“Touch me.” She took his hand and placed it on her breast. “I just want you to touch me.”
Rui’s eyes darkened to the color of a forest at dusk. He obediently cupped her, his other hand coming to her other breast, caressing her as carefully as if he were handling fine silk. Sensation rippled from her breasts to her belly in warm, honeyed waves. Her eyes drifted shut in sheer pleasure.
Her already-sharp senses heightened to an almost unbearable pitch, boosted by the small amount of the aphrodisiac still in her blood. She could hear Rui’s breath, harsh with desire…scent his rich male musk with that overtone of salt. A heavily-muscled thigh pressed between her legs and he gathered her closer so that he could run his other hand over her breasts and torso, his fingertips rough against her skin. Rough—and perfect.
“Meu amor,” he said in ragged tones. “When I heard that bastard had you, I thought I’d lost you both.”
He backed her up until she was seated on the mattress’s edge and then came down on his knees before her. Carefully, he lifted each of her breasts in turn, pressing kisses to the outside of each curve before moving on to her areola, tracing each sensitive circle with his tongue until her nipples were wet and tightly furled and she was dizzy with need.
“Rui,” she rasped. She took his hand and set it between her thighs. “There. Touch me. Please?”
A corner of his mouth kicked up. But his fingers slid into her wet folds, gently rubbing. The craving ratcheted up. Her pulse quickened and a flush heated her cheekbones.
His mouth touched hers. “This is good? What you need?”
“Wha—” She gazed at him from under half-closed lids, her whole body pulsating. “Sim. Oh, yes.”
His fingers halted their lovely motion. “You’re sure you’re all right? The drug isn’t controlling you anymore?”
“Sim. I mean no, I just need you—”
“Then put your hands behind your head.”
The soft command sent a jolt of heat to her womb. He liked games, her Rui. But then, so did she. She obeyed, her gaze latched on his.
“That’s it. Interlace your fingers behind your neck and keep them there.”
The position thrust out her breasts. He regarded them with hooded eyes. “Deus, your breasts are beautiful. Like lush, perfect fruit. I want to eat you up.”
Still stroking her between the legs, he brought his mouth to one nipple and nipped. The small pain made her moan.
“I know that cabrão hurt you,” he told her. “And I’m sorry. It never would’ve happened if I hadn’t rejected you and our mating. But I think you need to be teased a little, hm? Just to remind you who your mate is.”
She moved her head from side to side. “Não, Rui. Have mercy. I’ve been waiting for hours—”
He nipped her other breast. “You’ll get what you need…when I decide it’s time.”
“Damn you,” she muttered, even as another wave of heat flooded her belly. The man knew her too well.
He chuckled darkly but said nothing. His hands moved over her body, sure and knowing: plumping her breasts, pinching her nipples, cupping her hips…sliding a finger between the crease of her buttocks until her mind was hazy with desire. She moaned and tried to reach for him, but he stilled and told her to place her hands behind her head again.
“You know the rules.”
She groaned but obeyed. “Please, querido,” she said in a jagged voice. “I need you.”
“All right,” he said, taking pity on her. “Lie down.” He guided her the rest of the way onto the mattress and then crawled on top of her, his face stern with desire. Her hard, beautiful predator.
“Come here.” She reached for him and this time he let her, coming down on his forearms to give her a deep, sensual kiss, his tongue sliding in and out of her mouth, tasting, teasing. Pleasure rippled through her, wave after wave of it. Her fingers dug into his shoulders and she moaned softly.
He pushed himself upright, his knees on either side of her hips, and gazed down at her, his green eyes so dark they were nearly black. Her hands fell to either side of her head and he grunted his approval.
“Keep them there,” he told her as he fisted his hand around his cock and began to slowly stroke himself.
Her breath snagged in her chest. It was the most erotic sight imaginable, watching him pleasuring himself, his inky eyelashes shading high cheekbones, his face shadowed with night beard, his big, blunt fingers sliding over his heavily veined erection. Desire pulsed in her blood, a hot, heavy beat.
