“I know you carry pain, and sex can be healing. I was expecting this,” he tried to reassure me.
“Youexpectedit?” I verified incredulously while he continuedto pepper my face with kisses. He hummed in confirmation before the tip of his tongue began lightly tracing the tear tracks on one cheek. My eyes widened at him when he rose to switch sides, but he just smiled down at me before licking up the tears on my other cheek too.
“I love you,” he whispered, and his gentle sincerity had tears prickling in my eyes all over again.
“I love you too,” I breathed back before closing my eyes as the fresh tears rolled free of my lashes. I smiled this time when Sage moved to lick them off me again.
Safe.Cherished. That was how he made me feel.
“I cannot ever be without you. Never again.”
Sage hummed his agreement before he kissed me with gentle lips that helped settle my heart until my emotions had levelled out again. But as he shifted down to suck on my neck a little, I felt his cock brush my thigh.
“You are still hard!” I realized aloud in astonishment. In all my life, I had never known a male to ever prioritize anything over his own cock! Especially if it was hard.
“I am,” he smirked against my throat, and I felt even worse for bursting into tears before he was able to come. My hand darted down between us to try and remedy the situation for him, but Sage snatched my wrist.
“I need you to know that sex between us will never be transactional. Making you feel good is a reward in itself,” he assured me sternly.
I hesitated, struggling with the concept of sex as being anything but a transaction. It was alien to me. I had often used my body in the way one might use coin to purchase my safety and comfort. Sometimes it had been the only acceptable form of currency I had to offer.
But I nodded, trusting in Sage to show me differently, even if I did not yet understand fully.
“Good. Now… Iwouldprefer to come inside you this first time together. Is that alright?” he asked tentatively, those sensitiveeyes watching closely for my reaction.
And just like that, the heat was simmering in my lower extremities once again.
“Yes,” I blurted eagerly and tried to push him onto his back so I could get on top. “Let me—”
“I want to come inside you. And I want to claim you,” Sage insisted, keeping me pinned to the floor with a little more force than he used before.
“Claim me?” I asked him in confusion.
“Yes. I want tomakeyou mine,” Sage tried to explain, his powerful body growing tense in anticipation just from talking about it.
He wanted to dominate me. He did not need to say it explicitly for me to understand what he meant. I should have expected nothing less from a male who revelled in leaving my body covered in his love bites. Sage might be gentle and sensitive, and I had no doubt he would always be extremely generous in pleasing me. But he still wanted to conquer and possess. The impulse to assert himself like that might even be stronger with hisanam.
The thought of a male dominating me sexually would have normally been abhorrent, because with anyone else, it would have felt like a form of violence. But I knew that what Sage actually wanted from me was unflinching trust. It was all he had ever really wanted from me.
So I softened beneath him, the tension bleeding out of my body in a wordless agreement he understood instantly. And yet he continued to wait, his powerful body coiled to pounce the moment I gave him the word. His face was a mask of barely restrained resolve, the breathtaking colour of his eyes sharp and bright as if the fire magic in his blood was flaring. I realized there must be something more that he wanted from me.
“Before I was taken… you said that you wanted me to mark you,” he reminded me haltingly, and my pulse jumped in excitement.
“You want to mark me?” I verified.
“If you are not yet ready—and you mayneverbe—” he began backtracking, but I quickly leaned up to seal my lips over his and cut him off with a deep kiss. Sage made a harsh sound that was somewhere between anguish and relief as he kissed me back. I felt him tremble from the effort of staying composed with me before he suddenly tore his mouth away from mine.
“Summer, say yes,” he pleaded, andfuck, there was nothing quite like the high of hearing such a confident and self-assured male begging. “Tell me I can mark you.”
“I am yours, Sage.Yes. Mark me,” I urged.
He gave a rough groan, restraint snapping completely, and then he was kissing me hard. He ruthlessly devoured my mouth, greedily drinking down every gasp and groan, his hands in my hair and on my body. There was a frantic urgency in him now, an edge of desperation that ignited a similar eager hunger in me.
After several frenzied moments, Sage broke the kiss without preamble and reached down to guide himself to me in a sudden thrust. I cried out in surprise and elation as his thick cock plunged into me again. And then it was all I could do to hold onto him as he began to fuck me harder and faster than I was expecting.
But I loved every second of it.
Sage was relentless, hiking my knees up high to open me to him while his hips drove into me. And the sounds he was making? Absolutely feral and uncompromising.
