“And how long is that?” I asked.
“Hours.”
“Hours,” I repeated on a squeak. “Won’t you get blue balls or something?”
He glanced down at himself between us, then at me. “I do not know this term, but I think I understand. I will come many times inside your perfect pussy, filling you with my seed.”
“But don’t you need a break or something to, you know… recharge?”
His hand came up, stroked my hair, his thumb brushing over my cheek. “I will remain hard for the duration. I will be able to please you… for hours.”
For hours.
“I might not die from the bite, but I may die from pleasure.”
He growled, his face all of a sudden fierce. “No dying.”
Shit, right. Bad joke. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you upset or scared. Or freaked out. I just wanted you to see that there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Besides a red ass,” he countered, his gaze lowering to my mouth.
“What were you saying about lasting for hours?”
If he didn’t like the joke about dying, then I didn’t like the joke about him spanking me. I wasn’t going to tell him that, surprisingly, it was really hot. Or maybe it was the serum making me think that. He’d spanked me before, yet perhaps he’d have to do it again to see. I squirmed at the thought.
The corner of his mouth tipped up. “We will fuck continuously until the claiming is done. You may pass out from the strength of your orgasms, but don’t worry, I will wait for you to awaken for more.”
“Oh god,” I whispered. Pass out from pleasure? Bring it. “Okay. I’m ready.”
He studied me, his dark eyes meeting mine. “No, you’re not.”
I frowned. “I am.”
He slowly shook his head. “If you are talking in sentences, then you are not ready.”
He kissed me then, holding my head in place with his palm. Gently, sweetly and almost reverently.
After the wall-banging sex we’d had before, this was… tame. Gentle. This was about so much more than sex. God, his touch was tender. Gentle.
Reverent.
Tears were gathering as my heart swelled painfully in my chest, the rapid beating like a hummingbird’s wings against my ribs. “I love you, Mak.” His entire body went still, as if I’d frozen him in place. Shit. Maybe I should have kept my stupid, needy mouth shut.
He lifted his head, stared down at me in silence.
Yep. Should have kept the weak, emotional, needy female parts of me to myself.
I turned my head away, embarrassed now, but his growl of warning came seconds before his huge hand cupped the side of my face, turning me back to face him.
“No. Do not hide from me.”
I stared up into his eyes, drowning. Lost. He was my everything. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. You don’t have to—“
“Be quiet, female. I know the human word—love. But that is not what I feel for you. That word means nothing, mate. I live and die to please you, to protect you, to ensure your happiness. Your pain is my agony. I am yours, Gwendolyn of Earth. Yours. I give myself to you, pledge myself to you and only you. I will never leave your side.”
The tears slipped free and he bent down, kissing the wetness from my temples, tasting my pain. I couldn’t seem to make them stop, like he’d broken a dam inside me and years of loneliness poured out.
I wrapped my arms around him, pulled him to me. Kissed him for the first time with every single cell in my body loving him, wanting only him. Welcoming him.