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~ C leo ~

I never thought surrender could feel like freedom. When I looked into Devin’s eyes, chest heaving from the fight, skin flushed from heat and power, I knew. I was already his. There was no more room for fear.

I’d burned through it, melted it in the fire that now lived under my skin—his name etched into the molten core of my soul like a vow I hadn’t known I was making.

He sat on the edge of the bed, still catching his breath, his silver eyes locked on mine like I was both salvation and temptation. The room glowed gold from the lantern swinging gently overhead, casting shadows across the curves of his bare chest and the angular lines of his face. Pain in his gaze. A history of being hated. Feared. Rejected.

I wanted to kiss every wound. Hold his heart in gentle hands. Protect him. Not because I pitied him. But because I loved him. I loved this man. This Death Mage. This terrifying, fierce, relentless protector who would burn the world to ashes before he let anyone touch me.

Void take me—I wanted him hot and hard and rough inside me. Making me feel. Making me burn. Making me feel alive.

I moved slowly, aware of his gaze tracking every inch of me as I released the ties that held my gown in place. Toed off my new boots. Bared myself to him before crawling atop him on the tiny ship’s bed.

He didn’t speak. Didn’t move. Just waited—tense, coiled, as if afraid that if he reached for me, I might vanish.

I straddled his hips and cupped his face with both hands. “You’re mine,” I whispered.

His breath caught. His hands came up, wrapping around my waist, fingers splaying across my back, holding me like I was something fragile and rare. “I was yours the moment I saw you,” he said, voice low and rough.

I smiled through the tears I didn’t realize had gathered in my eyes. He pulled me onto his lap, fluid and powerful, and kissed me. It was different this time. Not desperate. Not wild.

It was reverent. Tender. As if we had all the time in the world. A kiss filled with promises and shadows and light—everything we were, everything we had survived, everything we were becoming.

He lifted me into his arms and laid me back on the bed like I was precious. His hands were rough as he laid claim to every rise and hollow, explored every curve, his mouth burning kisses along my collarbone, the curve of my shoulder, the hollow of my throat. Each touch sent shivers through me, sparks of golden fire racing through my blood.

I helped him undress, fingers working blindly at the clasps and belts, too consumed by the way his skin felt beneath my hands to focus. He was all strength and heat and shadows wrapped in flesh, the lines of his body carved by war and survival. And still he trembled beneath my touch.

He looked at me like I was the only thing holding him to the light.

We tangled together on the bed, limbs entwined, hearts beating in sync. He kissed every inch of me, slow and deliberate, worshipping me with hands and mouth like I was something sacred. My fingers explored the hard planes of his back, the curve of his shoulders, the roughness of old scars I longed to learn the story of.

Everywhere he touched, I burned. Everywhere I touched, he shivered.

It was like dancing with fire and shadow—our magics mingling, not in battle, but in harmony. My golden light curled around his darkness, not to smother it, but to embrace it. His shadows didn’t run from my fire—they folded around it, sheltering it, feeding it, letting it shine brighter.

He covered me perfectly and I tilted my hips to take him deep. I reached between us, positioned his hard length at my wet core and guided him inside. He thrust hard. Deep. One slow, solid claiming that made me whimper and moan. He held himself over me, stared into my eyes as he moved, hips thrusting, cock filling me up. Retreating. Marking me. Making me whole. When he moved inside me, it wasn’t just physical—it was soul-deep.

A fusion.

A claiming.

Not of ownership, but of belonging. We moved together, bodies driven mad with magic and desire. Lust. Belonging. Need. I’d never felt more alive, or more vulnerable. I hid nothing. Gave him everything. Let his magic curl into my chest and cool the fire that threatened to consume me.

We cried out together as our orgasms took over, an explosion of darkness behind my closed eyelids, shadows around my heart that made me feel protected. Complete. Loved. His.