Silence reigned between them as Sawyer carried her through the palace. The corridors were quiet, all the revelry contained in the main wing and the ballroom behind them. Cadie didn’t care. She liked the quiet, liked it just being the two of them as he shouldered open the door to the bedchamber.

Walking inside, he shut the door with his heel and just stopped. Curious, she looked at him to find his gaze on her.

“I never thought I’d ever be in here,” he admitted, his voice low.

Even in the semi-darkness, she saw him clearly. His eyes speared her, holding her with their direct gaze, and she easily read the need and longing there, not hidden from her anymore. She didn’t know how he’d managed all these years, knowing she was his mate but unable to do anything about it.

The flutters in her stomach grew wilder, like manic butterflies at a dance party. She’d had fantasies of him being in her bed for years… hot, decadent, deliciously naughty fantasies about the ruggedly handsome former general she’d never have admitted to anyone… hell, she’d barely admit them to herself, but now he was hers. And this was their wedding night.

“Do you regret it?” she asked suddenly. “Agreeing to wait to be mated?”

Nerves almost got the better of her as she waited for his answer, and she bit her lower lip, mangling the soft flesh. “It’s Christmas, you see…” she murmured before he answered and then smiled. “I love Christmas. Always wanted to get married on Christmas Eve.”

“No, I don’t regret a thing.” He smiled, but the expression was short lived, his features tightening again as he looked at her. “Except the years we lost because I couldn’t tell you how I felt.”

She lifted her hand to smooth her fingers over his cheek, sliding them down to flirt with the corner of his lips. “Things happen when they do for a reason…”

He moved his head, kissing her fingertips softly. “They do. And they’ve led us to here and now. You in your wedding dress in my arms.”

Bending his head, he claimed her lips. The kiss started slow and sweet, a promise of forever, but the instant her lips parted beneath his, it changed. A growl in the back of his throat at her surrender, he invaded, tongue thrusting into her mouth in sensual possession. Whimpering in the back of her throat, she clung to him, welcoming his dominance in a way she never thought she would for any man.

But he wasn’t just any man. He was her mate, the other half of her soul…

Breaking away with a ragged growl, he rested his forehead against hers.

“I should call your maid,” he admitted, fingering the delicate straps of her wedding dress. “But all I’ve been able to think about since the ceremony is stripping this delightful confection of silk off you…”

“Then do it,” she whispered breathlessly, not wanting anyone in here with them to ruin the mood.

He nodded, a flare of darkness in his eyes, but he didn’t move for a moment. Instead, he drank her in, as though imprinting the way she looked on his memory for all time.

Reaching up, he slid the veil from her hair, the diaphanous sheer and lace fluttering like a cloud to rest on the chair behind him. Turning her around, strong fingers were nimble on the tiny buttons down the back of her dress. A thrill chased down her spine, sparks of fire racing across each section of exposed skin when he touched her. Arm across her bust, she held the fabric in place as he undid the dress all the way down.

When he was done, he leaned down to brush his lips over the curve of her shoulder, grazing where he would give her his bite later to prove to all that they were mated. That she belonged to him and he to her. Just the thought of it made her whimper, her pussy aching to feel him filling her again.

She’d had erotic dreams of their night together every night, and their goodnight kisses at her door had gotten increasingly torrid and difficult to walk away from.

But now he was here and he was hers.

Turning, she watched his face as she let the dress fall to the floor. All she wore beneath was the tiniest pair of panties, silken stockings and strappy heels that made her legs look amazing.

The look on his face, suddenly hard and feral, said he liked them as well.

“Bed,” he ordered in a hard voice, scooping her up to stride toward it. “Now.”

They tumbled to the soft surface, her back hitting the cool satin and linens, but that sensory detail was lost as Sawyer braced himself over her. A prickle of dragon magic spiked in the air for a moment and he was as naked as the day he’d been born—hot, hard body skin to skin with hers. She whimpered, the sound lost as his lips crashed down over hers in a hard kiss.

Her hands curled around his upper arms as he pried her lips apart and thrust within. Tasting her. Claiming her.

A heat ignited between them hotter than any fire their dragons could breathe. She whimpered as she cleaved to him, wrapping her legs through his strong ones and pressing against him wherever they touched as their kiss went from torrid to supernova in a heartbeat. Her entire body ached, the need clawing at the inside of her veins as she kissed him back, demanding and then yielding in turn.

A deep growl rumbled in the back of his throat as he caught the hair at her nape in his bunched fist, holding her still as he kissed down her throat. He didn’t ask. He took. But she didn’t care. Their bond was almost complete, so what he wanted, she wanted. And right now, she wanted nothing more than to feel him over her, parting her legs and…

“Almost there,” Sawyer rumbled gruffly, looking up from his position between her breasts. “Impatient little bug.”

Holding her eyes, he swept his tongue over her nipple. She hissed, hands in his hair, as fire blazed a trail from her nipple to her clit. Her pussy clenched, the scent of her arousal on the air, and it was his turn to groan, his eyes darkening as his nostrils flared.

