His right hand slipped under the loose robe and cupped her bottom. His fingers gripped her possessively, shaping her flesh to his liking. Helen felt unsteady and weak and clutched at his thick wrist to balance herself. She wanted a bed under her and Drake on top of her with his beautifully naked chest rubbing over hers.

Her world spun and when the vertigo settled, she was right where she wanted to be on the big bed. Drake was poised above her, keeping his weight from crushing her. His face was drawn tight with lust—a hungry, predatory look that made her feel vulnerable and safe all at the same time. She couldn’t figure out how he did it, nor did she care to spend precious seconds worrying about it. Not when she was finally free to get what she wanted.

She pressed her hands to his chest, closed her eyes, and let them slide around, drinking in the feel of him. Smooth skin over hard muscle. A light dusting of hair. The cooling sweat of thinly held self-control.

He was holding back for her. Keeping himself in check so he didn’t scare her. She sensed it in the rigid lines of his body, felt it flowing through the connection between them. It was sweet, but not at all what she wanted. She didn’t want his restraint. She wanted all of him. Raw and potent and hot enough to scorch her soul.

One thick thigh pressed between her legs, and she lifted her hips, rubbing herself against the soft denim over hard muscle.

Drake hissed and came down heavily on top of her, taking her mouth in a fierce kiss. He forced her lips open and speared his tongue inside. His hand slid under her bottom and he helped her find her pace as she rode his leg. The friction of the denim against her clitoris made her body tighten and her nerves sizzle. She’d never been so close to orgasm so fast before in her life.

She tried to slow down, but Drake had other ideas. His mouth trailed hot, wet kisses over her jaw and down her neck. He paused to toy with the luceria a moment before moving down. He nipped at her collarbone, leaving stinging little bites in his wake, each one making Helen flinch and thrust her mound harder against his thigh.

“Come on, love,” he whispered over her skin. “Give me what I want.”

His lips found her breast and she arched to try to make him go where she wanted him to. She wanted him to draw her nipple back into his mouth, knowing that added sensation would send her over the edge. His tongue swirled over the soft underside of her breast, leaving a cooling path along her heated skin. She tried to move again, but he evaded her and let out a dark, teasing chuckle.

Helen wasn’t above fighting dirty to get what she wanted. She slid her hands down between them until she could feel the bulging length of his erection under her fingers. The slightest brush made him suck in a breath and go rigid. She liked that response so much, she did it again, only this time, she pressed more firmly. His deep groan was her reward and it reverberated inside her, making her shiver with satisfaction.

Drake let more of his weight press down on her. Not only did it trap her wayward hands; it also rubbed her just right. His mouth closed over her nipple, sucking her deep and hard. She couldn’t stop herself from crashing apart. She didn’t even try.

Her orgasm ripped through her in waves of bright sensation. Every muscle tensed in response to the powerful demands of her body. She existed only inside the pleasure and nothing else could penetrate it. There was nothing here but light and heat and glowing, searing joy.

As the pleasure receded, she went limp and Drake pulled away slowly, giving her soft, warm sweeps of his tongue over her skin. She was too boneless to do anything but let him do as he pleased, her mind too foggy to even consider doing otherwise.

“That was lovely,” he told her. She could feel his breath sweeping out over her stomach, which still twitched with little aftershocks of her orgasm. “I think I’d like to see it again.”

Oh no. Not so soon. She was too sensitive and worn out from her climax to even begin to consider another one.

And then she felt his tongue flutter over the too sensitive flesh between her thighs and knew she’d been wrong. It wasn’t too soon. Not for what Drake was doing to her. Her body met that fleeting touch with hunger. Ravenous need.

“Mmm. That’s right, love.”

His breath along her thighs excited her and made her hips twist. Drake pinned them, holding them tightly in his big hands. “You’re going to hold still while I taste you.”

She didn’t want to hold still. She wanted to touch him, and she knew she shouldn’t let him boss her around like that, but in the next instant, his tongue was slick and hot against her and she couldn’t think of anything but how good it felt. He could do whatever he wanted as long as he kept doing that.

Drake wasn’t going to last much longer. Not with Helen making all those needy little mewling sounds. She was driving him crazy with her noise. Her taste. He’d always enjoyed pleasuring women with his mouth, but with Helen, it was beyond enjoyment—it was perfection.

His tongue kept going back to tease the birthmark high on her inner thigh—the deep red ring that identified her as a Theronai. Every time he licked it, she sucked in a startled breath as if the pleasure shocked her. Her reaction drove him wild.

His ring had long since grown hot from the stress he was putting on their link, keeping close tabs on her pleasure. She was mindless with it now, desperate for whatever he wanted to do to her.

And he wanted to do so many things.

He’d shown her only a few of them. The more tame things he thought she could handle. His baser needs he kept to himself, saving those for when he’d staked a permanent claim on her.

