Page 107

“Take my hand.” A low, comforting rasp.

She looked at his open palm.

This is Fane , she reminded herself.

Mate , the cat added.

She let out a ragged exhale and uncurled her fingers from the sheet to place her hand on top of his. It felt good: cool, but firm.

“I don’t think it works like that,” he said. “You won’t be all better in a day. Or a month. Or even a year.”

“But I want this, damn it. I don’t want to be afraid. I’m so fucking tired of being afraid.”

“It’s okay.” He threaded his fingers through hers. “I want to be with you any way I can. The sex is just icing on the cake. We can take it as slow or fast as you want.”

The tightness in her shoulders eased. She took a calming breath.

“This helps. Just sitting with you. Holding hands.”

“You will get over this. I know it.” He leaned toward her. “Can I kiss you?”

Tears pricked her eyes. He was being so damn careful with her.

“Yeah,” she said in a barely audible voice. “I’d like that.”

He set his free hand on the side of her face and brushed his lips over hers. “I love you.” His mouth touched one cheek. “I will always be there for you.” He traced his lips across to her other cheek. “I will never, ever hurt you.”

What felt like a boa constrictor wrapped around her chest. Her throat worked. “I know you won’t.”

His eyes held hers. “I want you to promise something. That if I ever do anything to scare you, you’ll tell me. Or just smack me upside the head and tell me to stop.”

She worried her lower lip. “Oh, Fane.”

He smoothed a thumb over her cheek. “Promise me, Jani.”

She gave a jerky nod. “Okay. Yes. I promise.”

“Good.” Releasing her hand, he lay back on the mattress, his erection mostly deflated, and patted the sheet next to him. “Come here. Cuddle with me.”

She knelt next to him. His cheeks and chin were shadowed with stubble. He folded one arm beneath his head, his bicep bulging, a tuft of dark hair in his armpit.

Desire twanged through her. Only a hint—but she welcomed it, focused on that warm tingle instead of her fear.

She ran a hand down the washboard ridges of his abdomen, just to see if she could. It felt good, the touch grounding her.

She did it again.

The cat purred. Mine.

“You could be a model,” she told him. “If you’re looking for a job.”

He let out a startled laugh. “I don’t think so.”

“Oh, you could be. But you know something? Never mind. I want you all to myself.”

His cock twitched and lengthened, and this time, it just fed the warm tingles.

His smile was slow and intimate. “I know you’re the only woman I want. The only woman I’ll ever want.”

“Good. Because if that red-haired fae lady starts rubbing up against you again, I just might have to take her down.”

“Just so you remember it goes both ways.”

“Of course. We’re mates. And I don’t get off on making men jealous.” She toyed with the wiry nest of hairs encircling his cock. “You’re dark here. Like your beard.”

He sipped a breath, and she knew he wanted her to stroke him. But she didn’t. It was more fun to tease. Instead, she circled her index finger around the base as he watched, heavy-lidded.

“You like to play, do you?”

She tilted her head, considering that. “Maybe I do. When it’s you.”

“Have at me, then,” he said in the tone of a man sacrificing himself.

She couldn’t help smiling—and the boa constrictor released its grip on her chest. “All right. But you can’t move.”

Placing her hands on either side of his hips, she leaned forward to lick him. Slow, languorous licks. He stilled, his free hand clenching, but he kept it on the bed.

“Mm.” She pressed a kiss to his hard stalk. “I like how you taste.”

She drew her tongue up and down him, swirling it around the cap. Tonguing the sensitive underside.

He groaned. “Jani?”

She hummed against his flushed skin. “Yeah?”

“You’re killing me here.”

She wrapped her fingers around him, lapping at the salty pre-cum coating his head. “Should I stop?”

“Gods, no.”

She gave a soft hum against his cock and then took him fully into her mouth. As she relaxed and began to enjoy herself, the mate bond heated in her chest.

She felt his excitement, and it fed her own, turning her insides hot and liquid.

She played with him for long minutes, learning the taste and feel of him. And when he reached for her, saying, “I have to be in you,” she was as ready as him.

She crawled up his body, kissing each male nipple, smoothing her hands over the dark, gold-tipped hairs on his chest. But when she reached down to take him inside her, he gripped her hips and lifted her higher—and then scooted down the bed, muttering something about “returning the favor.”

She knew the man had a talented mouth, but this time was even better than the first time. He positioned her so she straddled his face, and then opened her with his thumbs so he could swipe his tongue along her weeping slit.

