Chapter 28

28

W elcome to my life .

Which wasn’t fair to say, not in the face of the bullshit Mike had dealt with.

It was easy to think he led a blessed life as a crown prince but it wasn’t entirely true. He was under more pressure than I understood.

Too many times, I’d lost sight of that.

He cleared his throat when I stayed quiet. “Can we continue this without you trying to beat the crap out of me?”

His joke lifted my lips. “It was one time, Mike. We were both working out some things.” I knew the way I wanted to work them out with him.

Because the exhaustion didn’t matter. In this room, it was just us, and if I closed my eyes and focused on him, the rest melted away.

“I don’t blame you for what happened,” he admitted. “Well, I did at first. Until I realized it was too easy to play the victim. I’m done with the back and forth, Tavi. I’m done with taking one step forward together only for us to take another two massive steps backwards and apart.”

We were flawed creatures. Flawed and broken and I wondered if we would ever find a way to be together that actually worked.

Until Mike lifted his hand and brushed his fingers against my cheek and breathing became impossible. “You’re everything to me,” he whispered.

“I never wanted to be someone else's everything before. But with you… please .” He knew I was in love with him. I’d told him.

He’d laughed, confused by his own feelings and incredulous over mine. But my feelings for him hadn’t changed. They’d only grown, and if I allowed myself, I’d drown in them.

Staring at Mike, I saw emotion shift across his face and I knew he understood. He remembered the moment as well as I did in every lurid detail.

“We said we would give this a shot, right?” He cupped my face in his hands and kissed the tip of my nose, still holding my gaze.

He pressed another kiss to the space between my eyes and my chest constricted. He trailed kisses down the plane of my cheek and my jaw, staying just shy of my lips.

“Yes,” I whispered.

“Tavi, I love you. There’s only you. There will only ever be you.”

Goosebumps lifted on every part of my skin. I lost it entirely, grabbing Mike’s shoulders and lifting onto the tips of my toes to kiss him.

Despite the fear churning my stomach, fear of this moment ending, we had another shot to be together. I broke away from the kiss to tell Mike exactly that but he shot out his hand and grabbed the back of my neck to keep me in place.

He pressed his body to mine and I felt every long lean angle of him. Every hard muscle. I felt the way his breath rushed out of his lungs and caressed my lips.

Mike pried his lips away from mine and rested his forehead to mine. Our eyes met as his arms banded around my waist to keep me in place.

“Maybe one day I’ll be strong enough to deserve you,” he whispered.

“I’ll be the judge of what I deserve,” I whispered back.

I was on fire, burning from the inside with his touch. No one else did those things to me. No one else impacted me the way he did, and always had, from the first moment I met him on that stretch of deserted road.

He was everything I wanted and more. It didn’t matter how his magic needed a boost sometimes.

“Please, Mike.”

I wasn’t sure what I had to say to him or what I was begging for. The power dynamic between us had shifted and it wasn't about the crown on his head, whether he wore it or not. It was about what lurked in my blood and my bones. I couldn't stand it if Mike began to hate me for the disparity.

We’d already been through so much with the secrets I kept.

Reaching up, Mike took a lock of my hair between his thumb and forefinger and rubbed the strands together. He held my gaze when he brought the hair to his nose, inhaling deeply.

We moved together in desperation and Mike dipped his head to the side to draw the tip of his chin and nose up to my hairline. He kissed down my cheekbone, up across my brow, and the electric current between us sharpened.

I drew my fingers through his hair as my skin tightened. My eyes closed and I moved by feel alone, finding his lips, kissing him senseless.

He reached out to draw me even closer and my mouth fell open to allow him entry. His teeth scraped against my lip before he pressed himself to me. My breath came harder, my skin tight, nipples pebbled.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” he murmured.

“You never have to find out.”

His chuckle flickered through me like the first shadow of a candle in the dark. “Don’t make promises you’re not able to keep.”

