Page 55 of Signed, Sealed, Seduced
When he kisses me, it’s different from all the others we’ve shared. This kiss is a claiming, a celebration, a promise all wrapped into one. His mouth moves over mine with a reverence that makes my knees weak, his hands sliding into my hair to hold me exactly where he wants me.
“Mine,” he growls against my lips, the possessive word sending fire through my veins. “No more running. No more leaving. Mine.”
“Yours,” I breathe, my hands fisting in his shirt. “Always yours.”
He lifts me again, this time carrying me to the nest of cushions he’s arranged. The soft fabric welcomes my body as he lays me down, his massive frame covering me like a living blanket of heat and strength.
“I have wanted to do this since the moment you told me you were considering resignation,” he confesses, his voice rough with desire. “To celebrate your choice properly. To show you what it means to me.”
His hands are everywhere—mapping the curves of my body through my clothes, relearning territories he’s claimed countless times before. But this feels different. More intense. More possessive.
“Tell me,” I gasp as his mouth finds that sensitive spot beneath my ear. “Tell me what it means.”
“It means you are mine completely,” he says, his hands making quick work of my shirt. “No more divided loyalties. No more looking to the stars with longing. You belong to me, to this place, to this life we are building together.”
The fervor in his voice makes me shiver. I’ve always been independent, self-reliant, belonging to no one but myself. But the way Henrok says it—like I’m precious, like I’m treasured—it doesn’t feel like a cage. It feels like freedom.
“Show me,” I whisper, my hands tugging at his clothes. “Show me what it means to belong to you.”
He strips us both with an efficiency that speaks of long practice, but when his skin finally meets mine, the familiar becomes extraordinary. His crystalline markings pulse with increased intensity, casting ethereal light across our joined bodies.
“Beautiful,” he murmurs, his hands skimming over my exposed skin. “Perfect. Mine.”
When he moves over me, his weight supported on his forearms, I feel the solid reality of my choice. This alien warrior who has become my everything, this fortress that has become my sanctuary, this life that has become my purpose.
“Are you certain?” he asks, his voice strained with the effort of holding back. “There is no returning from this choice, Suki. If you are mine, you are mine completely.”
“I’m certain,” I tell him, my hands sliding up his chest to cup his face. “I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life.”
He enters me slowly, watching my face as if memorizing every expression. The stretch and burn of accepting him never gets old—this moment of adjustment, of accommodation, of two bodies becoming one.
“Stars,” I gasp, my back arching as he fills me completely. “Every time, it’s like the first time.”
“Every time is the first time,” he agrees, beginning to move with the controlled power I’ve come to crave. “Every time, I am amazed that you are here. That you are mine.”
His rhythm is deliberate, thorough, designed to drive me slowly out of my mind. Each thrust sends pleasure spiraling through me, building toward something inevitable and overwhelming.
“I love you,” I whisper, the words torn from somewhere deep inside me. “I love you so much it scares me sometimes.”
“Do not be afraid,” he commands, his pace increasing. “I will never hurt you. Never let you go. You are safe with me, always.”
The promise in his voice, combined with the exquisite friction of our bodies, sends me tumbling over the edge. My climax crashes through me like a wave, leaving me breathless and shaking in his arms.
He follows me over, his own release accompanied by a sound that’s somewhere between a growl and my name. For a moment, we’re lost in the aftermath, breathing hard and clinging to each other.
“No more wings,” I murmur against his chest as we settle into comfortable tangled limbs. “No more flying away.”
“No more wings,” he agrees, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “But roots. Deep roots that will anchor you here, with me, for as long as you wish to stay.”
“Forever, then,” I say, surprising myself with the certainty in my voice. “I want to stay forever.”
“Forever,” he echoes, and I can hear the smile in his voice. “I can work with forever.”
As we lie there in the afterglow, I think about the courier I used to be—always moving, never settling, allergic to commitment and connection. That woman seems like a stranger now. This woman, the one who just officially resigned from her old life to embrace a new one, feels like who I was always meant to be.
“Henrok?” I say softly.
“Yes?”
