found his face again, holding him steady. “I’m not afraid. I want this. I want you.”
Slowly, carefully, he pressed inside.
She was tight—impossibly, devastatingly tight—and the sensation nearly overwhelmed him. He gritted his teeth and moved in gentle increments, giving her body time to adjust, watching her face for any sign of pain.
Her breath caught and her fingers tightened on his shoulder hard enough to bruise, but she didn’t tell him to stop.
“More,” she whispered.
He pushed deeper.
When he was finally fully seated inside her, they both went still. His arms trembled with the effort of holding himself in check, of not simply taking what his body desperately wanted. Her eyes were wide, her lips parted, her expression caught somewhere between discomfort and wonder.
“Are you all right?”
“I feel...” She shifted experimentally, and they both groaned. “Full. Complete. Like I was missing something and didn’t know it until just now.”
He kissed her forehead, her cheeks, the tip of her nose. “Tell me when you’re ready.”
“I’m ready.”
He began to move, and the world narrowed to the space between their bodies.
He established a slow rhythm at first, letting her adjust, letting her learn the sensations. But as always she was a quick study, and soon she was moving with him, matching his pace, finding the angles that brought her pleasure.
“Faster,” she breathed.
He obliged.
The careful control he’d maintained began to fray at the edges. His beast was closer to the surface than it had ever been during their times together, clawing at his consciousness, demanding that he claim her. The urge was nearly overwhelming, the need to sink his teeth into the soft curve of her shoulder and mark her permanently as his.
He held back, but gods, she made it difficult. The way she clung to him, the way she whispered his name, the way her body welcomed him with complete and utter trust—it was everything he’d ever wanted and never thought he could have.
“Baylin.” Her voice was ragged. “I feel it again—that building sensation?—”
“Let it come.”
“I want you to feel it with me.”
The simple request shattered something inside him.
He drove into her harder, deeper, losing himself in the heat and tightness and perfect rightness of her. She cried out, her nails raking down his back, her inner muscles clenching around him as her second release hit.
The sensation dragged him over the edge with her.
He buried his face in her throat, muffling his groan against her skin, his whole body shuddering as he spilled inside her, somehow managing to yank himself free before his knot could lock them together. The pleasure was blinding, overwhelming, unlike anything he’d experienced before. Not just a physical release but something deeper—a connection, a bond, a promise.
Mate,his beast purred contentedly.Finally, mate.
He didn’t claim her. He didn’t mark her. But he knew with absolute certainty that he was hers forever.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Liora woke to the solid weight of an arm draped over her waist, the slow rhythm of breath stirring her hair, the furnace heat of skin against her own. Then memory flooded back in vivid detail, and a smile spread across her face before she could stop it.
Baylin.
She lay perfectly still, afraid that any movement might shatter the moment. His arm tightened fractionally around her, pulling her closer, and she felt his heartbeat against her shoulder blade—steady, strong, real. Slowly, carefully, she turned in his embrace until they were facing each other.
