“Now I think I went and found someone who would tell me exactly what she thought of me and mean every word of it.” My thumb stilled. “I did not know I needed that. I had not known to plan for it.”
She looked at me for a moment. Then she reached up and put her hand on my chest. “Rakthar,” she said.
“Yes.”
“Stop thinking quite so loudly and kiss me.”
I laughed and then did as she asked. Because pleasing my mate was something I wished to do all the days of my life.
She kissed me back with the focused attention she brought to everything, her fingers in my hair, her body pressing closer in away that made it very clear she had not been as asleep as she’d appeared. I growled low and felt her smile against my mouth.
“There,” she murmured. “That’s better.”
My hands moved across her skin. I had learned the topography of her that he now knew in the dark as well as in the light. She was soft where he was rough, warm everywhere, and she made sounds that were specific to me, that he had catalogued with the same care he brought to the clan law tome and considered more valuable.
I took my time. There was nothing I needed to rush toward; everything I wanted was already here.
She arched beneath my hands, her head tipping back against the furs. “You are so—” she started but ended as a sigh as my mouth found the place at her throat.
“So?” I prompted, against her skin.
“Devastatingly competent,” she managed. “It’s very inconvenient.”
My laugh vibrated through both of them. “I will try to be less competent.”
“Don’t you dare.”
I moved between her legs, my massive frame dwarfing hers. My fingers found her slick, her folds swollen with desire. I traced her entrance, watching her face as I pushed one thick digit inside of her.
“More,” she demanded, hips rising to meet my hand. “Don’t tease me, Rakthar.”
“Patience,” I rumbled, adding a second finger, stretching her carefully. “I would not harm you.”
She laughed, the sound dissolving into a moan as my thumb found her clit. “You won’t break me. I’m not made of glass.”
To prove her point, she clenched around my fingers, her inner walls gripping with surprising strength. My cock throbbed in response, pre-cum beading at the tip.
The scent of her arousal grew stronger, filling the chamber with her musk. I lowered my head to taste her, my tongue laving across her cunt with hungry strokes.
“Fuck!” she cried out, fingers digging into my scalp, holding me against her. “Oh god, Rakthar, your tongue?—”
I growled against her flesh, the vibrations making her shake. My tongue delved deeper, tasting her essence, drinking her pleasure like the finest mountain spring. She writhed beneath me, her thighs tensing against my shoulders. I could feel her approaching climax, her cunt fluttering against my tongue.
“I’m going to—I’m coming—” Her voice broke as the orgasm took her, her back arching off the furs, her release flooding my mouth with sweetness.
Before she could recover, I rose above her, positioning my cock at her entrance. Her eyes, hazy with pleasure, focused on mine. The trust I saw there humbled me. This small, fierce human had given herself to me—not just her body, but her future. Her fate.
“Mine,” I growled, pushing into her with careful restraint.
Her heat engulfed me inch by inch, her body stretching to accommodate my size. The sensation was exquisite torture—tight, wet perfection that threatened to undo me before I’d fully seated myself within her.
“Yours,” she agreed, wrapping her legs around my waist, urging me deeper. “And you’re mine.”
The possessive claim in her voice broke something in me. I thrust forward, burying myself to the hilt in one powerful stroke. She cried out, not in pain but fierce pleasure, her nails scoring my back hard enough to draw blood. The sting only heightened my arousal.
“Take all of me,” I demanded, beginning to move within her, each thrust measured and deep. “Take everything I am.”
“Yes,” she gasped, meeting me stroke for stroke, her smaller body somehow matching my rhythm perfectly. “Everything. Give me everything.”
