I crane my neck to meet his glowing gaze.

“I’m not leaving you.”

The wood groans from the change in temperature. I can no longer see past the broad line of Bran’s shoulders, the steam is so thick.

I start to shiver.

Ice crackles along the domed roof above us.

The light bar flickers.

“I can’t control it.”

“Do you trust me?” Bran asks.

“What? I?—”

He drops to his knees, tears my panties from my body and hooks one knee over his shoulder.

He tastes me in one long stroke of his tongue and my mind immediately goes to the sensation and the primal pleasure of my vampire boyfriend being between my legs.

Bran hooks one hand around my thigh, spreading me wider as he sinks two fingers inside of me. “I’m not…leaving you,” he says between licks. “There will always be this.” He nips at my clit, causing me to jolt, and my body relaxes. “There will always be the distraction of pleasure.” He pulls out of me, then sucks my juices from his fingers, eyes glowing up at me. “I will never abandon you.” He fingers me deeper, tongue swirling over my swollen clit. “If I must get on my knees to help you through power flares, I will.” He sucks at my clit again, then explores my center with the slide of his tongue. “I will do anything to help you balance your power.” He nips at my clit and my hips rock back.

Bran tightens his grip around my thigh, pulling me back into him, back to his mouth.

“I will be here—” he tastes me deeply “—until the end of fucking time.”

The steam thins out and the chill around me dissipates until there is only the burning need in my body.

I focus on the feel of Bran between my thighs, his mouth on my pussy.

Fuck he knows how to bring me to the peak in no time at all. I try to push him away—I don’t want to come without him. Not yet. But he is relentless, and unmovable. Bran Duval takes orders from no one. Not even me.

“Give in to me, Mouse,” he says with a growl, his tongue swirling over my clit, tasting me deeply. “Come for me and let me taste the sweetness of it.”

He takes me flying to the edge.

I brace myself with a hand on the wall behind me, the other buried in his hair as I rock my hips forward, chasing the pleasure of his mouth on me.

“Fuck, Mouse.” He groans into me. “You taste so fucking good.”

The bloom of pleasure spills over and I cry out.

Bran’s fingers press into my inner thigh, keeping me open for him as my body instinctively wants to close.

I squirm beneath him as he chases the last of my orgasm, as if he wants to memorize the taste of it.

When I come down on the other side of it, he scoops up the towel and in one fluid motion, wraps it around me.

“You can come in, Alpha,” he says.

My mouth drops open. “Wait. Was he there the entire time?”

“Not the entire time,” Cal says as he pushes the door in and steam billows out into the darkness around him. “Get dressed and meet me in the pack house. One of my scouts just came back with a report.”

Bran scowls. “And?”

“And…” Cal sighs. “Arion just came through the gate. And he brought an army of fae with him.”