Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
Later that evening Baylin found Liora in the greenhouse. She was gathering produce to dry for the journey as well as collecting her most precious seeds.
“You’ll miss this place,” he said quietly.
“My greenhouse? Yes.” Her face was peaceful. “But hopefully I can build something new.”
“With me?” he asked, still not quite able to believe it.
“With you.”
And then she kissed him.
He meant to keep it light, to maintain the careful distance he’d been preserving for days, the thin barrier of restraint that kept his beast from doing something irreversible.
But when she rose onto her toes and pressed her mouth to his—soft and curious and impossibly trusting—every rational thought in his head scattered like ash in the wind.
“Baylin.” His name on her lips was an invitation.
He answered by cupping her face in his hands and deepening the kiss.
The greenhouse surrounded them with humid warmth and the green scent of growing things.
Somewhere nearby, Pip chirped once and then fell silent—perhaps understanding, perhaps simply accepting.
He didn’t care. All he cared about was the feeling of her body pressed against his, her small hands gripping his forearms, and her breath catching when he traced his tongue along the seam of her lips.
She opened for him without hesitation.
Mate, his beast rumbled. Ours. Finally ours.
He pushed the thought aside. Not yet. Not until she understood what that word meant, what it would cost her, what it would bind her to. She deserved a choice made with full knowledge, not one born of passion and inexperience.
But gods, she was making it difficult.
“Show me everything,” she whispered against his mouth. “Now, before we leave.”
He pulled back just enough to look at her. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips reddened from his kisses, her eyes bright with a mixture of curiosity and desire that made his blood burn.
“Why here?”
“Because it feels right. Like an ending and a beginning.”
The last of his restraint crumbled.
He swept her into his arms before she could react, one arm beneath her knees and the other supporting her back. She laughed—that bright, surprised sound that always caught him off guard—and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Where are we going?”
“Somewhere more comfortable than a greenhouse floor.”
He carried her back down to the bedroom and lowered her onto the bed.
“I want to see you,” she whispered. “All of you.”
Even though she insisted she didn’t mind his scars, he still hesitated. His body bore the marks of a lifetime of fighting and he didn’t want anything to remind her that he was a weapon honed by violence.
“Baylin?” Her hand came up to trace the neckline of his shirt. “You’re not hiding from me, are you?”
“I’m not hiding.” But he was, and they both knew it.
She sat up, her knees brushing against his as she reached for the hem of his shirt and tugged it over his head. Then she reached for the lacings of his pants, her small fingers making him shudder as they traced the waistband. “May I?”
“Yes,” he said hoarsely.
She worked the laces free, then looked up at him through her lashes. “Take them off.”
He shoved his pants down impatiently, watching her eyes widen as she took in the size of his erection.
“You’re so beautiful,” she said. “Like a sculpture. Like something carved out of stone and brought to life.” Her hand pressed flat against his chest, right over his racing heart. “But warm and alive.”
He caught her hand and brought it to his lips, pressing a kiss to her palm.
“You’re the one who’s beautiful,” he said. “You have no idea how beautiful you are.”
She blushed—that pink flush spreading across her cheeks and down her throat—but she didn’t look away. “I’ve never had anyone to compare myself to. I don’t know what beautiful means, really. But when you look at me like that...” She swallowed. “I feel beautiful. Is that the same thing?”
“It’s better.”
She smiled at him and dropped her hand to just above his erection. “May I touch you here?”
He couldn’t form words, so he nodded. The first brush of her fingers against his cock made him gasp. She looked up at him, her expression a mix of fascination and pride.
“You like that?”
“Fuck, yes.”
“Good.” Her touch grew bolder, exploring him with the same methodical curiosity she brought to everything. “What about this?”
He groaned as she circled the head of his cock with her thumb. “Very good.”
She smiled, that mischievous smile that made him want to kiss her senseless, and continued her exploration. When she leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his chest, right over his heart, he felt something inside him shift permanently into place.
Then her mouth dropped to his cock and he groaned.
“You’re going to kill me.”
“I hope not. I still have so many questions.”
Despite everything, he laughed. Only Liora would maintain her scientific curiosity in the middle of having her first intimate experience. Only Liora would treat pleasure as another experiment to observe and analyze.
He loved her for it.
I love her.
Not just desired her, not just felt protective of her, but genuinely, completely loved her in a way he’d never loved anyone before.
