Lifting his face with her hand cupped under his chin, she waited until his molten gaze had reconnected with hers, before taking a quick breath, and saying, “I want this—want you—but I need to tell you...I mean, you probably figured it out...but I never actually fooled around with anyone else. So this is my first. My first time.”
His breath jammed in his throat, and he blinked as he touched his tongue to his lower lip, letting those husky words work their way into him. It didn’t change how he felt about her, or how much he wanted her, because he was in this no matter what. Whether she’d had fifty lovers...or none. But he’d have been lying through his teeth if he’d said he wasn’t happy as hell about it.
“Mine, too,” he finally managed to choke out, while his blood pounded in his ears, his heart damn near jerking its way through his chest. “It’s mine, too, baby.”
“Cian!” she gasped with a laugh that felt like pure, white-hot sunshine being injected straight into his veins. Then she smacked him in the shoulder for making what she thought was a joke. But it wasn’t. Stripping away the rest of her clothes as quickly as possible, along with his jeans, he lifted his head and looked at her. Watched her luminous eyes go heavy with need as he lowered his hips between her parted thighs and rubbed his hot, granite-hard erection against her slick folds, his own eyes no doubt burning red with the ferocity of his need.
“I mean it,” he told her, his deep voice as low and fervent as a vow. “This is a first for me, Sayre, because I’ve never made love to any other woman in my life.”
“Then do it now,” she whispered, slaying him with her beautiful smile as he reached between those slender thighs and pushed a long finger into the tight entrance nestled there, finding her deliciously hot and slick, melting for him like sun-warmed honey. “Make love to me, Cian. Don’t make me wait.”
“Gotta make sure you’re ready,” he groaned, squeezing a second finger into that tender, cushiony sheath, the way she clasped him, so tight and hot and wet, shooting a jolt of heat up his spine that had him gritting his teeth, fighting for control.
Then her next words shot it to hell.
Chapter 17
“Please, Cian. We’ve had freaking days of foreplay. I need you now,” Sayre begged, thinking that he felt so much harder, pressed against her inner thigh, than he had the other times that they’d done this. Well, not this. But the lead-up. The slow build of their lust and love and need that was finally going to have its day. Hopefully before they detonated from the heat.
He felt bigger, too, and she knew this was going to be anything but easy. But she didn’t care. Nothing worth keeping ever came easily, and she was keeping this man with her for...well, forever.
Suspecting he was worried about hurting her, she was ready to start pleading again, when he pulled his fingers free and notched the thick, heavy tip of him against her opening. Digging her nails into his shoulders, she panted with excitement as he started to carefully push forward, forcing her to stretch open for him, her power bursting free in a glittering array of sparks, letting him know exactly how desperate she was for this moment.
“So bloody tight, Sayre.” He muttered the words directly into her ear, his voice so low and sensual it made her shiver even harder, her hands clasping his hips as she tried to pull him closer. “I knew you would be like this, lass. So damn perfect it blew my mind.”
“Please,” she gasped through trembling, tingling lips, not even sure what she was begging for. More? Faster? Deeper? All of them? Yes! All of them. She needed everything.
As if he heard her silent demands, he put one of his big, hot hands under her ass, tilting her up to him so that he could wedge more of that broad shaft inside her, keeping his rhythm slow and easy, rubbing and stroking all those wickedly sweet spots that were making her slippery and hot and so damn desperate for him she was digging her nails into his hard, gorgeous skin and moaning her head off.
Then he finally bit out a gritty curse, gripped her hips in his strong hands and shoved himself impossibly deep, forcing every single inch of that massive erection inside her. She cried out as he hit the end of her, his cock throbbing against her sensitive tissues, so big she couldn’t breathe around the shocking sensation. But who needed air when she was full of this magnificent male, his teeth nipping her tender earlobe as he breathed in a harsh, ragged rhythm, his powerful, bad-ass body buried deep inside hers? Then he started to move, their heat-glazed stomachs and chests sliding against each other, his mouthwatering muscles flexing beneath his tight skin as he rolled his hips against hers, thrusting in a breathtaking rhythm that was getting better each time he pushed inside her.
“How’s that feel?” he asked, his husky voice low and intimate at her ear.
“Insanely freaking amazing,” she gasped, arching her back so that she could press her swollen breasts harder against his chest.
He breathed a dark, devastatingly sexy laugh into her ear, but she meant every word. He was so big that it kind of felt like she was being split in two, and yeah, that hurt. But there was something beautiful behind the pain—a fullness and need and sense of rightness that overshadowed the discomfort and made her want more. Made her need it...crave it. She ran her palms up his sleek back, loving the play of powerful muscles beneath his hot skin and the hunger she could feel burning inside him as he used that magnificent body to claim her. Each time that he withdraw, her body fought to hold on to him, and he came back into her even harder, the sounds he made and the way he moved letting her know he needed her just as badly as she needed him. If not more.
“Ah...fuck, that’s so sweet,” he groaned against her temple. He nuzzled her hair with his nose, his right hand curled possessively around her breast as he drove inside her. “So goddamn perfect.”
“What is?”
