Page 130 of Violet

“About babies.”

I pause, my heart pounding. Wait—does she know?

“How you’re not able to have them?”

I let out a held breath. Shit. For a second, I thought she’d known my secret all along.

“Yes. But that’s not a reflection on you, Violet. It’s me.”

“So you’llneverknot me, then? Even when I’m in heat?” she asks. “I told you I can put my idea of a big family aside for you. We can explore other ways to have children when the time comes.”

“I know. I know. I will knot eventually. I just…I just need some time.” I rub a hand over my face, get up, and pace, taking a long swallow from the bottle before bringing it to rest on the ledge of the balcony. I look out at the darkness of the ocean, then up at the warm glow of the full moon.

“You’re right,” I say. “I need to let the past go completely. It’s time. And if you’re ready, then so am I. Next time, I won’t hold back. But knotting doesn’t happen every time. That just isn’t how things work.”

Another twist on the truth. With her, I could rut and knot in her until the end of days. In others, no. But my innocent, pristine princess doesn’t know this.

“Are you sure?” she asks, big eyes watching my every move. “I can wait.”

I put on a smile and turn. “Don’t you worry. I’ll show you how sure I am soon enough.”

CHAPTER

THIRTY-SEVEN

Violet

My dreams take an erotic turn.

Warm lips are gliding over my flesh, making me throb inside and ache, making my nipples peak.

Hands slide up over my bare skin, flaring sparks where they touch, making me wet, and all I can smell is the erotic secret edge to oak.

He captures a nipple between his teeth and sucks hard, and I cry out, feeling it everywhere. He releases it, biting and licking a path up my throat, to my ear where he bites down, making me gasp and clench and sigh.

The touch is magic, like lights coming on within, like I’m a network of pressure points, receptors for the pure ecstasy he brings.

The beard is both soft and a delight of roughness that surges arousal higher.

“Princess…”

I moan low. This isn’t a dream; the hair between my fingers, thick and soft, is Stephan’s. I’d know the power of his touch anywhere, but I hover between dream and awake, liking the way it expands horizons. Not pleasure, but it blurs edges, and like this I don’t need to think, I can justbe.

Pulling him closer, I urge his mouth to mine, kissing him deeply, sliding my tongue into his mouth and taunting his. I kiss him first. I tease the way he teases me, I find all the hidden depths and pleasures in the heat and wetness, the taste of him.

He’s hard.

So hard. His cock is pressing at my thigh. I push up, flowing over him and then I straddle, reaching down to squeeze, tease his turgid flesh.

I rub him against my opening before I sink down, rising and falling, loving the stretch, the way he opens me, fills me, makes me complete in a way I don’t understand.

He drags me down, kissing me hard, our tongues a duel of madness. My hips undulate on him and then he flips us, thrusting up into me, so deep he hits a part of me that aches each time he slams in. The kiss grows deeper, more lush, more filled with desire and all delicious things.

Is he going to knot?

He begins to slam, movements slipping into wildness, and my breath catches as he kisses down to my throat to bite me like he’s claiming me all over again. I wrap my legs around him and?—

Stephan lifts his head, stills, deep inside me, and then he kisses me again.

---