Page 90 of The Delta’s Rogue (Crescent Lake #4)

It’s a near moonless night. The stars shine brighter, making up for the lack of light. Our attack on the traffickers will happen tomorrow, when it’s a new moon. It seems fitting to end them on the darkest night of the cycle.

Our plans are in place. We’ve reviewed them countless times, until everyone could say them backward and forward and in their sleep.

But tonight, I’m not thinking of battle strategy or coming up with worst-case scenarios and how to counter them. Tonight, there is only one thing on my mind.

I glance over my shoulder from between the partially opened drapes. Sarina exits the bathroom—hair damp, face clean, and dressed in one of my T-shirts. I hold my arm out to her, leaving it hanging in midair so she can join me at the window, tucked safely into my side.

She strolls over to me and settles into the exact spot I wanted, with her arms around my waist, head on my chest, and her body pressed completely against mine. I wrap my arms around her shoulders and play with her hair, brushing the strands away from her neck and scars.

My gaze lingers there. On Sarina’s neck. Her pulse flutters beneath the skin. It’s strongest in that place where my canines will pierce her flesh when I mark her as my mate forever.

I want that night to be tonight. For so many reasons, I want that night to be tonight, and none of them have anything to do with fulfilling my own baser needs. But other than our one moment after my shower earlier this week, she hasn’t initiated any further intimacy with me.

I’m terrified I pushed her too far, that what we did hurt her more than it healed her, so I haven’t attempted to start anything or take anything further than sweet kisses, tender embraces, and keeping her within the safety of my arms all night long.

My hand strokes from the ends of her hair down her spine, and she lifts her chin, rising on her toes to place her lips on mine. My palm flattens against the small of her back to bring her closer to me, so all of her is touching all of me and there’s no room for anything between our bodies.

But the kiss ends all too soon. She lowers her heels to the floor and leans away, scanning my face as I don’t let her move any further from me—not that she tries.

“You’re worried,” she says.

I tighten my arms around her as my response. I can’t speak. If I open my mouth, I may suggest something I regret, something she may not be ready for.

“I’m worried too,” she replies to my unspoken reply. Her heart picks up its pace, and her tongue parts the seam of her lips. “I had a thought…”

Her chin dips, and she swallows. My eyes lock onto her neck again, and I clench my jaw against the urge to ask her for what I want, what I so desperately and urgently need .

“I want you to mark me,” Sarina whispers, asking for the thing I’m too hesitant to ask her for.

My nostrils flare as my focus snaps back to her face to make certain I heard her right. “Are you sure?”

“Maybe if you mark me, my lycan will wake up.”

“Sarina…” I rest my forehead against hers.

“I want to mark you. It would be a lie if I said I haven’t thought about it.

I’ve been thinking about it with increasing frequency since I found you.

I keep thinking about that stupid law and how the only way to ensure no one can take you from me is if you’re marked.

But marking is a special moment between mates, and if attempting to wake up your lycan is the only reason you’re asking me to do it, then—”

“It’s not just that,” she interjects. “I want you to. I want you. All of you. I want your mark on my neck. I want us to go into this battle with a completed bond, or as completed as it can be. ”

My breath hitches as I slide my hand to her neck. I trace over her marking spot, and her breathing mimics mine.

“?Estás segura?” I ask.

I need her to be sure. I can’t go through with this if there’s any hesitation within her.

“ Tan segura como las estrellas que te guiaron de vuelta a mí .” Her eyes stay locked on mine as she repeats herself. “As sure as the stars that led you back to me.”

Sarina’s chin tips to the side. She bares her throat, her pulse beating faster than it did when she joined me at the window. Its fluttering rhythm ensnares my entire focus, and I growl, spinning us so she’s pressed against the window.

My forearm rests on the cool glass. I drag my nose down her cheek to her neck, inhaling deeply as I go, filling my lungs with her scent.

Her fingertips skate across my bare abdomen as I drop the smallest, sweetest kisses around the spot where I’ll place my mark, but she offers nothing further than those subtle, teasing touches.

She submits herself to me. Sarina gives me the power, the dominance.

She told me what she wanted, and now she’s waiting for me to give it to her in whatever way I choose.

But I need to ensure she feels safe.

