She studies me for a beat, then stands and crosses the room. She walks slowly, like she’s deciding something with every step.
When she stops in front of me, I don’t move.
She lifts her hands and cups my face, searching my eyes like she’s looking for something final. Something concrete. “I think…I think I need to experience it to really understand.”
I lean down, lips brushing her ear. “Are you asking me to make love to you, Kylie?”
She nods. She’s not sheepish, not even unsure, but her breath hitches in her lungs.
“You have no idea how badly I want to,” I murmur. “I want to put myself inside you and never fucking leave.”
She shivers.
“But once I do,” I say, my voice growing rougher, “there’s no going back. Not ever.”
Her brows knit together. “What do you mean?”
“It means the first time won’t just be sex.” I trace her delicate jaw with my thumb. “And, well, I can smell that you’re still untouched. Still a virgin.” I lean down to brush my lips against her ear again, whispering, “Our first union binds, Kylie. It seals us. Permanently.”
She blushes. “YouknowI’m a virgin?”
“That and about a thousand other things, Ky.” I search her eyes and watch as her mind calculates everything I just told her. “We’re fated mates,” I add quietly, but there’s no lack of power or conviction in my voice. “Our first union would be as binding as an inked and sealed contract. It would bond us forever. It’ll make you mine, and me yours, until the end of the mortal world and won’t be broken even a second before. And because of the power of the bond, the aging process will slow inside you too. You’ll live much longer than an average human.”
“And if we don’t?” she asks earnestly.
“We’d feel this anyway.” I reach out to run my fingers through the silky locks of her pretty hair. “Every day. Every second. The pull would just get stronger. And we’d just be fighting against it until the day we die.”
“I already feelboundto you,” she whispers. “Like I’ll die if you leave this room.”
Fuck. Me too.
“Option number one sounds like a whole lot more fun,” she adds softly.
A dark laugh rumbles out of me. “Yeah,” I agree. “Fucking tell me about it.”
“Rook…” She holds my gaze with her own and puts a palm to my cheek until the whole room around us feels like it melts away. “I need you. I want you. Take me.”
“Say it again,” I demand because, fuck, I feel like I’ve been waiting ten lifetimes for this.
“Make love to me, Rook.”
At her words, I know I’ve never felt anything lock into place like this.
Never felt anything that has ever compared.
I don’t step away. I don’t pause. Ireact. I give in to my throbbing need for her.
I walk her backward until the backs of her knees hit the mattress, and she falls back into the sheets with a gasp escaping her lungs. Her brown hair fans across the pillow, and her gaze holds mine with laser focus.
I follow her down, bracing my weight so I don’t crush her, even though every instinct inside me wants to take and claim and devour.
And the entire time, her blue eyes are locked on mine.
“Still time to run,” I murmur.
She lifts her chin, shaking her head as she reaches out her hands to grasp my shoulders. “Not happening.”
That’s all I need.
