Page 20

L eera's body falls limp against mine the instant her words reach me through our mind-link, compliments of our now cemented mate bond. The words are also accompanied by a wave of the love she feels for me crashing through our bond and knocking the air from my lungs. I choke on my emotions, emotions I thought I would never feel again. In the quiet of our snow globe—as Leera has named it—I cry, my tears falling as softly as the snow all around us.

Wrapping my arms tighter around her, I hold her body even closer to mine while I thank the Moon Goddess over and over. When the swelling of my knot finally lessens, allowing me to remove myself from Leera's core, she whimpers in her sleep at the loss but doesn't wake up. I gently lay her head on the pillow, and when I rise, I can't help but stand and stare at her. Everything about her is absolute perfection. Her silver hair splayed against the fluffy white pillow. Her eyelashes resting on her still rosy cheeks. Her mouth cracked open just a bit. The steady rise and fall of her chest as she dreams. Her tapered waist that blooms into full hips with small, white, jagged stretch marks across the outside of her thighs. Even her stretch marks seem to sparkle. The thought of her someday having much more prominent stretch marks in the future if she wants to have a family nearly brings me to my knees.

I release a deep sigh and shake those thoughts away for now, making my way to the small unfinished bathroom. I didn't have enough time to get the plumbing completely run, but I was able to set it up with a temporary system like that of an RV until I can finish the project. There are jugs of water to use by the sink. I even remembered to set an electric tea kettle in here so that we could warm water.

Clicking the warmer on, I run my hand through my hair and glance at myself in the mirror. A shocked sound leaves my body when I see the mark the Goddess bestowed on me on behalf of Leera's bite. My jaw hangs slack as I try to take in the large mark overtaking the left side of my neck and shoulder. I move my body to get a better look as the mark begins where she claimed me.

The mark is made up of silver lines ingrained in my golden-tanned flesh. The silver lines are sharp, jagged, and bold, not unlike me. The organization of the lines looks as though it creates some kind of large image, maybe a flower that looks like the sun, or vice versa, and that strange shape is surrounded by the lines moving in all directions, reaching out from the center, in the same sharp movements. It looks like some kind of expensive tattoo a human would get, and I can't stop just staring in awe at my little miracle mate's mark.

The warmer beeps, letting me know the water is an acceptable temperature, drawing my attention back to the task at hand. I give my mark one more run of my gaze, brushing my fingers along some of the line work, then turn to grab a washcloth. Taking the warm water and small towel with me back into the main room, I kneel by Leera's side of the bed and clean her up. She releases a small moan in her sleep, and I have to audibly scold my dick, who thinks that means we get to spend more time inside of her.

When I've got her all cleaned up, I take everything back to the bathroom and clean myself quickly before returning to my princess. I can't see her mark because she's lying on it. We each left our marks on the other's left side, and she's currently lying on hers.

Pulling the covers up and over us both, I allow myself to stare out of the top of the clear ceiling, revealing an obnoxious number of stars. All of them are burning and sparkling, completely unaware that the world will never be the same. My world will never be the same, and neither will a single being that's ever so much as thought of hurting her. It doesn't matter how long it takes, every single one of them will perish…painfully.

Returning my focus to the stunningly perfect creature beside me, I roll onto my side, pulling her into me. Her body is warm and soft against mine, and my continued thanks to the Goddess sound like a chant at this point. With our bodies securely locked together, I tuck the blankets around the front of her so she doesn't knock it loose in her sleep.

I'm jolted awake from a very deep sleep by the screams of my mate, and all my worst nightmares take turns flying through my mind. By the time I've thrown myself out of bed and landed on my feet, I can feel Leera's happiness and love flying down our mate bond so hard that it knocks me back onto my ass, on the edge of the bed. Now that I nearly have my bearings, I can tell the difference in her pitch. She's not screaming. She's squealing. The noise she and Zoey make when they're very excited about something, only majorly personified.

Shaking the fear from my mind with the adrenaline now surging through my veins, I stand and make my way to the small bathroom to find her bouncing on her feet in front of the mirror. If I thought my mark was incredible, hers is…well, fit for my princess.

“Roman! Look at it!” she squeals again when she catches me gawking at her. She turns to fully face me, still naked from last night, and there are tears starting to trickle down her face.

“Hey, hey, hey, what's wrong?” I ask smoothly as I lunge to wrap her in my arms, everywhere our skin touches sending tremors through my muscles.

