Then, just as my breathing starts to even out, just as the haze of pleasure begins to fade into something softer and more manageable, he goes completely still.
His hands tighten on my hips, fingers digging in hard enough to leave marks. He sucks in a rough, ragged breath and lifts his head to look down at me with equal parts vulnerable and absolutely certain.
"Move in with me," he rumbles, his voice rough and raw. "Today."
CHAPTER 14
THRALL
Her answer comes out breathless and broken, barely more than a gasp against my mouth as I kiss her with bruising intensity.
"Yes."
That single word breaks something fundamental inside me. Every carefully constructed wall I've built around my baser instincts, every layer of civilization I've wrapped around the primal core of what I am, shatters completely.
I growl against her lips, the sound vibrating through my chest and into hers where we're still pressed together. My hands tighten on her hips, pulling her impossibly closer even though there's no space left between us. I'm still inside her, still hard despite having just finished, and the Orc part of my brain that I've spent years suppressing roars to life with a singular, all-consuming demand.
Mine.
"Say it again," I rumble, pulling back just enough to look down at her. Her dark hair is splayed across the pillow in wild disarray, her lips swollen from my kisses, her skin flushed and marked with the evidence of my mouth. She's never looked more beautiful, and she's never been more completely, utterly mine.
"Yes," she whispers, her fingers sliding up into my hair, tugging hard enough to make me groan. "I'll move in with you. Today. Tomorrow. Whenever you want."
"Now." I rock my hips forward, drawing a sharp gasp from her as the movement sends fresh sparks of sensation through both of us. "Pack one bag. I'll send someone for the rest."
"Thrall—"
"Mine." The word comes out as a possessive snarl, and I capture her mouth again before she can protest the high-handed order. I don't care about being reasonable or civilized or giving her time to think it through properly. The Orc instincts I've spent my entire adult life controlling have taken over completely, and the only thing that matters is making sure she understands exactly what she's agreed to.
She's not just moving in with me. She'smine. My mate. My partner. The only person in this world who can command me, challenge me, reduce me to base instinct with nothing more than a look.
I pull out of her slowly, drawing a whimper of protest from her throat that sends satisfaction rolling through me in dark, possessive waves. Before she can complain, I flip her onto her stomach with effortless strength, my hands gripping her hips and pulling her up onto her knees.
"Thrall, what?—"
"You agreed," I growl, settling behind her and running my hands up the elegant curve of her spine. "You're mine now, Romee. And I'm going to make absolutely certain you understand what that means."
I can see the goosebumps that erupt across her skin at my words, can hear the way her breathing speeds up. She arches back against me, presenting herself with an eagerness that makes my vision blur at the edges.
"Show me," she breathes, looking back at me over her shoulder with eyes that are dark and dilated with renewed want. "Show me exactly what it means to be yours."
The last thread of my control snaps cleanly.
I grip her hips hard enough to bruise and thrust into her in one deep, claiming stroke that tears matching groans from both of us. She's slick and hot and still sensitive from before, and the angle lets me sink deeper than I've ever been, lets me fill her so completely that I can feel her body struggling to accommodate me.
"Breathe," I command, holding perfectly still even though every instinct is screaming at me to move, to claim, to mark. "Relax and breathe."
She does, her body slowly adjusting around me, and when she finally pushes back against me with a demanding little roll of her hips, I let the beast out completely.
I set a pace that's deep and powerful and utterly unrelenting, each thrust driving her forward until she has to brace her hands against the headboard to keep from being pushed into it. The bed frame creaks ominously beneath us, the expensive mattress shifting with each impact, but I don't slow down. Can't slow down.
"This is what you wanted," I growl, leaning over her back and caging her in with my arms, letting her feel the full weight and size of me. "This is what you get when you agree to be mine. All of me. No restraint. No holding back."
"Yes," she gasps, her fingers white-knuckled on the headboard. "Don't hold back. Don't you dare hold back."
I bare my teeth against her shoulder, not quite biting but the sharp press of my tusks press against her skin. Mine. The word echoes through my head with every thrust, a primal drumbeat that drowns out everything else.
My hand slides around her hip, finding the swollen bundle of nerves between her legs and circling it with firm, deliberate pressure. She cries out, her whole body going taut, and I feel her start to tighten around me in warning flutters.
