I closed my eyes as his strong hands curled around my upper arms. His heat coated my back and his hot breath warmed the hollow of my throat.

I sighed and leaned my head away, giving him more access.

“Stay the night with me,” he said in a thick voice laden with emotion. “Your kids can sleep here. They’ll be safe. You’ll all be safe.”

I moaned as his lips trailed up my neck and grazed my jaw.

“Stay the night with me,” he said again, his hands slipping down and applying pressure on my hips.

I moaned and moved my hands behind me, feeling along his thighs until I reached his hardness. I cupped him firmly and moaned as his lips sucked lightly on the fevered skin of my neck.

“Yes,” I said in a breathy whisper, massaging his erection. Waves of heat ran through me. “Yes.”

He turned me to face him and captured my lips with his. His tongue thrust, needy and insistent, and his fingers worked into my hair. I yanked the bottom of his button-up shirt out of his slacks and unbuttoned it from the bottom up.

He nibbled my bottom lip as he pulled one hand from my head and slid it down my torso. His fingers rolled over my budded nipple, sending a shock of pleasure straight to my core.

“Hmm, Kieran.”

His hand trailed lower, dipping into my pants, and then still lower, until his fingers just barely skirted the edges of my panties. I sucked in a breath and moved my knee to the side, giving him more room. His other hand found my breast, and he massaged my nipple.

I deepened the kiss as his fingers continued to brush under my panties, driving me crazy. I rubbed his hard bulge before going back to his buttons, my hands shaking with eager anticipation. His fingers brushed a little harder, turning my insides molten, until his hot touch finally slid over my clit.

“Oh…” A scorching wave of passion washed through me. I let out a trembling breath.

His kiss increased in fervency, sucking me into that place I only went to with him. That place of no gravity and complete focus. Of pleasure and mutual desire.

His fingers slid down my wetness before pushing into my body.

“Holy—” I fluttered my eyes closed and reached down to cup his erection again, rubbing as he thrust first one finger, then two, into my depths. “Yes, Kieran.”

“I can’t tell you how much I’ve wanted this,” he murmured against my lips.

He pushed my bra up before slightly pinching my nipple. The fingers on his other hand worked back up to massage my nub. Pleasure speared straight through me, pooling in my desperately tight core.

“What, your own house?”

“You in my house, for as long as I want you. Sleeping by your side and then burying myself into you the second I wake up. Serving you breakfast, and licking between your spread thighs as you eat it.”

“Oh God, Kieran, please.” I moved against his fingers, needing his cock inside me. “Please, Kieran.”

“You writhing under me helplessly,” he whispered against the shell of my ear, jerking my jeans button free. “You begging for me to fuck you again. And again.”

He ripped my shirt up and over my head with one hand, then grabbed my jeans and yanked them to the floor. A moment later I was in his arms, rushing for the bed. As soon as he laid me down on the soft mattress, he grabbed my lacy panties and tore them loose. He ran his lush lips up the center of my stomach, drifting to the side to lick my budded nipple. His hands reached under me and snapped my bra clasp open. He pulled it away and threw it over his shoulder.

I arched and slid my thighs up the sides of his unnecessarily clothed body. He switched to the other nipple, sucking it in before rolling it around his mouth with his tongue.

“Oh holy…shit.” I huffed out a breath and arched, soaking in the sensations.

He rose up and shrugged out of his shirt, fully revealing his delicious upper body, sculpted by the gods. Cut pecs led down into that nearly eight pack; large shoulders gave way to bulging biceps.

He undid his pants before pushing them down to release his enormous, straining cock. Once out of his jeans, he slowed down for a moment. His entrancing eyes, deep and open, leading all the way down to his soul, lingered on mine. They didn’t drift away to my exposed breasts, or even around my face. They stayed rooted to mine as he said, “You take my breath away, Alexis. I am so lucky to have found you.”

Warmth wrapped around my heart. It was me he was responding to. Not my looks or the shape of my body, but me as a person. He was looking deep down into me, at all my secrets and the weirdness I liked to hide, and pulling it out to show me how much he treasured it.

