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Steady and dynamic.
Two forces colliding into one impenetrable shield that the world can no longer touch. We are bound together by fate, and tied by the infrangible threads of love. Unbreakable now.
With every contraction of his muscles, I’m that much closer to the pinnacle. I clutch onto him, panting and moaning with every slow and steady drive of his hips, the sweat of our bodies creating a slick glide.
Sunlight beams through the window beside us, and I tip my head back, letting the rays fall against my face. I let it transport me back into the light. Back to myself. With Titus moving inside of me, I dig my fingers into his flesh, while the knot in my stomach tightens. Mouth gaping, I climb higher and higher, toward Heaven, the sound of my moans reverberating inside my head. A new sound. One of pleasure and gratification. I arch my back as the threads tighten deep inside my core, tugging up into my ribs by some invisible force.
Titus takes one of my nipples into his mouth, suckling me with the greedy impatience of a desperately thirsty man. I arch harder, thrusting my breasts toward him, and I open my eyes to an explosion of light. A scream ruptures out of my chest, a long, droning sound.
Titus curses and groans, rolling over top of me, caging me beneath his body. Two more pumps inside of me, and his entire body shudders in my arms as he climaxes, filling me with the warmth of his seed.
It’s when he collapses onto the bed beside me that an invisible dread crawls over the contentment and bliss that’s rendered me weak. A heavy, suffocating fog settles into my chest, stealing what little breath I can manage, and it’s only as Titus pulls me into his body that I realize what it is.
This is when I was forced back into the darkness after Remus finished with me. When I suffered in pain and silence, alone with my thoughts. As if conditioned, my body waits to be cast aside like worthless chattel.
Today is different, though.
Hot breaths hit the back of my neck where Titus rests his head, his chest pressed into my shoulder blades. Arms wrap tight around me, and he slips back inside of me, still hard in spite of his climax, filling me with thick pressure, but he doesn’t move. All of this must be a comfort for him, I’m guessing. In some ways, it’s a comfort for me, as well, to remain so connected as to have him inside of me. Here, in his arms, I feel safe. Protected. Loved. He holds me against him, and I stare through the window at the bright blue sky. The limitless possibilities spread out before me. The future that I can choose for myself.
“I choose you,” I murmur.
He tightens his grip around me and plants a kiss to the back of my ear. “I choose you, too.”
Chapter 44
The darkness settles, as night rolls in. Chest expanding and contracting against my back, Titus rests peacefully behind me, still inside of me, still caging me in his arms.
I stare down the bed, to the eyes that watch me from the corner of the room. Angry eyes. Accusing eyes. Eyes as black as their surroundings, only seen against the stark white pallor of his skin.
Remus.
My instincts prod me to hide beneath the blankets, but I won’t. Not this time.
Instead, I writhe against Titus, whose muscles flinch with the movement. Roused, his arms flex around me, hand sliding down to my belly, where he holds me against him. Grinding his hips into me, stirring his cock inside of me. His masculine groans of need awakening a part of me I’d never willingly give to Remus.
Not ever.
The eyes that watch burn with jealous fury, the same jealousy I saw when I spoke of Titus during my tortures, and I smile.
Go to hell.
The eyes fade into the darkness, and I arch into the massive body behind me.
“You’re ravenous.” His deep voice rumbles in my ear.
“And warm. You’re like an inferno. How about if we take this to the bathtub?”
“I’ve got a better idea.” Titus climbs over top of me, pausing for a kiss, and lands on the floor beside the bed. He gathers up the sheets around my naked body, and lifts me up into his arms.
A gasp flies out of me, and I wrap my arms around him, in spite of knowing he won’t drop me. Through the dark cabin, he carries my bundled form, pausing to swipe up the bear skin from the living room, before heading out the front door and across the yard. Yuma chases after us, scouting the forest as we slip into the night. The soft rustle of trees accompanies a cool breeze, and I’m grateful for the sheet around me as it tickles over the exposed parts of my skin. The vulnerability of being without clothes, in the open, where Ragers, or marauders, could attack us, leaves a tight knot in the pit of my stomach.
As if sensing my edginess, Titus seizes my lips in a kiss, sending a calm through me again.
The forest opens to a clearing where the trees part for the moon’s light, like our personal window to the sky. In the distance, the soft trickle of water tells me we’re not far from the river, toward which Yuma bounds off.
A patch of fresh grass tickles my feet, when he sets me down and spreads the fur rug over the ground. Taking my hand, he guides me to the makeshift bed beneath the stars and lowers to his knees before me. Unpatched eye on mine, he takes hold of my hips and draws me close, kissing my belly. If not for the sheet concealing my scar, I’d be mortified, but there’s something very humbling about watching this strong and powerful man treat me with such reverence. Such admiration. When I’m certain he knows the depraved things I suffered. Can see the ugly bruises and scars that not even I can stand to look at.
With his coarse, but gentle, hands, he lays me down on the shaggy surface of the bearskin, his lean form shamelessly stretched beside me, swallowing my much smaller frame.
