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Her climax coiled in her belly, spread up her spine, unfurled through her nerve endings…and then erupted in a burst of heat and bright color.

He stayed with her but lightened his touch. Soft, sweet licks until even that was too much. Then he kissed her belly.

“Beautiful,” he murmured, and rose from the bed.

She rolled onto her side and watched as he took a box of condoms from his duffel bag and set it onto the night table. She closed her eyes against a pang of sadness. He was right to be careful, but it still hurt.

Fada rarely had children even with their mates. Most fada didn’t bother with birth control, since STDs were almost unheard of and they knew that any child would be welcomed by the clan.

Unless it was a child she’d made with Adric.

Together, they pushed down the covers. He pulled her into his arms and kissed the top of her head. “You’re so beautiful when you come.”

She tilted her head, summoned a teasing grin. If they had just this one night, she wouldn’t ruin it by crying for something she’d never have. “You’re so beautiful when you’re making me come.”

“Is that so?” He crawled on top of her with a wolfish smile. “I’ll be even prettier when I’m inside you, fucking you.” He dragged his cock over her stomach.

A hot ribbon of desire curled through her. Goddess, she ached to have him inside her, filling her. “Prove it.”

His mouth came to her ear. She could smell herself on him, a warm, oceany scent.

“I will,” he whispered as if it were a secret for her alone.

He left the bed to roll on the protection and then came down over her. Taking her hands, he pressed them to the bed on either side of her head. Her thighs instinctively bent up to cradle him.

His tip nudged her sex and she tensed.

He stilled. “I’m the first.”

It wasn’t a question, but she dipped her chin.

His eyes flashed, the blue blotting out the bronze. “I thought so.” He pushed a little deeper. “I promise I’ll be…easy.”

She moistened her lips, nodded again. “I know. I want this.”

“Oh, angel.” His voice was tender.

His mouth touched hers. He kissed her, slowly, voluptuously, like she was a feast he’d waited for months to savor. She felt surrounded by him, his body…his heated, earthy scent…the strong hands pinning her to the bed. Against her breastbone, his quartz was warm, almost alive.

Something in her opened, like a flower unfurling, petal by petal. He gave another nudge, and his thick head slipped inside her.

It burned, but in a good way. Like he was marking her as his.

Excitement built in her. She needed this. She needed him .

“Rosana,” he said on a sigh and pressed deeper.

He was thick, hot, wonderful. Stretching her until she had the brief, panicky fear that she couldn’t stretch any more…and then he was inside her.

Her eyes widened. He held still, but she felt his cock pulsing. Or was that her? The small pain of his entrance receded, replaced by a sense of rightness.

This was her man. The one she’d always known would be her first.

Her and Adric, joined together. His flesh deep inside hers. Their two breaths mingling, their hearts beating in time.

“You okay?” His mouth whispered over hers.

“Oh, yeah.” She interlaced her fingers with his, uncaring that it might set off her Sight. Just needing to touch him.

When nothing happened, elation raced through her. She tightened her fingers on his and gave an experimental lift of her hips.

“God’s cat.” His groan was low and raw, ripped from his chest. “You’re so hot…so fucking tight. You’re going to kill me.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Not until you finish.”

He gave a bark of laughter, and she raised up to give him an openmouthed kiss. Their mouths were still joined when he began to move, easy, unhurried strokes.

She tried to pull her hands from his—she wanted to wrap her arms around him—but he tightened his grip and rose higher. Keeping her where she was, open beneath him, unable to do anything but accept his thrusts. Angling his body so that his hard flesh massaged her clit with every stroke.

Heat radiated from him. He lowered his head and sucked each of her nipples in turn. Pleasure streaked through her, tightening her womb.

She was melting. She was burning up.

She dug her heels into the mattress and clenched her inner muscles around him. “Adric…”

His lips moved to her ear. He tongued the outer edge, slipped inside. It was warm and wet, and so sensual.

“Take it.” His thrusts grew harder, more powerful. Dominating her in a way her animal craved.

She dragged in a breath. “ Ohgod, ohgod, ohgod…”

“Come for me, love.” A low command in her ear.

It was too much. “No,” she rasped.

“Yes. Take it. Take me .” He pushed into her. “All of me, angel.”

Deep, so deep.

Then again, and again until she broke into a thousand shimmering fragments.

He groaned her name and propelled himself in and out of her, over and over, and then stilled. A growl that was more cat than man vibrated in his chest.

She tightened her thighs around his lean hips as he pulsed deep inside of her. He dropped his head forward, his cheek against hers.

Only then did he release her hands.

Adric hung over Rosana, breath jerking in and out of his lungs.

He felt emptied out—and yet somehow filled as well. Complete in a way he was afraid to examine closely.

His quartz rested between her pretty breasts. Now that he could think again, he realized it had heated as they’d approached their climax. He frowned down at it—and blinked.

The gray-and-orange crystals were lit deep within with a new color, a brilliant sea-green that spiraled through the center in a graceful twist. A green the same color as Rosana’s dolphin’s eyes.

What the hell? His brows drew together.

“Wow,” she said. “Just…wow.”

He shrugged mentally and decided to worry about his quartz later. He lifted up and she gave him a broad smile that warmed him clear to his toes.

