He moved over her, pressing her down onto the sand as his hungered kiss devoured all of her doubts and fears.
CHAPTER 31
He didn’t want to let go of her.
She felt too good, her soft body moving beneath him on the sand, holding him close as their mouths joined in a desperate tangling of lips and tongues and panting, fevered breaths. Although this stretch of the beach was secluded, kissing her like this was going to get out of hand quickly.
Hell, who was he kidding?
What he shared with Brynne had been out of his control from the start. He meant it when he said it didn’t matter that she was Breed or something darker. He craved her, cared for her. Felt more deeply for her than he ever had for another person in his life.
Holy fuck.
As the understanding settled on him, he drew back on a low growl and stared down into her beautiful, transformed face.
He was in love with her.
He wasn’t going to deny it anymore. Not to himself, at least. He couldn’t. Not the way his chest throbbed simply to be near her, to be touching her. To know that she was his.
After how she had looked at him here today—after all of the tender things she’d said—there was a part of him that believed she might love him too.
Forever, she’d said.
His heart had answered without hesitation.
Yes. Forever.
But the words stayed jammed in his throat. They were still there now, along with all of the promises he couldn’t make her until he was certain the target Selene had put on his back wouldn’t someday land on Brynne’s as well.
And the idea that his people and hers might one day be at war if Selene had anything to say about it?
That was a prospect he refused to consider, especially when Brynne was wrapped around him so deliciously, her hands tunneling into his hair to drag him down for another searing kiss.
He gave her what she demanded, then broke away on a hungered growl. “Give me your hand, love. I’m taking you to bed.”
Her eyes flashing with amber light, she smiled and placed her fingers in his palm. Zael hauled her up from the sand with him, unable to resist another kiss as he dragged her up against his rigid length. Her hand found his erection, but it was only a wicked tease before she danced out of his embrace and started jogging back toward the cottage.
Zael met her inside, flashing there in less than an instant.
She yelped as he caught her, caging her in his arms. “Cheat!”
“Never,” he swore solemnly, then lowered his head to kiss her again.
He didn’t need to feel the scrape of her fangs across his tongue or feel the heat of her amber irises radiating from behind her closed lids to know that she wanted him inside her as badly as he needed to be there. The sweet scent of her arousal jacked his pulse into a fevered tempo that made his cock surge heavy and rigid against her hip.
She arched into him as his mouth licked a trail from below her ear to the sensual curve of her neck and shoulder. He nipped at her tender skin, spurred on by her raspy cries of pleasure as his lips and tongue savored her heated response.
They undressed each other quickly, their need too urgent for patience.
Zael backed her toward the bed, his mouth still roaming her soft, naked skin and supple lips. She was panting and pliant in his arms, her curves crushed against the hard slabs of his body as he guided her over to the mattress and eased her down beneath him.
She spread her legs to receive him, her sex glistening and ready for him, so pink and pretty and perfect. He sank between her thighs on a low groan, wanting to savor every sensation yet knowing he was too far gone to be gentle.