Page 97 of Shielded in the Shadows

With a scream, I clutched reflexively at his horns, wrapping my fingers around them and holding tight. Tingles rolled over my skin, fanning out from his hands on my hips and his lips and tongue on my clit.

And when he pricked my hips ever so carefully with the tips of his claws, I hurtled toward a precipice of pleasure, clinging to his horns as if my life depended on having that one single anchor.

A heartbeat away from my climax, he released my clit and swiped his tongue along the full length of my folds. My tortured scream of frustration at being denied stuck in my throat when he turned his head and sank his fangs into my upper thigh.

Everything went white and silent, and then…detonation.

Heat, blazing and all-consuming, rolled through my body like a shockwave. My climax was a star going supernova, a universe being born, a jump into hyperspace with no vessel to carry me. I might be screaming and thrashing wildly somewhere beyond the veil of blinding colors that filled my vision, but there was nothing here but pleasure.

The bond opened between us like a flower blooming beneath the sun, and Jarrix was with me.

Not just with me; he was everywhere, pouring into my mind and body in a flood of familiar warmth. His unyielding protectiveness and love heated and illuminated me from the inside, while his hunger and desire stole what little breath I still had in my lungs.

Somewhere far away from where I was drifting in a haze, he was caressing me, moving his hands over my face, along my shoulders, down my arms, up my back and over my hair to cradle my face again. He was calling my name, or maybe whispering it over and over again in an endless refrain.

Keela. My mate. My love.

When I opened my eyes, I was panting and still straddling his face, but I’d fallen forward with one hand braced on the bed above his head. My other hand was pressed to my chest as if trying to hold my heart inside my ribcage.

Jarrix cupped my face gently between his enormous palms. His eyes glowed very brightly, but he was calm, almost serene. “Keela? Are you with me?”

I rubbed my chest where his warmth now lived. “Yes,” I gasped. My voice was hoarse. How long had I been screaming? “I feel you here.” I rubbed my chest. “I feel you everywhere.”

His expression was so tender that my heart ached. “I feel you too, in every cell of my body and soul,” he said roughly. “There can’t be anything better in the universe than this.”

He gathered me in his arms and rolled us over so he was above me. His mouth, cheeks, and chin glistened in the amber lights in our cabin.

“So that was how you envisioned giving me my bite.” I ran my thumb over his lips. “Looks like I drowned you just like you wanted.”

“You did.” He turned his head to kiss my palm. “You drenched me, mate,” he growled. “It felt like standing outside in the rain, only much, much sweeter.”

He moved slowly above me, gliding his dripping upper cock back and forth over my throbbing clit while the lower one slid against my ass. I almost felt too sensitive now, as if every nerve ending was exposed.

“I need you,” I said, grabbing a handful of his hair. “I need you to fill me up and give me your knot. I need to feel everything.”

“And you will.” He nuzzled my temple. “I’ll give you everything you ever need or want, Keela Wren. I’m your weapon and your shield. I’m your partner and your co-pilot. I’m yours to command.”

Jarrix notched his thick, weeping upper cock at my slick entrance. I sucked in a breath and dug my nails into his back.

In one, long, slow thrust that ripped a cry of pure ecstasy from me, he buried himself inside me all the way to the beginning of his knot…and then further until I took that too. My inner muscles spasmed around his ridges and that absolutely perfect piercing, making him rumble.

Desire…pleasure…hunger poured into me through our bond, blending with my own until I was a quivering puddle of need. My back arched and I cried out.

He pressed his lips to my ear, swirled his thumb around my clit, and growled, “I am your mate.”

His touch, his words, and the gravel in his voice sent me flying. I threw my head back and screamed, my heels digging into the bed. He withdrew and slammed back in, giving me everything of himself all the way to his knot again and again. I clawed at him like a feral thing, almost drunk on the way the little flares of pain zinged through our bond and lit sparks on my own skin.

When he slowed and hooked my leg over his arm to go deeper with first one cock and then the other, I was almost sobbing with shared pleasure.

“Look at you,” he rumbled, gazing down at me with half-lidded eyes as he circled his hips to make me writhe and shake. “Taking my cocks so beautifully, so perfectly. Coming for me like the goddess you are.” He tilted my hips and rocked into me even harder. “Take me deep, love. Take all of me.”

At this angle, on the next thrust he hit something new, something so deep inside that nothing and no one had found it before. My mouth fell open in a silent scream as I came hard enough that my vision tunneled and my hands fell from his shoulders onto the bed.

Shuddering and rumbling, he gathered me in his arms and sat back on his heels, pulling me to his chest so he was buried inside me with his lower cock resting against my ass.

He kissed the curve of my neck at my shoulder, and I felt him breathing hard against my damp skin. “I love you,” he rasped.

Panting, I reached behind me and stroked his lower cock. His groan resonated in his chest like it came from his very soul.