He grinned. “Because I want you. I want your brilliance and your intensity in my life. I want you to tease me when I’m too serious and let me feed you when you forget. I want to protect you, and hold you, and do lots of other wonderful things with you.” He waggled his eyebrows, and his eyes seemed to glow in the early morning light. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she whispered.
Then it was time for him to start thinking. She could see it in his eyes. The way his gaze seemed to rove over her face as if he were looking for the answer there when she’d just said it out loud.
“Are…are you sure?” he asked. “I’m…my life right now is pretty scary.”
She nodded. “I’m terrified for you, but that doesn’t change how I feel. I need you in my life. I need your calm center and your magical smile. There it is!”
His lips had curved, and she loved it so much she traced it with her fingers.
“I know it doesn’t make sense. We just met a couple days ago when you kidnapped me.” She frowned. “You kidnapped me!”
“It was the only way,” he said, an apology in his eyes. “And I was under orders.”
“I know.” She pressed her lips to his. He clung to her mouth as she teased across his. And when she pulled back, she stroked his face. “I can’t make sense of it, but I know it’s true. I love you. Will you…Can we…” Hell, what exactly was she trying to ask? “I want to stay in Detroit for a while. I want to stay with you and make this work.”
“Yes,” he said, almost before she stopped asking. “Yes, yes.”
“Then you can’t die in this war with the werewolves.”
He didn’t laugh off her words but took them seriously. “I’m very careful,” he said softly. “And I’m very good.”
Yeah, she knew that. She’d seen that every minute they’d been together. But suddenly, she wasn’t so interested in discussing this anymore. He loved her, and it wasn’t because of some poison in the water. She loved him, and it wasn’t because of some magical bond. It was because he was magical, and they fit together perfectly.
So she kissed him again, this time using her tongue to tease at the edges of his lips. He responded with a low growl. He clutched her head as he thrust into her mouth. What started as a tease became a hot invasion. Their tongues dueled, and her body heated to inferno.
She let herself fall backward onto the bed, bringing him with her. He never left her mouth, but his hands no longer needed to hold her in place. They started to rove down her sides and underneath her tunic. She tugged at his tee, trying to drag it off him without breaking their kiss.
In the end, they had to split apart. He rolled to his side, his breath fast and tight. “I know you’re tired, but—”
“Get naked now.”
He arched a brow at her order, but didn’t argue. While she stripped, he shucked his clothing. And then they just looked at each other. She was seated naked on the bed as she admired him in the early light. Sculpted muscles, sleek and dark, and touched with rose from the dawn. His penis thrust forward, large and proud, but it was his eyes that drew her the most. She saw steadiness there, even in the grip of passion. And she saw magic in him. The animal that prowled closer to her, setting one hand and then a knee on the bed and the man in him who touched her with gentleness and understood her in a way no one ever had.
How could she not love him?
“Get a condom,” she said.
He froze, his weight barely on the bed. “What if it breaks?”
She smiled. “What if this thing between us is love, not magic? What if you’re not bonded to me, you’re just really good at being in love?”
“Maybe,” he said, though he didn’t seem like he meant it. “But what if you’re wrong and you get pregnant anyway?”
“Then I’ll love our child with all my heart.” She arched a brow. “And Simon will be pleased to have a new employee studying shifter medicine.”
His eyes flashed bright at that, but his words were low and predatory. “I don’t want to talk about Simon.”
She slowly arched her back, bringing her breasts into prominent view. “Me neither.”
He was on her before she could do more. His hands on her breasts, his mouth on hers. It felt like she was being completely surrounded by him, caressed everywhere, and all she could do was cling to him as she rode out the tide. He obliterated her thoughts, dropped her straight into an ocean of sensuous attention, and had her arching and moaning like a wild animal in heat.
It was wonderful. He sucked on her breasts, he stroked her clit, and made her cry out whenever he moved from one part of her body to another. So thorough. So perfect.
And when he spread her thighs, he remembered the condom though she’d long since forgotten about it. And while she lay there open and panting, he hooked his arms under her knees.
“Are you sure?” he asked, his body gloriously tight and hard as he waited at her entrance.
