Page 44 of The Silent Mate

I felt the first hint of a stretch. Not painful. Not even uncomfortable. Butstretched.

Malik stiffened. He trembled beneath me, but he didn’t push me further onto his erection. Instead, he waited, a silent question in his eyes.

I nodded in response, a ravenous, uninhibited confirmation. “Yes.Do it. Please. I need?—”

Words failed me as, without preamble, Malik brought me down on him.

I cried out, an initial burning sensation shooting through me at the abrupt intrusion. My opening complained the most, like it took the brunt of accommodating my mate’s sheer size and girth, but, as seconds passed, the pain dissipated.

A strained, choked sound ripped from Malik’s chest as he bottomed out inside of me, and my eyes fluttered open to find him staring at the spot where our bodies joined, enraptured.

I followed his gaze, peering between our bodies. My blonde curls pressed tight against the dark hair at his base, obscuring the view of his cock buried deep. I could vaguely see where my lips spread and my clitoris rubbed against his pubic bone, but not an inch separated us. Not anymore.

I expected more pain. I expected tears to be springing from the corners of my eyes, my virgin sex screaming for reprieve. Butany pain had already faded into the smallest twinge of discomfort, leaving a heady sense of fullness in its wake.

I shouldn’t have been surprised. We were made for one another, after all. That meantbiologicallyas well. Wefit.

My body accepted him like it welcomed back a long lost part of itself. Where I was wet and pliant, Malik was hard and unyielding. I molded around him, our bodies becomingone.

His breaths came shallow, his thighs twitching beneath me as if fighting against the urge to ratchet into me from below. I wanted him to. Though, when I looked up to his face, his eyes were closed, collecting himself.

Desperate for a bit of friction, I rotated my hips, grinding against his hard pubic bone. Little sparks of pleasure erupted at my clit, only to come to an abrupt halt when his hands landed on my waist, halting my movements.

“Please,” I pleaded. A desperate whimper bubbled from my chest when I tried moving again, but he held firm in his resistance.

Malik answered me by peppering gentle, doting kisses to my mouth and jawline, nibbling at my earlobe before descending down my neck. Utterly consumed by the feeling of him inside of me, I didn’t understand the reason for his resistance until he sucked on the hollow of my neck.

He wanted to mark me.

Blood flooded my engorged clitoris as his teeth dragged over the sensitive flesh between my collarbone and ear. My head fell to the side, offering him unimpeded access.Yes, yes, yes, yes?—

His sharp canines pierced through my skin’s barrier. They were long, descending deep into my bloodstream until hot blood poured from the wound, falling in rivers down my breasts and abdomen. But, just as when he’d first pushed inside my sex, the immediate shot of pain faded away into nothingness as his canines found purchase.

Pleasure—pure, unadulterated pleasure—churned throughout my body, leaving no corner untouched. It was everything I’d ever imagined, yet completely unfathomable in the same breath.

With his canines marking my neck and his cock buried to the hilt, the first twitches of an orgasm began to build at the base of my spine, hard and sudden. “I’m going to—Goddess!”

My back arched as my core began to spasm, and I writhed against his cock as my orgasm unleashed inside of me. I forgot how to breathe—how tothink—as my entire body swelled and burst, then swelled again. I came undone. And undone. And undone.

Somewhere in the midst of my ecstasy, Malik released his claiming hold on my neck and adjusted our bodies’ positions until my back pressed into the cold ground. He laid on top of me, my thighs parting to accommodate his hips as his weight pressed into me. Then, as the aftershocks pulsed through my body and skittered down my spine, I heard it.

I heardhim.

Deep and rumbling and unmistakablyhim.

That’s it, little dove. Fuck, you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Perfect. I’m going to come if you keep clenching?—

My eyes snapped open. I stared up at him, and his train of thought stopped. His lips parted as the reality of what just happened seeped over him.

We’d mated and marked one another, transforming into one flesh beneath the Moon Goddess. At long,longlast, we could speak.

Can you hear me, Aria?He murmured in my head, his perfect voice like honey-dipped velvet. The white of his eye expanded.Truly?

I nodded, a bubble of laughter spilling from my mouth. Following the newfound, invisible cord that bound our soulstogether, I pushed my own voice through to his mind and responded, never breaking my smile.Yes, I can hear you, Malik.MyMalik.

His mouth landed on mine. Hungry. Consuming.Happy.

Then, he began moving. His hips pushed me further into the dirt and grass with experimental, shallow thrusts that somehow seemed to hit new spots deep in my center. My walls fluttered around him, more aftershocks of my climax, and I cried out at the electrifying pulses they elicited.

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