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Wilder pulled out of her to flip them around, so that she was on her back in the plush fur of the rug and he was braced above her, his gaze ravenous and intense in the low light of the cabin.

‘Tell me you feel it too,’ he growled, pushing into her.

Thea wrapped her legs around him, giving him better access, drawing him deeper. ‘I —’

‘I need to hear you say it,’ he said, his teeth closing over her nipple.

She gasped. There it was again, that unique blend of pleasure and pain that was so inherentlyWilder.

‘I feel it,’ she panted, her heart seizing. ‘I feel everything with you.’

Thea didn’t realise her Warsword had been holding back, but at her words, whatever leash he’d kept on himself snapped completely. He grabbed her wrists and pinned them above her head, causing her to arch beneath him as he fucked her hard and deep.

Each stroke was more brutal than the last, but Thea met every thrust with a tilt of her hips, begging for more, taking everything he gave her.

And he gave her everything.

She kissed him fiercely, her tongue tangling with his, his beard scraping her jaw. They seemed to breathe and move as one. Completely and utterly joined.

It wasn’t pleasure alone that roared in her veins, but her magic too. It answered him like it answered the call of a storm. She felt him not only inside her body, but inside her soul, inside the very fibre of her being, coursing through her like an unbroken tempest.

Power met power and bound together, two threads entwining, forging something new, something stronger.

Thea writhed beneath his powerful grip, desperate to mark him with her fingernails, to claim him in some visible way, but her arms were still pinned above her.

He didn’t release her. Instead, he thrust into her harder.

‘Wilder,’ she breathed, the intensity of it nearly shattering her.

Wilder’s deep, carnal moan in her ear was her undoing. It unravelled that building pressure, causing her to clench around him as she spiralled out of control. Pleasure climbed higher and higher, and just when she thought she would crest and fall into oblivion, it reached a new peak, a new level of madness.

And then she was beyond the point of no return, her climax hitting her like a bolt of lightning to a surging wave, one she rode as it crashed through every part of her, breaking her into a million pieces.

Wilder gave a shout, shuddering into her with his own release.

On and on that pleasure went, until Thea was nearly sobbing with the force of it.

Still braced over her, still inside her, Wilder met her gaze, a trembling breath escaping him, his silver eyes glistening.

‘I —’ His voice cracked with emotion.

Thea freed her scar-flecked hands from his and reached up to cup his face. ‘I know,’ she murmured, and kissed him softly.

* * *

Thea didn’t know how long they lay there, tangled in one another, the sheer intensity of the cord between them rendering her speechless, raw.

In what must have been the early hours of the morning, Wilder finally peeled himself away from her, tugged on some clothes and left the cabin without another word. A short while later, he returned carrying two giant pails of hot water and tipped them into the tub as though they weighed nothing. Thea watched him from where she still lay on the rug. If she didn’t know any better, she’d say he was fussing.

He dipped his elbow into the water and hissed at the heat, adding a pail of cold water into the mix. He also set up a small table beside the tub, where he placed a tray of bread and cheese, and a goblet of wine for each of them.

Wilder Hawthorne was definitely fussing. Over her.

‘Should be a good temperature now,’ he told her, offering her a hand up. They were the first words he’d spoken since they’d…

Smiling to herself, Thea let him help her, the blanket she’d been clutching falling to the floor in a puddle at her feet. Wilder’s gaze darkened at the sight of her naked body, but he led her to the tub and held her hand as she stepped in.

She sank down into the heat, moaning softly as the tension drained from her muscles.