Oh, my gold. Just as she’d feared, Thronos had turned irresistible.

 

His kiss had made her toes curl. He was a natural, which made her wonder what else he’d be a natural at.

 

Even his exploration of her—weird as it was—was turning her on. The idea of that lethal talon caressing her so gently messed with her mind.

 

His wings had once been a symbol of her fear. How perverse was she if she got off on this? Maybe she liked perverse?

 

Her nipples were pouting for attention—which he seemed determined not to give. Was he never going to put his hands on her? She understood his predicament; he feared coming too quickly. After such a long wait, who could blame him?

 

Eyes ablaze with lust—and intent—he lowered his wing, circling her navel.

 

Surely he wouldn’t go lower. “Thronos, wait.” He couldn’t. And, gods, she couldn’t desire him to. . . .

 

The smooth curve of his talon dipped between her legs.

 

She might’ve tried to get away, but he had her wrists trapped, her body boxed in.

 

He began stroking her sex, and it was . . . pleasurable. The talon was firm against her as he eased it back and forth over her needy clitoris.

 

Back. And forth.

 

This is so weird. And pervy. And I like it so much!

 

She squeezed her eyes closed, disturbed that she wasn’t more disturbed by this. She had a sinking suspicion: Thronos could do just about anything to her and she’d like it.

 

Because he was her mate? Was she fighting fate?

 

Sorceri don’t believe in fate!

 

Seeming to lose his inner battle, he gave a groan of frustration, releasing her wrists.

 

Her eyes flashed open when his palms landed on her shoulders. He was bleeding—from digging his claws into his hands? Hot crimson mixed with the cool water in streams.

 

If she’d thought something was wrong with her before, now she was convinced, because she found his searing blood on her skin arousing—as if he was marking her, like he’d done in that tunnel when he’d painted her lips.

 

And though his blood was washing away, she could swear she’d perceived the heat of it streaking across her aching breasts and over her stiffened nipples. Over her hips and ass. Between his blood and the weird talon caresses, she was shaking with need.

 

She sucked in a breath, holding herself motionless as his hands roamed, starting to descend. And all the while his talon petted her clitoris.

 

His transfixed gaze followed his hands. “None lovelier.” His tone was awed.

 

Why did it feel so unbelievably good with him? He seemed just as lost, overwhelmed by this pleasure, starved for it.

 

Because he had been. So how would he react the first time they had sex? If they did. How would that magnificent cock feel plunging inside her? Imagining it made her moan.

 

To her surprise, she felt a glimmer of welling power, then another. Sorcery began whirling within her, as if she’d been an empty vessel waiting to be filled. Her lips curled with delight.

 

Wait . . . had his hands just bypassed her chest? He molded them over her waist, then rested them on her hips. He drew his wing back from her sex, leaving her yearning for release. Pervy, girl.

 

Without warning, he pressed a muscled thigh between her legs. She couldn’t stifle a cry. Positioned like this, his rampant cock prodded against her, the bulbous head rubbing along her damp torso.

 

Taunting her.

 

She craved that thick length, craved all of his throbbing heat filling her. Of their own accord, her hips rocked in invitation as she slowly rode his leg.

 

“I feel your arousal, your wetness. I scent it.” Against her neck, he murmured, “Before this night is out, I want to know your taste, take it into me.”

 

“Oh! Ohhh. We can definitely work something out.”

 

“Ask your male to kiss you there. Though forbidden, I’d do it to you.” What wasn’t forbidden in his mind? “I’d do it till you came for me.”

 

I have to ask for it? With a mental shrug, she parted her lips . . . only to close them as doubts arose. What must he think of me now? As easy as he’d predicted?

 

Yet when he moved his thigh against her sex, those qualms faded into the ether.

 

At last, he covered her breasts with his rough palms! He shuddered to feel her. She gave a low cry as her head lolled.

 

He took several breaths, nostrils flaring, as if he were just preventing himself from coming. With a growling sound, he began to knead her. “Tantalizing female.” Holding one breast poised—to receive his mouth?—he dipped his head. “Need to suckle you.”

 

She cried, “By all means!”

 

Lower, lower. She watched him lash a wet lick over one of her pebbled nipples. “Yes, Thronos!” Dimly she realized, His tongue is pointed.

 

Wicked demon.

 

Groaning, he wrapped his lips around her nipple, sucking it with greedy pulls.

 

She started panting. “You’re making me feel so good.” Tunneling her fingers through his hair, she held him close.

 

Against her breast, he rasped, “Your nipples are so sweet. As sweet as your lips. How I’ve hungered for this! Hungered for you.”

