In minutes he was hard for her again.
Jacinda shifted beneath him, and he slid between her thighs, whispering her name as he sank deep inside, finally finding the pure, absolute perfection he’d been missing.
A soft sigh of pleasure drifted from her lips, and she looked up at him and smiled, her eyes dark with desire. “Still not seeing the problem here, Prince.”
“Oh, I’m just getting started.”
Jacinda laughed, a sound that called forth a fierce wave of protectiveness. There was nothing he wouldn’t do to keep that smile on her face forever.
He slowed his thrusts, then stopped, reaching up to brush the hair from her eyes. “I’m proud of you, Jace.”
Another smile. Another sparkle glittering in her eyes. “Yeah?”
“The way you handled yourself at the warehouse. That shit with Duchanes… All of it. You’re a fucking… hell, I don’t even have the word for it.”
“Badass. The word you want is badass.”
Gabriel laughed, tracing the outline of her mouth with his thumb. “Nowwho’s developing the hero complex?”
“Not that I’m trying to steal your thunder or anything, Prince.” Jacinda grinned at him again, but then her smile faded, her eyes turning serious. “Thanks for having my back last night. I keep playing over the raid in my mind… Things could’ve gone very differently if you hadn’t—”
“Don’t say it,” he whispered urgently. “Don’t even think it.” He kissed her again, if only to stop her from giving voice to his fears. “I promise you, Jacinda. There will never be a time when Idon’thave your back.”
She brushed her fingertips along his jaw and nodded, and he rolled his hips and slid in deeper, harder, Jacinda’s breathy moans calling once more to his own fierce, carnal desire. It wasn’t long before she was close to losing control, her body tightening around him, the familiar quake in her thighs spreading down her legs, a sheen of sweat glistening on her chest.
“Gabriel,” she breathed.
“I know, little moonflower. I know.”
She reached up to touch his face again, her eyes glazing with emotion, mouth parted, thighs clenched tight, seconds from shattering…
“I’ve never felt anything like this,” she whispered.
“Nor have I.”
“Tell me it’s real.”
“You don’t need the words, love. You just need to feel it.” He grabbed her hand, pressed it to his chest. Beneath her touch, his heart beat strong and steady. “Trust this. Trust us.”
“I do. I… I’m… Gabriel…” Her eyelids fluttered closed, and Gabriel shifted between her thighs, brushing over her clit as he plunged inside her once more.
Jacinda gasped, arching her back to take him in deeper, clutching his arms as the orgasm finally took hold. It rocked through her entire body, making her writhe, making her beg, making her lose control.
“Look at me.” Gabriel fisted her hair, forcing her to open her eyes as she rode out the intense, white-hot pleasure. “Youbelongto me, Jacinda Colburn. Understand?”
It wasn’t a threat, wasn’t a bedroom game, wasn’t about her body or all the ways he loved to make her come.
No, the sort of belonging Gabriel was talking about now was a promise. A vow he was making, once and for all, to protect her. To cherish her. Totrulylove her in a way no one else ever had—a way Gabriel himself had never thought possible. Not until he’d taken her prisoner and she’d glared at him across the bar, folded her arms across her chest, and promised to grind his bones into dust.
Breathless beneath him, Jacinda nodded and smiled and whispered his name, and that was all it took.
Gabriel came in another dizzying, blinding-hot rush, burying his face in the crook of her neck, inhaling her scent, tasting her skin, committing her to his every fucking cell as the breath left his lungs and his body quivered and his heart burst a thousand times over and then—at her lightest touch, her softest laugh—stitched itself back together, again and again and again.
After a long, languid moment, Gabriel finally pulled back to look at her once more, and in the dawn of her smile, Gabriel found his home.
“Partners,” she said softly. “Always.”
She lifted her head and brushed the sweetest kiss to his mouth, then wriggled out from beneath him, reaching for her pillow on the other side of the bed.
