Brochan mumbled her name, and Viola soaked in a haze of warm, wondrous contentment. He might not be the only one falling in love. In the core of her being, she knew they had a chance at happiness here. But…
Would he pass her test?
Tension settled into her bones. Sweat glazed her palms. He was loyal to a fault, yes, but was he loyal enough? She refused to offer her heart to anyone with skewed loyalties. Good intensions were nice and all, but they meant nothing when compared to genuine dependability.
Stomach hollowing, Viola untangled from her companion. She rose, careful not to wake the beasts, both the big and the small. In the bathroom, she brushed her teeth and activated the shower, seeking the comfort of the water. Her most troubling musings followed her. She didn’t want to lose Brochan. There was no warrior fiercer, more brilliant, or more beautiful, and she deserved the best. He had to pass her test. He just…had to.
A snarl sounded behind her, startling her. She whipped her head around and gasped. “Brochan.”
He loomed in the entrance to the stall, his hands braced on opposite sides of the wall, his naked body leaning in. Any trace of his humanity was gone. His horns stood straight up. Flames had melted his irises. Like mercury. Aggression rippled through his wings. The muscles in his abdomen looked as if he smuggled rocks under his blue skin. He pitched his breaths.
He was hard. “I woke up and you were gone. I thought you’d left me again.”
A pang rent her chest, and her stomach fluttered. This ferocious male would absolutely pass her test.
Softening, she told him, “I won’t leave you without speaking to you first.”
“You won’t leave me at all,” he said, his voice like gravel. Wow! The thought of not having her in his life, even for a moment, had wrecked him.
She dipped her gaze over his body. “Is that what you came to tell me?”
“I heard the water and remembered everything I regretted not doing before.” He stepped into the stall. A single step.
“Whoa. Hold up.” She held out her hands to ward him off. “Before we go any further, we should talk.” The test… Best to get it over with.
Concern exploded from him. “Do you still feel sick? Unwell or weak in any way?”
“No. I’m good to go.”
“Do you worry Fluffy might see something he shouldn’t? Because he left the bedroom at my urging.”
“No,” she repeated with a shake of her head.
He didn’t relax, tension crackling in the air. “Then I don’t want to talk. I want to take what’s mine.”
Okay. All right. That might be the sexiest thing she’d ever heard. Her resistance crumbled. The test could wait. “I’m yours, then?”
“You are. Know this, kitten. You have my pledge of eternal devotion. You are my mate. My wife.”
His wife? Heavy eyelids sank low as she purred, “Come here, beast.”
He needed no further encouragement, stalking toward her. “One day, you’ll call me husband.”
She…might.
He clasped her waist and half-walked half-carried her to the far side of the stall, where he pressed her against the cool tile and kissed her. As his lips crashed into hers, she wound her arms around him and hooked a leg over his backside.
He kissed her hard, and he kissed her well, devouring her. His exquisite taste tantalized her. Though his skin appeared ice-cold, it burned white-hot, searing her to the bone. He kneaded and plumped her breasts as he nibbled the length of her throat.
Soul-shattering bliss. Desperate to give the same, she clasped the base of his ebony horns and stroked up. His spine bowed, his head angling toward the ceiling as he unleashed a mighty roar.
The moment he went silent, he whipped his mouth back to hers, feasting. By the time he next lifted his head, they were both panting.
He pressed his forehead to hers and growled against her lips. “I want to taste you. Slide inside you. Savor. Rush.” Claws retracted, he traced a hand over her belly, straight into her slick desire. “I wish to do everything all at once.”
Gasps escaped her as he plunged a finger deep. “Brochan!”
“Never felt anything so perfect as you.”
Shivers rained over her as surely as the water. Cells flamed, heating the blood in her veins. Limbs trembled. How she ached. Insatiable aches erupted here, there, and there, no part of her unaffected.
She needed…she needed. “On your knees. Taste me.”
“Yes.” He dropped fast, only to pause, stare and slowly run his tongue over his teeth.
And she’d thought him stripped of civility before. No, oh no. This was uncivilized, ravenous hunger etched the lines of his face. “Tell me if I do something wrong.”
He’d never done this before? Would he like it? “I guarantee I’ll love every second.”
With his hands bracketing her waist, he leaned closer, his tongue peeking out…