Zach groaned as she started clenching around him, thrusting in harder, faster. Teri could feel a scream starting in her chest as the pleasure ratcheted up, higher and higher, the tightness building. Zach was pressing hard against that spot inside her that made her muscles lock up, overwhelmed by sensation, and he stroked over it, and over it, and over it—
Teri came. Her shriek echoed in her ears. Zach kept moving, stroking her through it, as she spasmed around him and bit down hard on his shoulder. “Teri,” he groaned. “I love you, I love you, I—oh, fuck—”
He kissed her as he came. Teri sucked on his tongue as the last aftershocks wrung her out, shuddering weakly underneath him. All she could feel was Zach. All she could smell, all she could taste...it was like they really had become one person. Like she could feel Zach’s heart beating inside her own chest, hold his own self inside of her.
“I love you,” she sighed. “Oh, God, I do love you.” It was true. She was overflowing with love for him. She felt like she was spilling it out of her—like it was too much love to contain in her skin.
Slowly, slowly, Zach relaxed over her. His muscles, knotted up with orgasm, untensed, and he let himself come down next to her on the bed. He was looking at her like she was...something precious. There was a light in his silver-gray eyes that she hadn’t seen before. He reached up, and his fingers brushed through her hair, down her cheek.
Teri thought about saying something, like, Wow, or, That was amazing, but she didn’t want to add anything else to this moment. It was perfect the way it was.
So instead she reached out and ran a hand down Zach’s side, marveling at how smooth his skin was, and cupped his hip, looking into his eyes. She just wanted this: looking at Zach, touching him, feeling his warmth and love surrounding her.
She didn’t know how long they stayed there in that little pocket of heat. Zach’s thumb glided across her cheekbone, while Teri stroked her own thumb over his hip. Those little touches connected their whole bodies; Teri felt like their heartbeats were synced, like her heart was pumping blood through Zach’s body, and vice versa.
Finally, after a long time, Zach leaned in to press a soft, gentle kiss to her lips, and then pulled back. He got up, and Teri heard him moving around in the bathroom, water running.
Alone, Teri stretched out, marveling at how good she felt. If she’d taken the time to think about it, she would have said she probably wasn’t up for sex that...vigorous. But she hadn’t hurt herself anywhere at all. She was just pleasantly achy, like after a physical therapy session.
Or, well, a lot better than after a physical therapy session. But she didn’t feel like she’d exerted herself too much. The thought made her wiggle in pleasure—she was definitely, absolutely better. Being able to go nuts like that in bed...surely that had to be the final sign that she was better.
Too bad she couldn’t use this as evidence for her mother and Dr. Campbell.
When Zach came back, he pulled back the covers, and they crawled in together.
“I’ve never felt anything like that before,” Teri confessed once they were curled up together in the blankets. She kept her voice quiet. It still felt like they were inhabiting some precious space together, and she didn’t want to shatter it.
“Neither have I.” Zach
’s voice was quiet, too, a deep purr. “Teri...” he trailed off.
“What?”
“You said you loved me.”
Teri thought she should probably be embarrassed. Who said they loved each other on a first date? But...Zach had said it too. And she didn’t want to take it back, because she still felt it. She felt overcome by how much she loved him. “I did. I do.”
“I do, too. Do you remember, earlier tonight, when I was talking about...shapeshifter relationships?”
He’d been talking about his parents, about how they ran away because they were—“Mates,” Teri said, hearing the awe in her own voice. The skepticism she’d felt about the concept earlier had melted away, somehow. All she felt was wonder. “Are you saying we’re mates?”
“Yes.” His voice was deep and sure. “Teri, I knew there was something special about you from the moment I saw you. I wanted to be closer to you every time we were together. But it wasn’t until just now that I realized what that meant. We’re mates. We’re meant to be together.”
Meant to be together. “Does that mean...forever? Is it like being married?”
Zach hesitated, and then nodded; Teri felt the motion more than she saw it. “My parents said that for shifters, it was even more than being married. Closer, more permanent.”
“Permanent,” Teri said wonderingly.
She thought about what that might mean. She and Zach were meant to be together. That meant that her crazy fantasy—living here in this house with him, watching him build his deck and coming to barbecues where kids ran around and neighbors chatted—that could all be real.
“Are you all right with that?” Zach asked tentatively. “I know that if you weren’t raised by shifters, it might seem too—sudden, or too intense. It’s okay if you’d rather take this more slowly.”
“No!” Teri said, almost surprised by her own vehemence. “No. I don’t want to take it slowly. I don’t think it’s too sudden or too intense. I—I—” Unexpectedly, she felt her eyes filling up with tears. “I never thought I’d have something like this.”
“Teri, what’s wrong?” Zach’s fingers were brushing her cheek again, his thumb swiping the corner of her eye and coming away wet.
“I always—my relationships in the past have always been...dry. Friendly. Men that I liked just fine, that I didn’t mind touching or having them touch me.” At those words, Zach tugged her close; she wasn’t sure if it was jealousy at the thought of other men, or the desire to show her what it was like touching someone she really wanted.