I’d never felt more beautiful than I did in that moment. I’d never felt more relevant to someone, or more cherished.

Through the haze of passion, I recognized the depth of feeling running back and forth over our soul connection. I couldn’t have said who it started with, just that it was tightening the connection, bringing our souls closer together. Intensifying our feelings.

“Let me buy you a house,” he whispered into the hush of the room. He lowered down and touched his lips to mine. “Let me look after you.”

I ran my hands over his strong shoulders and pulled him closer, heat burning through my body, magic fused with desire. I pushed my knees up his sides and sighed when he reached between my thighs.

“Give in to me, Alexis,” he commanded softly, and the fire rose.

I gripped the sheets as tight bands of pleasure wrapped around me from his sexy magic. He was starting to lose control, just as I was.

“Say you’ll be mine,” he said, and though his voice was still so soft, alluring, I heard the command within the words, and his underlying need to claim me as his own.

My breath turned harried, and I arched under him with need. His fingers dipped into me with a steady rhythm, building me higher. I reached between us and curled my fingers around his hard length, steel wrapped in velvet.

“Hmm,” he groaned and his thumb touched down on my clit. He plunged and rubbed, winding me tighter. Drowning me in sensations.

“Take me, Kieran,” I begged, needing him in a way I didn’t understand. Wanting him with a fervor that didn’t seem natural.

His possessive Demigod power swept into the room, rising like the tide. I lost myself in it, letting it carry me where it would. Letting him work me higher until I could barely think.

“Do you require proof that I am devoted to you? Is that what you need?” he asked in a dangerous tone that hit me in all the right places.

I gyrated up to meet his fingers, nearing the edge. Ready to jump off and crash into orgasm.

“Yes,” I breathed, responding to his ministrations.

He thought I was answering his question.

He leaned farther over me, flexed and deliciously imposing. He dwarfed me with his strength and showered me in his raw, primal energy. His fingers worked me hard, but he kissed me softly, the contrast intoxicating. He moved down and flicked a nipple with his tongue, then sucked it in.

“Oh—God!” An orgasm tore through me, blasting my world apart. I shivered on the bed as he braced himself above me, his eyes locked with mine.

“I’ve never spent a full night with a woman,” he said, his deep voice rough and open. “You will be my first.”

I barely stopped from widening my eyes. I would’ve thought he’d spent the night with several women. He was a Demigod for criminy’s sake. They were like catnip to felines. Especially this one, who was incredibly handsome. I said as much.

He slowly leaned forward and ran his lips against my jaw. “I’ve bedded women, but I’ve always left right afterward. Directly afterward. Except with you. I would’ve stayed for days on end with you, but my father would’ve wondered who had attracted my interest. I left to protect you.”

I cupped his face with my hands and kissed his lips, emotion filling me up.

“Before you, I’d never bought a wardrobe for a woman,” he continued in a low hum, “let alone on two separate occasions. I’d never stolen a woman’s pants to get her size so a team of advisors could pick out the perfect attire for her body size and personality. And I’ve never given a woman her own drawer, let alone twice, both times without her ever having stayed over. Yours is that one, by the way.” He pointed to a reclaimed wood dresser stained in espresso across the room. “Bottom right. If you need more room, I can make it.”

Butterflies fluttered through my belly. Warmth squeezed my heart. “And a house?” I asked with a small smile and embarrassingly glassy eyes. “Is that a door prize usually?”

He didn’t match my smile. “I’ve never dated, in the traditional sense. Or thought of a woman every waking moment. Or promised I would protect her regardless of having no assurance she was mine to keep.” He pushed back, his stormy eyes intense. “Or allowed her to stay by my side when everything in me knows I should force her to go.”

“Right, yes. The ol’ don’t waste your heart on me shtick.”

“You shouldn’t. I’m a mess. I’m dangerous. My father loved my mother as intensely as I love you, and he ended up locking her in a castle on an island.”

I froze at his words, unable to focus on the last. It was hard to breathe through the emotions welling up inside of me.