Chapter 19

CHAPTER 19

SHARNIZA

I t's late by the time we retire to my room, and excitement and nerves fizz low in my belly. I'm about to mate with Derek. It feels like a dream, and a few weeks ago, I might have believed myself undeserving of this, but now I know differently.

I deserve to love and have someone love me back. Not just for a moment or for a night, but for a lifetime.

Derek is that person. My person, and I'm so fucking honored that he's chosen me.

He locks the door then opens the drapes to light up the room with starlight before joining me by the bed. He looks larger wreathed in moonlight. Every plane and angle of his body lovingly highlighted by starlight's kiss, and damn if he isn't bringing out the poet in me.

"I think this might hurt you," Derek says. "I don't want to hurt you…"

"I don't mind a little pain if it binds us." I want this. Want him. "I should…should lie down for this."

"Yes, Mirrowind said you might get dizzy."

I climb onto the bed and lie on my back. Derek lies beside me and gently brushes his fingers down the side of my face. "Are you sure that you want this, my Shar?"

I've never been so sure of anything in my life. "Are you sure that you want me?"

"More than anything in this world," he says softly. "I want you now and forever."

"Then we're both on the same page." I turn my face away, offering him my neck. "Do it."

He gently grips my jaw and presses his lips to my jugular. I sigh as wet heat blooms on the spot where he licks me, but the next moment, needles pierce my skin. I bite down on my cry of pain, closing my eyes and willing my body to relax, reminding myself that I want this to avoid my stone skin from activating.

The burn dies to a pleasant heat, and soon the tug of Derek's mouth seems to reach through me, down to my core. My moan slips free, and he groans to accompany it, drinking deeper until my head is swimming and my body grows light.

"Derek…" My voice comes out like a whisper. "Enough…"

His grasp on my jaw tightens a fraction before he releases me with a sweep of his tongue.

He rears up, covering my body with his, eyes tinged crimson from his feeding, fangs stained red with my blood. He bites down on his lip, and a bead of scarlet blooms against his mouth. A moment later, that mouth is on mine.

Sweet nectar explodes on my tongue, and a wave of need washes over me, driving me wild as he sinks into me with a rasp of tongue and a groan that sets the pulse at my groin throbbing wild and eager.

He tangles his fingers in my hair, grasping me to him and settling between my thighs, pressing down over all of me with his delicious weight. I surrender to his hands and his mouth as he explores me, burning up as he tugs at my undershirt to get to my breasts, then arching as his mouth closes over my nipple.

I squirm, rubbing against the hard evidence of his arousal that is usually hidden but that I can clearly feel now. Fuck, it's huge. I want to see it and…oh…

I lose myself in delicious wet friction until I am weeping and swollen, ready for him to fuck me, only peripherally aware of the icy burn on my neck where he's bitten me and where the mating mark is forming.

The mark seems unimportant now.

All that matters is his body on mine, and my aching need to possess it and be possessed. "Derek…I know we said we'd go slow, but…"

He pulls away with a feral growl, his shadowy form rippling, and reaches down between us. I follow his gaze, gasping as his cock materializes, separating from his shadowy body to push out thick and long. And the head…Oh fuck, it's bulbous and ridged, and I want it. Now.

I wriggle my hips. "I need to take off my?—"

He swipes at my shorts, and they fall away with a soft tearing sound, leaving me bare. His eyes glow bright as they rake over me, and he shakes his head as if trying to free himself from the grip of desire.

I want him, but if he isn't ready… "Derek, we don't have to do?—"

He hisses, lips peeling back to reveal his elongated canines. "I want you." He presses himself against my heat, the thick head promising mind-blowing pleasure.

"Then yes. Yes, please."

He grips my hips and buries himself in me with a growl that flips my stomach and contracts my walls around him, tearing a cry of satisfaction from us both. My eyes roll back, pussy throbbing, body quaking as he fills me.

"Don't…Wait…Don't move."

He swells inside me, chest heaving. "You feel…This feels…"

"I know." I stroke his chest, then his abs, reveling in the way his muscles jump in reaction to my caress, then bite back a moan as his cock jumps inside me. "I'm ready."

He draws out then thrusts again. Stars fill my vision as he slams into me over and over. I come around him, squeezing him until he's crying out—incoherent words that fuel my release to the edge of pain.

Shadows climb over me, covering and stroking every inch of me until I'm lost to sensation, bucking and seeping. Coming over and over until my vision whites out and I understand that I'm not lost. I am found.

Derek traces the mark on my neck.

I sigh, content to just lie here with him. "What does it look like?"

"Three wavy lines." He kisses it.

"I can't move."

"You don't have to." He kisses my jaw.

"That was…wow."

"I didn't know it would feel that way. So many feelings…" He kisses the corner of my mouth. "I have no words. But…" He sucks on my bottom lip, then releases it with a delicious scrape of his teeth. "I want to do it again."

I run my tongue across my tingling lip. "Right now?" My voice is a squeak.

His eyes flicker. "Is that…Is it too soon?"

My body is still in recovery mode, but my pussy throbs, saying, nope, it is definitely not too soon . "It's not too soon. Never too soon." I push him onto his back, straddle him, and kiss his luscious lips. "Because you're mine and I'm yours forever."

"Forever," he echoes, his hands slipping over my ass and cupping me. "Now, will you sit on my cock?"

A surprised laugh bubbles up my throat. "With pleasure."