Only death was strong enough to tear him from my side.
But he didn’t have a son with trusting blue eyes and dimples. He’d never felt the soft sweetness of chubby little arms squeezing his neck, sloppy wet kisses on his cheek, and the whispered confession of ‘I love you, mommy’ in the middle of the night.
I stood still and fought the tears welling beneath my eyelids like liquid fire. Wyatt.
I had to go home.
That was why, when Kiel came into his quarters, I leapt to my feet, then leapt onto him wrapping my legs around his waist. I had to walk away from him, let him go, but not right now. Not until Warden Egara said.
Soon though. Too soon, so I would make the most of the time I had left. I’d never been so aroused, so eager for a man as I was with Kiel. Even though he was from Everis, from another planet, he was all man. The way his shoulders felt wide and solid beneath my palms, his waist trim and firm under my wrapped legs, his rippling belly pressed against my mound, his bulging cock nudging against my eager pussy. One hundred percent pure, unadulterated man. And he was all mine.
For tonight.
“Well, hello,” he said, the corner of his mouth tipping up.
“Did you find him? Krael?”
Kiel’s face hardened. “No. But we will. I’ll be called out again soon.” He looked at me, stroked his knuckles over my cheek and I watched as his tension eased. “In the meantime, is there something you want?”
“Yes.” I wiggled my hips, brushing more firmly against his cock. “I want you naked.”
His chest rumbled with a very primitive, manly sound. “The mark makes us hot for each other. It keeps us…very eager until the claiming is done.”
I leaned in, ran my lips along the length of his neck, felt the slight rasp of his beard, breathed in his clean, dark scent. “I thought that was what we did last night.” I bit lightly at the tendon in his neck.
His big hands gripped my bottom, hoisted me up as he carried me to the bed.
Putting a knee on the bed, he lowered me down, even as I kept my hold. Looked up into his dark brown eyes. “A formal claiming ceremony is when I make you mine, Lindsey. I’ll fill you with my cock, fill you with my seed as our marks touch. Then, and only then, will we be joined forever.”
He’d fucked me the night before. More than once. I’d had his cum slipping from me all day, but I couldn’t remember him ever clasping our fingers together, making our palms touch.
I felt the desperate urge to say yes, to do just that. To make him mine. Forever. But that wasn’t to be. That would be selfish of me. Worse, cruel. If we were bound forever, he’d never be able to get over me or find someone else, another woman, to love him.
The very idea was like a dagger in my heart, but I would not deny him happiness, even if it couldn’t be with me. Kiel very much deserved to be loved.
He frowned, slid a hand up my body so he cupped my cheek. Looked at me. Really saw me. “What’s wrong? Why are you sad?”
I swallowed hard, forced the lump of tears lodged in my throat back down. I wasn’t going to cry. I couldn’t let him know that I was upset, that this was the last time I’d be beneath him, that I’d feel his heat, his breath, his cock. His kiss.
“Nothing. Kiss me.”
I saw his dimple form just before he lowered his head and did as I bid. His mouth was warm and firm. Gentle.
Too gentle.
I moved my hands to the back of his head, tugged at his thick, dark hair. I didn’t want to tell him this was the last time we’d be together, that I wanted to make the most of every second of it, but I’d show him.
At my insistence, he changed the kiss. Yes, I’d initiated and even showed him what I wanted, but I let him lead. I liked that he was in charge. Either he was ridiculously skilled—which I didn’t want to think too deeply about—or the mark made him naturally in tune with what made me hot. He knew how to kiss me, the way to tangle his tongue with mine. The way to touch me. And soon, god, and soon, the way to fuck me.
My ankles were still crossed at the small of his back. Propped up on one forearm, his free hand roamed over me from neck to hip before he growled. “You have too many clothes on.”
Only at the idea of getting naked did I place my feet on the bed by his hips.
“You first,” I told him.
While he lifted one dark brow, he remained silent as he tucked his fingers beneath the hem and tugged his armored shirt up and over his head, letting it fall to the floor at the foot of the bed.
Lifting my hands, I roamed over the broad expanse of heated skin, felt the rock hard muscles play beneath my palms. I bit my lip, ran my fingertips over the flat disk of a nipple, heard his quick intake of breath.