Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
FIONA
N ever in my entire life have I felt more wanted by a man. Connor is over me, that enormous cock of his nudging my drenched pussy. The orgasm he gave me still rings through every inch of my body, bolstered by that purr vibrating against the inside of my skin. I want him in me so bad I could cry.
I grab his ass and arch against him, but he stays insufferably where he is.
His forehead lands on mine. “Say my name, Fiona. Tell me you’re mine.”
I breathe deeply of his scent, soaking in the magic of being the center of his universe. Say my name. We’re back to this, just as before. Of course he wants to hear it. After everything, he wants me to see him. To see him and to accept him the same way he sees me and accepts me. Why have I hesitated?
I look into his eyes and tell him the truth because he deserves to know. “It’s terrifying to be on the brink of having everything you ever wanted.” Emotion chokes off my voice until some of the words are only breath, but I suspect he can hear me down our bond. It’s like that connection is opening between us. I can feel his desire for me loud and clear. And so I project my feelings toward him. He has to know I want him too. “I’ve been alone a long time. The only one I’ve trusted is myself. Having you for forever is both a dream and a nightmare. Now you’re inside my heart, and if I lose you like I lost Marion, there will be nothing left of me.”
“You won’t lose me, Fiona. I’m hard to kill, remember?” He squeezes his eyes shut like he’s in pain, and I feel a surge of heat come off his skin. Down the bond, I feel him begging me. Please .
My next words, I make damn sure he can hear. “I love you, Connor. Claim me. I’m yours.”
“I love you, Fiona,” he says, and he enters me in one hard thrust. His lips brush my ear, his purr rumbling through me as he growls, “You’re mine.”
Stars become supernovas inside me. A million shooting fireworks fill my internal workings, and all I can do is lie back and absorb it because he’s moving, holding me in place as he thrusts so deep inside he seems to take up every bit of space under my skin. It’s almost too much, balancing on a thin line between pleasure and pain.
I think he can’t possibly go any deeper, not without splitting me open, but he hooks my legs over his shoulders and finds a way. Holy fuck, I’m stretched to my limit and completely full, his thrusts pounding into the core of me as if he could touch my soul from the inside. Maybe he can. I have no other explanation for the connection I feel to this man.
Our eyes meet and hold. This is beyond physical. We’re like two live wires twisting around each other, being fused together into something new.
Everything in my life has led up to this. Everything is right and meaningful and purposeful because I am here and he is here, finally together, our souls perfectly aligned.
I feel whole.
I feel loved.
With barely a nudge, I coax him onto his back, my hands on his chest as I ride him until my body is humming, balanced on the edge of another orgasm. His purr rumbles through me once more. His eyes glow brighter, that inner dragon staring up at me as I arch my back and grind against him. “By the creator, Fi, I’ve waited for this for so long. The way we fit. I never want to be without you again.” He reaches between us and thumbs my clit. I throw my head back and tumble over the edge, collapsing onto his chest.
My body still rings with pleasure as he flips us over and flaps his wings. We lift off the floor. I reposition my legs, locking my ankles behind his hips and clinging tight to his neck with my arms as another orgasm slams into me, knocking me into oblivion. Inside, he lengthens, thickens, and I feel him coming too, giving me what my body so desperately wants. Hot jets fill me. Liquid fire that feeds the flame within. My orgasms come one on top of the other until I don’t know where one ends and the next begins. My body milks his, taking everything he has to give me.
When we finally descend, he lands on his back on the floor, wings splayed. I’m lying on top of him, both of us panting, deeply connected. Skin to skin. His wings rise to wrap around us, swaddling me in their ridged velvet. I rest my head on his chest and kiss the underside of his jaw.
“I feel like a burrito,” I say.
“Are you too warm?” he mumbles sleepily.
“No, surprisingly. I think you’re cooling off.” I hold a palm to his head.
“Fever’s fed,” he mumbles, his eyes drooping.
It suddenly dawns on me that we’re in the middle of the living room. “Um, should we move to the bedroom before Zaire gets an eyeful?”
“He’s been in his room watching a movie with Bones since we came in from outside.”
“How do you know that?”
“He’s my Firetender.”
“You have a psychic bond with him as well?”
“Yup.” His hand covers his mouth as he yawns. “Sleepy. Give me ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes until what?”
He pops an eye open, now deep blue again. “Round two,” he rumbles.
“Oh!” I grin, resting my head and feeling completely content. After a few minutes, his breath evens out and I’m pretty sure he’s asleep.
I should have some anxiety about what just happened. I bound myself to a creature I never knew existed until three weeks ago. Bound in a way that I’m pretty sure is a bigger commitment than marriage. And as if that isn’t the most illogical decision I’ve ever made, we didn’t use protection. Strangely though, I’m not worried about it. The idea of having Connor’s baby doesn’t scare me at all. I can picture it actually, as clearly as I’d pictured him in my imagination before we met when I created Henrik. A little boy with Connor’s blue eyes and my auburn hair. I never thought I’d want that, but I do. I imagine holding him on my hip, watching Little League games, his father teaching him to fly.
Lips press to the top of my head, and I’m suddenly aware that Connor is no longer breathing evenly. In fact, his enormous cock is rock-hard again and jabbing into my stomach. The pounding of his heart is a steady thump against my chest.
“That was barely a minute,” I whisper, fluttering a kiss along his jaw.
