had to be broken. As far as Andrea knew, Shifter women had no such barrier. Shifters had been bred to mate, and anything that kept them from that had been left out of their physiology.
But Sean stretched her, entering a place that had never been touched. Andrea’s heart soared. Sean had rescued her, making sure that her first time was with a male like him—a hard-bodied, protective, beautiful male who cared about her. Who cared about her.
“Sean.” She loved saying his name, and this was a heartfelt cry of joy.
He was all the way in. Andrea opened her eyes, stared right back into his.
“Andy-love,” Sean rasped. “I don’t know if I can do this slowly. I don’t want to be hurting you.”
“I’m pretty strong, Sean Morrissey,” she whispered.
“You are, but so am I. Stronger.”
More excitement. “Let’s see what happens.” To emphasize her point, Andrea leaned forward and bit his neck.
Sean growled. His eyes flicked from blue to Shifter, back to dark blue again. “You asked for it, love.”
She had. And she loved it. Sean slid almost all the way out of her and then firmly back in, Andrea’s body opening for the stroke. He stayed all the way in for a few seconds, stretching her wonderfully, then he drew back and did it again. And again.
Andrea lost coherence. She held on to him with both hands, one leg wrapped firmly around his thigh, and gave in to ecstasy as she met his thrusts with her own.
They didn’t hold back. Sean stroked into her again and again, and Andrea cried his name and begged with her body for him to give her more.
The bed scraped against the floor, but it didn’t matter. There was no one downstairs to hear, no one in the world but herself and Sean. He was big, he was hard, and she loved every inch of him.
Sean gave up trying to go slowly. After a while, they were riding each other, bodies arching and moving together in a rhythm so perfect that Andrea knew her entire life had been hurtling her toward this wonderful moment.
When she started to climax, she looked straight at Sean. What she saw looking back at her were Sean’s dark blue eyes, intense under black brows, pupils widening as he rode her.
Andrea couldn’t look away. His dominant gaze held her, pinned her, and yet, it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. He was looking straight into her heart. Something inside Andrea started to sing, like a violin string that had been out of tune suddenly tightened and made right.
The vibration warmed her heart, warmed her entire body. She tingled with it, and it poured out of her mouth in her cries of excitement, threatened to flow from her eyes as tears.
Sean shouted her name. He held her gaze as he started to climax, and Andrea couldn’t look away. Sean was buried deep inside her, his thrusts generating little shocks as they locked together.
Shifters mated for life. He was part of Andrea now, as he scalded her inside, his body loving hers. At last Sean squeezed his eyes shut, breaking the gaze, and threw back his head with a fierce, lionlike snarl.
Mine, the Shifter in him was saying, and the Shifter in Andrea answered.
Mine. My mate. My love.
The mate bond. It twined around her heart, tightening as Sean opened his eyes and looked down at her again, his face softening in his pleasure.
The mate bond would fetter her far tighter than Sean’s mate-claim or the claim Jared had tried to put on her. It was a bond of Andrea’s own making, and she knew she’d never escape it.
Instead of anger or fear, Andrea’s heart spread warmth through her. She wrapped her arms around Sean and pulled him down to her, burying herself in his heat, feeling joy.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The sword was calling to her.
Andrea lay still in the moonlight, listening, wondering whether she were dreaming. Sean’s arm was heavy around her, pinning her in his sleep.
The words weren’t English. They were liquid sounds, flowing like music. Andrea had never learned the language of Faerie, or the Celtic or Gaelic that Shifters from Ireland and Scotland knew. She wasn’t even certain that what she heard was a language at all.
The sword was downstairs still, yet she had no doubt that the whispers that snaked into her mind came from it. The sound was tinged with silver, though practical Andrea knew sound had no color. This one seemed to.