“Rui,” she pleaded, reaching for him.
He chuckled, the bastard, and brushed her hands away. But to her relief, he came down to her, his mouth sliding down her body. His fingers spread her, stroked her open. His face moved between her legs, his stubble rubbing over the soft skin of her inner thighs, and then his mouth touched her most sensitive place.
Her whole body went taut. “Rui,” she said in a strangled voice.
“Hm?” he said without stopping the magical things he was doing with his lips and tongue.
She could only moan. Fire raced over her skin, lashed at her core. Her hips rose, wordlessly begging for more. She lost the ability to think, just melded with her animal as thrill after thrill whipped through her. She was close…so close…
He slowed and she let out a sob. “Por favor, no more teasing. I ne—”
“Hush. I know what I’m doing. I know you, Valeria. Don’t ever forget that.”
He slid two fingers into her, stroking in and out. Her passage clenched around him. Still sucking her clit, he twisted the fingers, touching a single perfect spot behind her pubic bone. White heat exploded behind her eyes and she screamed with pleasure as a climax took her.
He rode it out with her, licking and stroking her as he murmured dark, erotic words of love. When she went limp beneath him, he crawled up her body with a panther’s grace and settled between her thighs, forearms on either side of her head.
She gazed up at him, her breath coming in soft huffs.
“Deus, I love you,” he said. And then to her shock, he drew in a serrated breath and his eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry. So sorry. About everything.” His head dropped to her breasts. “Forgive me, querida.”
Her heart squeezed. “Oh, Rui,” she said as she enfolded him in her arms. “Don’t cry. Please don’t cry. I forgive you. And I’m sorry too. I—”
“Please.” He lifted his head to meet her eyes. “I need to say this.”
She hesitated and then nodded.
“I should never have left you that night,” he went on. “But I was so ashamed. I’d killed a little girl’s father. I felt so…cold. Like there was nothing worthwhile about me at all.
“And then you looked at me like I was lower than a worm. I felt it, Valeria—and…it hurt. All I wanted to do was get the hell out of here. Because you were right. I didn’t have to make that kill. I could’ve left, explained things to Dion. He left the final decision up to me. He always does.”
“Oh, Rui.” She was crying now, too. She stroked her hands over his close-cropped hair. “Oh, meu amor. I’m sorry, so sorry. I had no right to judge you.”
“No—you were right. It’s my fault that Merry is an orphan. You don’t know how many times I wished I could go back in time, fix it somehow. Keep her father alive.”
“But that might not have helped. That night fae—Tyrus—wouldn’t have given up. They’d both be dead now.” She stifled a shudder. “And who knows what he would’ve done to her first?”
Rui swiped a hand over his wet cheeks. “That’s what I tell myself. But who knows? Maybe Silver could’ve kept them both alive somehow. He was doing okay up to then.”
“Let it go, love.” She cupped his face. “What’s done is done. You can only be the best father you can be to Merry…and to the rest of our children.”
“Oh, Valeria.” He gave her a hard kiss. “I will be. I love her so much. I swear on my mother’s grave that I’ll treat her as if she were my own.”
/> “I know, love.” She pulled back so she could look into his eyes. “But you’re wrong about one thing. I do owe you an apology—for turning away from you that night you brought Merry home. I knew even then how much I’d hurt you, but I was too angry to care. But that only lasted for the night.” She shook her head. “And damn you, Rui, for running. That’s the only thing you need to be sorry for—for running from this thing we have. Mates don’t always agree with each other. But they don’t run and they don’t close themselves off from each other. They talk it out—or they fight it out. But they don’t go to someone else. When you were hurting, you should’ve come to me, not Cleia.”
He took her hands and folded them in his. “I know.” He pressed a contrite kiss to her fingers. “And I’m sorry, love. When I left, all I wanted was to drink myself into a stupor so I didn’t have to think about you—or Merry. I can still hear her asking if I was a bad man. And then somehow—” He briefly closed his eyes. “But I thought of you every day. Every single day. But with every day I stayed away, it got harder to come home, and by the time I did, I was so sure you were better off without me that I blocked the mate bond with everything I had. That was wrong. I was an ass.”