“Never,” I said. “It’s a gift. I never say what I don’t mean.”

“I thought your gift was finding dead bodies?”

I chuckled. “That, too.”

He knew me inside and out. No more secrets between us, not anymore, not after everything we’d been through. His lips were warm and my body tingled where he touched me. The two of us together…it still felt like a pipe dream even with him in my arms.

He broke away to trail more kisses down the line of my throat until heat spiraled down between my legs.

Mike maneuvered us to the bed and I was the first to fall, the way it had been from the first. Need, weakness—they were twined together and made flesh in him. Magic bubbled up from that place inside of me when he joined me, lying on his side and his fingertip pushing my hair aside. His gaze searched my face.

“Are you sure we have time?”

He grinned against me. “I’m sure.”

We were intimately aware of each other. There was only the sound of our breath, my heartbeat growing louder with every passing beat, and our magic mingling.

I groaned as his fingers skimmed along my ribcage, lingering at the base of my breasts. He trailed them lower, between my thighs, and a shudder of electricity had me swallowing a cry.

Mike kissed me again and growled in the back of his throat. He pushed his fingers between my thighs until the dam broke. The light turned green.

Whatever I wanted to call the moment.

There was sweetness, yeah, but there was also need as we collided, kissing each other desperately.

I rocked my hips against his.

“Do you have any idea how crazy I’ve been for you?” he purred. “How often I’ve thought about getting you alone?”

He stroked his fingers against my core and my head dropped back. “Yes. I need you.”

We exchanged only a brief glance before he pushed me back on the bed and covered me with his body. The contact sent an electric rush through me that made my head spin.

He kissed me hungrily and grabbed a fistful of my hair, kissing me as he settled between my legs.

I whimpered and wrapped my legs around him, arching my back to bring us closer. Too many clothes.

Mike seemed to read my mind. He snapped the fingers of his free hand and everything disappeared. Every last shred of cloth separating us.

Gasping, I gripped his forearms. I trembled against the solid ridge of him, his dick pressing against my hips.

A sense of urgency lit my blood and I stole another kiss as my head spun. Mike bit down on my lower lip before he drew it into his mouth.

“It’s always been you, Tavi.”

My name on his lips nearly sent me over the edge. Then he reached between us and glided a finger across my core. Pleasure shot up from his touch. He kept me pinned beneath him, working me until my breath hitched.

His thumb nudged against my clit and his teeth caught my lip again. The small amount of pain coupled with the soft sensation of those circles drove me over the edge and I came.

Fighting the urge to scream my pleasure for the entire tavern to hear.

It was stupid, how easily he got me. How the press of his skin and a little bit of magic turned me inside out. Only for him.

A desperate need grew inside me as he caught my face between both hands and tilted my face up to kiss me deeper yet. I grabbed his shoulders, pulling him close, groaning.

His silky smooth skin against mine, the solid length of him, nudging me, begging for the one thing we both wanted more than anything else…

I reached down to skim my thumb over him and he shuddered. Slowly I took him in my hand, pumping him from tip to base, exploring the feel of him. Loving the way he jerked with the need to control the tempo.

Mike’s eyes rolled back in his head.

His hand explored my waist, my breast, his teeth on my nipple and his body moving in time with my hand. I grinned wickedly against his mouth before I pushed him backward, forcing him onto his back and straddling him. I ground my core against him.

Heat spun through me with the caress.

“I’m too impatient to let you control the situation, Tavi.” He sounded breathless as he toyed with my nipples and amped up the need until I was wild with it.

In a surprise move, Mike threw me off of him. I had no chance to yelp before he spun me around, my stomach on the bed and my ass in the air. He yanked me backward until I collided with him and he kissed the back of my neck.

Bit me.

Hard.

Oh, god. The dominance in the gesture drove me out of my mind and I was spinning, flying, as he dragged his teeth down my shoulder toward my spine.

