“I’m ready.” She parted her thighs, and I sank between them, my cock finding her entrance like a fucking magnet.
I laughed low. “You just think you are. You’ll know when you’re ready.” Leaving her exquisite mouth, I kissed my way down her neck, lingering wherever she gasped.
“Oh? And”—she gasped again— “how is that?”
I released her hands, and her fingers immediately stroked over my shoulders, my arms, anywhere she could reach.
“Because you won’t be stating it like a fact, Lyric.” I ran my tongue over her nipple, then sucked it into my mouth.
She groaned, rocking her hips. “I won’t?”
I shook my head, then moved to her other breast, praising the peak with my mouth and tongue before lifting my head. That sharp glitter of need was back in her eyes. “You’ll be begging me for it.”
I worked her breasts until they were heavy and swollen, then put my mouth to every inch of her stomach, learning the curves I’d spend the rest of my life worshipping.
Her body was undulating in waves, her hips rolling rhythmically when I parted her with my fingers. “Fuck yes. God, Lyric, you’re so wet.” I thrust my hips once, sliding through her slick folds and stroking her clit with the head of my cock.
“Alek,” she keened, gripping my back.
“Not yet.” I rubbed her clit with my thumb, and she cried out, her hips lifting, seeking fulfillment. I gave it to her, petting her in small circles, then giving her the exact pressure she needed to come apart again.
Her head thrashed as her body locked, then released, my name a desperate cry on her lips.
My fangs descended fully, throbbing in time with my cock. “Fuck, I love watching you come.” Before she was fully down, I started working her back up again.
“Alek. Please!” She looked at me with wild, hungry eyes, shifting her knees and hooking one ankle over my hip.
The threads of my self-control broke one by one. She was all I could smell, see, feel, taste, hear…all of it. She consumed every sense.
“Now you’re ready.” I notched my cock at her entrance and paused. “We don’t need condoms. I don’t carry human diseases, and you’re not fertile, but I’ll get one if you want me to.” Moving even an inch from her body might cause my predatory nature to fixate, but I’d fight it for her.
“I fully understand, and I’m totally going to pretend you didn’t just say fertile after making me come. I just want you.” She kissed me and rocked forward, taking the head of my cock inside her slick opening. “Please, Alek. I need you.”
I leaned my forehead against hers, studying every shift of her expression, then drove forward in one powerful thrust, pushing past whatever flimsy barrier had marked her virginity and seating myself to the hilt.
She cried out.
I stiffened.
Go slow! My conscience knew I needed to go easy, but my body didn’t care. This was my mate, my one and only, and I was finally inside her. She was hotter than hell, and so tight I felt every flicker of her walls. Bracketing my weight on my forearms, I locked every muscle in my body to keep still, fighting the urge to fill her again and again.
“Are you okay?” I asked, sweat beading on my skin from the effort.
“Yes.” She nodded, and cupped the back of my neck with one hand, skimming her fingers down the side of my face with the other.
“Good. Just—” I groaned when she wiggled her hips. “Fuck, Lyric. Just give yourself a—” Another wiggle, another groan.
“I told you not to hold back, Alek. I’m fine. You feel…” She closed her eyes and swiveled her hips again, moaning softly. “Good. You feel so good.”
That was all the okay I needed.
“You feel like heaven.” I kissed her once, then pulled out before pushing back in. This time we both groaned. I thrust again, my stomach tightening with each curl of my body as I clung to the tiny scraps of reason that reminded me I couldn’t lose myself.
I set the pace with deep, hard, slow strokes that sent mind-blowing pleasure throughout my body. Our breaths grew unsteady as sweat slicked our skin. Every thrust was better. Every time I filled her, she was hotter. I would never get enough of this—of her.
My fangs pulsed with hunger and need as she grew tight beneath me. She was already close again.
Her eyes fluttered shut, and I balanced on one arm, bringing her hand to my chest so both marks met. That shimmering light between us—the bond I felt no matter where she was, strengthened and brightened. Her gaze flew to mine as if she’d felt the same thing.
“I am yours, and you are mine.” My voice sounded like I’d scraped it over a thousand broken bottles.
She lifted her lips to mine. “I am yours, and you are mine.”
My self-control snapped as that bond flared hotter than the sun, and I drove into her again and again. Her walls clamped down on my cock, and she threw her head back, baring her neck. “I need you to feed!”
I struck at her jugular, and her blood flooded my mouth as she came yet again, her body convulsing around mine as I drank her down, taking my fill. She pulled me over that edge with her, pleasure charging down my spine until I exploded, my vision going black only to erupt in blasts of color and light.
She slackened beneath me, her breath steadying, and I released my bite, sealing the tiny cuts before lifting my head. Once I was sure I hadn’t taken too much, I rolled to the side, taking her with me.
Our chamber was silent with the exception of our breaths and the pounding of our hearts, and for just that moment, I reveled in the perfection of it all. I had found my mate and claimed her. I was finally whole, yet no longer belonged to only myself.
She owned me, body and soul.
I palmed her face, and she opened her eyes, smiling at me with feminine satisfaction. “Hi.”
“Hi.” I stroked my thumb over her cheek. “You okay?”
She nodded. “Hell yes. That was…” she searched my eyes like they held the answer.
“Yeah. That was us. Nothing like it in the world.” Shit. I was already hardening again inside her.
“So, when can we do it again?” Even her grin was a turn-on.
“How about right now?” I stroked once, pushing deep.
She gasped, then purred in pleasure. “Yes, please.”
I growled and took her beneath me again.
10
Lyric
“You smell incredible,” I said, squeezing Valor outside our favorite coffee shop. “You trying a new perfume?” I asked, releasing her.
Valor tilted her head, eying me skeptically. “You’re joking, right?” She held her arms out horizontally, showing her outfit—yoga pants, sports bra, and a thin black athletic jacket. “I sprinted out of the gym early so I could meet you. Didn’t even have time to shower, but I didn’t want to miss my one shot at seeing you after it’s been forever.”
I inhaled through my nose, my brow furrowed. She usually smelled like clean linens and flowers, but today she radiated a rainstorm on a sunny day. “It hasn’t been forever,” I said, smiling at her. “But I have missed you like crazy.”
Valor hauled me into the coffee shop, and we ordered our favorite drinks before heading to a table near the floor-to-ceiling windows that outfitted the front of the shop. I clutched the hot mug of coffee, nerves tangling in my gut. I wanted to tell her everything—about Avi, Alek, the new world I’d slid into headfirst. But the idea of her being killed because of it? It kept my tongue firmly locked.