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eighteen

MOLLY

Cam didn’t pick me up off the table and carry me straight upstairs like I expected him to.

Instead, he kissed me.

Slowly.

And peeled my robe off when he did, letting the silk fall to the table.

The kiss caught me off-guard, but not in a bad way. Not at all. I hadn’t made out with someone in years, and I’d forgotten how much I liked it.

The kiss was hot, and my need swelled with every minute that passed.

My legs hooked around Cam’s waist, and I rubbed myself against him as he kissed me, needing the friction to push me closer to the edge.

Right before I managed to climax, he pulled my legs off his hips and lifted me off the table by my ass.

I groaned into his mouth, and he trailed his lips down my throat as he carried me up the stairs.

“You don’t get to come until you’re wrapped around my cock, Lollipop. We’re done playing games.”

We reached the bedroom quickly, and he set me on the edge of the mattress before stepping back. I thought he planned on taking his pants off, but instead, he just looked at me.

Slowly.

Hotly.

“Fuck, I am a lucky man,” he said, running a hand over his stubbly chin. “Open your thighs for me.”

I opened them, leaning back on the bed as my legs hung off.

“Wider, Lolli.”

I did as he’d commanded, the need so intense I couldn’t help but tease my clit a little.

He growled low in his throat and pushed his joggers down his thighs. His cock sprang free, thick, hard, and leaking from the tip. “Don’t even think about getting yourself off.”

“Then give me what I need,” I shot back.

“What do you need?” he stepped up to the edge of the bed, just as naked as I was. When he leaned over me, I slowly lowered my back to the bed until our bare chests were touching.

“You.” I wrapped my hand around his length, and he growled again for me.

“This is what you want?” He put his hand over mine and guided his cock to my core, dragging the head of it over my clit.

My hips jerked, and I released him. “Hell yes.”

The words earned me a low, sexy chuckle. “Alright, Lollipop. You remember the words?”

The words…

The vow.

The mate bond.

I nodded, and he lined us up.

Then, slowly, he thrust in.

My thoughts went blank.

Any and all words died way before they reached my throat.

The tip of him was inside me—stretching me—and he was huge.

The feeling was unreal.

“Breathe,” he ordered, and I took a shallow breath.

Cam opened me wider, and sank in another inch.

My chest started rising and falling quickly.

The fullness…

The intensity…

“Are you sure you’re going to fit?” I groaned.

He chuckled roughly. “I’m sure, Loll. How are you feeling?”

“Good. Full.” I managed.

“You feel fucking perfect. Better than perfect. Do you need a minute?”

“No.”

He thrust lightly again, and I gasped as he filled even more of me.

“Keep breathing.” He stroked the inside of my thigh lightly.

“Is it always going to feel like this?” I moaned.

Because it was good—but overwhelming.

So overwhelming.

“Tight, yes. But not this tight. Your body will adjust for me during the change.”

He thrust in another inch.

My back arched, but he held me in place.

“You’re doing perfect, Loll.”

I moved my hips a little, taking him in deeper.

He gritted his teeth.

“Give me all of it. I don’t want to wait,” I ordered, though still breathless.

“It’ll be better if?—”

“Now, Cam.” If he got to give me orders, he could follow mine too.

He growled, but thrust.

A cry of pleasure tore through me as my body arched, tightening around and against his thick erection. He’d bottomed out inside me—and he wasn’t going anywhere.

I was so, so close to the edge—but I couldn’t finish.

Not until I bound us together, like he wanted.

Needed.

And I needed that too.

“I’m yours,” I said. “I’m yours, Cam.”

He growled fiercely. “And I’m yours, Lollipop. Forever.”

He thrusted hard, and I detonated.

My scream of pleasure tore through the air as my body moved with the intensity of the climax.

Cameron snarled with his release, and the heat of it dragged out my orgasm even longer.

My back arched.

My body rocked.

Warmth rolled through my veins.

And I felt my shoulders sort of… stretch.

He flipped us so he was beneath me, but I barely noticed the motion.

A new, comforting weight pressed against my upper back as I leaned over him, panting and holding myself up with my hands on his chest.