And he would. There was no choice about that part now. He couldn’t possibly let her go knowing how perfectly she suited him. How much she needed what only he could give her and vice versa.

Drake’s erection throbbed painfully. He needed to be inside her—needed to drive deep until there was no space left anywhere between them. He’d already slid inside her mind. It was time for her body to follow suit.

She was slippery and hot under his tongue, making it easy to slide his finger inside her tight sheath. She gasped at that small penetration and her hands curled into fists in the bedspread. The sexy moan she gave him made him shake with need, but he held on. Just a moment longer was all she needed to be ready for him.

He pushed two fingers inside her, testing her, stretching her. She was slick and perfect, relaxed enough from her climax that he was sure he wouldn’t hurt her.

Drake shucked his jeans and was back over her before she’d had time to wonder where he’d gone. Her chest and face were rosy with desire, her eyes were closed in enjoyment, and she was splayed wantonly, all womanly curves and soft skin. He’d never get enough of the sight of her, so beautiful and glowing and made just for him. He was convinced of that now. She’d been made to tempt him and please him and drive him insane with lust. And he loved every second of it.

Her eyes fluttered open and he could see golden shards of passion shining in them. She gave him a slow, sexy smile and a second later he was blinded by bubbling wave of desire. Hers. It mingled with his own ragged need, sharpening the edges until he could no longer stand it.

For a moment, Drake couldn’t drag in a breath. He’d never felt anything like it before and he wasn’t sure he was going to survive. Not unless he could get inside her. Right. Now.

He took her mouth in a kiss meant to distract her, captivate her. He wasn’t sure how gentle he could be any longer and part of him didn’t even care. She was his for the taking, open and ready. So he took. He pressed his erection against her opening and slid the blunt tip inside.

Helen gasped and stiffened and he could feel her shock at the invasion. Drake should have stopped, pulled back, and let her become accustomed to him, but he couldn’t. Not now. The frenzied need to be part of her pounded through his body. He was shaking with the force of it, unable to stop himself from pressing onward, sliding deeper, making her take more of him.

Helen let out a ragged groan. Whether it was from pleasure or pain, Drake couldn’t tell. His mind was driven senseless by the feel of her slippery heat closing around him inch by slow inch. There was enough scraps of honor left in him to clear a path along the lust-filled connection between them and force through a command for her to relax. Soften. Let him inside.

Drake felt it happen. Both her mind and body opened up to him with willing acceptance. He didn’t wait to take advantage of it. He pulled out of her body a mere inch and slid back inside in a slow, powerful stroke that seated him to the hilt.

Helen sighed into his mouth while Drake shook with the feeling of her gripping his erection.

He found enough sanity to ask, “You okay?”

She gave him a relaxed, almost sleepy look. No pain or discomfort. Thank God. “Only if you move.”

Drake needed no further encouragement. He moved. Hard, deep thrusts that made her breasts jiggle enticingly and her breath rush from her body. Her fingers fisted in his hair and forced his mouth down to her breasts.

He loved it that she wasn’t shy about showing him what she wanted. He loved the way she moaned when he suckled her nipples hard and the sexy gasps she gave him when he used his teeth.

Drake knew he wasn’t going to be able to hold out much longer, but he wanted her to come with him. He wanted to feel the silken contractions of her body as he exploded. He wanted to hear her desperate cries of completion ringing in his ears while he spilled himself inside her.

Her fingernails dug into his back and she arched her hips up to meet his hungry thrusts. Every time he sank deep, she let out a desperate cry, each one louder than the last. He timed the suckling of his mouth with the pounding of his hips, feeling them both inch closer to the edge of release.

His hand circled her throat and his ring latched on to the necklace with an unbreakable grip. The connection between them flared and widened, and he could suddenly feel what it was like for her to take him into her body. He could feel the way his erection stretched her, how the angle of his thrusts hit just the right spots deep inside her. He could feel the searing current of heat that flowed through her womb every time his mouth tugged at her nipple. It was incredible.

Her sensations piled on top of his own until they were too much to bear. His balls pulled up tight against his body just as the first contraction rippled through her belly. He felt her orgasm hit a moment before his own. He buried himself inside her and let out a ragged growl while his seed pumped in hard spurts, filling her. She tightened around him with each one, milking him, making the sensation more intense than he’d ever felt before. Feelings, emotions, need, and satisfaction. He could feel everything at once. His body and hers, his orgasm and hers, his mind and hers. It clogged his brain with pleasure until he couldn’t take any more.

He must have passed out for a second, which wasn’t exactly the most manly thing he could have done. He just didn’t give a shit. His whole body was pulsing and thrumming with electric joy—a shimmering pleasure that was part of both of them. He just let himself float in it. Let himself soak it in. He could feel Helen doing the same thing, only she was having trouble breathing. He was crushing her.

Drake rolled over until she was atop him. She was limp and sated and stayed right where he put her. She rose and fell with his uneven breathing, her head a warm weight just above his heart.