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When they’d locked themselves inside their small home, Mia whirled on Zoran and placed a hand flat on his chest, halting him just inside the entrance.

He stared down at her, his head cocked in curiosity. “Yes, my love?”

Love.

The word pierced her to her core. Was it true, then? Did he really love her as she’d come to love him?

She inhaled a slow breath, gathering her courage into a resolute knot in her chest. “If I run from you, would you chase me?”

His nostrils flared and the color leached from his eyes. “You wish to engage in the mating dance?”

“Yes.”

“If you run, I will not be able to control what happens when I catch you.”

When, not if.

She grinned, embracing the untamed recklessness boiling in her blood.For him, she realized. Only for him could she throw caution to the wind. Zoran would always catch her. He would always be her haven in the storm.

Slowly, she stepped back, locking her gaze with his as she kicked off her sandals, untied hershinsek’uk, and let it drop to the floor. She’d worn a loose skirt to movie night, a pale yellow to offset the robe’s deep red. That too fell to the floor, then she peeled off the matching tunic and underwear and stood before him nude, unashamed, letting him look his fill.

His eyes held hers for a long moment, burning her with the intensity of his gaze. Slowly, he took in her shoulders and the flutter of her heart between her breasts, the soft curves of her stomach and hips and thighs, the length of her legs, her bare feet. He stripped off his weapons, unfastened hisshinsek’ukand shrugged it off, and kicked off his shoes, his gaze never leaving her body.

She took a half step back, and a savage rumble began low in his chest.

“Mia?” he snarled.

“Yes, my love?”

“Run.”

She whirled around and fled toward the bedroom, her heart beating so wildly, it drowned out any noise he might’ve made. But she felt him at her back, felt his eyes on her, felt his heat drawing near.

She’d just scrambled up the short flight of stairs leading to the bedroom when his fingers grazed down her spine. She shrieked out a laugh and leapt for the bed, and he caught her, tumbling them onto it in a flurry of growls and muffled laughter and flailing limbs.

All too soon, he pinned her to the bed with his massive body, holding her arms above her head with one hand at her wrists.

His gaze locked onto hers, nearly feral with his need, and he snarled, “Mine.”

“Always,” she whispered.

He claimed her mouth in a brutal kiss, grazing his fangs over her lips, sucking her tongue into his mouth, savaging her where before he’d always been so careful. Even when he’d locked them in her office and driven her to three swift orgasms, he’d been gentle.

Now, he was all warrior, claiming his mate in an eons old dance she’d only just begun to understand.

He broke off the kiss with a fierce curse and buried his face in her throat. His fangs pierced her skin so sharply she gasped and arched against him, and gasped again when he rolled onto his back, carrying her with him. She landed sprawling across him with her legs to either side of his hips and his erection trapped between them, heavy and hard and oh so tempting.

“Accept me,” he demanded, his eyes a hot glow above the blood coating his lips. “Love me.”

She cupped his cheek gently. “I do,pjoril.”

His pupils constricted to pinpoints in his now-white irises. “Mia,” he groaned.

And she could make him wait no more.

Carefully, she guided his erection to her core and twisted her hips, pushing down until the broad tip slid into her.

“More,” he demanded. “Take all of me.”