Page 87 of The Gamma's Second Chance

My arm snakes around her waist as I pull her into my lap so her hips line up with mine and her thighs straddle me, her skirt lifting to reveal those endless legs I adore so much. She cups my face and squeezes herself closer to me, rocking her hips as I slide my palms up the tops of her thighs, raising her skirt higher.

“Say it again,” she whispers, her lips brushing mine.

My mouth twitches, angling into a half smile as my hands cup her butt. “Say what again?” I tease, pinching her ass cheek.

She yelps and then nips at my lower lip. “Youknowwhat, dickhead!”

I laugh, tipping my chin to the ceiling, the sound bouncing off the furniture. It’s pure and bright, like the laughter my friends brought out of me before my life went to shit. “I love you, Cassandra,” I say again, stroking her sides beneath her dress as she kisses my jaw and my neck. “I love your smiles and how you see the best in everything and everyone—in me.”

Her smile grows impossibly bigger, and I groan as her lips pass over my marking spot, and she teases it with the softest kisses and her warm breath. My fingers dig into her skin as I fight the urge to overtake her and claim her right now. My jaw tenses as she continues torturing me with her lips and tongue on my neck, but I hold back and slip into the satisfaction I feel from her giving attention to that sensitive place.

“I love you too, Nolan,” she says, lifting her gaze to mine, her eyes flecked with gold.

“So… is that a yes?” I ask, teasing the underside of her breast with my thumb.

She nods, her nose brushing mine. “It’s a yes. I want to be yours, and I want you to be mine. There is no one else I can imagine spending my life with.”

My throat tightens at her verbal confirmation, my heart swelling with happiness. Her reaction told me everything I needed to know, but hearing her accept me? Having her say out loud that she loves me and wants me?

It’s unparalleled.

I dive forward and kiss her once more, hands grappling with the fabric of her dress. The garment fights back, unwilling to leave her body, tangling around my limbs and her torso, and I growl in frustration. Cassandra tears her mouth from mine, and as I wrestle with her clothing, her eyes dart around the room, scanning the floor. “Where’s the ring?” she asks.

“I don’t know. We’ll find it later,” I grit out, finally getting my hands free from the confines of her infuriating dress.

“I want to wear it.” She lunges away from me, reaching for the small black box that is almost underneath my dresser.

I snarl and yank her back, my hand wrapping around her throat and my face buried in her neck. “You don’t need it,” I remind her. “I’m going to mark you. Right here”—I blow on hermarking spot—“and then everyone will know who you belong to.”

I slide the straps of her dress down her arms until the bodice is around her waist, leaving her bare breasts on display for my eyes to feast on, much like earlier during our “piano lesson.” Her nipples tighten until they’re as hard as the diamonds in the ring I bought for her. I cup both of her breasts in my hands, groaning at their softness as I tease her neck with my mouth, nipping at it and kissing it.

I give her neck every bit of attention it deserves. It’s no longer just a brief drag of my teeth or a small, gentle kiss. I claim each inch of it in every way I can, except with my fangs piercing her flesh.

Cassandra gasps and writhes in my lap, her body reacting beautifully to my kisses and my touch like it always does. I wrap myself around her, embracing her and stroking the smooth skin of her arched back, but she pushes against me and yanks my face from her neck, leaning away and staring into my eyes, hers filled with earnestness.

“Not tonight,” she says, panting, her shoulders heaving and her heart racing.

“Not tonight?” I growl, and my grip on her tightens. “What do you mean, not tonight?”

She licks her lips as she catches her breath, one hand caressing my cheek and the other sliding down to my chest and resting just above my heart. “Oracles have a special, sacred bonding ceremony where we mark our mate in the temple. It’s a private, intimate ritual. Every true oracle on the island has completed their bond with their mate in this ceremony. And even though you’re not my fated mate, I want to be marked by you like that. I never thought I’d find anyone who’d want to tie themselves to me as a chosen mate since I can’t have children. But it’s always been my secret dream to be marked in the temple.”

“We’d have to travel there?”

“Yes.”

I growl again and shake my head. “I don’t know if I can wait that long. I want to claim you in every way. I want everyone to know you’re mine.”

“We can leave right after the ball. As soon as we can get on a flight out, or Wesley can book us a private jet, we’ll go, and your mark will be on my neck within a day of us arriving on the island.”

She stares at me, her eyes filled with hope as she explains her plan.

“Cassandra…” I groan, pressing my forehead to hers.

She strokes my cheeks with her thumb, and I glide my hands up her back and down again, closing my eyes so they don’t linger on her pretty nipples that are testing my restraint. But even with my eyes closed, I can see the hope in hers, and feel how fervently she desires this. And although it means a delay in her receiving my mark, her wish to do this special ceremony becomes my wish as well. I want nothing more than for our marking to be a treasured memory for us both, to give her this dream since so many of hers have already been stolen from her.

“Okay,” I concede, nodding so our noses brush, and I feel her smile as she tilts our faces closer. “But you’re wearing my clothes every second that you’re not naked—except at the ball—and that ring”—I gesture towards the dresser the ring is still under—“stays on your finger at all times. Do you understand?”

She answers me with a kiss, and I clutch at her, drawing her half-naked body closer to mine. I hold myself back from kissing her the way I want, the way I usually do, keeping this kiss short and sweet, yet filled with every ounce of love I have for her.

---