Page 130 of Hearts of Stone

Gods, there could be nothing in the world as perfect.

She had to fight to take the head of me, her hips moving in teasing little pulses that threatened my control, but I couldn’t just shove her on the ground and ram myself deep. I’d hurt her. Instead my hands gripped that plush arse of hers, helping her ease me deeper and deeper. I knew when she reached the first pearl, both from that pressure that forced out the heaviest burst of pleasure I’d ever felt, but because of her sharp little gasp, then a moan that sounded like half a growl, right before it popped in.

“That’s one…” I rasped out. “You’re doing so well, love.”

“Already so full…” Her voice was a heady mix of trepidation and hunger and her brows creased as she looked up at me. “What if I can’t take all of you?”

“You have all of me.” I stared into her eyes and saw the moon reflected in them. “Can’t you see that? No matter what you take or don’t take into your body, I’m yours, Jade.” I placed her hand over my heart. “This beats for you, lass, and only you. You brought me back from the dead for just this purpose. To serve you, protect you…” My voice broke. “To love you.”

That came out as way more of a question than I meant it too, but she tightened her grip on my neck, pressing her face into my neck and holding me tight as she said the one thing I needed to hear.

“I love you too. My heart was torn out of my chest when I saw you die, and every night I’m terrified you won’t wake again. That somehow you’ll be snatched away from me, that all of it will. I don’t know how I deserve this—”

“Yes, you do.” I stroked her back. “Because the universe knows what I know. You deserve all of the happiness, lass, in this world and the next. Now…” I bucked upwards, feeling her limits, then slipping another pearl inside, to be met by her moans of pleasure. “Take my cock like a good girl, because I’m going to give you all the proof a gargoyle can that I’m not going anywhere.”

And she did, in long, slow, aching strokes, one pearl, then another wedging inside her. My blunted claw rubbed at her little pearl, making her wetter, softer, opening up to let me in, until finally I was seated as deep as I was going to go.

“Wulf, I can’t…” she whined, needy now. All of this buildup was beginning to wear on her and I knew the feeling. The need to take her, to mate her and make her mine was riding me hard.

“There’s no more to do, lass,” I said, “Except for this.”

And then I began to move in the long, slow rocking pace of a horse at a walk. Her whole body seemed to ease at that, growing softer and more languid. Her mouth formed a small O, and coos of pleasure filling the night air as I picked up the pace.

“Fuck, yes…”

Her voice was the hiss of the breeze in my ears, her hands gripping at my shoulders as she began to move in earnest, setting her own pace. Faster, harder, and I liked that a lot, my lips curving into a wild grin. I feared I’d miss the heat of battle in this strange new kingdom. People seemed to solve their problems in the courts, not on the practice grounds, but now, I knew I wouldn’t. Not when I had this. That same blood-stirring, heart-pumping, wild, fierce feeling that made my whole body pulse with pleasure.

As did hers.

I fought to keep control, right as she lost hers, her bobbing hips shuddering, growing faster and more ragged in their pace.

“Wulf, I’m going… I’m going…”

“I know, lass,” I whispered in her ear. “Let’s do it together. We’ll make that jump, you and I. What do you say?”

“Yes!”

Some moments are seared on your heart forever and this was one of them. The moment her cunt clamped down, shoving all of my pearls deep against my shaft, causing the most perfect of pleasures, right before I buried my fangs in her neck.

Her blood in my mouth, her cunt wringing the seed out of my balls, the sounds of the insects screaming their alien song of mating frenzy… it was perfect; she was perfect. I held her tight as our bodies shuddered, trying to process what had happened until the aftershocks fell away and all there was left was us. Her eyes were wild when they flicked open, staring into mine for a moment before she grinned up at me.

“You’re mine, now.”

“I always was, Lady Jade,” I said, stroking her hair back from her face. “This just makes it clear to the rest of the world. Anyone who sees your neck will know it now. This woman belongs to the warrior Wulfstan.”

“OK, so the whole Viking warrior thing is totally hot,” she said. “I am going to need to see you in armour and with a sword or an axe or something.”

“Anything you want,” I said as I laid her down against me on the rug. “We’ve got a whole lifetime ahead of us now.” She let out a sigh as she snuggled into my chest. “There’s nothing stopping us from fulfilling all of your dreams.”

Chapter 71

Jade

Coming downstairs the next morning to the smell of coffee brewing, breakfast cooking and wearing the marks of all of my fated mates… Yeah, if you’d told me that was possible months ago, I wouldn’t have believed you, because I didn’t believe that this kind of bliss was possible. Yet here I was. But as I rounded the corner to walk into the kitchen, a smug smile on my face, I caught something else happening. Harry was snuggled up to Daniel, the two of them enjoying a little moment as a shirtless Mellors watched the two of them with a kind of possessive satisfaction that felt way too intimate for me to witness. I cleared my throat quickly, not wanting to hang in the doorway like a perv, only for everyone to look up quickly.

“Well, well, look what the gargoyle dragged in,” Daniel said, pushing Harry gently away before sauntering forward. Standing there in just his PJ pants, I could see he was still way too thin, but he was getting there. “And what do I spy here?” He winked theatrically. “Is that another bite mark on your neck? Looks like someone claimed the last one of her fated mates last night.”

He dragged me over to the kitchen table and pulled out two chairs.

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