“I’ll tell you where you can meet her,” offered Joel, regarding Darren. His eyes gleamed as he said it.
“You haven’t changed your mind?” asked Darren as he led Aelanna to her old cabin on the Pioneer. He opened the door and they went in. Her heart swelled with nostalgia at the familiarity, the furnishings bathed in sunset light, and the intimate memories she and Darren had shared.
The cabin hadn’t changed since she had occupied it,though it had been cleaned, linens changed, bed freshly made, but most of all she was happy to have him returned to her; bruised and battered, but in one piece.
She turned to look at him, his handsome face distressed, his stance humble. He was immaculately turned out as usual in leather battle pants and jerkin, recently shaven, his hair in a neat knot and swept back from his face.
Stepping to him, she wrapped her arms round his neck, nuzzled her face against his chest.
“I haven’t,” she murmured. “I love you and I’ll love you forever.” She knew what he was asking.
“You choose me?” he asked, sliding his arms around her and she felt his warmth seeping into her like a healing balm.
She looked up and met his gaze. “I do.”
She felt the tension leave him and the worry-frown disappeared. He lowered his face until his lips brushed hers. She closed her eyes as he tilted his head and increased the pressure of the kiss. She opened her mouth and felt his tongue slide inside. They kissed like that for a while, sweet and affectionate, and he broke off, hugging her to him like she was the most precious thing in his life.
“I’m glad,” he breathed. “I wouldn’t survive without you by my side. You are my heart, my life.” He planted a kiss on the top of her head.
She moved back a little and put distance between them. “I want to see your mating marks.” She asked with a small smile, so his anxiety wouldn’t return.
He didn’t say anything, but his lips quirked as he stripped off his jacket and the cotton singlet he wore underneath, and she feasted her eyes on his muscled torso, bare for her inspection.
His marks were dark crimson, so were his bruises, but those were fading. They were neat, curved shapes, sometimes swirls, surrounded by a thin line, like tattoos. He had shown them to her before, though not all of them, and under the circumstances, she hadn’t had a chance to consider themproperly, not with the audience in the barracks, which made her feel like the curiosity, not his marks.
Seeing the effect they had on his magnificent chest, she stared in admiration.
“Turn around, let me see your back,” she ordered.
The marks covered his shoulders and shoulder blades, trailing a little way down his spine, ending in a neat point. They were magnificent;hewas magnificent. He was alien, but he was a man like she’d never seen. She stroked her fingers over his back and he turned to her again and pulled her close, the smile still ghosting his mouth.
“You like what you see?” he murmured into her ear.
“Yes.”
“I must claim you. Say you’re mine.”
She didn’t hesitate. “I’m yours.” He completed her. He filled the hole in her heart, in her soul, left by other failed relationships she’d had. Her heart was crushed by the wedding which had never taken place, but Darren had restored it.
He worked fast, stripping her of her clothes as she toed off her shoes, then he took off his pants. He wasn’t wearing any underclothes, and he stood there in all his proud and noble glory.
Gently, he guided her on the bed and knelt between her thighs. He towered over her, raised on his elbows as he looked down at her. The room wrapped around them like a warm, soft blanket, and his scent, like sharp pine forest and something uniquely him, was hypnotic. They wouldn’t be disturbed, not here, not in the Dheltan ship.
“I’ll go slowly, my dusk-heart, since you’re so small and I’m large and I don’t want to hurt you,” he promised, eyes softened with tenderness.
But he worshiped her breasts with his hands and mouth, then the rest of her.
She wanted him. They’d done this many times before, but she could never get enough of him. She needed him as much as she needed air to breathe.
It didn’t take long for her to shatter and afterward, he rolled on his side and held her tight.
“You are my mate, my forever,” he whispered into her ear, and he meant it, she was sure. She was too raw to reply and so she kissed his cheek. He rolled on top and pressed himself between her legs. She felt him, hard, hot and thick under her, and opened herself to him.
He was as good as his word and entered her inch by inch, slowly. He dripped sweat with the effort of holding back and touched his forehead to hers.
“You feel so good, keeper of my calm,” he rumbled. He pushed in a little more, then withdrew. Each time he was further in until she arched upward and pushed herself onto him until he was fully inside. He groaned and then went perfectly still. The strain of his restraint showed on his face and the tension in his body. He was hard inside her.
“Are you alright, my soft-glow?”
