she tried. And stroked. He hissed, eyes closing and pleasure on his face.
“No...” He stopped her after a moment, his hand on hers. For saying she knew he was capable of such brutality and violence, he was gentle with her... even when he was not, she felt the care in his movements. He would never hurt her—she knew that—but still knowing what he was sent a little shiver down her spine.
He was one of the most dangerous warriors in the empire. And he was all hers...
“Oh?” she asked, eyebrow raised.
He didn’t speak as he removed her hand, the dark look in his eyes she’d come to know and love intensifying. He reached up and undid her towel, letting it drop to the floor unheeded.
“I want you,” he murmured, reaching down and lifting her body. She went easily, wrapping her legs around his hips. A soft moan escaped her as he pressed against her, cock trapped in the grove of her pussy lips.
Biting her lip, she rocked her hips, sliding up and down his shaft.
“Oh, yeah? I dunno... I think I kinda like this...”
His deep growl made her smile, and she gasped as his hand tightened in her hair, knowing what was coming. He pulled her head back, his lips blazing a trail along the delicate skin of her neck.
He moved, tumbling them both backward onto the soft surface of the bed. Braced above her with both hands, he looked down at her.
“Mine... for always,” he murmured, and the love and need in his dark eyes speared her right down to her soul. How could she ever have thought him unemotional and cold?
“Yours, as you are mine,” she agreed.
He moved, and then he was there, pressed against the entrance to her body. His gaze didn’t leave hers as he pressed into her. It was a long, slow ride of pure pleasure as she accepted him and they both groaned as he seated himself to the hilt, filling her completely.
“Always mine.” She smiled, reaching up to push his long bangs out of his eyes.
Then she gasped as he started to move. Within seconds she knew she wasn’t going to last. It had all been too much—the kidnap, rescue, him almost walking away from her and then them admitting how they felt about each other.
She moaned, arching her back and moving with him. She saw his need reflected in his dark eyes as though she could read his mind and soul. Each thrust and moment their hips connected drove them both higher and higher until, at last, she hovered on the brink.
“Come with me,” she whispered.
“Always,” he murmured and, with one hard thrust, shattered them both.
The pleasure had been indescribable. Afterward Indra lay still and boneless as her breathing returned to normal. He’d pulled out of her, hauling her into his arms immediately. She smiled, her body a pleasant mass of sensuous aches as she ran gentle fingertips down his forearm.
“That was—”
“Far too short,” he grumbled. “I will have better stamina next time.”
She laughed. “I was going to say wonderful, but if you plan on treating me to all that again... I’m not gonna complain.”
Reaching for his hand, she moved to kiss the inside of his wrist over his scars and paused. Her lips curved.
“Love? Did you make sure to wash properly in the shower?”
“Huh? What did I miss?” His voice rang with the beginnings of alarm as he lifted up, hand on her waist to look at his wrist.
“Holy Liaanas, mother of battle,” he breathed. “She has blessed us.”
There, curling darkly around his wrists were tattoo-like marks. The kind Indra had seen on Madison’s husband, Danaar.
Mating marks.
Excitedly, she turned to look at him. Gentle hands on his face, she forced him to look at her rather than his wrists. His eyes were still stunned as he met her gaze.
“Do they mean that’s it?” she asked. “You’re mine now, and no one in the empire can argue?”
He smiled, pulling her closer to claim her lips in a heated kiss that spoke of devotion, heat and all the forevers she’d always dreamed of.
“In the empire, and far beyond. For eternity itself.”
Epilogue
“Fucking hell!”
Indra swore as her stomach rolled again and made a frantic dash for the bathroom. She only just made it in time, hauling up the lid as what little she’d eaten for breakfast decided to vacate the premises.
It was a rolling, heaving few minutes of utter hell, and at the end of it, she found Nyek on his knees next to her with