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“Pfft. What I want? There’s never been any doubt. The question is, what do you want?”

And then his hands, and his mouth, were gone.

Instinctively, she began to turn around until Lawrence made a sound. So she remained still instead, waiting, throbbing, as she opened and closed her hands to quiet their need to reach for him.

Lawrence emerged to her right, walking along the patio that encased the hot tub just as casually as you please.

Utterly and completely nude.

No, gloriously and utterly and completely nude. The most perfect specimen of man, or vampire, ever created. She was surprised to notice a few days’ growth on his face. But she only did so after admiring his readiness for her.

Holy shit, as Alessandra would say.

Climbing into the hot tub, Lawrence glided toward her as if she were his prey. And just then, Toni would gladly play that role if it meant he was prepared to devour her.

* * *

Reaching for her,Lawrence pulled Toni from the seat and nearly came on the spot when he glimpsed her breasts swelling up from a simple white bikini. Trapping her against the side of the hot tub, he communicated his intentions clearly.

Before the night was through, he would so thoroughly ravish her that she would forever look back on this night as the one that cemented their relationship forever. As his chest crashed into hers, water splashing between them, Lawrence did not take her mouth sweetly. Or innocently.

Instead, he claimed it, and her, his tongue delving deep and taking no quarter. His already-hard cock throbbed with need as he pulled her head toward him to deepen their kiss. He’d intended to seduce her gently, but finding her in this hot tub had all but erased that possibility.

“How beautiful you are,” he whispered against her ear when he finally tore himself from her. He untied the laces at her neck, and then her back, letting the bikini top fall against the water’s surface.

The bottom half of the suit followed, Toni’s murmurs of pleasure encouraging the frantic pace. He moved to the seat, taking her with him, positioning her legs around him.

“You are mine,” he said, more harshly, more possessively than he’d intended. To prove it, Lawrence guided himself into her. His stomach clenched as he buried himself deep, days of longing pouring into her as she placed her hands on either side of his face. Guiding himself in and out, he locked eyes with the woman he would never go without again.

“I love you so fucking much,” he said as her hands slid from his face to the back of his head. Inching his own hands upward until he reached the swell of her breasts, he cupped them as water circulated around their bodies.

“That’s very sweet of you,” she teased.

In answer, he buried himself deeper, Toni’s low groan of approval the only sign he needed to keep going.

Harder.

Faster.

He took her lips again, and this time, he engulfed her completely, his tongue mirroring the movements beneath the water. Lawrence held on to the very slightest thread of sanity until he couldn’t restrain himself any longer.

Pulling away, he tossed his head back as Toni’s thumb pulled on his lower lip, her touch eager, intent. He knew what she wanted but wouldn’t give it to her. She would remember every moment of this. Instead, he opened his mouth and dropped his fangs, allowing himself just a tiny nip, enough to draw the slightest bit of blood from her thumb.

Wrapping his lips around it, he swirled his tongue over the tiny wound to soothe it, circling his hips beneath the surface. When her body began to tighten atop him, he savagely sucked again, harder, until her shudders signaled him to let go.

And he did, with a roar of pleasure, his arms encircling her and holding her as close as he could possibly get. Riding out the ripples that made his ass cheeks squeeze and toes clench, Lawrence somehow managed to pull her even closer, her breasts pressed again his chest, the peaks of her nipples just one more sweet sensation to savor.

They didn’t stay that way for long enough.

When Toni pulled back, he couldn’t read her expression. He could usually read other people with ease, but he was too close, too smitten . . . too much in love to achieve the distance one needed to complete such a task. So instead, he waited for her to speak.

Cheeks pink with pleasure and heat from the steamy water, red tendrils escaping her bun and tickling the skin of her neck, Toni had the appearance of a woman who’d been well pleasured. He smiled.

Broadly.

“Cocky bastard,” she said with a smirk.

Pulling out a centuries-old accent, he said, “Och, now, lassie. Ye injure me to say so.”

Her eyes widened. “And you don’t use that accent twenty-four seven because . . . ?”

The twinkle in her eyes prompted his silent vow to do so more often.

“Well, that solidifies it,” she said.

“What’s that?”

Faint lines appeared at the corner of both her eyes as Toni grinned. “I fucking love you too,” she said just before bringing her lips back down to his.