How she loved this man.
Faults and irritability and all.
"I'm all yours, baby," she whispered. "Take your time."
And he did. He kissed every inch of her he could reach while still inside her.
The effect of every tender caress was heightened because she knew the rarity of the gesture. This wasn't a man who cuddled up to just anyone. He didn't go willingly to any woman who smiled at him.
He was her fox who only left his den when he heard her footsteps.
She alone had tamed him.
He would never belong to anyone the way he did to her.
Astrid came again calling out his name.
Zarek quickened his strokes and joined her in bliss, his head spinning.
He lay on top of her panting and weak, listening to her heart pound against his chest.
There was no place he'd rather be than with her, letting the smell of her sweet, sweaty skin lull and soothe him.
He'd never been so warm. So sated.
So happy.
All he wanted was to lie here naked with her and forget all about the rest of the world.
Unfortunately, it was the one thing he couldn't do.
Kissing her gently, he pulled back. "We should get dressed. I don't know if Thanatos will come here, but my money says he will."
She nodded.
Zarek hesitated as he saw the blood on her thighs from where he had breached her hymen.
Clenching his teeth, he turned away, ashamed of the fact that he had taken her on the floor like an animal after all. She didn't deserve this.
She didn't deserve him.
What had he done?
He had ruined her.
She sat up and touched his shoulder. The sensation of it tore through him. It was familiar.
It was sublime.
Why then did it make his stomach ache?
"Zarek? Is something wrong?"
"No," he lied, unable to tell her what he thought. She should never have lain with something like him. He was so far beneath her that he didn't deserve her kindness.
He deserved nothing.
And yet she reached out and touched him. It didn't make sense to him.