“How do you expect me to sleep with you projecting images of our would-be child into my head?” Somehow, although it seems to defy the law of gravity, he flexes his wings and we rise together, me cradled in his arms. He walks me into his bedroom. “All I can think about now is putting a babe in your belly.”
Heat creeps from my jaw to my hairline. “You heard that?”
“Loud and clear.” He throws me down on the duvet, and I bounce once before settling into the mattress.
“You’re so good at reading my mind.” I roll onto my hands and knees, then crawl to where he stands at the end of the bed, spreading my thighs as I sit back on my heels. I wrap my hand around his massive cock and stroke from base to tip. Leaning forward, I run my tongue around the ridge, reveling in how he hisses when I draw him entirely into my mouth. He tastes of me, of us, and I hum in appreciation. “What am I thinking about now?”
“Creator Blessed, Fi, what you do to me.” His hands are in my hair, gathering it into a ponytail behind my head.
I send him images of what I see, what I’m feeling. What he looked like to me the first time I saw him. The brightness of his smile as we walked in the sun. The feel of his hand on my face. The relief I felt when he unchained Alex. I parade out one happy thought after another as I hollow my cheeks and suck him deep. He growls his appreciation, but it’s that mating purr I feel inside me, like vibrating silk being threaded through the tapestry of my inner workings. Our souls are weaving together ever tighter, with every minute we touch. Every stroke of flesh on flesh.
He slides out of my mouth and reaches down to haul me up his chest, his mouth finding mine. I wrap my arms around his neck and my legs around his hips. He slides into me easily, smooth and hard as slick steel. It’s only been a few minutes since our first joining but having him inside me again is a relief. Why did I wait so long to do this?
He starts to move, his fingers lifting me by the thighs as he braces a foot on one of the leather ottomans for leverage. My nails are in his hair and then scraping along the strip of flesh between his shoulders where his wings join his back. His purr grows louder. He loves it when I stroke his wings. I follow that feeling, gripping one of the talons that hook from the apex and stroking the edge of his opposite wing. His hands circle my waist and he unleashes himself, lifting me and sinking into me, driving an impossibly fast rhythm.
This time my orgasm doesn’t bloom but explodes. It rocks through me, and I toss my head back and cry out. Everything is gone but a shower of stars, and then I’m on my back on the bed, my inner muscles squeezing as heat fills me again and his growl of pleasure rings in my ears. We’re both flying, our souls bound together in some endless tunnel of light while our bodies remain tethered to the earth.
It’s a long time before we come back down again.
“I am covered in you,” I say a while later, glancing down at the evidence of our lovemaking all over my lower belly and inner thighs.
“As it should be,” he mumbles through a lazy smile. He sweeps me off the bed and carries me into his adjacent bathroom, sitting me on the edge of the tub while he adjusts the knobs.
“I’m going to forget how to walk if you keep carrying me around like that.”
He kisses away my smile. “I’m okay with that.”
I watch the water rise in the enormous tub, and my thoughts settle back to earth like spindrift on the needles of evergreens.
“What happens now?” I ask, suddenly feeling breathless.
He smiles. “Now we get in the bathtub and clean you off, and then I’ll make you something to eat. ”
“No, I mean…” Fuck, I can’t fathom not sharing openly with him, not after what we just experienced together. “I don’t think I can go back to my life after you, Connor,” I say softly. “I’m trying to picture what happens next. Do I go back to my apartment in the Bronx? When we leave here, we’ll have to go our separate ways, at least for a while.”
“Why?” he rumbles.
“Because we’ve known each other for less than a month. Because I have a home and a career and so do you. Because it’s not like we’re married.”
“What were you going to do before?” He runs his fingers through the water, not looking at me.
He means what did I plan to do if I married Roman. “Well, I had plans to let my lease lapse.”
“Then do that. Let the place go. Move into my Manhattan apartment with me.”
“But…”
“Marry me. If you want to be married the human way, we’ll do it.”
I think about it, how crazy it all sounds, how anyone might cringe at how fast I’ve moved with Connor. How I don’t give a damn.
“Okay,” I say softly, offering him an intimate smile.
“Okay what?”
“Okay, I’ll marry you and move in with you.” I laugh at the absurdity. Oddly, I have no qualms about this plan.
His mouth spreads into a smile that takes over his entire face. “Problem solved.”
“Wow.” I stare at him for a second, taking him in. “I didn’t know how the mating sickness was weighing on you. When you smile now, it’s like...”
“I’m not in pain anymore.” Slowly he sinks into the warm water, then helps me in and settles me against his chest, tucking my head under his chin. The silky feel of the water, the heat, his skin, all feel like a balm for what’s been broken in me the past year.
I close my eyes. “Neither am I. It’s so strange. All of this feels like the most natural thing in the world. Shouldn’t I be more worried about taking this step? I’m beginning to think your dick is magic and you’ve fucked all my apprehensions out of me.”
He barks a laugh I feel against my cheek. “Well, my dick is magic, but I think what you’re feeling is our mating bond. Don’t be surprised if you experience other changes.”
“Like what?”
“Difficulty being apart, especially during my alignment. Extreme jealousy if you see me with another woman?—”
“Why would you be with another woman?” I ask, suddenly feeling a wave of that jealousy.
He laughs. “I do run a restaurant.”
“I’m a fan of an all-male waitstaff.”
“You won’t say that once you meet Carmen. You’re going to love her.”
I turn my face to kiss along his neck, feeling more alive than I’ve ever felt before, and in that perfect moment thinking about nothing else.