His beast howled in triumph.
Claim her, it demanded. Make her ours forever.
But he couldn’t. Not yet. Not when she didn’t know what it meant. Not when she deserved a choice.
Instead he gently pulled her mouth away from him, and stripped off her clothing. She didn’t flinch or cover herself. She just watched his face, cataloging his reaction the way she cataloged everything.
“You’re staring,” she whispered.
“I can’t help it.”
He traced the curve of her breast with one finger, watching the way her nipple tightened in response. She made a small, startled sound and arched into his touch.
“That feels...” She trailed off, searching for words. “I don’t know how to describe it. Like lightning, but gentle. Like everything is more awake than it was before.”
“It gets better.”
He kissed her slowly, thoroughly, committing every gasp and sigh to memory as his hands roamed her body. After their nights together, he knew every sensitive spot, every place that made her gasp and every place that made her moan. The sounds she made were going to destroy him.
He worked his way down her throat, across her collarbone, lavishing attention on each breast until she was writhing beneath him. When he finally parted her thighs and sucked gently on her clit, she came almost immediately, her body bowing off the bed as she cried out his name.
He inserted one finger, then two, stretching her as he continued working her clit. She was so responsive—years of isolation meaning she had no defenses, no learned inhibitions, no expectations about how she was supposed to feel or act.
She just felt. Purely, completely, without restraint.
“Baylin—” Her voice cracked. “That’s—oh, that’s—”
“Too much?”
“Not enough. I want it all.”
He couldn’t have refused her anything in that moment.
When he settled himself between her thighs, the head of his cock pressing against her entrance, her eyes widened.
“You’re... larger than I expected.”
“We can stop.”
“Stop saying that.” She put her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. Even though she was wet and ready, her body still trembling with aftershocks of her previous climax, he forced himself to pause.
“This might hurt,” he warned. “The first time—”
“I know. I read about it.” Her hands found his face again, holding him steady. “I’m not afraid. I want this. I want you.”
Slowly, carefully, he pressed inside.
She was tight—impossibly, devastatingly tight—and the sensation nearly overwhelmed him. He gritted his teeth and moved in gentle increments, giving her body time to adjust, watching her face for any sign of pain.
Her breath caught and her fingers tightened on his shoulder hard enough to bruise, but she didn’t tell him to stop.
“More,” she whispered.
He pushed deeper.
When he was finally fully seated inside her, they both went still. His arms trembled with the effort of holding himself in check, of not simply taking what his body desperately wanted. Her eyes were wide, her lips parted, her expression caught somewhere between discomfort and wonder.
“Are you all right?”
“I feel...” She shifted experimentally, and they both groaned. “Full. Complete. Like I was missing something and didn’t know it until just now.”
He kissed her forehead, her cheeks, the tip of her nose. “Tell me when you’re ready.”
“I’m ready.”
He began to move, and the world narrowed to the space between their bodies.
He established a slow rhythm at first, letting her adjust, letting her learn the sensations. But as always she was a quick study, and soon she was moving with him, matching his pace, finding the angles that brought her pleasure.
“Faster,” she breathed.
He obliged.
The careful control he’d maintained began to fray at the edges.
His beast was closer to the surface than it had ever been during their times together, clawing at his consciousness, demanding that he claim her.
The urge was nearly overwhelming, the need to sink his teeth into the soft curve of her shoulder and mark her permanently as his.
He held back, but gods, she made it difficult. The way she clung to him, the way she whispered his name, the way her body welcomed him with complete and utter trust—it was everything he’d ever wanted and never thought he could have.
“Baylin.” Her voice was ragged. “I feel it again—that building sensation—”
“Let it come.”
“I want you to feel it with me.”
The simple request shattered something inside him.
He drove into her harder, deeper, losing himself in the heat and tightness and perfect rightness of her. She cried out, her nails raking down his back, her inner muscles clenching around him as her second release hit.
The sensation dragged him over the edge with her.
He buried his face in her throat, muffling his groan against her skin, his whole body shuddering as he spilled inside her, somehow managing to yank himself free before his knot could lock them together.
The pleasure was blinding, overwhelming, unlike anything he’d experienced before.
Not just a physical release but something deeper—a connection, a bond, a promise.
Mate, his beast purred contentedly. Finally, mate.
He didn’t claim her. He didn’t mark her. But he knew with absolute certainty that he was hers forever.