Pulling his head back, he locked his scorching, molten gaze with hers. “You’re opened up to me, lass. Completely. I can feel everything. Everything that’s in your heart, and it’s... Christ, Sayre, there aren’t even words.”
Her throat shook, melting with emotion. “Love you so much,” she whispered, pushing her fingers into the thick, damp strands of his hair.
Staring down at her as if she were a miracle, something cherished and infinitely precious, he said, “I know, Sayre. God, baby, I know. And you are so bloody beautiful, inside and out. The most beautiful woman in the world.”
She couldn’t help but smile with pleasure, because even though she knew it wasn’t true, he made her feel that way. Because she knew it was how he saw her. Even when she was old and gray, she knew she would be able to see this same devastating level of devotion in his eyes, and God, that was so freaking sweet.
“I want it harder,” she moaned, curling her hands around the back of his neck, his skin feverishly warm to the touch.
Something hot and wicked moved through his eyes. “Good, because I’m about to take you so hard you won’t be able to walk up to bed, and then I’m taking you even harder.”
“Do it,” she gasped, unable to keep the smile off her face when she noticed his fangs, gleaming and white, drop beneath his upper lip. They definitely weren’t his wolf’s fangs. They were sharper, deadlier. But she didn’t care. If she’d wanted easy, she’d have fallen in love with another man. But she’d chosen him, because he was everything she could ever want or need or desire, and she wanted the full experience. Every single scream-inducing thing he could do to her.
“Do all of it,” she moaned, turning her head so that the tender side of her throat was left vulnerable and exposed, her blood thundering through her veins. “Make the bite, Cian. Make me yours.”
“Don’t,” he grunted, his gaze immediately narrowing to sharp, piercing points of gray beneath his lowered brows. “Don’t tempt me.”
“But it’s time.”
Shaking his head, he argued, “I’ve lost too much fucking blood tonight and
you smell too damn good. It’s too dangerous right now, Sayre. We need to wait until my control isn’t shot to hell and back.”
“I don’t care about your control. I trust you and it needs to be now, when we’re finally together like we’ve been meant to be for so long. This is perfect.”
“Sayre,” he growled, his hammering thrusts getting rougher...deeper, driving her deliciously close to a powerful release she knew might damn well make her faint, it was going to be that intense.
Clutching his hard, slick shoulders, she stared up at his beloved face and said, “You’ve died for me, Cian. Do you really think there’s any way any part of you would let me come to harm?”
“No,” he grunted, and she figured she’d finally managed to convince him, because his hand was suddenly in her hair, wrenching her head to the side, exposing the tender column so that he could drive those sharp fangs deep into her throat, piercing her tight flesh and making the bond. That unbelievable, tilt-the-world-on-its-axis bond that had her fighting for air, so filled with emotion there wasn’t room for anything else. Just love and trust and hope. Joy and happiness and a soul-deep need for this man who was the other half of her heart.
When he tried to pull his head back, she fisted her hands in his thick hair and held him to her, saying, “More. Take more, Cian. Drink from me.”
He stiffened at the end of a hard downstroke, packed up thick and deep inside her, his powerful frame shuddering. “No,” he snarled against her throat, pulling his fangs back with a wet pop. “I won’t use you like that.”
“You will,” she breathed, keenly aware of the hot blood streaming from the bite he’d made, the two puncture wounds flowing freely. “You promised me everything I’ll ever want, and I want this. I want as deep inside you as you are in me.”
“It’s wrong,” he rasped, his body rigid with tension.
“I belong inside you, Cian, pumping through your veins. Filling your belly.” She arched her back, pressing up against him, loving the way their damp bodies rubbed together. “Nothing between us is wrong. Nothing is a sin. I offer this freely, and I’m even begging you for it. I want to be the thing that nourishes you. That gives you what you need.”
“Shit,” he growled, already lowering his head again, his warm breath rushing against her. “You’re too damn perfect to be real.”
She screamed in ecstasy only seconds later, holding him to her tighter as a lush, breathtaking orgasm pulsed through her, her hands fisted in his hair as his open mouth closed over the punctures and he started to suck on her. Driving himself inside her with a thick, aggressive rhythm, he devoured the hot blood that flowed through her veins as if it were the most exquisite thing he’d ever tasted. “Oh, God! That’s so amazing, Cian.”
He gave a low, animalistic growl against her flesh, and she grinned, knowing it was because he’d liked hearing her. When he finally pulled his mouth away, he pressed a gentle kiss to her throat, lapping at the tender skin where he’d bitten her, and she hissed from the pleasure. “Come for me again, lass. Give me one more. Now,” he growled, dropping his forehead against hers, “’cause I’m about to come for you so bloody hard.”
As if her pleasure were his to call and control, they crashed over that dark, devastating edge together, his hips slamming and grinding against hers as he pulsed inside her, his hands gripping her body hard. His raw, guttural curses and her keening cries filled the air, while her power consumed them, fueled by the bond that now flowed so strongly between them. To another’s eyes, they would have no doubt looked as if they’d been engulfed in crackling, crimson flames, yet they were thankfully unburned, if not completely shattered when he finally collapsed in her arms. He was still gently thrusting inside her, as if he couldn’t bring himself to stop, his hot face resting against the cushion of her breasts as they struggled to catch their breath.
