Chapter 12 #2
He stared at her like she’d offered him something impossible.
“You’re sure.”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.” She pulled him down and kissed him. Soft at first, then deeper. “I choose the risk. I choose you.”
His arms wrapped around her. Crushed her against his chest, like he’d never let go.
“Mine,” he murmured against her temple. “My kelarris. My heart.”
She didn’t know what kelarris meant. But she understood it. Felt it in the way he held her. In the tremor that ran through his massive frame.
“Yours,” she whispered back. “All yours.”
She chose him.
And for the first time since she’d arrived on this frozen, purple-snow planet, she was where she belonged.
When they got back they didn’t make it inside the house.
Juni wasn’t sure who moved first. One second they were climbing out of the transport, the cold air hitting her, and the next Goraath had her up against the side of the vehicle with his mouth on hers.
The kiss was brutal. Desperate. Nothing like the tender moments they’d shared before. This was teeth and tongue and the copper taste of blood where someone’s lip split. She didn’t know whose. Didn’t care.
He was alive, she was alive and that was all that mattered.
Her fingers clawed at his shoulders, his back, anywhere she could reach. She needed to feel him. Needed proof that this was real, that she wasn’t still in that alley with a blade at her throat and regret choking her.
“Inside,” she gasped against his mouth.
He made a sound low in his chest. Not agreement. A growl. Pure want.
Then he was lifting her, one arm hooked under her thighs, the other banded around her back. He didn’t carry her toward the house. He carried her around it, his stride eating up the distance like the cold didn’t exist and her weight was nothing.
The hot springs.
Steam rose in thick curls against the darkness, the water glowing faintly from some mineral she didn’t have a name for.
The same pool where she’d watched him rise from the water like some kind of holo-film star.
Where she’d hidden behind rocks and touched herself in her room after, desperate and needy.
Now he was bringing her here. Claiming this space and making it theirs.
Setting her on her feet at the edge, he went for her jacket, shoving it off her shoulders. It hit the rocks with a wet slap. Her thermal shirt followed, then his, both of them tearing at fabric with shaking fingers.
The cold should have been unbearable but she couldn’t feel it. Could only feel him… the heat radiating off his skin, the rough scrape of his calloused palms as he pushed her leggings down her hips.
“Goraath—”
“I need—” His voice cracked. Broke. “I almost lost you.”
“I know.” She kicked free of her boots, her leggings, stood naked before him in the freezing air. God, it was cold. “I know. I’m here. I’m right here.”
He stared at her like he was memorizing every inch. Like he still couldn’t believe she was real. Then he stripped off his remaining clothes and pulled her into the water.
The heat stole her breath for a second. The mineral smell of the springs filled her nose… sharp and sulphurous and nothing like Earth. His hands found her waist, lifting her, and she wrapped her legs around him as her back hit the smooth rock edge of the pool.
There was no foreplay and no gentle buildup. He positioned himself and thrust home in one stroke.
She cried out. The stretch burned—he was so big—but her body didn’t care. Her body wanted this. Wanted the proof of him inside her, filling her, alive and whole and hers.
He held there for a moment. Buried to the hilt. His forehead dropped against hers and his breath came ragged, hot against her lips.
“Juni. Look at me.”
She forced her eyes open. Met his eyes. Amber and burning and fixed on her like she was the only thing in the universe.
“You’re mine.” He pulled back, thrust again. Harder. “Say it.”
“Yours.” The word tore out of her on a moan. “I’m yours.”
He rewarded her with another thrust. Deeper this time. The angle dragged him against something inside her that made her whole body clench.
Fuck. She couldn’t think. Couldn’t do anything but feel.
“And I’m yours.” His grip on her hips shifted, tilting her pelvis, opening her further. “Whatever I was before. Whatever I am now. All of it. Yours.”
She couldn’t respond. Could only dig her nails into his shoulders and hold on.
He set a pace that was almost punishing.
Each stroke bottomed out inside her, his hips slapping against the backs of her thighs as the water churning around them with every thrust. The cold night air hit her wet shoulders and the contrast with the heat of the water, the heat of him inside her, made her head spin.
“More,” she gasped. “I need—”
He gave her more. One hand left her hip and fisted in her hair, pulling her head back to expose her throat.
His mouth found the spot where the blade had pressed and he kissed it.
Gentle amid the violence of their joining.
His tongue traced the line where the cut had been, the skin now smooth and healed but still sensitive.
That tenderness undid her.
“I thought I was going to die,” she gasped, her voice cracking. “I thought I was going to die and you’d never know—”
“I know.” His rhythm faltered for just a second, his hips stuttering. “I know, kelarris. I know.”
