Page 47 of Crimson Mate

“Zachariah!” Talia slams through Gabriel’s closed door, reaching my side in seconds. Her lilac eyes are wide and panic-stricken as they trace every inch of my body. Tears roll down her cheeks, her face crumpling when she finds no visible wounds. “Lyric told me you’d been injured. What happened? Are you all right?” Her questions come between rushed gasps for breath, her hands gently running over my chest, my arms, my face.

I draw her to me, gently shushing her. “I’m all right, Talia,” I say, moving her so I can look into her eyes. “I promise. I’m fine. Just a graze. Breathe, my love.”

She nods slowly as I cup her cheeks, wiping away her tears with the pads of my thumbs. “You’re okay?”

“Yes,” I assure her. “Aren’t I, Gabriel?”

“Perfectly fine,” Gabriel answers, but Talia doesn’t take her eyes from mine. “Lucky that the Night Thistle-drenched bullet didn’t penetrate his body, but fine.”

Talia’s eyes go even wider, her features drenched in panic.

I glare at Gabriel, who shrugs and returns to studying the bullet.

Talia’s face crumples. “I thought…I thought I lost you.”

I draw her head against my chest, smoothing my hands up and down her back. “I’m not going anywhere,” I say, shock rippling beneath my skin at her reaction. I understand it. I would be the same wreck if something had happened to her, but she’d been so closed off since last week, I started to think she’d dismissed me for good.

“Are you done here?” she asks, her words a whisper.

“Yes.”

“Good.” The word barely leaves her mouth before her power wraps around the two of us, wending us out of Gabriel’s offices.

I blink a few times as I orient myself tomyrooms, seeing the door closed and locked?—

Her mouth meets mine in a fury, the kiss tasting of her tears and a desperation I can feel in my bones. “I know I’ve been closed off, but I can’t lose you again, Z,” she says, drawing back to look up at me. “I won’t survive it.”

“You won’t,” I assure her, my heart thudding at her words. “I promise.”

She shakes her head, drawing me closer, kissing me hard and quick. “Not again.”

“Never again,” I say, slanting my mouth over hers. The kiss goes from hungry and panicked to a calmer, more intentional pace that has every muscle in my body clenching.

Her hands move to my ruined shirt, tugging it up and over my head before I do the same to her. Then we’re slipping out of the rest of our clothes and she’s tugging me toward my bed.

She urges me to lay back against it, and I do as I’m directed, not wanting to burst this bubble of fantasy I find myself in.

She’s never, not once, wanted to fuck me in a bed. It’s always been quick and public and impersonal.

This…this is different.

“Talia,” I groan as she kisses me, then moves her lips lower, over my chest, my abdomen, then hovers right above where my cock is hard and aching for her.

She grips my length with her hand, stroking me before she bends and wraps her beautiful lips around my cock.

“Fuck,” I hiss, the sensation of her hot, wet mouth sucking at me enough to make my eyes close and my hips thrust automatically.

She moans around my cock, swirling her tongue over my thick head before sucking on me harder, taking me in deeper.

“Goddamn, Talia,” I groan, my fingers tangling in her silken hair. “Love…fuck.”

She increases her pace, stroking me and sucking me in a rhythm that has my balls tightening and lightning zapping down my spine way too fucking quickly.

“Talia,” I groan. “I’m going to come.”

She moans again, sucking harder, squeezing me tight with her hand?—

I come in her mouth, my hips jolting forward as I empty myself into her so damn intensely, I swear I black out for a few seconds. When I regain clarity, I look down at her, finding her licking her lips and grinning down triumphantly at me.

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