“God, Sayre. I could feel that sweet burn inside you,” he groaned, sounding drowsy with satisfaction. She let her eyes drift closed as she stroked his head, running her fingers through his hair, and had no idea how much time had passed when he carefully withdrew from her. Then he pushed himself to his feet, lifted her into his arms and carried her upstairs to the bathroom, where he put her in a hot, steaming shower.
Holding her face in his hands, he took her mouth with lush, drugging kisses, while the water sprayed down on them from above, washing them clean.
“It’s never been like that for me before,” he told her, when they finally had to stop kissing long enough to breathe. Keeping his head bent over hers, he held her face as he stared deep into her eyes, saying, “Nothing ever even came close. And now you own every part of me. Own it, Sayre. And I’m so damn sorry. Christ, I’m so sorry, for everything, baby. I told myself for so long that I couldn’t love you because I was too much like my father. Because his blood ran through my veins. But the other night, after Aedan came to the Alley, I finally started to figure out that it was just a lie. The truth is that I’ve been too afraid to let myself love you because I was terrified of ending up like my mother. Of losing...everything. What if you didn’t love me in return? What if I gave you my heart and you broke it?”
Clutching his strong wrists, she blinked the water from her lashes as she said, “I wouldn’t. I won’t. I’ll protect it with my dying breath, Cian.”
“I know, baby. I know. I’m just sorry it took me so long to figure it all out. To see that love doesn’t make you weak, so long as you’re giving it to the right person. When that happens, it only makes you stronger.” A wry, lopsided grin started to twitch at the corner of his mouth as he added, “And I’m probably going to have my man card revoked for babbling like this, but even if you didn’t love me back, I would still love you like this, Sayre. With everything that I am and will ever be. With every part of me.”
“But I do love you. I love you so much. More than anything.”
Touching his open mouth to hers, he smiled as he nipped her bottom lip. “I know, lass. I could feel every breathtaking part of it when I was buried deep inside you. So deep I was practically coming out your mouth.”
She couldn’t help but laugh against those sexy, smiling lips. “Keep talking like that and I think your man card is gonna be just fine.”
“Face it, witch. You love my dirty mouth.”
“I do,” she gasped, already shivering with need for him. “I love everything about you, Cian. And that’s why I’d like to come back here. I’d like to split our time between the two countries.”
“Why the hell would you want to do that?” And then in a drier tone, he said, “Are you sure you’re not just trying to avoid your mother? Because that I would actually be okay with.”
She shook her head as she laughed. “Don’t worry about Mom. She’ll come to love you, I promise.”
He still looked skeptical, so she leaned closer, pressing her lips to his for another kiss, this one brief and sweet. When she pulled back far enough to see his eyes, she said, “I want to spend time here because I can sense how much you love this country. Maybe not here, where your father is, but you love Ireland, Cian. This land, it’s in your blood.”
“You’re in my blood.”
“And this place is, too. I want to make happy memories here for you. I want the children we’ll have one day to know both our countries.” She could see the fear that darkened his gaze at her words, and so she said, “Not all wolves and witches are good, and not all vampires are evil. You’re proof of that, Cian. It’s love that builds a person’s heart, and we’ll give our children so much they’ll glow with it.”
He swallowed so hard that she could see the movement in his throat, but he didn’t say anything. Just stared down at her with those dark, smoldering eyes.
“Unless you don’t want that with me,” she murmured, stroking the rigid muscles at the back of his neck.
“God, don’t think that,” he rasped, the husky wo
rds sounding torn out of him. “I want it more than anything. I want to put a baby inside you right now. But...Christ, Sayre. The idea of having all that, everything I want...it still scares the hell out of me.”
“Cian, use the bond. Feel my love for you. It’s okay to be happy,” she told him, understanding his fears even better than her own. “It’s okay to look forward to the future. To our life together. And I promise I’ll help you. I’ll be here for you, every step of the way.”
* * *
And she was—for every single step—changing Cian’s life in ways he’d never even imagined. Each one making it richer, brighter and filled with so much love he knew he was the luckiest son of a bitch on the planet.
After that night, they couldn’t keep their hands off each other, and a week went by before they finally left the bachelor’s house and headed back home.
Then he had her on the plane, on their way back to Maryland.
And in the car, on their way up to the Alley.
And when they reached his cabin, he took her right back to bed, and kept her there.
In short, he’d become completely insatiable when it came to his woman. Not just for her body, but for every part of her. Those smiles that brought him to his knees and the snark that never failed to make him laugh. They’d talked constantly the past week, when they weren’t making love, making plans for the future...sappy and sweet and so filled with hope it was impossible to stop smiling. He would have felt like a lovesick fool if not for the fact that his little witch was the same.
And, damn, did she wear happiness well. As gorgeous as he’d always thought she was before, it was nothing to how stunning he found her now. Cian realized that what he’d thought of as love when he’d first accepted that Sayre meant something to him had only been the beginning. Powerful and strong, but too new to be fully in its own, like the first flake of snow in the world’s greatest blizzard. Or the first grain of sand in a never-ending desert.
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