Page 129 of Dark & Dreadful Brutes

Ravv spoke again, his voice lower and rougher. “I’m not ready to let the bond go, Lae. I’ll never be ready to let it go. Seal it with me. Be mine in this life, in the next life—in every life.”

Tears swelled in my eyes. “Are you sure?”

“I’ve never been more certain of anything.” His words rang with honesty. “If it’s not what you want right now, I can wait, but—”

“I want it,” I whispered.

“You do?” His eyes widened, just slightly.

He was actually surprised that I wanted to be his mate.

“Of course I do.” I buried my fingers in his curls. They were longer than they’d been when we met, and I hoped he’d leave them like that. Veil, if I was his mate, I could ask him to leave them like that. “I always wanted the bond, but I thought you were just going to ask me to be your life partner forever.”

He chuckled. “I’d have to be a far less possessive male to accept that fate.”

“True. I should’ve realized.”

“You should’ve.”

His lips brushed mine again.

My throat swelled as the words of the bond rang in my mind.

Finally, I could say them.

“Sillah ovim rett warum, Ravv,” I whispered. “My heart and life are yours.”

The magic of our bond swelled and thickened in my chest.

Ravv’s eyes glimmered slightly, and he repeated the vow he hadn’t meant when he said it in my prison all that time ago. “Sillah ovim rett warum, Lae. My heart and life are yours.”

The bond grew within both of us as he leaned in and kissed me, and kissed me, and kissed me.

And even though the eclipse was coming soon, even though we’d spend the next twenty-four hours dragging out every ounce of pleasure we could from each other, we made love more slowly and more sweetly than we ever had before.

Chapter 29

Laeli

I woke up an hour or two after we went to sleep. The filthiest dream I’d ever had was still running through my thoughts, and I was soaked between my thighs.

My mind was on Ravv and his damn fantasy—him sitting on his icy throne with me dressed in a fancy, glittering gown, perched on his lap. A party raged around us, but we were both blind to it, all of our efforts focused on hiding what we were doing—and bringing each other pleasure, as he touched me and entered me below the billowing skirts of my dress.

A glance at his raging erection, and a flicker of an image coming from his side of the bond, made me wonder if they had been my dreams at all.

His hand brushed my thigh, and the sight of the bright golden glow coming from his palm made pride swell in my chest.

My lips stretched in a smile when I saw the golden handprint wrapped around my bicep, too.

I could hear music playing somewhere in the castle, telling me the party had already started. The windows didn’t let in much light, so I knew it had to be early still.

His hand moved over my thigh again, slower.

“Your fantasy is going to kill me,” I told him, brushing hair off my damp forehead.

“The smell of your desire is going to kill me first.” He slid his hand between my thighs.

My body clenched as he dragged his fingers over my clit roughly.

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