coming automatically to him now and she didn’t think he was even aware of it half the time. She felt their bond strengthening and her mate mark shot pain through her leg in agreement. The more time that passed the more intense the pain became. She knew the phenomenon was normal and would escalate until they completed the mating, but she refused to bond fully to him while she was still so intimately connected to the archdemons. She didn’t want her mating tainted by their evil. Not to mention that he was still holding pieces of himself back.
More than anything, she wanted to believe his affection was genuine, but the voices in her head told her a different story.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Gerrick placed the tray of food on the coffee table as Shae shut the door behind them. Smiling, he ran a hand over the dark wood. He’d done just as she requested and replaced every destroyed piece of furniture in the room with dark alder wood. The bedding was a blue and chocolate paisley. Elsie assured him Shae would love it when he’d shown it to her. He’d wanted Shae’s opinion, but had wanted to surprise her more. And from the look on Shae’s face, he’d done a good job.
“You remembered. I can’t believe you did all this for me…” he pulled her easily into his arms and silenced her with a kiss. Where he expected her to be hesitant, she was molten fire instead. He wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and splayed his fingers into the mass of her curling, red hair.
Gerrick broke the kiss and trailed his lips to her jaw, breathing in her jasmine scent. Like an addict, he couldn’t get enough. It was like he was main-lining her, she went straight to his blood, intoxicating him within seconds. He had gone too long without allowing himself to really indulge in a female. It had been eons since he’d had any desire to.
Shae was his drug of choice and he willingly indulged. He unzipped her winter coat and flung it across the room. Her sweater was a soft accent to her silky skin.
He was lost to her and it wasn’t just her beauty, sharp intelligence and fiery demeanor. She challenged him at every turn. Her unexpected openness was as engaging as her secrets and the horrors of her past. He ran his hand down her back and gripped her hip, wanting her naked and writhing beneath him. His blood pounded with the force of his craving for her.
He’d never before felt such intense arousal. His beating heart was a staccato rhythm in his chest, reverberating throughout his body. She slipped her hands under his shirt and around his back. He shuddered with the pleasure. Her touch was an electrocution and fever exploded to his bones, branding him as sure as the mark on his leg.
His shaft surged painfully in his pants, threatening to break the metal tabs of the zipper. He wanted to take this slow, but as always with her, his need was rapidly overcoming all of his willpower. He returned to her lips and relished the ambrosia of her taste. He plunged her depths with abandon, inciting her arousal. She arched toward him while she lifted the hem of his shirt.
He wasn’t able to pull himself from tangling his lips with hers and she ripped his shirt down the front. Caught up in the frenzy, he poured his demand into his kiss and relished the fact that she didn’t shy away, but met him and took more. She sucked his tongue into her mouth, making him think of what else she could suck into that warm, wet cavern.
Groaning, he broke the kiss and traced his mouth down to the hollow of her throat. Shae moaned softly as she dropped her head back, offering him free reign. She hadn’t allowed such freedom with her ravaged skin and his chest ached with the trust she was extending. He licked and nipped her scarred flesh, making her tremble in his arms.
“Shae,” he murmured, outlining the shell of her ear. He pulled her impossibly closer so that she was smashed against his chest. It was impossible not to feel the pressure of her breasts with every shallow breath she took, despite the fabric separating their flesh. It was the sweetest of temptations.
He kept his hand wrapped possessively around her neck and lowered the other one until he was cupping her ass in his palm. She placed