She hiccups a small sob and lifts her chin to look me in my eyes. “It's so beautiful,” she whispers as if she's scared someone will take it from her.

I'm about to speak when her eyes register my very similar mark, and she's crying again and running her fingers over my mark, which is very sensitive, and my dick has never gone from mildly aware to raging hard-on modes so quickly. My reaction must have made it straight through the mate bond because her physical reaction to it is also immediate, so I return the favor, running my fingers across the intricate lines of her mark of our bond.

Where the silver lines of mine are all sharp, jagged, and bold, hers are soft, flowing, and…how do I explain it…almost bubbly. Just like her. It also begins with the same strange base of a sun-like flower made up of swirling lines and branches out into sweeping vines and twirls. If you look closely enough, a few of the small twirls even form tiny heart shapes.

She visibly shivers with the gentle pass of my fingers against her flesh, and it's not from the cold. “They're so perfect,” she breathes, reaching her arms up to my neck and pulling for me to lift her into my arms. It’s her favorite place to be and mine. The moment she's where she wants to be, she crashes her lips against mine, and before I realize what's happening, her thoughts are tumbling across our bond, and holy fuck, I was not prepared.

Oh my God, he tastes so good…Is it too soon to have sex again…Fuck, I love him…

I try to remove myself from her lips so I can tell her, but she tightens her hold on my neck, refusing to pull away from me. She begins trying to move herself just enough to grant her some friction against my body. I take her cue, and using one arm wrapped under her to hold her in place, the other comes between us, pinching and lightly twisting her nipples first. She moans into my mouth, Oh, yes, I love when he twists them like that.

I do as the lady says and twist them a little harder than I had before, and her head falls back a couple of inches to arch into me, and she moans again. “Leera, I should tell you—”

I'm silenced with her finger on my lips. While I tried to tell her, I could tell her through our link, but I think I'll wait until after she's told me exactly everything she needs. I walk her back to the bed where we tumble into the plush bedding together, and I can feel her giggle all the way to my dick. It's a magical sound that I can't wait to hear for the rest of my existence.

Adjusting us so that she's lying on her back and looking up at me with her wide, icy-blue eyes blown with lust, I lean in and kiss her forehead while I trail my fingers against her skin, everywhere I can reach.

Yes, yes, yes, she chants, still wiggling beneath me. I make a path of kisses moving down the side of her neck, closing in on the fresh mate mark consuming her flesh. When my lips reach the swirling silver lines, I alternate between small kisses and nips, and she screams my name, her body shuddering below me.

Oh my God! Did I just have an orgasm just from him touching my mark?!

I don't give her time to recover, moving away from her so that I can settle between her thighs, dragging my hands down her body as I go. I lift each of her soft legs and rest them over my shoulders, her skin connecting with my fresh mark, making it even more challenging to not blow early. Inhaling her sweet scent, I lean in and pass my tongue through her warm, wet, sensitive skin.

Fuck, yes, she purrs in my mind.

After a few more passes, I focus my tongue on her clit, flattening my tongue against it and moving my tongue in a rhythmic motion that has her thighs clenching around me.

More, oh, God...please add a finger while you— “Oh!”

I interrupt her thought with her requesting action, sliding my finger all the way into her, no longer meeting resistance, as I continue the pace I've set on her clit and begin to fuck her faster with my finger.

“ Roman, please!” she cries in between moans, her head thrashing on the bed. Shit. It's too much…I'm gonna…

Feeding off of knowing exactly how she's feeling, I stop pumping my finger and curl it into the inside of her walls, massaging the flesh there and sucking hard on her bundle of nerves while she screams my name, and her legs lock me in the most amazing vice.

I continue to gently massage her through her orgasm, and when focus returns to her eyes, she slowly lifts herself off the bed and crawls to where I'm now sitting up, waiting to see what she'll do.

I want to…I hope I can do this right for him.

“Leera—” I try to tell her again, but she shakes her head thinking she knows what I'm going to say, so I go ahead and break the ice, Leera, I rumble to her through our bond.

She freezes, her eyes snapping to mine, and when it registers, her jaw drops, and the tears return, I can hear you, she sniffles lovingly down our bond, and I can't help the chuckle that escapes me at her sweet voice.

That's what I was trying to tell you.

“Oh…Ohhh,” she says out loud this time, her eyes widening further.

“I just wanted you to know, but whatever you do for me will be perfect. Just. Like. You.” I emphasize my words with kisses along her mark after pulling her to me, and she melts into my embrace.