She bit her lip, looking down at him with a mix of curiosity and bemused fondness. “Yes, Luka. I know what I want. Do you want this?”
She was offering herself—the one thing he’d wanted for so long but never thought he could have. Did he want to turn her away when she planned to walk into danger in mere hours? No. He wanted to take this chance, to hold her and touch her and fill himself with everything she was.
It was just for tonight. He knew that. When everything was over—if they both survived—she would go back to living in the town, and he would go back to his long days and lonely nights without her. That’s what they’d agreed.
His beast’s tail flicked.I don’t think Izzy agreed to that.
He ignored his beast; she’d said it herself. This was a moment outside of time. A bubble. Bright and perfect and fragile. “I do want this,” he admitted roughly. “I want you to be happy.”
“Good.” She smiled. “Because I just wantyou.” And then she lifted slightly onto her knees and closed her hand around his cock, and he groaned. “What about…? I don’t have a sheath.” He swallowed. “I’ll pull out.”
“I’d rather you stay with me,” Izzy whispered. “It’s not that time in my cycle… and I have herbs I can take tomorrow, just to be certain.”
On the rare occasions he’d taken a woman back to his room, he’d used a sheathandpulled out. But this was Izzy. He wanted her in every way, and now she was finally here with him.
Still, he had to protect her, to keep her safe. Her hand around his cock was making it even harder to think, but he kept his gaze on her eyes. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” Izzy leaned forward to kiss him, her mouth moving over his, nibbling and licking down his jaw to bite gently on the straining tendons of his neck. Her grip on his cock had him panting as she guided him into the perfect position to slide through her lips and nudge her clit every time she moved.
It was her turn to surround him. Izzy drove every thought from his head as she ground down on him. Every inch of his body was hers. All he could do was hold on to her and follow where she led.
She pressed a hard kiss to his lips and then leaned back. She set her hands on his chest and dragged her slit over his cock, driving him mad. A flush traveled up her chest and over her breasts, and he skimmed a hand over her skin, wanting—needing—that heat everywhere.
He plucked at her beaded nipples, loving the tight points, focusing on them, on building her pleasure, as she built his. Izzy shuddered and leaned forward to guide him inside her body. Gods of fire. She radiated beauty and power. She waseverything. And then she started to move.
His beast’s rumble roared through him as he rocked with her. She found her rhythm, riding him with a sensuous intensity, and he bent his knees, setting his feet on the rock so that he could meet her thrusts, straining up to meet her. He kept one hand on her breast and found her mound with the other; then he settled his thumb on her clit, circling and rolling the swollen flesh as Izzy shuddered, moaning, soaring ever higher with him.
She whimpered, and her hips lost their easy glide, shuddering against his as he thrust up, deep inside her. Izzy dropped forward, her breasts pressed against his chest, the hard nubs of her nipples rasping on the rough hair as she kissed him open-mouthed.
They panted together, incandescence spiraling between them. Then she rose up once more and dropped her head back, gifting him a view of her beautiful breasts and glowing skin, before she reached back and cupped his balls.
It took everything he had to keep thrusting steadily, to keep the pressure on her clit as he thrummed the swollen bud. Ecstasy spread through his body in waves as coiling tension climbed from his balls and up his spine. “Izzy, gods. You take my breath away. You’re…. I need you,” he admitted roughly, too far gone to think of holding back.
His beast let out a long, rumbling growl of possession, and her body clenched, gripping him with white-hot pleasure, and she screamed, shuddering around him.
Now.
He let go, thrusting in almost desperate need as his body spasmed and emptied into her. Ecstasy flooded through him, his beast howled within him, and he flew through the blinding light into the most intense, most shattering orgasm of his life.
He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight against his body as they shuddered and moaned and finally slumped together.
Izzy gave a soft sigh and nestled into him, her face tucked into his neck. Slowly, he returned to earth, to the gentle bubble of the water and the drifting steam, the moon now climbing through the sky above them, bathing Izzy in silver light.
She pressed a gentle kiss to the sensitive skin under his jaw, and he shivered. What they’d shared was more than anything he could have prepared for. He rubbed his hand down her back, soothing himself as much as her. Losing her now would hurt him in ways he hadn’t imagined. He cared for her more?—
Not care… love,his beast rumbled loudly.
God of Chaos. That was even worse.
Izzy lifted off him and turned sleepily in his lap, curled against him, trusting him to hold her. He pulled her closer, making sure she was safe… and that was when he felt the burn, a sharp throbbing ache in his hands. He lifted one into the moonlight to see blood dripping down his fingers and—far more shocking—a set of lethal, curved claws.
He flinched, staring at his hand, and Izzy opened her eyes to look at him. She glanced at his clenched jaw and then followed his line of sight to rest on his trembling hand.
“Oh!” She reached out a small finger to stroke the vicious blade at the top of his finger. “Oh.” She said again, more gently. “That’s?—”
“What is it?” he demanded, more roughly than he intended. “Why do I have claws?”
“Why do you have claws?” Her voice was soft as she repeated his question. “Luka…” Izzy’s words trailed away as if she was suddenly uncertain. She moved off his lap and sat beside him on the ledge.
