Chapter 19 #2
My eyes meet his. Gold-flecked in the dim light.
He pushes in.
Slow. So slow. I feel every inch of the stretch, my mouth falling open, my hands gripping his shoulders hard enough to bruise.
"Oh," I breathe. "Oh, Knox."
He keeps going until he's fully seated inside me. The fullness is incredible. The connection. The way he's looking at me like I'm the only thing in the world.
"Okay?" he manages. His voice sounds wrecked.
I nod and give him a broken little whine.
He pulls back and thrusts in, and we both groan. This is what I needed. What I've been missing. Not just the sex—the connection. The feeling of being completely, utterly claimed.
He sets a rhythm—deep, steady strokes that make me gasp every time he bottoms out. My legs wrap around his waist, heels digging into his ass, urging him deeper. Harder.
"Yes," I moan. "Yes, like that, don't stop—"
He shifts his angle, lifting my hips, and the next thrust punches a cry out of me.
"There?" he asks, even though he knows the answer.
"Fuck, yes, there, please—"
He drives into me harder, hitting that spot with every thrust. The sounds I'm making are obscene—whimpers and moans and his name, over and over, like a prayer.
I feel his hands grip my hips harder, and something's different—his nails sharper, pricking at my skin.
"Knox—your hands—"
"Too much?" He starts to pull back.
"No." I grab his wrists, keep his hands where they are. "I like it. I like feeling how much you want me."
A growl rumbles through his chest, low and possessive. "You have no idea how much I want you."
He thrusts harder, and I cry out. His claws prick at my skin, leaving little crescents that mark me as his right now, in this moment.
"Knox." I'm clawing at his back now, probably leaving marks of my own. "Knox, Knox, Knox—"
"I've got you." He kisses me, messy and desperate. "I've got you, sunshine."
I clench around him at the endearment, and then I feel something—at the base of his cock, something swelling.
"Toby." His voice comes out rough, barely human. "There's something—fuck—something I should have warned you about."
"What?" I'm barely coherent, still rocking against him. "What is it?"
"Shifter thing." His hips keep moving in small, involuntary thrusts. "There's a—at the base—it swells. When I'm close."
My eyes widen. I can feel it now, stretching me wider. "Oh. Oh, that's—"
"I can pull out. If it's too much, I can—"
"Don't you dare." My legs tighten around him. "I want it. I want all of you."
All of him. Even the parts that aren't human. Especially those parts.
"It's going to stretch you," he warns, even as he starts moving again. "Going to feel so full—"
"Good." I pull him down, bite at his jaw. "I want to feel you everywhere. Want to feel you tomorrow."
He loses the last thread of his control.
He drives into me hard, and I take it. Take everything he gives me. The swell at his base is growing with every thrust, catching on my rim, making me gasp and clench and moan.
"Oh god." My voice is wrecked. "Oh god, Knox, that's—so much—"
"Too much?"
"No. No, don't stop, please don't stop—"
I feel how stretched I am around him, how my body is working to accommodate the extra girth. It should be too much. It's not. It's perfect. It's everything.
"Touch yourself," he tells me, his voice more growl than words. "Want to feel you come on my cock."
My hand flies to my dick, stroking fast and rough. I'm so close. Can feel it building, the pressure coiling tight.
"That's it," he encourages, fucking into me harder. "Come for me, Toby. Let me see you."
I come with a sob, spilling over my fist and onto my stomach, clenching around him so tight. The extra pressure around his swollen base must send him over—he buries himself deep and comes, pulsing inside me, groaning against my neck.
His teeth find the bite mark on my shoulder, pressing down, reinforcing the claim as he empties himself into me. I cry out again, shaking through another aftershock.
For a long moment, neither of us moves. Just breathing. Hearts pounding. Still connected.
I can feel him still thick inside me, the swell slowly starting to subside. He eases out carefully—I wince a little, oversensitive—and collapses next to me, pulling me against his side.
"That swelling thing," I mumble against his chest. "That was..."
"Too much?" His chest tightens beneath my cheek.
"Incredible." I press a kiss to his collarbone. "Is it always like that?"
"It's stronger with a mate." He presses a kiss to my hair. "With you."
"Good to know." I sound sleepy, satisfied. "We should do that again. Frequently."
His chest rumbles with something like a purr.
We lie there in the dark, catching our breath. My head is on his chest, my fingers tracing idle patterns on his stomach. I've never felt so content in my life.
"Knox?"
"Hmm?"
"Thank you. For waiting. For giving me time." I press a kiss to his chest. "For proving I could trust you."
"Always." He tightens his arm around me. "I meant what I said. I love you. And I'm not going anywhere."
"I know." I tilt my head up, kiss his jaw. "I love you too."
We should clean up. Should probably eat something.
But Knox is warm and solid beneath me, his breathing starting to even out, and none of that seems important right now.
"Stay," he murmurs against my hair.
"I'm not going anywhere." I snuggle closer, throw a leg over his. "You're stuck with me now."
"Good."
"Good," I echo.
We fall asleep like that, tangled together, exactly where we belong.