“I’ve been researching,” he said softly. I felt every word on my skin. “Werewolves. How shifters show their affection.”

He gripped me by the waist and lifted my ass higher into the air before grabbing my neck. Holding me in place and angling his cock against me. My thighs were parted as far as they would go and he stroked himself along my center.

Mike laughed darkly. “I’ll remember this forever.”

Panting heavily, I shivered as Mike dropped over me, holding me down and grinding the tip of his cock against me without sliding forward.

“You’re mine, Tavi. You've always been mine.” The possessiveness in his tone struck me before he claimed me with a powerful thrust forward.

The shock of the fullness almost took my breath away. The hard length filled me to the brink and I cried out as he pulled free. Mike surged forward again and I wanted to reach for him, to touch him the way I knew he wanted to be touched, but he kept me in place.

My wolf loved it.

He kept up a punishing pace. I managed to turn my head to take him in, the golden glow of the lamplight on the line of his chest and the length of him moving in and out of me.

My body tightened as I watched him.

“Mine,” he growled.

A piece of me broke at that word. I belonged to him. In whatever way he wanted, for whatever time we had left.

“Yours, Mike,” I agreed.

He owned my body, my heart, my soul.

He’d never been the one to take the lead before. My cinnamon roll. A sweet man who would one day lead his people, but I’d never pictured him as the one with the crown on his head. No longer in his father’s shadow.

Tonight, with him filling me, pounding deeper with every thrust, I saw it. I saw the hunger in his eyes and his barely constrained need. I growled and the air in the room went electric.

I wasn’t done with him yet.

His grip on my neck was unyielding and I rocked back to meet his thrusts. But it wasn’t in me to submit without a fight. Not even with my blood poisoning.

I reversed our positions again, moaning as I drove forward and he slipped out of me.

“Tavi, what the hell?” He was magnificent, kneeling there, his skin slicked in sweat.

I wanted to be on top. Even as I shivered, as I gasped at the sight and rolled my tongue around my dry mouth, I wanted more. If we only had tonight, then I planned to make the most of it.

My breasts tingled as I maneuvered him onto his back yet again. Hungry, I rose above him, my legs on either side of his hips. I grabbed the base of his cock and angled him before impaling myself.

“ Shit .”

His hissed curse left me burning with pleasure so intense that for a second I wasn’t able to breathe. I gave him no time before I moved, circling my hips around him and using the headboard for leverage. My wolf rose inside of me and for the first time in a long time, we were powerful. We were in control and we were loved.

If I were ever to have a mate, it would be Mike.

The fae prince stared up at me, his hands on my waist as he lifted me and thrust upward. We were merciless with each other.

I absorbed the feeling of his body inside of mine. Emotion flooded me as surely as pleasure and we clung to each other, Mike’s fingers biting into my flesh. I tipped my head back, grinding my hips and finding just the right amount of friction to send me spiraling into a second orgasm.

Mike swelled inside of me, his pace going erratic before he emptied himself at the same time.

We stayed there, panting through the waves of satisfaction. The craving that had finally been satiated.

Mike lifted his head and kissed my breasts, my collar bone, my neck.

“You’re everything to me,” he repeated.

“Good. There’s no going back,” I replied. The back of my neck pulsed where he’d bitten me.

Mike sighed and dropped back, drawing me down to his side. He faced me, his cheeks flushed and his lips delightfully pink where I must have bitten him too.

Those lips curved upward in a satisfied smile before his eyes fluttered shut. “Stay with me tonight?”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

It was everything I could have hoped for.

Every worry I’d worked through, that we weren’t meant to be, disappeared. I’d seen how many halflings there were now, how many people of different races had fallen in love despite the danger.

There shouldn’t be danger.

We were the same where it mattered—our hearts.

Cementing my love with Mike felt like the first step in healing the divided Faerie, especially since I wasn’t enough to do it alone.

But I could do it.

With Mike by my side.