Page 76 of Sixth
“I know.” Her voice shook but held conviction. “That’s why I want it. That’s why I want you. All of you. Now.”
Something in him broke free. His mouth crashed against hers with renewed hunger. She reached for his waistband, fumbling with the fastenings until he helped her, stripping away the last barriers betweenthem.
When he stood naked before her, she couldn’t help but drink him in. He was magnificent, all lean muscle and coiled power, his body a weapon honed by centuries of warfare. But it was thevulnerability in his eyes that undid her, the way he looked at her as if she held his entire world in her hands.
And perhaps she did.
She reached for him, her palm sliding along his length, along the textured surface pulsing beneath her touch. He made a sound low in his throat—half growl, half prayer—his hips pushing forward into her hand. She explored him with confident strokes along his pulsating mounds, watching his face as she learned what made his breath catch, what made his eyes rollback.
“Emmeline—” Her name came out strangled. “Stop, or I won’t last.”
“Then take me,” she whispered, guiding him closer. “Claim what’s yours.”
He positioned himself at her entrance, the head of him pressing against her slick heat. But instead of pushing forward, he paused, his free hand coming up to cup her face with devastating tenderness.
“Look at me,” he said softly. “I want you to see me when we become one.”
Their eyes locked as he began to enter her. The stretch was exquisite, familiar yet overwhelming, the rhythm of his mounds creating friction that stole her breath. She whimpered, not from pain, but from the sheer intensity of him filling her, claiming her, completingher.
“That’s it,” he murmured, voice strained with effort. “Open for me. Take all of me.”
She did, her body yielding inch by inch until he was fully seated inside her. The fullness was almost unbearable in itsperfection. For a moment they simply stayed like that, joined, trembling, clinging to one another.
“We fit,” she breathed. “Like we were made for this.”
“We were.” He pulled back slowly, then thrust forward with controlled power. “Made for this. Made for each other.”
He set a rhythm that was both powerful and demanding, each stroke deliberate, purposeful. This wasn’t the desperate coupling of their first time. This was something deeper. Aclaiming. Aconsecration. Every movement spoke of possession and partnership, dominance and devotion tangled intoone.
The chamber’s air warmed, vibrating with their shared heartbeat. Every pulse from the Valenmark sent a shimmer of light rolling over their skin, tracing their outlines like living fire. The cushions beneath her was cool but she burned, her body aflame with sensation as he drove into her again and again.
She hooked her ankles behind his back, changing the angle, pulling him impossibly deeper. He groaned, the sound raw and desperate, and captured her mouth in a bruising kiss. His tongue mimicked the rhythm of his hips, claiming her in every way possible.
“You’re everything,” he informed her. “Everything I never dared hope for.”
“Then don’t just hope,” she challenged breathlessly. “Make it real.”
His hand slipped between their bodies, finding the swollen nub at her apex. He circled it with firm pressure, matching the rhythm of his thrusts. The dual sensation was overwhelming. Her head fell back, acry tearing from her throat.
The Valenmark’s glow intensified, spilling threads of silver and gold across the dais, the floor, the high vault of the chamber. It pulsed with the rhythm of their hearts, its glow reaching up the dome like a sunrise. The ancient stones seemed to sing, resonating with their passion.
Every sound sharpened, the slap of flesh against flesh, the soft hitch of her breath, the deep rumble of his voice as he praised her, demanded from her, claimed her. Their world contracted into sensation—heat, breath, the glimmer of light at the edge of vision.
“Don’t close your eyes,” he commanded roughly. “Stay with me. Iwant to watch you shatter.”
She forced her gaze to his, seeing herself reflected in those amethyst depths—wild, wanton, utterly his. The intimacy of it, the intense vulnerability, pushed her closer to theedge.
“Apex— I’m close—”
“Then fall,” he urged, his movements becoming fiercer, more urgent. “Fall and I will catch you. Always.”
His fingers pressed harder against her sensitive flesh, his hips driving forward with relentless precision. The pressure built and built until she couldn’t contain it anymore. Her orgasm crashed over her like a tsunami, violent and all-consuming. She screamed his name, her body clamping around him in powerful waves.
The sensation triggered his own release. He thrust deep one final time, his entire body going rigid as completion took him. His shout of triumph echoed through the chamber, primal and victorious. His knot swelled within her, locking them together. The Valenmark exploded with radiance so intense it illuminated every corner of the vast space, the pattern spiraling outwarduntil the entire dome blazed with the symbol of their bond written in light.
They clung to each other, shaking, as aftershocks rippled through them both. Gradually the light settled to a warm, steady glow. He lifted his head to look at her, and the tenderness in his expression made her throat tight with emotion.
“You are my beginning and my balance,” he said, voice rough with emotion.
