“I want to feel your blood inside me, love.”
Her soft, indrawn breath seemed uncertain, as if she still didn’t quite believe that he could mean it. Before she had a chance to voice a single doubt, he lifted her chin and held her burning gaze.
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.” He kissed her, unrushed and meaningful, letting his tongue trace the razor-sharp tips. “Let me taste you, Brynne.”
When she hesitated, he took her hand in his and brought her wrist up to her mouth.
“You’ve given me your love,” he said, still amazed that she had. “Now, give me your bond.”
Brynne swallowed, her eyes never leaving his. She gently bit her wrist, then withdrew her fangs from her tender flesh and turned her wrist toward him.
He closed his mouth around the bleeding punctures, sealing his lips over the wound.
The first sip slammed into his senses, hard and powerful. He wasn’t expecting to feel the need it stirred within him, the deepening thirst for her.
He groaned with pleasure—with amazement—at the erotic taste and staggering force of her blood. He felt it surge into him like a wave of heat and energy, even more invigorating than the light that lived in him as an Atlantean.
His erection turned to granite with each draw from her vein. His desire ignited into a need that shocked him. One that demanded to be fulfilled.
He moaned, his hips flexing on their own, his cock pushing deeper, more urgently inside her. He could hardly hold on to his lust now. Like his love for her, his need was too strong.
It owned him, just as this woman did.
She gently pulled her wrist from his mouth and sealed the wounds with a little swipe of her pink, wet tongue. Her face was resplendent with desire and emotion, and the flush of her escalating release.
“Mine,” Zael growled.
Her answering smile nearly undid him.
“Mine,” she said, drawing him down for her passionate kiss.
He didn’t think his connection to her could be any stronger, but then he began to feel his pleasure mounting, doubling. The love he felt was growing, too, intensifying into something so profound he struggled to hold it all inside him.
It was Brynne.
He could feel her now, in his heart, in his blood.
“Yes,” she whispered, nodding. “Forever, Zael.”
She wrapped her arms and legs around him, holding him close as their bodies fell into an urgent, perfectly matched rhythm. They climaxed together, her cry joined with his hoarse shout. His orgasm would have been explosive enough by itself, but twined with the pleasure of hers it was staggering, the most intense rush of sensation he’d ever known.
And it wasn’t enough to sate him.
Zael rolled her onto her side to start another round of lovemaking.
It was a damned good thing they would have an eternity together, because the love and thirst he felt for this woman—his blood-bonded mate—knew no end.
CHAPTER 38
At dawn that next day, Brynne and Zael awoke to find the four colony elders on the doorstep of the cottage. They had arrived with a special request—and a gift for the newly mated couple.
They brought them down to the beach, to where the sailboat she and Zael had arrived on was moored and waiting at the end of the island’s stone dock.