Page 109 of Aine

Feeling at ease now that we’re in the same space, I turn to begin cleaning. Grabbing the body wash, I hold it out in an attempt to ask permission to use it. He looks between me and the bottle for a quick moment before standing and taking it out of my hand.

A small smile spreads across his face as he leans over me to grab the loofah, and he presses a quick kiss to my temple as he pulls back.

“I’d love to wash you,” he whispers.

I open my mouth, my cheeks flaming, but I shut it as he pops open the cap of the wash. That’s not at all what I meant. I’m embarrassed he thinks I’d ask such a needy thing from him.

Owen would have hurt me for daring to ask him to dote on me.

Damien only looks happy.

I’m sure my face is beet-red as Damien presses the sudsy loofah to my chest and begins cleaning my skin. He seems focused as he lifts my arms and maneuvers my body around with gentle nudges.

A wide smile I’m unable to control spreads across my face, and a hearty laugh bubbles up out of my throat as he roughly sticks his pointer finger in my belly button to clean it out.

Damien freezes at the noise, his gaze snapping from my belly to my face as he takes in my reaction.

I slap my hands over my mouth as the loud noise erupts from me, my eyes widening and pulse quickening. As much as I’d have preferred the laugh to be quiet and cute, it was a squawk. I’d go as far as to say Damien beams as he begins to cackle, the stressed crinkles around his eyes disappearing for the first time since he found me.

“I didn’t realize I was mated to a bird.” He twists his finger in my belly button before pulling it out altogether.

My laughter fades, my attention captured by his words.

He still considers us to be mates? I was under the impression he’d take the opportunity our lack of marks brings and leave me. Unwanted tears fill my eyes as I look at his arm that once held my bite.

It was ugly and poorly executed, but I liked the physical proof that he was mine.

“Are you upset your mark is gone?” he asks.

I nod. He already knows the answer isyes.

A quiet hum emerges from his throat as he swipes the loofah over my chest one last time and sits on the small bench. It puts us at the same height, giving me the perfect view as he cranes his head to the side and exposes his neck.

“Give me a new one,” he says.

I don’t move, unsure whether or not this is a trick. When I marked him for the first time, it was by force, and I’m confident he wouldn’t have allowed it otherwise. He’s going to wait until I get close, then pull away and laugh in my face.

He doesn’t really want me to mark him. There’s no way.

I’m torn from my thoughts as his hand wraps around my wrist and gently urges me closer. My thighs cage in his as I sit on his lap, straddling him. He holds my waist and pulls me forward until I’m flush with his chest, his neck still exposed.

I gasp as my pubic mound smashes his privates between our bellies. Damien grunts and adjusts himself so his manhood sits between his thighs rather than between our bodies.

“Sorry about that,” he mumbles. “It seems I forgot for a moment there that I have a penis.”

I blink, my lips twitching. That was actually funny.

Damien’s touch is gentle as he cups the back of my head, his fingers playing once more with my choppy hair before he guides my mouth to his neck. He tenses as my lips make contact with his skin, his hand weaving through the sad bits of hair I have left.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he promises.

My movements are cautious as I open my mouth, mentally preparing for him to pull away at the last minute and laugh at me. Owen liked to tell me that while he would put his mark on me the second my bleed was over, I’d never be welcome to give him one in return. He said I wasn’t deserving of something so sacred, and Damien must have been out of his mind to let me sink my dirty, flat teeth into him.

He said Damien must be relieved to see my mark leaving his skin.

“Claim me, Aine,” Damien whispers, pulling me from my thoughts.

I let out a shaky breath before placing the warm skin of his neck between my teeth. I give him a moment to pull away, eager to give him an out, but when he doesn’t move I bite down. Damien grunts but otherwise is as still as a mountain as I claim him as mine. Wetness from my eyes mixes with the shower water as I feel his skin break beneath my teeth, the metallic taste of his blood entering my mouth.

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