“Yes, you were.” She grasped his shoulders and gave him a little shake. “But you’re my ass, got it?”
His lips curved. “Sim.” His head dipped and he set his lips on her breast bone, right where the mate bond originated. Warmth filled her, spread to every part of her body. She stroked his head, his shoulders, her eyes drifting shut the better to savor the wonder of it.
When she opened her eyes again, he was sliding into her. Around them, the candles seemed to flare, painting his cheekbones a warm gold. He regarded her through heavy-lidded eyes.
“You feel it too, don’t you, Valeria? The bond.”
“Sim.” It was a heated pulse in her heart, one she knew would bind them for the rest of their lives.
“Say you love me.”
It was a demand, but she sensed the vulnerability behind it.
“I love you.” Her arms came around him in a tight embrace. “I love you, Rui do Mar. More than I can say. I never really stopped.”
“Deus, I was a fool to ever leave you. But I love you too, Valeria.” He moved slowly in and out of her. “Now I’m going to fuck you, querida. Slow and deep…hard and fast. And you’re going to let me, aren’t you? You’re mine. Tell me.” He thrust a second time, a little harder.
“Yes. Oh, lord, yes.” Her hips lifted without her volition and they started moving together, one body, one heart, one soul.
The fire in her blood began to burn again, a slow burn this time, the kind that promised to build and build until it exploded into wonder. She bent her knees so she could take him deeper. That first climax had been amazing, but its own kind of tease; she wanted him deep inside her when she came this time.
Her arms wrapped around him at the same time that he cupped her face with big, blunt fingers. They began to move, together and apart, starting slow and deep as he’d promised, each stroke touching her most intimate places and increasing the pleasure. His body pressed hers into the mattress, big and hard and perfect.
She dug her heels into his thighs and urged him on with breathy sounds that she barely recognized as her own. In response, he slowed even further, dragging the flared head of his penis over her sensitive inner tissue, then thrusting back in at an excruciatingly deliberate pace.
She threw back her head. “Take me. Please…”
“Sim,” he gritted. He speared his fingers in her hair and tugged her head back. “Mine,” he said, before bringing his lips to hers in a hard kiss. She opened her mouth to him and his tongue thrust inside. There was no more teasing, just a man taking his woman, pleasuring them both.
She sucked his tongue deeper and his hips sped up, deeper, harder. Valeria clung to him, each stroke shuddering through her, hard and wonderful. For long moments they moved like that, their mouths and bodies tight together, dancing to the same intimate rhythm.
Rui tore his mouth from hers to kiss her neck, her breasts, his breath hot and ragged against her skin. “Mine,” he said again.
He slid out of her and she whimpered, thinking he meant to play with her some more. Then he reared back and thrust into her, hard and firm. A shock wave vibrated through her womb. “Sim. That’s it.” It was perfect, exactly what she craved. Liquid heat gathered in her core, seared lava-hot up and down her spine.
His fingers tightened on her hips, holding her in place as he drove into her. She arched her pelvis, taking him deep. “It’s so good,” she sobbed. “So good.”
Rui’s breath grew harsh. “Mine,” he said with each hard thrust. “Mine.”
“Yours,” she gasped, grinding herself against him. “Rui, I—”
He slid a hand between their bodies and rubbed his fingers over her tight, aching nub. She bucked and made a sound that was half-moan, half-scream as her climax took her and she convulsed around him in a seemingly endless series of exquisite shocks.
“That’s it,” he ground out, pumping into her forcefully. “Take me.” Then he groaned, muttered, “Madre de Deus,” in reverent tones and emptied himself into her.
He collapsed half-on, half-off her, his legs entangled with hers. Valeria smoothed a hand down his back, moist with exertion. She thought she’d missed this most of all: the weight of his body on hers, his rich scent in her nostrils, the feel of his smooth, hard muscles beneath her palms.
