"Now I need you to guide me into your body."
Susan snorted as she realized that with his arm across her chest while he was behind her, that was easier said than done. "For the record, I'm not Stretch Armstrong. How am I supposed to do that?"
He laughed before he kissed her cheek and made her entire body burn as he cupped her breast with his free hand and teased her nipple with the calluses on his palm.
"I can do it then, but you have to tell me that you accept me as your mate."
"That's why we're naked, right?"
"Susan," he said, his tone gravely serious. "This is a big step to my people. By our laws, I'm not allowed to take a woman as my mate unless she is one hundred percent accepting of me and our ways. I'm not a Katagari, forcing my will on you. I'm an Arcadian and we would never breach the sacredness of this."
She leaned back so that she could meet his midnight gaze. "I've never been more serious about anything in my life, Ravyn. I want you as my mate."
"For eternity?"
"For eternity."
His features softened as he dipped his head down to nip her on the back of her neck. Susan shivered in pleasure an instant before he slid himself deep inside her. Her hand burned as she rose up on her tiptoes, then lowered herself down onto him, taking him in all the way to his hilt.
He kept one hand on her hip while his arm crossed her body, holding her against him. It was the most incredible moment of her life. So this was mating...
She liked it.
Ravyn growled deep in his throat as he thrust against her hips, and she met him stroke for stroke. She was so warm and wet that it almost drove him over the edge, but he wanted to time this carefully. This was the first time they would make love as mates and he wanted them to come together.
She was his. A wave of possessiveness consumed him. So long as they lived, he would never again be able to take another woman. Susan alone would sustain him, and it wasn't just because the Fates decreed it. It was because he loved her. Deeply. With every part of himself.
There had been a time when that kind of commitment would have sent him running for the door, but after all these centuries, he was looking forward to having her in his life.
She wasn't just another lover to come and go. She was a companion. A friend. She alone knew how much he liked to have his ears rubbed. And even though it made her hand itch, she always made sure to rub them at night while they lay in bed. Just as she was doing now.
Her touch sent chills over him, and when they came together, it was the most blissful moment in his entire life.
He quickly released her hand before their union went further. He wasn't ready to bond with her just yet.
Not until she was as committed to him as he was to her. She still had her own life to live and he didn't want to trespass there. Having had his life taken from him by one person's selfishness, he wasn't about to do that to her.
"I love you, Susan," he said, kissing her gently on the cheek.
Susan purred as she continued to rub his ear with her hand. "I love you, too, Ravyn."
Stryker sighed as he sat at his desk, looking for his cell phone, which was no place to be found. "Trates!"
He winced as he accidentally called for his old second in command. Damn, he was never going to get used to Davyn being here and Trates being gone.
It was almost as bad as having lost Urian.
Before he could call for Davyn, Satara appeared in the room beside him. "Hello, Brother."
Her presence amused him and he wondered if either Artemis or Acheron knew that he had a direct link to whenever Ash visited Stryker's auntie. "I take it Acheron is back on Olympus."
She nodded as she leaned against his desk. "Have you thought about what I said earlier?"
She'd had one hell of a plan to give them an informant that no one would ever suspect. Of course it hinged on her being correct, and he wasn't so sure that she was. "I have."
"And?"
"If he's really alive and you can convince him to go through with it, I'll convert him."