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“Cocky asshole,” I mutter. The words are so unlike me that I slap a hand over my mouth as he throws his head back with a bark of laughter.
“You can call me anything you like,” he says as he wraps a hand possessively around my ankle. “So long as you come back to me in this bed at night, I don’t care if you call me every name in the book.”
“I’m not going to call you names.” I frown.
“I know.” He winks at me, and I melt. Paxton Glass doesn’t look like the kind of man I pictured my future with, but he’s under my skin all the same. And that’s the way of the mate bond. Now that he’s marked, our spirits are forever connected. There’s no walking away or fighting it, and I’m done trying to.
“Are you just going to stand there, or—“
Paxton suddenly flips me onto my stomach by my legs, cutting me off as a gasp falls from my lips. I open my mouth to ask why, when I’m jolted by the feel of his hand smacking my ass. It’s only a slight sting through the borrowed yoga pants I’m wearing, but it’s enough to be a warning shot.
“Don’t rush me.” Paxton runs his hands over the backs of my thighs. “I thought I would spend the rest of my life alone. I was fine with it, really. But then there you were, fucking stunning and offered up to me by fate on a silver platter. I want to enjoy every damn minute when I’m touching your body, Tasha, because you were a gift to me that I plan to take great joy in unwrapping.”
My whole body shudders.
“Unwrap me then.” I nearly choke on the words. I’ve never done… dirty talk. If the idea didn’t make me insanely jealous, I’d suggest that Paxton could probably make a killing running a phone sex line. Based on the pressure building between my legs, I’m starting to think he could get me off using his voice and nothing else if he tried hard enough.
I was too stuck in my own head to enjoy things properly the first time around. I won’t make the same mistake twice.
Paxton hooks his fingers into the waistband of my pants and slowly drags them over me, my flesh prickling with awareness as his fingers graze the bare skin he leaves behind. Paxton lets out a low, whistling breath as he gets a good look at my bare backside.
“Did you like when I smacked your ass, Tasha?” I can practically hear the smirk in his voice.
“What?” I rasp out. Surely he doesn’t actually expect me to answer that.
His hand comes down again, snapping my skin enough to sting but not enough to actually hurt. I whimper softly, the sound growing as Paxton’s hands immediately move between my legs. He runs two fingers between the apex of my thighs, teasing my entrance and coming away with the wet evidence of my arousal. He growls his approval.
“That’s my girl. We can take turns having the power, can’t we? You’re the most powerful shifter in the country, but here, in this bedroom, you answer to me. Don’t you, sweetheart?”
“Paxton.” His name falls off my lips in a needy whine.
“That’s right, Tasha. Tell me you need me. Tell me the first time wasn’t a mistake. Tell me you’re glad you marked me. Tell me you’re glad it was me.” The more he talks, the more frenzied he seems to get. He jerks me over onto my back again to stare down into my eyes.
I look up at him with wide eyes. His chest rises and falls rapidly, as if he’s truly worked up. He really wants to hear me say these things. No, heneedsto hear them. We’ve spent all day surrounded by the memory of what I lost. He needs to hear confirmation that there’s a future here.
I push myself up on the bed and hold my hand out to him. He furrows his brow but puts his hand in mine. Trusting me the way I need to do for him. Two mates coming together under their bond the way fate intended.
He seems confused as I tug on his hand, but he leans forward for me. As soon as he does, I jerk hard so that he loses his balance. His body covers mine, one of his hands planting against the mattress just in time to keep from slamming into me with his full weight.
I tilt my chin to speak right next to his lips, our breath mingling. “I thought the world might as well end when Jimmy died—I like having someone to care for. Then I was called to be the Luna Sovereign, and suddenly I had a lot of people to care for. But I think fate knew I still needed someone to care for me. I’m sad you’ve spent most of your life as a rogue, but I think you had to do that so that nothing would be in our way when our time came.
“So, Paxton Glass… I need you.” I kiss him at the corner of his mouth. “The first time wasn’t a mistake.” I kiss the other corner. “I’m glad I marked you.” I lightly brush my lips against his. “And I’m glad it’s you.”
Paxton’s eyes study me, searching for the truth I’m certain he’s going to find.
My reign as Luna Sovereign is already marked by the kind of evil no one fights alone. The kind of evil that selfishly seeks to destroy and take what doesn’t belong to it. It’s not the kind of thing a person faces alone, and today proved that I don’t have to. I have a family. I have friends. And I have Paxton Glass.
“Good.” Paxton’s grin is smug. “Now stop thinking. I’ve got you.”
I take a deep breath and do my best to clear my mind as he tugs at the hem of the loose shirt I’m wearing. He loops an arm behind my back to lift me just enough to pull the shirt over my head, leaving me as exposed to him as he is to me.
There’s nothing left between us. No clothes and no second-guesses.
He hums his approval, his lips dropping to my neck as he repositions himself to let me fall flat to the bed again. My breath catches as he runs his tongue up the column of my neck. I let my head fall back, my eyes locked on the headboard as he feasts on my flesh.
Paxton can’t seem to touch me enough. His hands roam, cupping my breasts and rolling my nipples into hard peaks that strain toward him. His mouth covers every inch of my throat and then moves to the sensitive skin right at the base of my shoulder where a mark would go.
I half-expect him to mark me unnecessarily. I wouldn’t stop him, but when his lips touch me there, he simply presses a firm kiss against my skin and moves on, lips trailing upward until they meet mine again.