“How do you want to do this?” I reluctantly straighten and remove myself from her neck. “I don’t want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable or—”

“I want it all,” she interjects. “Don’t hold yourself back from me. I have my safe word if I need it”—her back arches as she reaches for the hem of her shirt, and her lips twitch with a sexy, sassy half-smile that has my dick straining against the confines of my clothing—“but I won’t.”

She slips the shirt off. The fabric drops to the floor with the softest rustle, leaving her completely naked.

She’s been naked in front of me on several occasions since I rescued her, but none of those were by her own choice. So, for the first time, I allow myself to look at her. I let my eyes travel over every inch of her bare skin.

Her heart and her breathing pick up their speed as my gaze moves at a leisurely pace. I take my time to appreciate her body with my eyes, letting them linger on all the places I’m most eager to touch and explore again—her breasts and her pussy, specifically.

She’s more beautiful than I remember .

Sarina grips the window ledge tightly as I lean over her, my palms pressed against the cool glass. Her lips part in a silent sigh, and I hover my mouth right over hers, daring her to dart forward and kiss me.

“ Eres mas hermosa de lo que recuerdo ,” I whisper.

My lips brush hers with every syllable, and my hand slides into the hair at her nape so her face angles higher. Our breaths mix as she waits for me to kiss her.

She may have asked for this moment, this merging of our souls and our love, but she places her trust in me to guide us through this pivotal event in our relationship.

Because I am her king. Her mate. Hers .

She owns all of me, and there’s no one else I’d rather be owned by.

I kiss the corner of her mouth, then coast across the swell of her lips to the opposite corner, where I place another kiss. I continue pressing my lips to her skin, along her jawline and to her ear.

She strains against my hold on her, trying to turn her head to catch my mouth, but I tighten my grip on her hair and hold her in place.

“Keep still, mi reina . Let me worship your perfect, beautiful body.”

She makes a noise of frustration in her throat, and a flicker of disbelief, of uncertainty, whips across the bond towards me.

I stare at her, straightening myself to my full, towering stature. “You don’t think your body is perfect?” I arch a brow.

“I didn’t say—”

“I felt it,” I inform her, and her mouth snaps shut. “You don’t believe me? That you’re perfect?”

“I’m scarred.”

Pain fills every syllable of her confession. It’s etched into her words, her expression, and her soul as she strips away a layer of herself for me to witness this broken, demoralized part.

“I’m scarred on the outside and on the inside,” she repeats. “I’m broken, and a mess, and I look nothing like I did before I left you. I’m not perfect.”

My teeth grind together, and I shake my head as I release her from my grasp. “Turn around. ”

A ripple of my aura pulses out of me with my order. Not to force her to do what I said—I couldn’t do that even if I wanted to—but to give her a taste of the dominance she craves from me.

I saw the way my aura affected her the other day. I smelled it too. Her eyes swirled with desire—an echo of the way her arousal swirled through the air and into my lungs.

It does the same now.

As soon as my power washes over her, Sarina shudders.

She arches towards me, thrusting her chest forward and lifting her hardened nipples higher into the air.

She spins to face the window, and I slide up behind her until there is no space between us.

Delicious, glittering fireworks ignite across my skin where her naked body touches my bare chest and abdomen.

I glide my fingers up her sides, tracing over the flare of her hips and the dip of her waist, all the way up to her breasts. I cup them from below, and at the same moment, my lips meet her neck in a searing kiss. She rewards my touches and my kiss with the most beautiful moan I’ve ever heard.

I chuckle and pulse my hips forward, ensuring she feels my rock-hard dick through my sweatpants.

“Tell me, Sarina… If your body isn’t perfect, how could I possibly be this hard just from looking at you?

” I squeeze her breasts and roll my thumbs across her pretty nipples, watching her reaction in the window’s reflection.

“You haven’t touched me, and you don’t need to. Not when you’re this perfect.”

Her nails scrape against the glass as I continue to play with her nipples. I circle them with my fingertips and brush across them with the lightest touches before I tug at them, making them harder.

She gasps and tenses. Her eyes squeeze shut in overwhelming pleasure.

Another pulse of my aura flares out from me. “Open your eyes,” I command. “Look at your reflection as I’m playing with you. I want you to see yourself how I see you.”

“ Sebastián …” She groans, scratching the glass as she searches for something to hold on to.

“Open them, Sarina. Watch me touch you.”