I nodded with a smile. “Exactly. What the hell are we going to do with ourselves afterward? I can’t imagine what life looks like on the other side.”
He tipped my chin up to meet my gaze. “There’s an intimacy to the moment. We’ll become one and say words that will join our hearts and our magic.”
“Should I be concerned about that?”
“I’m not. I don’t think we could have bonded in the first place if we weren’t compatible in every way.”
At least one of us felt confident about it. The niggling worries in the back of my mind about our bonding surged up, pressing forward. He crashed his lips down on mine and everything went blissfully blank under the warm pressure of his lips.
I moaned, opening to him, curling my fingers around the back of his neck. When he pulled away, I whimpered, chasing his mouth as he retreated.
“Hey...” I grumbled.
“Soon. I saw fear rising up in you and I wanted to shut it down before you let it grow. Now, where was I?”
I wiggled in his lap. “Intimacy and joining, I think.”
“Behave. Let me explain it all and then we can play.”
The way he said play, all deep and lush, sent sparks through me until I felt breathless. “Fine. Talk. But I can’t guarantee how long I’ll be able to sit on your lap naked and behave myself.”
His lips curled up in a smile. “I better talk quickly then. First, we’ll get naked—”
I traced his jawline with my mouth. “I’m on board so far.”
“Then we’ll become one.”
Nipping him with my teeth, I continued my exploration down to his neck. “Still with you.”
“We’ll say words of commitment to one another, and then...” He trailed off going rigid as I sucked the skin at the hollow of his throat.
“Then?”
“Then,” he said, “we join our magic and it’ll be done.”
Finally, I stopped teasing him. “That doesn’t sound so bad to me.”
“It won’t be if you let me lead you through it.”
I pulled away from him with a frown. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
With a smile on his lips, he leaned down and brushed my mouth with his. “It means you have a habit of trying to take over unfamiliar situations to make yourself feel more in control. Let me lead and we’ll get to the other side.”
He didn’t have to call me out on it so blatantly while we were kind of having a moment, but I could see why he might want to stipulate those terms. In some cases, I had a habit of running through things like a freight train.
When I nodded, he gripped me tight around the waist, lowered me back onto the soft bedding, and climbed off the bed.
At my look of pouting disappointment, he winked and stripped his shirt over his head. He shoved his pants and underwear off at his feet. Then stalked from the pile of clothing to the bedside and climb up between my thighs. I opened for him, without conscious thought.
Something had shifted on his face. He was no longer the gentle lover but the claiming prince ready for his bride. While my feminism wanted to batter the walls of my mind, my body yielded completely, reaching out to him, dragging him into the cradle of my thighs as if he were made to be there.
“Are you sure about this?” he whispered aga
inst my mouth.
I nodded, clutching him around the neck as he settled his weight on top of me. It was great to have him there. He felt heavy, but in a comforting way, a reassuring way.
“If you keep asking me that, I might break something. I’m here, aren’t I?”