His were on my waist, his grip firm enough that I knew he’d catch me if I started to crash down.

“I have wings, don’t I?” I whispered, still struggling to breathe.

“You do.” His eyes held mine, his fingers not reaching for the soft feathers I could feel brushing my bare back.

“How do they look?”

“Almost as stunning as the rest of you.” One of his hands lifted to my breasts, and he dragged a finger lightly over my tight nipple. I rocked a little, and his lips curved upward. “How do they feel?”

“Weird. Heavy.”

He chuckled. “It’ll take time to adjust to them.”

“I’m sure. At least I won’t have horns. My head would get too heavy to hold up.”

He snorted. “You’d manage.”

“I don’t think so.” I tried to raise my wings, but nothing happened when I did. “I don’t think I can move them.”

“The muscles will strengthen over the next few days. How much can you feel them?”

“I don’t know. Touch one.”

His eyes heated. “If I do that, you’ll have to ride my cock again, Lollipop.”

“Last I checked, I am still riding you.”

His lips curved in a wicked smile. “Must’ve forgotten.”

“Liar. You’re still throbbing inside me.” I moved my hips, and his wickedness faded, replaced with pure lust.

His fingers lifted to one of my wings, and I shuddered violently as he lightly touched the center of it.

“Sensitive. Too sensitive,” I choked out. “Not in a sexy way.”

“Sorry, Loll.” He captured my nipple again and pinched it lightly. “You feel amazing. Let me make you feel good again.”

“Are you asking if you can fuck me while you’re still inside me? That’s counterintuitive. Just do it.”

Those wings were really damn heavy.

My gaze was locked on his hand as fire danced over his fingertips.

Where his fire touched me, pleasure sizzled against my skin in a deliciously foreign way.

He trailed his fingers down my abdomen until they reached my clit, and holy hell, the intensity of his magic had me arching and climaxing with just the smallest touch.

The hand he didn’t have on my center remained on my hip, holding me up through my pleasure.

When I collapsed against his chest, trapping his arm between us, I was panting again. My heart beat wildly, and I tried desperately to catch my breath.

“What are you doing to me?” My body was trembling, and I somehow still wanted more. The thick erection still buried inside me wasn’t doing anything to ease that.

“Making you mine, Lollipop.” He captured my mouth with his, and I couldn’t help but kiss him back passionately. His fire reignited, and he carefully rolled us over again. I sucked in a breath when my wings met the blankets, but the light pressure felt nice after the initial shock.

When he started to move again, it was slower.

Sweeter.

More intimate.

And as we found our releases together once more, it didn’t feel like fucking.

It felt like… something bigger.

Maybe even a little bit like love.

Cam lifted me back on top of his body after we came down from the high. His cock was finally softening beneath my hip, and I was more relaxed than I’d been in ages.

Maybe ever.

He had one of his hands buried in my hair again, and was teasing the damp strands lightly as he played with them.

“Well?” he asked me.

“Well what?” I mumbled against his chest.

“Well, do you hate me again?” His voice was playful, but I heard something in his words. Something almost hesitant.

“I never hated you, Cam. If I did, I would’ve picked Kyle.”

He snorted. “It would’ve been a terrible choice, really.”

I laughed. “He’s not that bad when you get to know him.” After a pause, I amended the statement. “For some people. Probably.”

“Maybe.”

I couldn’t fight my smile. “Your mom left me a note in the suitcase. Did you read it?”

“No. I assumed your grandma packed it.”

“She did, first. Apparently it was full of racy lingerie.”

Cam laughed. “That woman really does love me.”

“She does. Thankfully, your mom pulled out everything my grandma packed and replaced it with actual clothes.”

“Damn her,” he murmured. “I told you she’ll prefer you over me when this is said and done.”

There was no heat behind the words. Only warmth.

I bit my lower lip, not sure if I should leave it at that or ask him about the pictures.

My desire for knowledge won out after a moment, and I lifted myself up over him again. My hands were on his chest once more, propping me up. “She put two pictures in the letter.”