She was crying. When had she started crying?
The tears mixed with steam and sweat, tracked down her cheeks and dripped into the water. He kissed them away. Kissed her eyelids, her cheeks, and the corner of her mouth. All while he kept moving inside her. Never stopping or letting her forget he was there.
“I’ve got you,” he murmured against her skin. “I’ve got you. Let go.”
Her body obeyed before her mind caught up. She felt the orgasm coming a split second before it hit—the tiny flutters inside her, the way her body clamped down—and then it crashed over her.
She screamed his name to the night sky, her inner muscles squeezing him in waves that left her shaking. Her thighs trembled where they gripped his hips. Her fingers went numb where they dug into his back.
He groaned, low and savage, and his pace turned frantic as he chased his own release with a desperation that matched hers. She was too sensitive now, every thrust sending aftershocks sparking through her, but she didn’t want him to stop.
She never wanted him to stop.
“Mine,” he growled against her throat. His teeth grazed her shoulder, bit down hard enough to bruise. “My mate. My heart. Mine.”
He slammed deep and held there, his whole body shuddering as he came.
She felt the heat of his release inside her, felt his cock jerk and pulse, felt the rumble of his groan vibrate through her chest where they were pressed together.
His arms wrapped around her so tight she couldn’t breathe, and she didn’t care.
For a long moment neither of them moved.
Just breathing. Hearts pounding. Bodies tangled together in the hot water while steam rose around them and the cold air bit at their exposed skin.
She became aware of things slowly. The ache between her thighs—deep and satisfying. The way his hands had gentled on her hips, stroking now instead of gripping.
“Did I hurt you?” His voice was rough with concern.
“Yes.” Feeling him tense, she pressed a kiss to his jaw. “But I needed it. I needed to feel something other than—”
She couldn’t finish. The terror was still too close. Too raw.
He understood. Of course he did.
Shifting, he adjusted them so she was cradled in his lap instead of pinned against the rocks. The water lapped warm around her shoulders and his arms wrapped around her. Solid. Safe.
Letting her head fall against his chest, she listened to his heartbeat. Strong and steady. Alive.
“I should check you over,” he said. “Make sure you’re—”
“Later.” She pressed closer. “Just hold me.”
He did. His hand came up to stroke through her wet hair, working out the tangles with careful fingers. The same hands that had crushed a man’s throat hours ago. The same hands that had carved her a comb because he wanted to give her something beautiful.
Catching his wrist without thinking, she turned his arm to press a kiss to his palm and frowned.
Dark lines traced across his wrist. Twisting, curling patterns that looked like vines climbing toward his forearm. They hadn’t been there before. She would have noticed.
“Goraath… What are these?”
He looked down and froze.
She traced the lines with her fingertip, watching them disappear beneath the water. They curved around his wrist like they were growing.
“Mating marks.” His voice was rough. “They appear when the bond takes hold.”
Her heart stopped. Started again twice as fast.
“The bond—you mean—”
“We’re bonded. Truly bonded.” His hand covered hers. “There’s no going back now. Not for either of us.”
She should be scared. Some part of her knew that. The mating bond meant if one of them died, the other might follow. It meant her life was tied to his in ways she didn’t fully understand.
But all she felt was joy. Fierce and bright.
“Show me the other one.”
He raised his other arm. The same marks were mirrored there, twisting around his wrist like dark ivy.
She traced those too, pressing her lips to them and smiling as she felt him shiver.
“Beautiful,” she whispered against his skin. “You’re so beautiful.”
“Juni—”
She kissed him before he could argue. Softer this time. Slower. The desperation had burned itself out, leaving something deeper in its wake.
When she pulled back, she could finally name what she saw in his eyes.
Love.
“I’m glad,” she said. “About the bond. About all of it. I’m glad it’s real. I’m glad I’m stuck with you forever.”
His lips quirked at the corner. Almost a smile. “Forever is a long time to put up with a grumpy rancher.”
“Good thing I like grumpy.”
Settling against his chest again, she let the hot water and his steady heartbeat ease the last of the tension from her muscles. “You’re stuck with me too, you know. With my Christmas decorations and my optimism and my white snowmen.”
“Purple.”
“They’re white on Earth.”
“Wrong.” But his arm tightened around her, pulling her closer. “I suppose I can learn to live with wrong-colored snowmen.”
She smiled against his skin. This was home now. This man. This place.
“I love you,” she whispered.
His hand stroked down her spine, slow and reverent. “I love you too, kelarris. Always.”
The water steamed around them and the alien stars turned overhead, and Juni let herself believe in the kind of happiness she’d stopped hoping for a long time ago.
She was exactly where she belonged.