“I’m fine.”
He stroked over my clit and I shifted on the bed, pushing into his touch as he spoke. “I need to take you again. Will you let me?”
I appreciated his care, but sometimes a girl loved being shoved up against a wall and fucked like she was the most beautiful, irresistible, desirable woman in the world. “You and your beast, Dax, can do whatever you’d like.”
He laughed, then leaned over me, turning on the vibrations in the butt plug as he’d done that first night. I moaned with need as the new, different sensations awakened my desire once more. He lifted my hips from the bed and slid behind me to kneel between them, pulling my ass high in the air. He gave a sharp slap to my still sore bottom and I gasped, shocked as heat scorched my insides. Before I could react, he struck the other side and heat raced to my clit. I was about to beg him to fill me when he finally pulled me backward and up, onto his thighs as he shoved his cock deep, sliding inside me from behind.
He moved slowly, kneading my sore bottom, pulling the lips of my pussy open wider, exploring our intimate connection with big, blunt fingertips, spreading me open as he slid in and out of my core, completely open for his inspection as he watched his cock slide in and out of my body. My face was pressed to the soft bedding, my thighs shoved wide, my ass and pussy his to master… and I let him. I surrendered everything, content to be taken. I’d never felt so powerful as I did in that moment. It could have been five minutes or an hour, I lost track of time as he moved in and out of my body with deliberate control, staking yet another claim. If the beast had taken me minutes ago, Dax took me now, the man. This was my partner, my mate. He reached beneath me to rub my clit, pulling the plug on my ass at the same time, gently fucking me with it as well. I knew what he wanted. He would force more pleasure from my overly sensitive body, he would demand and I would give him what he needed.
“Come for me, Sarah. Come now.”
My body responded as if on cue, the orgasm rolling through me as soft mews of pleasure escaped my throat. He spilled his seed in me as I came, and I felt like a goddess, a beautiful, desirable sexual goddess who’d just tamed a beast.
* * *
I woke wrapped in Dax’s embrace, his body molded to mine—my back to his front. I could feel all of him, every inch of his naked form wrapped protectively around me. He slept peacefully and I felt like I’d conquered the world, happy that the beast inside him was finally satisfied. We weren’t just mated now, but bonded; his scent surrounded me, drifted from my own flesh and made me feel safe, sheltered, like I belonged. I was sore, deliciously sore between my legs. A frozen bag of peas would come in handy, for while Dax had been as considerate as he could, his cock was… substantial and he hadn’t been exactly gentle.
Smiling, I let the memories of last night play over in my mind. He’d been demanding, dominant, and I wouldn’t have it any other way, grateful for the lingering soreness that kept me from forgetting Dax’s power, the wildness that lurked within him. I saw the shine of one of my cuffs, noted that they matched the pendant around my neck, and sighed with contentment, knowing they were the only things that adorned my body. I raised my arm so I could look at a cuff. I touched it, felt the warm smooth metal, traced its design with one fingertip, my mind a sudden jumble of curiosity. I had no idea what it was: gold, titanium, some kind of Atlan mineral. The snugness of it, once a curse, was now a happy and very obvious reminder of our deep connection.
I traced the pattern over and over as I thought of the incompetent human woman, Warden Morda, the mouse, and how her mistake had led me here, to this bliss in the arms of a man I loved. Dax was honorable and brave, dominant and virile. He was strong enough that, for the first time in my life, I felt safe leaning on a man, depending on him for comfort, for care, for love. I was mated to an alien a bazillion miles away from Earth, and I felt freer than I’d ever been before. Free to be myself, to dance and wonder and dream. Free to fall in love and stop fighting for money, respect, survival. Years of tension and worry were gone thanks to the Atlan warlord sleeping next to me.
“You can remove them now,” Dax murmured.
I stilled at his words. I didn’t want to remove them; they marked me as his mate. I didn’t want anyone to ever question our connection. He was mine. Had I been mistaken? Now that his mating fever was gone, did he plan to walk away from me? From us? He could live a long, happy life now with some meek, mild Atlan woman. Had I served my purpose? Was that all I was to him, a means to an end now to be discarded?
The thought was like a knife stabbing through my heart and I realized how truly far I had fallen. I loved him all right, with every ounce of fire and passion in my body. I’d surrendered everything last night, heart and soul,
and it was too damn late to try to take it back.
“Turn this way, Sarah. I’ll help you take them off.”
“I didn’t realize you were awake,” I commented instead, turning my head away so he would not see the hurt his words caused, the unease.
“Mmm. Your breathing changed. You’re upset.” His large hand traveled the curve of my hip and waist as if he gentled a wild animal. “What troubles you?”
Curling into a ball, I kept my back to him, unsure what I would see on his face if I turned in his arms, unable to bear the thought that I might see disinterest, or regret. “Nothing. Go back to sleep.” I could sneak away if he no longer needed me. Surely someone in the main house could help me remove the cuffs. I’d leave them for his new Atlan bride, the quiet, serene woman he truly wanted.
The gentle glide of his hand turned to a sharp snap of pain on my bare bottom and I yelped as he turned me to face him. “You’re lying to me again. I thought we discussed that.”
Determined to maintain what little dignity I had left, I held back the tears that burned in my eyes and studied his handsome face. He looked truly relaxed for the first time since I’d known him, the ease making him appear younger, less fierce. A small smile played at the corner of his mouth as he leaned forward and kissed me once, softly, before pulling back with raised brows. “Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you, or do you require another spanking?”
“I—”
“I know every part of you, Sarah, as you know me. There are no secrets between mates.”
I stroked my finger down his cheek. “A girl has to have some secrets,” I countered.
He gripped my wrist directly over the cuff.
“Not with me. This cuff, it served a purpose. It freed you from the coalition so you could go after your brother and come to Atlan, with me. It kept us together until the fever was broken, keeping my beast in check until it was safe to free him. Now… now they are no longer needed.”
I frowned then, surprised that he’d spoken so directly to my fears. “Are you saying I’m no longer needed?” The stab of pain spread from my heart up my throat to my head where it lodged behind my eyes, squeezing them in a relentless, fiery grip. Tears gathered and I could not stop them from spilling onto my cheeks.
Dax shifted on his pillow and lifted one hand to capture a stray tear on his fingertip. “Woman, you are indeed crazy. I’ve said the same words over and over and over. You are my mate. Mine. How many times did I say it last night? You. Are. Mine. I am not giving you up. I am not letting you go. Not ever. I don’t care if you wear the cuffs or not, you’re mine. You’ll always be mine. I’ve fallen in love with you. I will not allow you to rid yourself of me.”
“Then why… why do you want me to take them off?”
He wrapped his large hands around the cuffs and pulled them forward to settle over his heart. “I want you to stay beside me because you want to, not because the cuffs require it.”