His forehead creased. “Pictures of what?”

“You. Before you met me, and after. She said you’re happier with me.”

The creases vanished. “Ah.”

“Yeah.”

He wrapped a strand of my hair around his fingers slowly before admitting, “I wasn’t in a great place, mentally, when the conversation I told you about happened.”

“The conversation where they threatened to force you into Bachelorette and you countered with becoming my guard?”

“That’s the one.” He continued twisting the strands, then untwisted them before finally going on. “I was in a dark place. Had been, for a while. More than a century.”

“How old are you?”

“A few years under three hundred. That’s about the cutoff, as far as living without a mate goes. No one makes it to three centuries alone.”

Shit.

I knew fae aged differently than humans, but still.

That was a lot of years.

A lot of dark years, if what he was saying was true.

“I was hoping my time would be up sooner rather than later. I’d started fading a little. I suppose humans would call it depression, but for fae, it’s something even more intense. We begin losing our magic, and with it, our lives.”

His gaze was on the strands of hair he was still playing with, wrapping and unwrapping them from his fingers.

“You don’t have to tell me, if it’s uncomfortable to talk about,” I said.

“You deserve to know.” His words were simple.

Soft.

Sweet.

My chest ached for him anyway.

“I didn’t particularly want a mate. Never really had. I’m sure I could’ve found one earlier, but the desire wasn’t there. I knew it would kill my parents to see me fade entirely, but I wasn’t going on Bachelorette. Someone would’ve died if I had. Possibly many someones. Myself included. Though I countered with the guard plan, I didn’t truly want it to work out.”

Staying quiet, I gave him time to work through his thoughts and feelings.

“But then I saw you,” he said, lifting his gaze to mine.

There was something in it.

Something deep, and intense.

“In the introduction video you sent with your bloodwork, you were uncomfortable. Most of the compatible mates were, but you weren’t as bad as most. And the sweater you had on—a sweater, despite it being the middle of summer—was yellow.”

My throat swelled as I realized where he was going with that.

Why he’d picked me.

His lips curved slightly.

“The words made me snort. Good morning, Sunshine ? And the skull in the sun? It was fun. I thought, a woman who would wear a sweater in the summer, and hit the Society in the face with sarcasm in the process, was a woman who might be able to pull me out of the dark place I’d been in. So I picked you, I showed up at your door, and found you with that lollipop in your mouth—and you were even more annoyed to see me than I expected. It was perfect.”

I bit my lip.

He had been quieter when we first met. He’d teased me less.

The longer we’d known each other, the more playful he grew.

And the more freely I teased him back.

“The darkness around me dissipated every day. I don’t know if you dispelled it, or if I forced myself to do that because I wanted more time with you, but it did fade. It felt like I was coming back to life. You became my purpose. The center of my world. My everything.”

The man had clawed his way back to life because of me.

For me.

It was no wonder he’d voted Chris out.

“And now, you’re my mate.” He pulled my face down to his and kissed me slowly.

Tenderly.

“What if I’m not enough to keep you here?” I asked, quietly.

“Mated fae don’t fade. The magic prevents it. When they pass on, it’s either from a wound they can’t recover from, or a clear choice they both agree to make.”

The slight tension in my shoulders eased.

“You saved me, Lolli. The rest of our lives, I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure you’re blissfully happy.”

“Don’t give me credit for that. I just existed. You saved yourself.” I lowered my chest back to his and rested the side of my face against him. “This probably isn’t the right time to say it, but I think I’m falling in love with you.”

“Finally.”

I batted his arm lightly, and he laughed.

He’d already said he loved me, so it wasn’t like he hadn’t reciprocated.

Then, his stomach rumbled beneath me.

“I knew you didn’t eat enough pasta,” I grumbled.

“Wasn’t hungry for it.” He sucked lightly on my shoulder, making me shiver. “It won’t be long until the mate bond is pushing us together again. I need to feed you before we get there.”

I sighed dramatically, but agreed.

My wings still felt heavy as he scooped me out of the bed and carried me back down the stairs—but the weight of them was kind of nice.