Crimson Highlander (Onyx Assassins 2)

I let my hands fall to my sides, completely defeated. “I won’t take up any more of your time, then,” I said, walking toward the door, trying like hell to keep my head up when all I wanted to do was rush to my room and cry my eyes out.

“Aye,” he said, and his voice—despite the coldness in it—washed over me like the first breath after being underwater. “You probably have a lot of packing to do.”

I spun around to face him, my lips parted. “What?”

He shrugged, his eyes like ice. “Our little arrangement is over, right? I got your cousin back safely for you. That’s all the time we agreed to.”

“All the time we agreed to,” I repeated his words in a whisper. My heart hammered against my chest, threatening to break and burst out all at the same time.

“Aye,” he growled.

“I laid myself bare to you.” I glared up at him, taking one step toward him, then two. I stopped just shy of our bodies brushing. “And you haven’t given me one reason to stay,” I said, hating that my voice cracked.

His eyes guttered as he stared down at me. I could feel the heat swirling off his body, the bond between us going taut. “I love you, you stubborn, infuriating woman. If that isn’t reason enough—”

“And I love you, you cocky, highlander ass. I told you that—”

“Aye,” he cut me off, showing his fangs behind his lips. “You told me that right after you cuffed me with iron, Valor. Forgive me if I didn’t take your words seriously.”

I growled at him, and he smirked. “I was telling the truth! God, do you think for one second that if I didn’t love you, that if I didn’t want and need you like I need my next breath that I would’ve chained you to that bed?” I pointed behind me. “If I didn’t love you like I do, Lachlan, I would’ve let you storm that facility without a care in the world at what would happen to you. I would’ve let you walk into danger without the thought of you getting harmed crushing me to the point of panic. I would’ve—”

His lips crashed against mine, his fingers sinking into the strands of my hair. He tilted my head back so he could claim my mouth at a deeper angle, and I whimpered at the taste and feel of him.

I jerked my head back. “I love you,” I said, all the anger and desire rushing around my words. “And I’m…fuck, I’m lucky to be mated to you.”

That smirk returned, his eyes churning with wonder and love and desire. “Say it again.”

“Fuck.” I glared up at him.

He bared his fangs, his hold tightening in my hair. A thrill of heat shot straight through the middle of me as he walked me backward. “Say. It. Again.”

My thighs clenched at the demand in his tone, at the primal tenor that sent waves of heat along my skin.

“Fuck,” I teased, arching a brow at him.

He laughed, shaking his head. “You’re being naughty again,” he said, then gave my shoulders a gentle shove. I fell back onto his bed. “You know what I do to you when you’re naughty.”

Tendrils of warmth curled against my insides as he stalked me on the bed until he settled between my thighs. I sighed at the weight of him, at the feel of him against me.

Seconds, heartbeats, he’d stripped me bare. Then himself, until nothing separated us.

He planted light kisses against every inch of my skin, taking his sweet as time and never landing quite where I needed him.

“Lachlan,” I pled, my breaths coming too fast, my heart beating too hard with the need for him.

His eyes flashed to mine from between my thighs, from where he trailed his tongue along my inner thigh. “Yes, Valor?” he asked, his eyes all cocky and playful.

Two could play that game.

“Mate,” I said, never losing his gaze. “I want my mate.”

His eyes guttered, his fangs fully descending at the title I’d never fully acknowledged until now. He plunged downward, licking me with a long, lavish stroke that burned through the center of me. I arched upward, gasping at the contact.

“Yes,” I sighed as he feasted on me, no longer taking things slow. He licked and sucked and fucked me with his tongue until I shattered around him in a million sparkles of light. The bond yanked tight between us, coiling and twisting and pulsing. “I need you,” I said before he’d barely pulled away from me. I gripped his shoulders, urging him up, positioning him right between my thighs.

“Fuck, Valor,” he groaned as I wrapped my legs around his hips and used the leverage to take him into the hilt.

“I love you,” I breathed the words, reaching up to kiss him as he moved inside me. One hard thrust, then he paused, resting his forehead against mine.