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Sparks of heat shoot through me at his words and stoke the pounding fire in my core, fanning the embers he started by kissing me awake in his bed this morning.

The gaze he sent me before formation fueled those flames, and the soft caress of his magic during the strategy meeting poked them.

Then there is the way he marched over to me after dinner, his whispered demand, and the way he drank in my reaction.

I’m on fucking fire and his stormy golden eyes watch me burn. I pull his mouth back down to mine, linking my arms around his neck. His arms tighten, pulling me impossibly closer, anchoring me in this inferno of desire.

He acts like I’m his first breath after a deep dive, like he needs me for survival, like I’m essential to his soul. I slide a hand into his hair and draw a low, rumbling groan from his throat by scraping my nails over the base of his neck and up his scalp.

“We need to talk,” Tate breathes against my skin, and I hum my agreement. He is right, but talking is the last thing on my mind right now.

I pull his lips back to mine, and every thought of talking is forgotten. My hands roam over his body, but there are too many layers covering it.

Something rumbles behind Tate, and he picks me up, only to place me seconds later on the small table I could have sworn had been stacked with boxes before.

He doesn’t step back, but stays where he is, standing between my legs, our bodies deliciously aligned. The way he looks at me makes me feel beautiful, powerful and precious all at once.

“Such a convenient gift you have,” I murmur.

“Oh, you haven’t seen anything yet.” He grins down at me, cradling my face with both hands, when I suddenly feel a finger trailing down each of my arms. I jerk in surprise, and he laughs. A mischievous, naughty laugh that has my stomach flipping over.

He places teasing kisses on the corner of my mouth, my brow, then my eyelids when they flutter closed, before his mouth travels along my jaw and down my throat.

“Please tell me I can peel you out of this uniform because since you sauntered up to me this morning, I can’t think of anything else,” he mumbles against my skin, sending shivers down my body, and intensifying the heat at the apex of my thighs.

“Yes, but only if I get your glorious body naked in return,” I whisper, and his lips curve against my skin. His fingers immediately start undoing the buckles of my uniform.

“Do I detect there a fondness of my body?” he teases.

“It is hardly my fault that you look so incredibly lickable,” I reply and chuckle when he groans.

“Sunshine, how the fuck do you expect me to hold on to my sanity when you say things like that?”

“I told you once before. Maybe I—” He cuts me off by placing his hand over my mouth.

“Holy mists, woman,” he growls. “It’s bad enough I dragged you in here because I couldn’t wait a second longer. Let me at least take my time with you.”

I nip his palm and, when he pulls it back, trap his thumb with my teeth, running my tongue along the pad of it.

“You live to torture me, don’t you?” He groans, and I giggle, but it ends in a gasp when he lifts me, and my bare ass meets the table seconds later.

“Now, let’s see how long it takes me to make you beg,” Tate rumbles, sinking to his knees in front of me. My eyes widen and the throbbing in my core intensifies at his words, at the sight of him kneeling at my feet with a devilish smile on his face.

He takes off my boots one after the other, and then shimmies my pants down my legs while raining teasing kisses on the inside of my calves, my knees, my thighs.

He helps me out of my tunic and my undergarments until I’m bare in front of him, while he is still fully clothed.

I had sex before, but nothing like this. The way Tate admires and worships every inch of my body, the looks he sends me, I bet I could come from that alone.

Every touch of his hands, his lips, his tongue, his magic sends fire through my veins until he finally settles where I need him most.

“May I?” His breath ghosts over my throbbing core, and I squirm.

“Yes,” I breathe. “Oh please, yes.”

“Well, that didn’t take long.” He sends me a wicked smile. “And I didn’t even start yet.” And then his mouth is on me.

I gasp his name, and he hums in approval, sending sparks shooting up my spine.

A day’s worth of stubble scratches against my sensitive skin while his tongue caresses me.

I have heard about this. It’s impossible to grow up between men without hearing…a lot, but holy mists, I never thought it would feel this good.

I gasp.

I’m so aware of him by now that every little touch is sensory overload, and I’m caught somewhere between the need to arch into him or pull away.

My eyes flutter close, and my world narrows to the sinful things Tate can do with his mouth, his firm grip holding my legs apart, and the tension swirling in my gut.

He sucks my clit hard, and my hand flies to my mouth, trying to muffle the scream clawing up my throat, but Tate catches my hand and pulls it back down.

“Don’t you dare, sunshine,” he growls against my sensitive flesh. “No holding back. I want to hear what I do to you!” His voice, his words send shock waves through me, heightening the tension impossibly more.

