“Not even close,” Lynn told him. “But come here.”
Instantly, he was back on his knees, leaning over her to drop a kiss on her lips. “Your kisses taste so good,” he murmured.
“Coffee and toothpaste?” she asked disbelievingly.
He shook his head, smiling. “Wildness and strength.”
Before Lynn could point out that neither of those things had a taste, he’d kissed her again, and she abandoned any need for argument. This kiss went on and on, each momentary pause just blending into the next meeting of mouths, hot and perfect.
Lynn could feel that ache starting up again. She shifted her hips underneath him, spreading her legs until he fit perfectly between. He groaned as his erection brushed her inner thigh.
“Lynn,” he said in a low voice. “I need you.” He pushed his hips forward a little, making his meaning clear. She could feel the head of his cock gently kissing her outside folds, up against her pubic hair. The tiny touch was maddening.
“Now,” she said to him. “Ken, now.”
He got a hand underneath her, tilting her hips up, cupping her hip as he pressed forward. Lynn felt herself already spasming i
n pleasure as his cock touched her entrance, and then he was pushing inside.
If she’d thought about it, she might have expected it to hurt. She’d never been with a man this big before. But it didn’t. Coming once already had made her wet, open and slick and ready for him, and he slid right in without any resistance at all.
And it felt so—right.
Even beyond the pleasurable slide of him against her inner muscles, the way sensation rippled from her core all the way through the rest of her body—the way Lynn wanted to bite her lip and clutch at his shoulders and let herself go to the pleasure of it all—
Even beyond that, there was something else. Like the moment they’d joined together, something that had been wrong with the universe had clicked together, and become right. Lynn felt a sudden flood of well-being, a spark of joy that she’d never known was missing from her heart until now.
And then he moved, and all of her thoughts fled in a surge of pleasure so powerful, she couldn’t do anything but moan.
Ken kissed her shoulder, her collarbone, and her neck, as though he couldn’t help himself. The kisses were smudged and damp, and his breath washed warm and fast over her skin as he panted, thrusting hard. Lynn shuddered and gasped, clenching around his cock, wanting nothing more than for this moment to last forever. She’d never been filled like this before. She’d never felt so wrung out with pleasure, so shattered by it.
And Ken seemed as overwhelmed as she was. He kissed her hard, groaning, as his thrusts became wilder, faster. One hand gripped her hip so hard it might’ve hurt if she’d been human, but as it was, it was just another sensation adding to the whirlwind inside her.
Lynn’s head tilted back, breaking the kiss as pleasure ripped through her. Orgasm stole her breath and obliterated her thoughts. She couldn’t tell if she made noise, she couldn’t see through the darkness in her vision, and she couldn’t feel anything but Ken.
She could hear, faintly, Ken’s own roar of pleasure, and she knew that he was climaxing too. Could almost feel it herself, echoing through her own pleasure. Together, they shuddered and clutched at each other, breathing each other’s air and almost vibrating with the aftershocks of orgasm.
Slowly, slowly, Lynn came back to herself. Her breath evened out, her heartrate slowed, and she relaxed back into the soft earth, feeling the weight of Ken on top of her. His face was pressed against her neck, and she reached up to card her fingers through his sweat-damp hair.
And slowly, a new knowledge filled her.
She was more certain than she’d ever been of anything before. This new truth had appeared, like an immutable law of the universe, like gravity or temperature. There was no denying it, because it was all around her.
This man was her mate.
As she blinked up at the sky, the realization coursing through her veins like a heartbeat, Ken lifted his head and looked down at her.
They stared at each other for a long, long moment. There was no need to ask if Ken felt it too. Just by looking at him, Lynn could tell that he did.
“Lynn,” he murmured. “I knew there was something special about you from the moment that I saw you. I never realized it would be this.”
Slowly, Lynn pushed herself into a sitting position. Ken retreated enough to let her, but stayed close, slipping an arm around her shoulders, twining the fingers of his other hand with hers.
Mates. “I never thought I’d have a mate,” Lynn said blankly.
It was true. She’d always pictured herself alone. She hadn’t dreamed about perfect, destined romance like some of the other shifter girls she’d known, growing up. Heck, she hadn’t even dreamed about normal romance.
Her dreams had always been about the forest. Sometimes, about her family—about her lost parents, her difficult sister, her grandmother. What it would be like to have a large family, a dependable family. A family that was there all the time, and not just when they wanted to be, or for only a short time before they left or passed away.