“God’s balls,” he growled. “You’re so wet.” He went to work on her clit, sucking and swirling his tongue around it in slow, incredibly arousing circles.

She arched her back and set her hands on her calves, opening to him.

“That’s it,” he husked, low and rough. “It’s your turn to stay still. All you have to do is enjoy it.”

Shivers tripped up and down her body. Her skin heated. She gripped her thighs and moaned his name. Close…so close, but not quite there.

“Take it, love.”

He gripped her thighs, his thumbs brushing the soft skin next to her sex. Meanwhile, his mouth kept up its magic. He swirled his tongue through her juices and thrust into her, while his thumbs toyed with her clit. She felt like he was touching her everywhere.

He pressed a kiss to the sensitive skin of her inner thigh.

“Fane…” She shook her head.

He rubbed his lips over her other thigh. “Tell me what you want,” he coaxed.

She brought her hands to her breasts and pinched them. “Please,” she said. “Touch me. Take me.” And had the brief, sure realization that there was no shame in begging. Not when it was her and Fane. This wasn’t meant to break her, just pleasure her.

Then her whole body went taut as a wire stretched to its limit.

“That’s it,” he murmured. “Come for me, love.” He gave a hard suck to her clit.

Her sex clenched. Lightning shot up her spine, flashed behind her eyes.

She grabbed the headboard and held on as the climax rolled over her in endless, searing waves. When she opened her eyes again, she was surprised to find the room was still filled with sunlight. She could’ve sworn a storm had broken over the bed.

He gave her a last lick and then slid out from beneath her. She rolled onto her back and he came over top of her. Setting his forearms on either side of her head, he captured her gaze—and slid into her.

“Fane,” she moaned, the thick glide almost too much against her sensitized flesh.

He halted in mid-thrust. “Too much?”

“No.” She wrapped him in a hard hug and they shared a kiss. She could taste herself on him, a salty musk. “I like it. Just like that—nice and slow.”

“Then that’s what you’ll get.” He stroked out and then back in. Sweet, easy strokes, parting her a little more deeply each time, until he was all the way in.

She squeezed around him, enjoying his moan of pleasure.

“Fuck.” He stopped moving. “No condoms. You want me to pull out?”

Her eyes widened. A cub—her? She’d never, ever thought she’d be a mother.

The idea warmed her to her toes—but not today, or even this year. She pressed her lips to his stubbled cheek.

“Yeah. For now, anyway—I want you all to myself for a year or two. But someday, yeah. I’d love to have a baby with you.”

He met her eyes, his soft with affection. “Exactly what I was thinking.”

He started to move faster, harder. Angling himself to stroke against the knot of pleasure on the upper wall of her pussy.

It seemed with every stroke, their bond grew stronger, so that she was feeling his arousal along with her own. She closed her eyes and tightened around him, and came again in another hot, bright explosion.

“That’s it, love,” he said on a groan. He thrust in hard and then pulled out to spend himself on her stomach.

His head rested on the pillow beside hers for a minute. Then he rolled onto his back, tucking her into his side. She set a hand on his chest. He was warm and a little sweaty, his heart thumping as if he’d run a race.

For a time, they were silent in the sunshine-filled room. Then Fane kissed her forehead.

“I’ll do my best to be a good dad. I know I could’ve done better with Evie, but I was always afraid the king would use her against me.

And yeah, some of it was me being an arse.

I didn’t want the court to know I had a kid with a human mother.

” He swallowed. “Gods, that sounds so fucking shallow. But it’s the truth. ”

She tangled her fingers in the fur on his chest. “She loves you. You must have done something right.”

“Yeah?” He looked at her, pleased. “You think so?”

“I do. But it’s not too late—I think she’d like to get to know you better.”

“I’d like that, too.” He let out a breath. “Guess I’m coming home with you. You think your brother can make a place for an unemployed, penniless fae envoy?”

“He won’t like it,” she said, “but he’ll come around. He loves me.”

It wasn’t Adric she was worried about so much as the clan. Everyone had expected her to mate with Luc. They wouldn’t be happy when she brought home Fane instead, a part-fae who had been part of the ice fae court for six decades. Especially when they found out Luc had accepted a geas to save her.

She tamped down the guilt that flared in her. Now was for her and Fane. She’d worry about Luc and the clan when they got back to Baltimore.

“But what about you?” she asked, those doubts she’d had in Iceland returning. “You gave up everything for me. You’ll never have a place in any fae court again. You sure you want to mate with a woman from a poor clan in Baltimore?”