Page 286 of Labor of Love

“I need you to claim me. I have to wear your marks.”

Noah’s eyes went wide. “Now?”

“Yes. Now. I need this, Noah. Please.”

He shook his head, and panic welled up in my chest. “You don’t want to claim me as your mate?” Fresh tears prickled the backs of my eyes, and I willed myself not to start crying again.

Noah cupped my cheeks in his hands. “Oh, sweet thing, no. That’s not it at all.” He dropped a tender kiss on my forehead. “In order for me to claim you, we have to be in the water.”

My stomach dropped, and I thought for a second I might vomit again. “Oh.”

“Yeah. I can’t take my stingray form on land, and I need to partially shift to mark you. But I think it would work if we were just deep enough for me to shift. You could still touch the ground. You don’t need to be underwater.”

“Okay. I think I can do that.”

Noah nodded. “Okay. Yes. Good. Let’s go.”

He grabbed my hand and towed me out to his Jeep.

We were at Noah’s favorite spot on the beach ten minutes later. He’d brought me here a few times before for picnics and to watch the sunset. It was sort of private, a little inlet tucked away from the more popular beaches and almost invisible to boats passing by on the water.

“Strip.” Noah’s voice was firm, and his command made my cock thicken despite my nerves about having to go into thewater. It wasn’t that I was scared per se, more that since I didn’t know how to swim I was afraid of not being able to get to shore if I needed to in a hurry. Noah, sensing my reticence, pulled me into him and pressed a hot kiss to my lips. “I promise I’m not going to let anything happen to you, sweet thing. The second we’re deep enough, you can wrap yourself around me like a spider monkey, and I swear I won’t let go.”

I nodded, and Noah kissed me again, then let me step back so I could strip out of my clothes. He did the same, and when we were both naked, he took my hand, twining our fingers together, and led me out into the water. I braced myself for cold, but the water was pleasantly warm, and I relaxed a fraction.

Until we were deep enough that the water was at my chest. Then I started to panic.

“Breathe, Milo. I’ve got you.” Noah gave my hand a squeeze. “Just a little farther.” When the water reached our shoulders, Noah stopped and turned toward me, never letting go of my hand. “Are you good, baby?”

I was still nervous, but I trusted Noah to keep me from drowning or drifting out to sea. “I’m good.”

“Okay. Come here. Wrap your legs around me.” He tugged me against his chest then hoisted me up against his body, our cocks brushing together as he wrapped my legs around his torso. In his arms, I couldn’t control my body’s reaction, and my cock went fully hard as I wiggled against him, the feeling of weightlessness heightening the sensation of our bodies pressing together.

Noah kissed me hard and deep, and for a moment I forgot where we were. He nipped at my jaw and my neck, biting over the spot near my ear that made my cock leak. I rutted against him and he moaned, the sound vibrating through his chest and into mine so it felt like we were sharing the sound.

“I want to be inside you when I claim you.”

Noah’s lips returned to mine, and I whispered my response against them. “Yes. I want that too.”

His strong hands spread my ass cheeks, and his fingers grazed along my crease. Even in the water, I could tell my hole was wet with slick, and I thrust back on Noah’s fingers as he pushed two deep inside me, spreading them apart to stretch me wide. Since the first time Noah took me during my heat, I’d fallen in love with his cock, and while he hadn’t knotted me since, I craved it.

“I want your knot when you claim me.”

Noah’s eyes widened, and a possessive smile spread across his face before he dove back into kissing me and fucking me with his fingers until I had almost forgotten my own name.

“Please, Noah. Make me yours.”

I felt a tremor roll through him, and five gills appeared on either side of his neck in lines that curved toward his collarbones. Noah dropped us lower into the water and the gills fluttered, taking in water. Tentatively, I reached out to touch them. Noah shuddered when I made contact and I felt his cock jump against my ass.

He lifted me a little, then used one arm to hold me tight to his chest while his other hand positioned his cock at my entrance and he slid home, filling me so full. He used my buoyancy to bounce me on his cock, creating little splashes and eddies around us as he worked us closer and closer to orgasm. My lips found his neck, and I bit over the spot where I would leave my mark, teasing Noah with the scrape of my teeth.

“Bite me, Milo. Please. Make me yours.” The words were so vulnerable and needy that I couldn’t resist, and I trembled in Noah’s arms as I called my snow leopard side forward, my teeth elongating and my vision going razor-sharp. When I ran my teeth along Noah’s neck again, I drew blood, and he thrust into me hard.

“I’m close, baby.” The thin whiplike end of his tail came up to wrap around my neck, the sharp barb at the end sliding over my skin. “I promise I can’t hurt you. Unlike my wild cousins, my barb isn’t poisonous.”

“I trust you, Noah, and I want to be yours.”

I felt his knot start to swell within me, the split head of his cock pressing hard against my walls until I thought I would burst, and I buried my cry of pleasure in a bite to his neck, claiming him as the serrated edges of his barb cut into the skin over my collarbone.

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