Page 111 of The Spellreader and the Phoenix

“So just remember that intent is super important. Keep wanting to bond, and I’ll take care of the rest.” Then his smile turned a little wicked. “I’ll take care of you, period.”

Max grinned. “Yeah? You think you can make me feel good?”

Rory pulled carefully out and then thrust into Max again, angling just right to nail his prostate. Max groaned, and Rory smiled. Yeah, he was pretty sure he could make Max feel good. He repeated his movements again and again, glorying in every response that he could pull out of Max, in the proof that Max was enjoying this. His color was high, and sweat sheened his skin. It was a very good look for him.

Fire and pleasure raced through Rory’s veins, igniting him from the inside out. And then Max’s breath caught, and after a startled moment, Rory caught sight of the glow in the room. He was on fire again, and he appeared to have wound up with a set of fiery wings streaming from his back. He hadn’t known that was a thing that could happen. But then, he’d never been with his mate before.

Max’s face was bathed in the flickering light, an expression of awe on it that Rory had never seen before.

“You’re so beautiful,” he breathed.

“That’s definitely you,” Rory argued, leaning in to kiss him, trying to put all his feelings into the touch of their lips since words seemed suddenly clunky and inadequate. Max melted into the connection, eager and pliant beneath him.

This was Rory’s mate. Max was his and he was Max’s, and they were going to bond. Then nothing could ever take Rory away from Max, or Max away from Rory. They’d be together forever.

Rory wanted that so much.

“I want to bond with you,” Rory told him. “I want to be yours forever.”

Max swallowed, a smile suffusing his face even as his eyes filled with unshed tears. “I want to bond with you, too. And I most definitely want to be yours forever.”

Rory’s fiery wings enfolded them, and while Max let out a startled breath, he didn’t look afraid.

Rory started to move again, each thrust driving the heat and pleasure higher inside him. Max rocked into his movements, trying to prolong the contact, which made Rory smile.

Rory started to pump Max’s cock harder, in time with his strokes, and Max hissed.

“Going to come for me?” Rory asked.

Max was breathing like he’d run a race. “Yeah,” he gasped. “Gonna come. Just for you.”

Rory stroked harder, hips and hand working in tandem until Max cried out, body clamping down on Rory’s cock as Max’s back arched, his eyes fluttering closed. The sweet pressure triggered Rory’s own orgasm, and he spilled into Max, filling his mate, binding them together. His fiery wings brushed across Max’s collarbone and shoulder, Rory’s magic reaching for Max’s, which immediately twined with his, melding into one beautiful whole.

Almost before Rory’s eyes, Max’s lifeline unfurled, spooling longer and longer by the golden line that was Rory’s. (It wasn’t quite sight, but sort of a… sight feeling.) And the feeling of Max blossomed in Rory’s mind, sated and satisfied and happy.

Rory couldn’t help but preen, and Max’s breath caught. “Oh, my god, is that you? Are you preening right now?”

Max peered up at him, huffing a laugh at the ridiculous smile that Rory could feel on his face. He was powerless to stop it.

“You’re my mate,” Rory said, like a fool.

“Yeah, yeah,” Max said, but he was smiling. “And you’re my mate. You’re also still inside me. And I have come cooling on me. It’s kind of gross.”

Trying not to snort with laughter that might be misunderstood, Rory carefully pulled out of Max.

“Your poker face is better when I can’t feel you laughing at me,” Max grumbled.

Ah, right. That might take a little getting used to. He bundled up all the affection he felt for Max and sort of… pushed that at him instead.

Max sucked in a sharp breath, and then he said, “I love you, too. But you were right. The dripping bits are kind of gross. Can we have a shower now?”

Grinning, Rory climbed out of bed and held out his hand. “We can definitely have a shower.”

In the bathroom, Max caught his first glimpse of the mark that Rory’s magic had left on him, a pattern of feathers and flames that curled over his collarbone in red and gold. Rory had an open book etched over his heart, and Max laughed as he read the spell depicted on its page.

“It’s an unlocking spell.”

“You have definitely unlocked my heart,” Rory told him with a grin.