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I stood aside to let her through, and I couldn’t help the return smile floating to my lips. “I hardly feel a thing now,” I said, allowing a casual amount of arrogance to seep through my tone.

She stepped inside and looked around the front room, her hands anxiously wringing together. I closed the front door, sealing us inside. Wafts of mint and brine hung heavily in her wake as she looked at everything, the furniture, the photos on the wall, everything but me.

“How areyoufeeling?” I asked when she didn’t respond.

She whirled around to face me, realizing her distraction. “Oh, uh, I’m fine. The soreness has worn off. But… I couldn’t sleep.” Her eyelashes fluttered against her cheek as she looked away again.

I took a step toward her, but that suddenly felt like the wrong thing to do. Not because she backed away, but because the pressure in the room seemed to build. The nearer I stood to her, the thicker the air got. I wondered if it would suffocate me, but some insane part of my brain delighted in the thought of suffocating in a room of nothing but Diana.

I turned so she couldn’t see me blush. “I couldn’t sleep either.” I coughed, hoping to clear my throat and clear my head of the sudden dizzying thoughts spinning through me as her scent bled through every thought. “What kept you up?”

“My sister,” she said slowly.

Selena was the last person I wanted to think of, but I couldn’t deny she was my mate’s sister. Given my last interaction with Selena, it would come as no surprise if she gave Diana more grief—

“Selena is gone,” Diana said. Her voice was muted, almost hollow-sounding, filtered through distance. But it rang through my head, echoing as I absorbed its meaning.

“Gone? Where?”

“She decided to leave and study at a university.”

Diana said nothing else, biting her lower lip as she watched me expectantly.

She’d actually done it? She’d modified her prior plan for us to run away together, and she’d gone through with it. Alone. It was unwise, so part of me was worried about her. Another part of me wasn’t surprised. She was smart and resourceful. If anyone could leave the compound and learn to live a new life outside the pack, it was Selena.

Truth be told, I was relieved.

Diana had a look of relief on her face too. However bitter Selena might have been, she’d made a choice to move on. I felt a weight that I hadn’t even realized I was carrying suddenly lift and float away.

Freedom.

I watched the smile spread on Diana’s face, and the world felt brand new. We grinned at each other. The air between us filled with an exciting tension, and in a single moment I narrowed the space between us. My hands cupped Diana’s face as our lips made contact. Her fingers traveled to my neck, scrabbling with the hair at my nape. The healing skin on my chest and face protested, but it was a sweet burn.

A rumbling growl escaped my throat against my will. Our frenzied movements paused at the sound, and we both pulled back long enough to catch our breath and chuckle. At last, we were here. We were free.

I dipped my face into the crook of her neck, inhaling sweet notes of honey and wildflower. Her long hair was like a soft curtain that tickled my nose. There was so much of Diana I hadn’t yet explored, so much time wasted after our coupling ceremony. I was impatient, but I also wanted to savor every drip of her.

“Come with me,” I murmured against her skin, delighting in how she shivered at my breath on her neck. I pulled away slightly, reaching for her hands and leading her to my bedroom. We quickly covered the distance, and I shut the door to affirm our privacy.

“We don’t have to rush things,” I said.

“I’m ready, Orion. I want this.” Her tone was eager, breathless.

She lowered herself onto the mattress without breaking eye contact with me. Transfixed, I watched as she shrugged off the light jacket, revealing the tank top beneath. I went to her, but she fended me off with a hand on my chest and a provocative smirk. I stayed where I was, watching her hands with hungry eyes. With a single, deft motion, the tank top was pulled over her head and discarded to the floor with her jacket. In even less time, her bra snapped loose and fell from her shoulders.

She flushed deliciously under my heated gaze, which only made me hotter. And harder. I crawled onto the bed and straddled her hips, pinning her hands beside her face. I kissed her, soft and deep, her tongue gliding against mine, meeting my every movement.

I explored the length of her torso, then I slowly made my way down her body, pressing my face to the center of her belly. She was exquisite, every dip and curve a new pleasure. She squirmed beneath me, and I moved up again, fondling each perfect breast with my tongue, nipping each peaked nipple in turn. Diana arched her back in response, and I nuzzled against the swell in her breast.

I leaned back, taking her in; her alluring, half-lidded gaze watching me. She wasmine, and I was hers. The certainty of it set every nerve in my body aflame.

Diana ran her fingers gently down my chest, around my waist, and tugged at the waistband of my pajama bottoms. The thin barrier of flannel hardly concealed my hunger. I stood and quickly got rid of them as I watched her shimmy out of her pants and panties, both of them falling to the floor in a heap. Then we were both naked, stripped bare before each other. I had never wanted anything as much as I wanted her. The taste of her, the feel of her…it was so familiar, so utterly right. I lowered myself to kiss her navel, a low, severe oath leaving my lips, “I would be yours, Diana, for the rest of time, if you would have me.”

Her breath hitched, and her hips lifted off the bed. Her answer was a sharp hiss. “Yes.”

Diana opened her legs, willing and eager. I dove lower still, to that sacred part at the apex of her legs, feasting on everything she offered with determined strokes of my tongue. She tasted as she smelled, sweet and cold and sharp, like honey and mint and ocean.

Her fingernails scraped at my scalp, her knees tightened around my head, but they only urged me all the more, sucking on her sweetness as her pulse thrummed against my mouth. A moan slipped from her lips. I pressed a finger inside, continuing my rhythmic feast, then two, and I felt her symphony peak. Her body shuddered as she called out to me.