nothing left but hazy bliss and my own, panting breaths.
Bjarni eased off my clit and kissed my mons. “Feeling better?” he rumbled, the edge of raw desire unmistakable in his tone as he crawled on hands and knees over my splayed form.
I could only manage a guttural grunt in response. If I’d been more with it, I might have attempted to close my legs to avoid what I knew came next, but my brain was foggy and light—and even if I’d been aware enough to try to move my limbs, there was no way my body would have been capable.
“Good.” He rose onto his knees and hiked one of my legs over his hip, opening me for his girth. With his free hand, he fisted his cock and pressed it against my opening.
I groaned again. It was meant as a protest, but just then Bjarni looked up from my nether region, catching my gaze. There was so much love there. So much longing. He had feared me lost too, and though he had remained strong for the others, it had nearly broken him. My sweet one.
“Bjarni,” I said softly.
He pushed into me. Slowly. Gently. I still bit down on my lip to hold back a cry of denial as his thick cock stretched me so, so wide. I was open from Modi and Grim, but my tissues were worn and tender, and despite the obvious care Bjarni put into penetrating me, it still hurt.
But when he bottomed out with a moan and fell over me, the ache of taking him faded to the background. His eyes were hazy with desire and filled with wonder as he let them sweep over my face, as if trying to commemorate every detail.
“I love you too,” I whispered.
“I know,” he murmured, offering me a smile that had my toes curling. “And I’m gonna show you how much I love you, mate.”
I clung to his shoulders and wrapped my legs around his waist as my gentlest mate took me slow and deep. I felt the urge to go harder vibrate through him and into my innermost, but he kept himself in check. He may have had a gentle nature, but he was still every inch an alpha, and I heard the song for conquest and domination echo through his blood as he filled me again and again, never losing control.
“It’s okay,” I gasped as my pussy took him to the hilt once more, the last remnants of pain disappearing behind my own rising desire for completion. “You can take me harder. I can handle it.”
Bjarni chuffed something between a laugh and a groan against the side of my neck where he’d buried his face. Slowly he pushed up on his hands so he could peer down at me. The wildness in his eyes made me swallow thickly.
“You want it like that, mate? Rough? Does your pussy need to feel how desperate I am for you?”
“I… you need more. It’s okay,” I stammered. His words and that look in his eyes made my nipples tighten and my core clench on his hard cock. Immediate regret had me flinching as aching muscles panged. Yes, a part of me did want him to show me how much he’d missed me—but it would hurt. There were no two ways about it.
He groaned at the involuntary flex of my pussy and gritted his teeth. “I need you, Annabel. I need your love, your happiness—and I need that sweet little cunt of yours to take me until you scream my name and cream on my cock. If you need it to hurt, I’ll make it hurt. But all I need is you, and until you beg me for more, that’s all I’m taking.”
“Bjarni,” I murmured, blinking away a few stray tears as I clutched him tighter. I loved my other mates—loved them so much it hurt—but Bjarni… he was so easy. There was no doubt in our bond as he made love to me, no pain, and no trauma. Just deep, warm devotion and the ecstasy of reuniting.
He opened his heart and soul to me as he filled my body with aching bliss, and there was nothing but happiness and gratitude over a core of battle-hardened steel.
I relaxed underneath him and wound my fingers in his long hair, surrendering.
Bjarni let out a low moan and bent his head to my exposed throat. He dug his teeth into my flesh and thrust in deep, making me cry out and tighten my legs