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And oh my God.

This man loves me so much.

I thought I knew. I didn’t know. It’s huge. It’s deep and steady and so big it fills me all the way up, and under that, there’s something hot and fierce and protective. And under that, there’s this old, quiet calm that’s been around longer than this whole village.

And every bit of it is pointed at me.

I come so hard I black out for a second.

When I come back, his knot’s locked inside me and he’s coming too, groaning into my neck with his teeth still in my skin. And I can feel that too. Through the bond. Every wave of it, his pleasure piling right on top of mine, until I can’t tell which is which.

He lets go of my neck, slow. Licks the bite, soft, over and over.

We lie there tied together, breathing.

And I can feel him. Right in my chest, under my ribs. Warm and steady and heavy. Part of him moved in, and he’s not leaving.

“Rowan,” I whisper.

“I know.” His voice is rough. “I feel you too.”

I close my eyes and just feel him for a while. And under all that big, deep love, there’s something else. Something smaller. Something that feels a whole lot like…

I open my eyes.

“Rowan.”

“Hm.”

“Are you being smug right now?”

A pause.

“No.”

“I can feel it! Through the bond! You’re so smug right now!”

He buries his face in my neck and laughs, and I feel that too. In my chest. In my whole body.

“I just bonded the most beautiful woman in the world,” he says. “I’m allowed to be a little smug.”

I laugh so hard I squeeze his knot, and he groans, and I feel that, and I laugh harder.

This is going to be a problem.

A real good problem.

* * *

In the morning, I wake up first. That never happens.

Sun’s coming in the window. Rowan’s still asleep behind me, his arm heavy across my belly, and I can feel him in my chest, slow and calm. I didn’t even know he slept that hard.

I reach back and touch my neck. There’s a bite there now. Tender and swollen. Two neat rows of teeth marks.

Just like the bee.

I’m grinning so hard my face hurts.