Page 64 of Lover from the Waves

He pulled her head down and slammed his mouth against hers. She opened to him without hesitation. His kiss was wild, feral, and unguarded, empowered by the depth of the emotions roiling within him. He consumed her with his lips and tongue.

She clung to him as lust sparked swift and urgent at her core, amplifying her need nearly to the point of pain. His demanding lips bruised her mouth, but she eagerly returned the kiss. His cock, hard and insistent, extruded to press against her belly.

He crushed her to him with possessive hands, as though afraid she might disappear. The tips of his claws pricked her flesh, but Kathryn didn’t care. She wasalive.

Ector broke the kiss and touched his forehead to hers. Their ragged breaths mingled. His taut body continued shivering.

“I need you,” he said hoarsely.

“Yes.” Kathryn feathered her lips over his mouth, nose, and cheeks before returning to his mouth. “You have me. Always.”

Her answer was all Ector needed to release that last bit of control he’d somehow maintained; he let it snap without a second thought, allowing his hunger, his need, to consume him. And Kathryn’s clothing was the final barrier keeping him from taking her.

He laid her down on the grassy ground, propped himself up with his tentacles to either side, and tore at her clothing, shredding the fabric with his claws. He was desperate to feel her skin, to feel her heat, her vitality.

As soon as her delectable body was bare, he shoved her thighs wide. His eyes fell to the dewy, pink petals of her slit. The sight made his cock throb and ache, and the tendrils at its base, as desperate and needful as Ector himself, reached toward her. He leaned his body over hers and braced himself on trembling arms. With a growl, he thrust his hips forward, burying himself in her heat.

Kathryn tilted her head back as she released a choked cry. She dragged her fingers over Ector’s shoulders and down his back, raking her blunt nails across his skin, and tugged him closer even as her sex hungrily clenched around his shaft. A ripple of pleasure ran along his spine. Her heat enveloped him, and her scent flooded his senses.

He coiled his tentacles around her calves and guided her legs up, cinching them around his waist and pulling her tighter against him. He needed to feel all of her, his lover, his mate, his wife, his Kathryn. Hiseverything.

And I nearly lost her.

The same dread that had suffused him at the hole threatened to overcome him again in that moment, as though it were dissatisfied with being a memory. It knew the truth as well as he—one crisis had been narrowly averted, but there was always more danger looming in the murky waters of the future. Either Kathryn or Ector could meet their end at any moment.

But we are still here, and she willalwaysbe mine.

He growled again, forcing back that heavy, nauseating sensation that had been paired with his terror. Because what was here in his arms, against his skin—what he felt in his hearts—was stronger than anything that might have happened or might yet happen. Kathryn was real, and she was his here and now.

A shudder rippled through Ector as he drew his pelvis back and slammed forward, pushing himself deeper into Kathryn’s loving heat. He tasted her through his suction cups and tendrils and longed to have her flavor on his tongue again.

Spreading his back tentacles wide to create a solid base for himself, Ector gathered Kathryn in his arms, drew her flush against his chest, and lifted his torso upright without breaking the connection between their bodies. Her thighs flexed around his hips, and her nails dug wickedly into his skin. He bent his middle slightly, leaned his torso back, and pivoted his hips forward, entering a position that allowed Kathryn to lean over him with her head level with his.

Her cheeks were flushed, and her breath ragged as she met his gaze. For a moment, they stared at one another, her eyes gleaming with as much lust as burned inside Ector. He moved a hand to the back of her head and pulled her face down into a kiss, again claiming her mouth as his.

He dropped his hands, spanning them around her hips, and ground her against him. A moan tore from her throat, and he swallowed the sound, deepening the kiss as he lifted her and pulled her back down upon him. He set a frantic, ruthless pace. Kathryn clutched his shoulders and matched that pace with every movement of her legs and hips.

Pleasure built in him rapidly, radiating outward from his core to chase away the lingering shakiness and fear that had so tightly gripped him earlier. That pleasure was just as desperate as the emotions it replaced, but it was even more powerful, and Ectorwantedit to consume him.

Kathryn broke the kiss, flattened her hands on his chest, and pushed herself up. Her drying hair bounced around her naked shoulders as she moved upon Ector. Soft gasps escaped her parted lips with every driving thrust. Her delicate brows angled down, and her eyes met his, their blue as endless as the sea.

Ector slid two tentacles around her chest, positioning them to take her nipples into his suction cups, which pulsated around the hard nubs as he circled her breasts. Kathryn moaned and curled her fingers against his chest. She dominated all his senses; her feel, taste, sound, scent, and appearance were his entire world, all delightfully, maddening sweet and sensual, pushing his pleasure to impossible heights.

He was on the verge of an explosion, of being torn asunder by everything she made him feel. He wanted nothing more than to throw himself over that edge.

Baring his teeth, he dropped his hands to her backside, squeezing the yielding flesh, and slammed her down faster, harder. Her rhythm staggered, and her inner walls fluttered with her oncoming release. Lifting her again, he brought her down savagely, and her sex constricted around his cock. One of his tendrils found her clit and latched on. She gasped and cried out his name as she spasmed and doubled over, leaning against him, her body winding tighter and tighter as sweet nectar flowed from her.

Clutching her backside, Ector ground himself against her, pushing as deep as he could go. The pressure within him finally burst. He clenched his teeth and snarled as his seed poured into her. She writhed atop him, and he curled his tentacles around her body, holding her captive, unwilling to relinquish her as thrumming, overwhelming ecstasy coursed through him.

Ector cupped his hand around the back of her head and turned her face toward him. He captured her lips with his, swallowing her cries of pleasure and mixing them with his own groans.

Even when the maelstrom of their passion had ebbed and their kiss had become a gentle, caressing exploration of lips and tongues, his tendrils continued stroking her sex—and Kathryn shivered in response.

Pleasure pulsed from the points at which their bodies were connected, and Ector refused to break that contact. He eased down onto the ground, turning to lay on his back, and let her weight settle atop him as he closed his eyes. The grass was soft, and the fragrance of their mating was fresh and alluring. His hands and tentacles roamed her body—along her spine, over the curve of her backside, up and down her arms and legs. Before long, it was impossible for him to know where he ended and Kathryn began. They were one.

The breeze swept over their bodies, caressing them with pleasantly warm air, and the sounds of the sea and the nearby waterfalls were constant and soothing, but none of it meant anything without Kathryn. She was the reason Ector felt so full, so fulfilled. So loved. He’d seen several relationships like this form over the last few years, had known there was something special involved, something precious. Something the kraken had never really been able to have. He’d recognized that even from the outside.

But now he understood it fully. This connection, this emotion, thislove. What he couldn’t fully understand was how he’d lived so long without even a taste of it—how he’d lived so long without his Kathryn.

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