He lifted himself off her and rolled onto his back, pulling her into his arms, her head on his chest. She combed her fingers through the mat of wiry hair under her cheek, listening to the hard beat of his heart.
“Tell me,” she murmured, “did you mean what you said after the duel? That you release me from my promise?”
“Of course.” She sensed his affront. “I wouldn’t take you like that. God knows I want you, but not because of a vow you were forced to swear. I want you to come to me freely.”
“Good.” She’d hoped that was the case, but it was nice to have it confirmed.
“But the bond, Valeria. It’s there, connecting us. I know you feel it too. Are you still refusing me?”
She propped herself up on her elbow to look at him. He stilled, eyes wary. He had a warrior’s body, the fresh cuts mingling with old scars. She traced a finger over the red line on his lower abdomen.
He’d stopped drinking.
He’d gone six weeks without a woman—and there’d been no shortage of those willing to take him into their beds, especially now, when he was nearly back to his old self.
And he’d fought for her, only to set her free.
A smile welled from somewhere deep inside her, spilled onto her face. Her gaze went back to his as her lips curved in happiness too immense to contain. “Oh, no. I just want to make it clear: you’re not claiming me. I’m claiming you.”
* * *
The next morning, they walked into the dining room hand-in-hand, Merry skipping along beside them. When they reached the center of the cavern, Valeria stopped and raised her free hand. The room quickly went silent.
Rui quirked a brow at Valeria. What was up?
She ignored him. “Some of you may have heard that Rui won a mate-duel for me yesterday.”
People nodded; gossip traveled fast in the close-knit clan.
“But the promise was forced from me.”
Rui went as still as the rest of the room. Hadn’t they settled this last night? His heart told him they were already mates, but he’d lost her before. Still, when she looked at him, he nodded.
“It was. So I set you free.”
“So he set me free,” Valeria repeated in a louder voice. “Which was the sweetest, most romantic thing he could’ve done.” Her voice was softer now. Everyone strained to hear her, and being fada, they got the gist.
Rui started to grin. Somehow he knew what was coming next, and it just wasn’t done in the tradition-bound fada world. They’d banned the bacchas, women fo
ught as warriors or went out with the fishers, but the mate claim remained the prerogative of the males. But then this was Valeria, the woman who’d adopted an earth shifter into a water fada clan—and made sure she wasn’t just tolerated, but loved.
“So I’m claiming him,” she stated in a ringing voice. Her gaze swept the room, lingering for an extra few seconds on Beatriz. “Before all of you, I—”
Wrapping a hand around her braid, Rui reeled her in. He was still a fada male, after all. He had to retain some self-respect. “I accept,” he said against her lips, still rosy from his loving last night and again this morning.
Valeria halted, mouth still open.
He gently tugged her braid. “I accept the claim. Isn’t that what I’m supposed to say?”
Her smile lit her whole face. “That,” she informed him, “is exactly what you’re supposed to say.”
Around them, pandemonium broke out. Merry was squealing, Sabela jumped up and rushed toward them, Dion was grinning and coming to his feet as well, but all Rui saw was Valeria and that wide, beautiful smile.
“Eu te adoro,” he told her. “You know that, don’t you?”
Her response was to wrap her hand around his nape and give him a kiss that left him blinking and the clan hooting.
And then they were surrounded by well-wishers. With a rueful grin at his mate, Rui turned to accept their congratulations.
EPILOGUE
Rui leaned against the wall, watching as the Rock Run fada poured into the dining hall along with a sprinkling of sun fae. They were boisterous and happy, the unattached adults already pairing off, the children running wild.
He smoothed down his sleek green shirt. Valeria had chosen it for him, saying it matched his eyes. On his wrist he wore a brown leather bracelet with three flat gold rings on which had been inscribed different words for beloved: querido, amor, amado. It had been his father’s, a gift from his mother on their mating day.
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