He kissed her, wanting that smile against his lips. She was warm, her skin moist with exertion. She smelled like woman and sex—and him. He rubbed his cheek against hers, mingling their two scents even more. For this night, at least, she was his.

“Mm.” She slid a languid hand down his neck, petting him in a way both man and cat craved. Fingering the gold stud in his earlobe. Tracing a finger over his jaw.

He licked her just beneath her ear. She tasted like the sea.

Inside her, his dick lengthened. He’d come hard. No, he’d fucking exploded—and still it hadn’t been enough.

He had the sudden, sinking conviction that with Rosana, it would never be enough.

He wanted to thrust into her mindlessly. Imprint his body on hers so that she’d feel him all week. But she had to be tender, even though she’d been an eager, if innocent, partner.

Hell, he’d been too rough—at the end, his mind had blanked with pleasure and he’d forgotten he was fucking a virgin. But he was fully aware now, so he gritted his teeth and withdrew from her.

Her soft hiss told him she was hurting, at least a little. Guilt tightened his belly. “You okay?”

“Mm-hmm.” She curled on her side, cheeks flushed, eyes half-closed, the picture of a well-pleasured woman.

His guilt eased. He kissed her cheek. “Be right back.”

He made a trip to the bathroom to dispose of the rubber, returning with a warm, wet washcloth. “Let me.” He bent up her top leg and, pressing the cloth to her sex, gently cleaned her.

She winced at even a soft touch, and he grimaced in sympathy. “Sorry, love. I was too rough. I—”

“Was amazing.” She grinned up at him. “It’s fine. I’m just a little sore.”

A wave of tenderness rolled through him. Unexpected and unwelcome—because he couldn’t let this be anything more than it was.

Returning to the bathroom, he rinsed the cloth and tossed it over the towel rack, and then slid back into the bed. He pulled the sheet up over them both and reached for her, but she was already there, tucking herself into his side, one hand on his heart, as if they’d done this a hundred times.

Her hair spilled onto his chest in silky dark tendrils. He pressed a kiss to her temple.

The tenderness mixed with something basic. Primal.

Mine.

He wanted to keep her. Lure her back to his lonely den. He might even be able to convince her it was her idea. Just for the next few days, until he left…

He fingered his quartz, considering. He had a rare, little known Gift—he could hypnotize people with his quartz, compel them to obey him. He could induce Rosana to come back to Baltimore with him.

It wouldn’t be that hard to get her to do something she wanted anyway. Just a nudge would probably work.

But even the cat, primitive beast though it was, knew that was wrong.

And the man admitted that having Rosana move into his den—even for a few days—would be hollow if she didn’t do it with her full knowledge and consent. If she ever came to him, he wanted her whole heart and soul.

His lip curled. Gods, he was pathetic. Next he’d be lighting candles and scattering rose petals on the sheets.

He tightened his arm around her. “Last night—why did you come to me?”

She traced a finger over his heart. “It was time.”

What the hell—? He pulled back so he could see her face. “Are you saying you Saw something? Something about the two of us?”

“Not a vision, no.”

“Then what?”

She expelled a breath. “Look, I wanted you and you wanted me. Isn’t that enough?”

She was evading a straight answer, but he let it slide. “If your brother finds out, he’ll skin me alive.”

Once, that would’ve made this little getaway all the more fun, but not these days. Maybe at the beginning he’d gone after Rosana partly to tweak the other alpha, but he’d long since admitted to himself that he’d want her no matter who she was.

“Don’t worry. No one knows I’m here.”

He played with the pretty silver charm on her wrist. “What if he asks you straight out?”

She moved a shoulder. “I love Dion. He pretty much raised me and Tiago after my mom and dad disappeared.”

Adric nodded. There wasn’t much he didn’t know about the do Rio family, including that Rosana’s parents had been captured by King Sindre when she was just six, leaving Dion to raise both her and Tiago.

There were two middle brothers, but they’d left Rock Run rather than challenge their oldest brother for alpha.

“And he’s my alpha,” she continued, “but that makes him my boss, not my master. If he asks straight out, I won’t lie, but otherwise, this is between you and me. It’s none of his business.”

“We’re rival alphas, love. What I do will always be his business, and vice versa.”

“So this is it?” She pulled away and sat up. “One night and nothing else?”

He stared up at her. “That was the agreement.”

But fuck, he wished it were different.

Hurt flickered across her face.

“Hey.” He touched her hand. “You know it can’t be more than that.”

Rosana’s mouth twisted.

He swallowed against the desire to apologize, to somehow take the words back. He owed her honesty, at least.

“Right.” She averted her face. “I understand.”

“Rosana…”

She cut him off with a sharp shake of her head, then rose up on her knees.

His hand fisted. She was going to ask him to take her home, and he’d have to be a fucking gentleman about it. But instead, she straddled him, brought his hands to her high, full breasts. She looked down at him, cobalt eyes unreadable.

He held his breath, but he couldn’t stop his thumbs from caressing her pretty nipples. They beaded under his touch, and his dick twitched in response.

The corner of her mouth edged up. She traced two fingers down his forearm, and every nerve in his body felt the shock wave.

“Then we’d better not waste any time.”