A second later, his c**k head pressed against her, hot, thick, silk over iron, and pressing farther.
He paused, his breathing rough and hot as sweat beaded his shoulders and glistened over the tiny, fine invisible hairs that covered his body.
"You promised me," she reminded him, her voice rough. "You promised me, Mercury. The first time. Hard and fast. You would fill me with all of you in one stroke."
He rolled his forehead against her shoulder, then nipped the tender flesh as he growled.
"I need it," she whimpered, arching closer to him, gasping at the feel of his erection stretching her farther. "Please. You promised."
His hands clenched her hips and she arched closer. He growled again, his lips parting, his teeth gripping her shoulder as his hips bunched and he thrust. Hard. Spearing into her as his name became a scream of such excruciating pleasure that for a second, the smallest second, her mind went black.
And still, she didn't have all of him. He retreated, worked inside her slowly this time. He pressed into her then thrust again, hard and deep. He buried his c**k full-length inside her and burned her with the desperate fullness. The heated impalement of iron-hard flesh threatened to steal her mind as she felt her own delicate muscles spasming, milking him as he throbbed inside her.
And he was biting her. His teeth were locked on her shoulder, pinching into her flesh as she went wild beneath him. One arm curled around his head, trying to keep his bite. The other dug into his back as he began to move, her nails piercing his flesh as his teeth pierced hers and his c**k penetrated her with heavy lunges.
Each stroke carried her higher, threw her further into the maelstrom of sensation. She swore she forgot how to breathe. Breathing didn't matter. When they were done, he would breathe for her. That or she would die from lack of oxygen because she needed all her strength for this. Meeting each thrust, holding tight to him, feeling his hips churning, his c**k shafting her, his muscles tightening against her.
And feeling herself fly in his arms. That was what coming with Mercury did. She flew in his arms and screamed, or tried to scream from the rapture tearing through her.
It was wild and pulsating. It was filled with sensation burning, raking across her nerve endings and shattering into fragments. It was the feel of his final thrust, the heavy spurt of his heated se**n, his snarl at her shoulder then his lips covering hers as his hips jerked between her thighs.
It was the most exquisite pleasure she could have ever imagined finding in his arms, and it almost, almost overshadowed the pain. Because there was no barb. There was no extension swelling from his c**k to hold him in place as he filled her with his seed. There was no hormone spilling into her to ensure he never walked out of her life. There was just this, agony and ecstasy, and the knowledge that she was bound to him. Whether she wanted to be or not.
CHAPTER 11
The animal prowled the man's mind, careful to stay in the shadows, to hold back, though rage was a fire in its gut and the need for action was like a hunger for blood.
But it couldn't move yet.
It had to ease into place. It was still so weak. The drugs had taken so long to wear away, and it had taken still longer to awaken. And it might have never awoken if not for her. If not for the soft scent of what the animal knew belonged irrevocably to it.
The man had staked his claim. The animal could retreat just enough to strengthen a little more. If it moved too quickly, the man could fight it. If they fought, it would be a battle they would both lose, because once the animal stepped free of its bonds, it knew it would never return. There would be no going back, not even to save the man's life.
Freedom awaited. Its mate awaited him, and it could smell her scent, her pain, her need to be marked, to be claimed by one such as the animal. She was wild and she was bound to it. But she ached; her spirit reached out to the animal, and it longed to shelter that spirit in the shadow of its strength.
So sweet. It inhaled her scent as the man's defenses relaxed, as the man rested against her, lost in the pleasure of his release. The animal inhaled her essence and it was pleased. It stepped closer, just a little bit closer to the man's flesh, felt her warmth, felt her like a gentle rain and it rumbled its pleasure.
* * *
Ria's lashes lifted, a frown on her face as she felt something. She didn't hear it. She felt it. Mercury held her tight to his chest as he rested against her, catching his breath, and she could have sworn . . . She waited, holding her breath. A grumbly little purr?
She heard it again and let a smile touch her lips.
"You're purring," she murmured.
He stilled against her. Tensed and it stopped.
"I don't purr." He moved, lifting himself off her, his expression set now, his eyes their normal amber brown as he adjusted his clothes then helped her from the couch.
Ria frowned, standing before him as she unzipped the skirt that was bunched at her hips, stepped out of it and collected the shreds of the rest of her clothing.
"I know a purr when I feel one," she told him, irritated by his denial.
"You misfelt then." He shrugged, his gaze hooded as she stared back at him.
She wasn't going to let herself get angry, she promised. This was the best sex she had ever had in her life, why argue over a damned purr?
"What, are you ashamed of it?" she asked him, defying her own promise.