 

The disbelief and awe in his voice made her melt for him. His unshielded thoughts too: —This is real, Talos. You are with her. This is happening. Had no idea what pleasure was. . . . —

 

Thronos was never supposed to be like this.

 

She would’ve hungered for him too—if she’d known this was in store.

 

Giving the peak a loud suck, he moved to her other nipple, growling around it. His thigh kept rocking, his cock sliding up and down her belly. His pointed tongue was making her forget why she would ever resist him. She was in a heaven of sensation. Add to that his masculine scent and barely harnessed lust . . .

 

When he took his kisses away to stand fully, she gave a frustrated cry.

 

“Have to get closer to you.”

 

Closer?

 

One of his arms coiled around her shoulders, his other around her neck. As he continued to thrust, he wrapped her tighter in his wings, tighter still—until their slippery bodies were mashed together, his cock trapped between them.

 

Was this a Vrekener thing?

 

With each of his ragged breaths, his chest heaved against her breasts, against her achy nipples. She could feel his heart thundering.

 

Her arms were pinned by her sides; she should be panicked. He was a Vrekener—but she’d never felt this safe. Their bodies were so close, she couldn’t tell where he ended and she began. And at that moment, she didn’t want to be anywhere else in any world.

 

Would he enfold her like this for sex? Pervy Lanthe is on board.

 

She’d planned to wrap him around her little finger; instead, he’d wrapped his wings around her! He’d made her nearly mindless with desire. Hot, slick, swollen desire.

 

With each degree he constricted those wings, his groans deepened. He was going to come like this.

 

She would too, right upon his muscular thigh.

 

“I’ve waited so long for you.” Pressing openmouthed kisses to her neck, he pumped his hips faster, rutting against her body. Her nipples raked his chest with each of his jostling movements.

 

When she undulated against his leg to grind her clitoris, he gave a brutal growl. “You like my wings around you? Trapping you to me?”

 

“Yes!”

 

“And if I never let you go, sorceress?”

 

She moaned in reply. The pressure kept mounting, until she was on the verge of coming. “Don’t stop, Thronos!”

 

“The pleasure . . .” he bit out in a tone of wonder as he rocked her. “It’s almost agony.” His biceps bulged as he squeezed her. “I grow nigh!”

 

Her head shot forward, her mouth on his neck. She was losing control, as she hadn’t in memory. Tongue flicking, she sucked on his skin as wanton urges suffused her.

 

Snaring his thick cock and working it inside me. Or tonguing his throbbing, veined length.

 

What would he think of her if she dropped to her knees before him—with her lips parted to be fed . . . ?

 

“Ah, gods, woman!” His shaft jerked in the tight sleeve they’d created as he rocked faster and harder. “Never knew . . .” Faster. Harder—

 

Massive body quaking, he threw his head back, tendons taut as bowstrings. Then he roared.

 

Just as he wasn’t supposed to do.

 

Through her lips, she felt the reverberations in his throat. She was about to go over the edge with him, moaning with abandon.

 

Though she didn’t feel seed, his wings rippled around her each time his mighty shaft pulsated. Another bellow shook the night. And another, over . . . and over . . . and over . . .

 

How badly he must have needed that!

 

As those dry spasms finally eased, he gave one last shudder, leaving her right on the brink.

 

“You came?” she murmured. No seed means demon.

 

Catching his breath, he rested his forehead against hers. “Harder than I could ever have imagined. You made me bellow to the rafters.” Unguarded, he rasped, “And now I feel no pain in my body.”

 

He raised his face, meeting her eyes. His pupils were blown from his recent pleasure, his irises . . . darker?

 

What was he thinking about his first orgasm with another? And just like that, those damned doubts returned. What is he thinking about me?

 

“Now it’s your turn.” He released some of the constriction around her. When he trailed the backs of his fingers across one of her breasts, then lower, her lids grew heavy. “How does my mate like to be petted?” He sifted his fingers through the curls on her sex.

 

If he touched her clitoris, she was going to lose it. And if she totally let go, she’d be confirming everything he’d said about her. “Wait.” This very day he’d called her “easy quarry,” and she was proving him right! At the thought, she tensed, her impending orgasm dissipating. “I can’t do this.”

 

“No, sweet, you don’t want to stop. I scent how badly you need release.”

 

Desperately!

 

The sorceress in her was clamoring, Pleasure’s there for the taking!

 

The vulnerable woman within murmured, If he shames you after this, it will hurt forever.

 

“Let me tend to you, Melanthe. You must be aching.”

 

“I . . . can’t.” She turned her head away.