I’d always known that something in me yearned to find the man who would make me surrender. But, before Melek, I’d never yet met the man who inspired that in me. And I’d worried that if I gave myself, I’d surrender to the wrong one.
Melek was a shock. A stunning surprise. Impossible, hopeless,perfect.
And when the moment came, for the first time in my life, the fear was gone. Surrender no longer shrieked at me from the dark. Instead, it was light and warmth that curled and beckoned.
Mate.
Soulbond.
Mine.
I could no longer deny it. And so, I gave myself up.
For better, or worse, he was mine and I was his.
Neither of our lives would ever be the same.
As he dropped to cover me, his weight pressing me into the mattress, his free hand cupping the back of my neck and descending with a groan that seemed to start in his toes, I gasped his name and threw my free hand around his neck, grasping the tail of his warrior’s length and pulling him to me as all thoughts of any other male were blown from my mind like smoke in the wind… and I gave myself over. Forever.
“Please, Melek,” I gasped. “I want you. Just… just be gentle.”
He groaned and dove for my mouth, his plunging tongue a tantalizing taste, of what was to come.
“Hold onto me,” he rasped. “Don’t let go.”
I nodded quickly, then threw my free arm around his shoulders, burying my face in his thick neck and clinging as he nudged at me once, then again, teasing, and stealing my breath.
“Yilan—”
“Yes,” I gasped. “Yes!”
Still rolling his hips, still sliding against me, still nudging at my core, tainting with the slightest push into me, he leaned up on his elbows and dropped his forehead to mine, our eyes locking, mouths open.
His tongue darted out to tease under my lip as he nudged at me again—an inch, this time—and the first hint of the fullness of him dropped my jaw. Nerves fighting sheer need.
“I’m here,” he rasped, squeezing my hand where we were bound, and cupping the other over my head. “Don’t leave me.”
“I won’t.”
“Oh, God…Yilan,”he groaned, then rocked his hips, sliding up and into me another inch, slowly, his body quivering and his grip on my hand so tight our knuckles rolled against each other.
Pleasure on the edge of pain ignited there where we joined as my body began to stretch, but then he let go of a shuddering breath and pulled slowly out, leaving me trembling in his wake, hollow,needy.
“Don’t stop,” I gasped.
He groaned and dropped his head, taking my mouth, then graveling my name as he dropped his free hand to grip my hip and hold me.
Then he lifted his head, opened his eyes and stared down at me, his warrior’s length splaying over his shoulder as, mouth open and eyes bright with need and torment, he quickly thrust into me, filling me, stretching me, breaking through that barrier, reaching the places within me that no man had ever touched.
I cried out, arched, clawing into his back and gasping, overwhelmed with the perfect pleasure of joining with him—but unnerved by that clang of pain that promised more because I knew he still hadn’t given me everything he had.
Shuddering, Melek threw his free hand back up to my head, then froze, dropping his face to the pillow next to mine, his shoulders heaving… but he didn’t withdraw.
He took most of his own weight on one elbow so he wouldn’t crush me, but leaned into me enough to press me down into that mattress. His body rippled as a shudder rocked through him, but he still didn’t move.
I was gasping, clinging, blinking as he panted into the pillow next to me, swallowing hard, his hand over my head now fisting my hair and keeping me in place.
“Yilan… are you well?” he croaked a moment later, his voice muffled by the pillow.