“I will make it fit,” he murmured against my lips. “Slowly. Gently. And you will take every inch of me.” His hand cupped my face, thumb stroking my cheek. “I would never hurt you. Not like this.”
“Just in every other way?” I tried to joke, but my voice came out shaky.
“Never,” he said, so seriously that I believed him. “You are precious to me, Aliana. More precious than you know.”
The sincerity in his voice made my chest tight. I reached up, touching his face, tracing the strong line of his jaw, the curve of his tusks. “Okay,” I whispered. “Okay. I trust you.”
Something fierce and possessive flashed in his eyes. “Say it again.”
“I trust you,” I repeated, and realized I meant it. I trusted him. I chose him. This.
He positioned himself at my entrance, the broad head of his cock pressing against me. I tensed involuntarily. He was so big, too big, but then he kissed me again, deep and slow, distracting me as he began to push inside.
The stretch was intense, bordering on painful, but he moved with agonizing slowness, giving my body time to adjust. The unusual contours of him moved against places inside me that I didn’t know existed, sending sparks of pleasure through the discomfort.
“Breathe, little mate,” he murmured, his voice strained with the effort of holding back. “Relax for me.”
“Easy for you to say,” I gasped. “I—oh!” He’d shifted slightly, and suddenly the angle was different, better, and I felt myself opening for him. “Oh yes!”
“That’s it,” he praised, pushing deeper. “Take me. Take all of me.”
By the time he was fully seated inside me, I was panting, clinging to his massive shoulders, my nails digging into his skin. I felt impossibly full, stretched to my limit, but also so very complete. Like some part of me I hadn’t known was missing had finally clicked into place.
“Okay?” he asked, holding perfectly still despite the tension I could feel thrumming through his body.
“Okay,” I confirmed. My hips rolled of their own volition. “Move. Please move. If you don’t move, I’m going to lose my mind.”
And he did. Slowly at first, careful withdrawals and gentle thrusts that let me feel every detail of him. But as my body adjusted, as I started meeting his movements with my own, his control began to slip.
“More,” I demanded, wrapping my legs around his waist as much as I could—which wasn’t much, given the size difference, but I tried. “Harder. I’m not going to break.”
His growl was pure satisfaction. “No, you’re not.” His hands gripped my hips, lifting me to meet him, angling my body so that he dragged against that perfect spot inside me with every stroke. “You’re going to take everything I give you, aren’t you, little mate?”
“Yes,” I gasped, the pleasure building again, impossibly stronger than before. “Yes, everything, just—please?—”
“My mate,” he growled, his pace increasing, the bed creaking ominously beneath us. “Taking me so well. So perfect for me. Made for me.”
The praise sent shivers through me, heightening every sensation. I felt another orgasm building, coiling tight in my belly, and I knew this one was going to destroy me.
“I’m going to—oh God, I’m coming?—”
“Yes,” he snarled, driving into me harder. “Bind to me. Let your pleasure seal our bond.”
The climax that tore through me was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. A supernova of sensation that seemed to connect my body directly to his. I felt something shift between us, energy flowing from him to me and back again. The magical bond made physical through pleasure.
Rakthar roared as he followed me over the edge, his release hot inside me. I felt him pulse, felt the way his cock seemed to lock within me for several heartbeats as the binding magic swirled around us, visible as faint golden threads in the dim light.
As we lay there, joined and panting, I realized with startling clarity: my body had bound to his without hesitation, even if my mind had taken a little longer to catch up. But my mind had gotten there too. In a temperature-controlled room, in the dark, with sixty-two hours left and no one watching, I had made a choice.
And I had meant it.
five
ALIANA
Ifloated somewhere between consciousness and dreams, my body humming with lingering pleasure and the magical resonance of our bond. The weight of Rakthar’s arm across my waist should have felt oppressive, but instead anchored me to reality as aftershocks of pleasure rippled through me.
He murmured something in his native tongue, the words unintelligible but the sentiment clear in the way his massive hand stroked my hip with surprising gentleness.
