and heard how sweet my name sounded when I was inside of you, that I’m entirely undone.”
“You’re an ass,” I stated flatly.
“Yes,” he agreed, far too pleased with himself. “Always have been. But I would point out that whatever I am, I’m yours.”
The warmth as he stared at me, as though I was, without question, the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, was overwhelming.
“That’s enough of that,” I groused at him, glancing away, noticing the pitcher of water on the nightstand and getting off the bed to walk around to it. Between not eating or sleeping and the energy I’d just expended, I would have dropped to the floor if my mate hadn’t moved so quickly to reach me. Staring up at him, I noted the swirls of amber in the dark mahogany-colored depths of his eyes. “Thank you.”
“Ask me for the water next time,” he directed, carrying me around the bed and putting me down gently at the head. “I’m dying to take care of you.”
“I think that’s supposed to be the other way around,” I assured him, accepting the glass of ice water he poured me. “I’m supposed to take care of you.”
He scoffed. “What you don’t know about alphas is a lot. All we want to do is take care of everybody, but more than anyone else, our mates.”
The look on his face, the earnestness, ran right through me.
“I know you haven’t seen that from me yet, because so far, there’s only been the pull of the mating between us.”
He was right. What was raging between us up to this point was frantic and urgent, all hunger and heat. Intuitively he knew what I needed, and I was brought back instantly to how dominant he’d been when he had me under him, knowing every button to push, what I craved and longed for. My ass twinged as I gently touched the already healing wound on my neck, and there was an immediate and familiar throb of arousal. I wanted him again.
“But now you bear my mark, and everything inside me that was desperate and anxious feels settled, down deep, and all I want to do is care for you.”
I felt the same. Because yes, in his bed, he’d made me his, but more importantly, he was mine. He belonged to me, and that meant how I wanted to be cared for was my choice as well.
Draining my second glass of water, I put it on the nightstand, turned my back on him, and slid under the sheet and heavy comforter, burying my face in his pillow and inhaling deeply.
He was under the covers behind me a moment later, spooning around me, face in my nape, left hand on my hip, his right arm sliding under the pillow. “I know you’re tired, but maybe you should eat first and then––”
“I know what I need; I’m a grown-up and everything,” I teased him, turning my head so he could not only see his mark but smell the coppery scent of blood drying on the wound.
“Yes, I know that,” he rumbled, kissing my shoulder, breathing me in as I arched my back, pressing my ass into his groin before I took hold of his hand and guided him to my already semihard cock. “Avery, you have to rest. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“If you make me beg, I’ll never forgive you,” I warned him, my breath catching as he rolled me over to face him.
“No,” he murmured, sliding his tongue over my bottom lip before he bit down gently and sucked it into his mouth.
I bucked forward, and he kissed me, his tongue slipping inside at the same time he reached down and took hold of my right thigh. He pulled it over his hip, opening me up so he could angle the head of his cock to my entrance. When he pushed forward he filled me, the lube now mixed with his cum easing the way.
I moaned his name.
Anchoring me to him, he rolled to his back, and I gasped at being fully seated over him, my ass plastered to his groin. He gripped my thighs tight, and when I took hold of his chest, piercing each beautiful pectoral with claws where my fingernails should have been, he shivered with pleasure. Levering myself up, his dick sliding out of my ass to the tip, I let myself drop, taking all of him before repeating the process, slow lift followed by sinking down over him, again and again until