Vikki

"Good morning, my mate," Max rumbles in my ear. "I was hoping you might have somewhere to put this."

A swollen troll cock presses at my stomach.

"You know exactly where you can put it," I say, voice thick with sleep.

With absolutely no ceremony, he mounts me and slides inside in a single, glorious thrust.

This is how Max likes to wake up, with a long, slow, sleepy fuck. Ever since the night in the club, over the past week, we've woken up this way. Sometimes I'm awake, sometimes I'm not, but either way, it usually ends up with us taking a while to get up.

Since Max moved his office to his apartment, he claims waking up this way makes him more productive. Not that he's not "productive." I thought he produced a lot of cum before the knotting, now I know it was simply a precursor to what was to come. And wow. Just wow.

Max circles his hips and presses a kiss to my shoulder. "I wanted to ask you something, little Vee."

"I think you already did." I lift my hips, allowing him to go deeper and enjoying his deep moan of delight.

"Something else, bad girl," he says. "Vee, I want you to stay with me."

My heart does something weird in my chest. It flips, spins, and then drops to my boots.

"Stay with you?" My voice sounds unnaturally high.

"At the end of the month, not even the end of the month. I don't want you to leave. I want you with me, Vee, now and forever. You're my mate, my air, my magic. I need you."

My mouth goes dry. I wasn't sure what this was, whether my growing desire to never leave Max's side was a pipe dream. Because finding a billionaire troll willing to take on a rather pathetic human only ever happens to other people/monsters.

Luck, or love, doesn't happen to me.

"You'll still get the money," Max says. "If that's what you're wondering."

And I realize I've let the silence run on perhaps a little too long for my big, sensitive troll.

"I don't want it, Max." I reach up and put my hand on his cheek, my thumb sweeping over one of his handsome tusks. "The money means nothing. I'd gladly never have more than a penny in my pocket as long as I have you."

His gorgeous, serious face lights up. "You will stay?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

"You wanted to stay?"

"Max." I tug at a horn and he's absolute putty in my hands. "I've trusted the wrong people in my life. I thought it was a pattern I could never change, but I was wrong. I was wrong not to trust you from the first night at Arcane. You are the best thing that ever happened to me."

He closes his eyes and I miss their bright blue so much.

"Fate," he says simply. "Fate brought us together. I wasn't sure what she wanted, or why she decided an old troll like me deserved a chance at love and at having a mate. I fought it." He opens his eyes and the love hovering in them causes tears to form in mine. "When I lost my family in the wars, I thought my heart turned to stone, but you thawed it, little Vee. You make me whole. I only wish I'd told you when I first felt this."

"And when was that?"

"The day we met," he says, and a slight coloration reaches his granite cheeks. "I didn't want to scare you."

"A big, strong troll like you, marching up to little me, having bought me at auction. What makes you think I'd have been scared if you'd told me I was your mate?" I chuckle.

Max dips his head and captures one of my nipples in his mouth, sucking gently at first, but then his rough tongue sweeps over the tender nub, and I gasp, thrusting myself up at him.

"You are my mate, Vee. And I'm going to fill you up with troll seed to watch your belly swell. I promised you a knotting and you are going to get it, over and over." He growls against my skin. "I'm going to breed you, little girl. Breed you until you squeak."

And he does.