“But we are…” I start and end in a moan when he sucks my clit again. He fucks me with his tongue, then slides it up over the sensitive bundle of nerves again and again.

And just like that, I’m too far gone to think about anything as mundane as where we are right now. I’m lost in the sensation, chasing after the high that lures me.

My whimpers and moans mixed with nonsensical half sentences fill the room, while the crest comes closer and closer.

I arch into him, and stars explode behind my eyes as the tension shatters into waves of pleasure rolling over me, dragging me under, sweeping me away. My inner muscles clench and unclench, desperate for something to squeeze around.

I’m a shuddering, panting, limp mess sprawled out over the table when Tate pulls me up against his chest. His gloriously naked chest.

I have no idea when he got rid of his uniform, but damn, do I approve.

“So fucking beautiful,” he rumbles before he claims my mouth in a hungry kiss, and I can taste myself on his tongue. “I could watch you come all day.”

“Wish granted,” I mumble against his lips, making him chuckle.

“Oh, I’m far from done with you yet.”

But I already know since his throbbing hardness presses against me, demanding attention.

“I have this for you.” He slips a chain over my head, and I recognize his magic instantly. “I know the regular ones probably don’t work on you, and I thought maybe…” His magic settles over my womb, and it doesn’t need more than a calming thought to stop my magic from unraveling it.

“You made that for me.” I beam up at him. “Thank you.” He looks adorably relieved at my reaction.

His healing training must have been extensive if he can even do contraceptive charms, and once more I wonder about his past and why he didn’t become a healer. But now is not the moment for questions.

I pull him down for a hungry kiss and widen my legs, inviting him.

“Tell me what you want,” Tate whispers against my lips, and I grin at him wickedly before I obey.

“I want you to fuck me, Tate,” I say, and my grin widens when his cock twitches at my words. “I want to feel you slide into me, stretch me, fill me…” That is as far as I get before his mouth claims mine again, and then he complies, pushing into me in one hard thrust.

I groan into his mouth, panting around this sudden overwhelming fullness, struggling to adjust while pleasure surges up my spine.

Tate releases my lips.

“Fuck, are you good?” he asks, searching my eyes.

I nod, and even this slight movement causes me to clench around him. He squeezes his eyes shut.

“Fuck, sunshine.” He groans, visibly fighting for control, resting his head against mine, his chest heaving. I run my fingers through his hair, reveling in the sensation of our connection. He looks at me, and the fire in his eyes, the need for me written all over his face, has me swallowing.

“Brace your hands on the table,” he orders, and when I do, he starts to move. Slow, powerful thrusts that have sparks running through me.

“You feel so fucking good,” Tate mutters in my ear, and the pleasure in his voice makes mine burn brighter.I moan in pleasure, and he drinks the sound of my lips.

His lips, his fingers, his magic trail over me. He caresses my back, my hips, my throat, my breasts, and I gasp when he pulls one of the aching peaks into his mouth.

Tension coils with every thrust and drag of him inside me, building up higher and higher while Tate increases the tempo.

My thighs tremble, and I know I’m getting close. Tate’s hips snap faster, his sounds of pleasure mixing with mine.

“Come for me, sunshine.”

His growled demand pushes me over the edge.

I yell his name. Lightning surges through me, releasing in an explosion of pleasure while I clamp down hard, rippling and throbbing around him.

The wind whips around us, rattling the boxes and maps, catching in my hair, the strands lashing our skin and my eyes fly open.

Tate’s eyes are on me, his expression caught somewhere between awe and shock.

“Fuck. Ara,” he groans my name while he pulses inside me. His head falls to my shoulder, and I hold on to him while he continues to shake.

The wind slowly dies down, and only now in the quiet aftermath do I realize where we are and that we have been by no means quiet.

My gaze flies to the door.

“You think I would share this moment with anyone?” Tate growls into my neck, and I smile.

He shielded the room. Now that my senses slowly return, I can feel his magic all around us.

I run my fingers through his hair, resting my head on his shoulder, and wait for my body to stop trembling.

To say that Tate blew my world apart would be an understatement, and by the satisfied smile on his face, he knows it.

“I’ll just stay like this for…a year or two before I move again,” I mumble into his skin, and his body vibrates with his silent laughter.

“No,” he disagrees. “I have different plans, and you already agreed,” he murmurs, and I soon learn that he’s taking my granted wish seriously and that regeneration and healing are basically the same thing.

We do make it back to his room, eventually.