Then he shut his eyes, his expression one of near pain. “Slow.”

“You’re talking to yourself,” she realized, struggling to sit up. But he held her steady. Her answer was written into the tight lines of his body, a tiny shiver of muscles locked tight. She reached out to stroke his cheek.

“Sawyer… you don’t need to go slow. You won’t… can’t break me. I’m a white, remember?”

His eyes snapped open and she was ensnared in an ever-widening pool of blue and black. She saw the movement before he made it, the decision stark in his gaze. But still a gasp was ripped from her throat as he yanked her toward him, flipping her over onto her hands and knees in the same movement. There was a brief flare of magic and her panties were gone.

She didn’t have time to think about that as strong fingers snaked around her hip and found their way between her thighs. He stroked her, parting her pussy lips and finding her clit in the same movement. Pleasure washed through her and she bit her lip, pushing back against him in encouragement.

He didn’t need any, parting her legs further with a rough knee as he knelt behind her. His fingers moved in a rapid dance, sliding and stroking, circling and flicking over the tiny bud of her clit. Over and back. Teasing her. Tormenting her. Loving her.

But she still wanted more, pushing her hips back against his in a silent order.

The deep masculine chuckle filled the room, but it was one with a wicked little edge. A second later she found out why as he slid first one, and then a second finger deep inside her.

She swore, something, she wasn’t sure what, as her pussy clenched hard around him. But he wasn’t done yet. Pressing his thumb against her clit, he stroked the little bud as he thrust in and out. Fingers curled back, he pressed against the sweet-spot deep inside her and her eyes crossed.

She moaned and arched her back, moving with him to wring every little bit of sensation out of his touch. With each stroke and press, the tension in her body rose. Higher and higher. Tighter and tighter, until she thought she’d explode with sheer pleasure.

“Sawyer,” she gasped, her hand curled around his wrist. “I need…”

“I know,” he whispered by her ear, bent over her as he pleasured her. “Don’t worry. I won’t let you go…”

Kissing behind her ear, he moved. When he pulled his fingers from her she pouted in disappointment, only to tense in anticipation when they were replaced by the thick, broad head of his cock.

Biting her lip, she held still as he fit himself to her. They’d only been together one night, but that night was seared into her memory forever. Everything he’d done to her, every way he’d taken her, all there in second-by-second high definition replay. But one thing was constant through it all.

Sawyer was gifted in the cock department. Like hugely gifted.

Shivering in need, she held still as he pressed into her. The burn felt good as her pussy stretched around his girth, a prickly, slippery ache that stole her breath and any ability she’d had to frame a coherent sentence. All her attention was focused on that one spot where they joined.

He pushed forward, slowly but insistently, aided by the slipperiness of her arousal. A gasp hissed from the back of her throat as he slipped, sliding inside her a half inch. The hiss became a moan as he reached around to stroke her clit again. Her entire body felt like it was on fire. For him.

“Please…” she begged, trying to push back faster, but he held her still with his free hand in an iron grip she couldn’t break.

“Slowly,” he warned, pulling back, but the next second he was pushing into her again, sliding deeper. Forward and back, he worked himself into her more each time until, finally, he was seated in her to the hilt. She caught her breath. She felt filled, stretched, more than she ever had before. Which was impossible since they’d already…

He pulled back and slid all the way in again in one hard, fast movement and she groaned. It felt so good.

Like the movement had broken a dam, he gave her no break after that. As he drove into her hard and fast, the bed rocked with their movements, the headboard crashing against the wall. She didn’t care. All she cared about was that he kept doing what he was doing. Taking her, claiming her…

Mating her.

The need filled her as her arousal grew, and she arched her back, offering her neck to him. She wanted his bite, needed it. Her entire body ached to feel his fangs slice into the soft flesh of her neck and shoulder, piercing the skin and marking her as his mate.

“Al…most there, little bug,” he gasped and she nodded, moving mindlessly against him as her climax approached. She was nearly there… so close she could almost feel it.

The wave of pleasure rose up out of nowhere, taking her high on the crest to hang there for one, sparkling, perfect moment. Then it crashed down, sending her hurtling into pleasure. She gasped as she came in a hot, wet rush, her pussy clamping down hard around his cock. Sparks of magic and stars exploded behind her eyes as fire rolled through every cell in her body.

Sawyer bellowed, his movements harder and faster and then more erratic as he pressed her into the bed. She felt him start to come, cock jerking and pulsing deep within her. Her eyes snapped open but at the same instant she registered his breath on her shoulder.

His fangs sliced.

She screamed.

His name.

Over and over.

Pleasure became ecstasy, became something she had no name for. It seemed like an eternity before she floated to the surface. Her body was boneless as her soul, which she’d already thought was complete, meshed with his. A deep, male presence wound itself around her mind, welcoming and warm.

She gasped and opened her eyes.

Sawyer?

Aye, little bug, he replied mentally, staying seated deep within her as he moved them both to their sides, lying wrapped around her protectively. You’re mine now, our souls linked forever.