Arianna entered Jayson’s bedroom and placed a bowl of warm water on the nightstand. Only a moment ago, Jayson had been stirring and moaning as though he were about to rise. But now he was lying on his back, body still, and eyes closed as if he were in a peaceful slumber.

She crossed her arms over her chest and observed him. It was nearly evening and he’d slept throughout the day. She didn’t blame him. The events of yesterday could have worn anyone out—human or otherwise.

When Jayson had returned to Devin’s cottage hours after running off, she’d been a little surprised. He’d been so upset about her withholding all the information surrounding her father’s deal with Zeldano that she’d thought he would leave her alone for good. But, no…he’d come back to get her. They’d ridden his motorcycle back to his condo. Too tired to even talk, he’d taken a shower and fallen into the bed beside her.

“How long are you going to stare at me?” Jayson whispered, startling her.

“I didn’t know you were awake,” she said, sitting down on the bed beside him.

He opened his eyes. There was more of a blue tint, instead of gray this time. A sign that he was in a much better mood. “I’m surprised that you’re still here?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“I remember how it was.” He smiled. “We’d go out for a night on the town and have the time of our lives. Drinking, dancing…and mayhem. At the end of the night, we’d always end up in each other’s arms, but in the morning you’d be gone—nowhere to be found.”

Arianna blushed. “I was worried about you.”

“No need for worries. Everything will be fine.”

It was easy for him to say. He wasn’t being sold to the highest bidder.

“Do you still have a headache?” she asked.

“It’s no big deal. A little food and aspirin will take care of it.”

She turned, drenched a cloth into the warm water, and then wrung it out. When she placed it on Jayson’s forehead, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath in.

“Smells like lavender.”

“My mom always added it to the water when I had a headache. It’s calming.”

Arianna smoothed the cloth across his face and down his neck. She stopped above the bold, intricate tattoo right above his heart that branded him as a Caedmon Council member.

“Devin and Tamara were really nice to me when you left,” she said.

“They complement each other well.” He lifted his arms, and folded them behind his head. “I told you there wasn’t anything to fear…unless you cross him.”

She smoothed his skin, which was mostly flawless despite the scars marring his chest. As a teen, and even as an adult, he’d gotten into many fights. Both in wolf and human form. “I know, but first impressions always count. Now I will be known as the woman whose father betrayed the Caedmon.”

“Who cares what others think? I know better, and you know better.”

“Where did you go last night?” she asked, tracing the hard ridges of his abs.

“I visited your father to exchange a few words.”

She paused over his chest. “You didn’t.”

He gazed at her, his expression stern. “I can’t lose you, Arianna.”

“Jayson, please, let this be…”

He rose to a sitting position on the bed. “Did you plan to just accept this? I know you very well. This is not like you to give up.”

She met his gaze. “Who said I was giving up? The arrangement is only temporary—one that I plan to get out of.”

“After you’ve acquiesced? You’d go to Zeldano…?”

“To save my father until I can figure out how to fix all of this.”

He cupped both sides of her shoulders. “You don’t have to do this anymore.”

“You don’t want me to do this because it will be inconvenient for you. Just admit it.”

“Arianna…”

“Let’s be real. This curse that turns us into two sex fiends when we’re together is why you want me unattached to some other man. Otherwise, you wouldn’t give a damn. You would leave me to my fate and move on to the next chick on your list. You’ve got an army of them ready to bare all—mind, body, and soul to you.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Finding a true mate is not a curse. Not to me.”

“Either way, it’s like I have no say in choosing what I want in my life.”

“What do you want? Tell me and I will move mountains to ensure that whatever it may be that it is yours.”

“I want a choice. That’s all. For once.”

He took her hands in his. “In the beginning, if we’d discovered that I wasn’t your mate…would you have chosen me? Would things have been different?”

“That’s a ridiculous question.” She attempted to turn away, but he pulled her closer. “How am I supposed to answer that now that I know that you are?”

“Arianna, do you honestly want to live your life unfulfilled with another?”

“Living a fulfilled life means having a choice. I had no choice when my father arranged this. I had no say when fate chose my mate.”

“You don’t believe that you could find fulfillment with me?” he asked.

“I find sexual fulfillment with you,” she said. “That’s what we agreed on when we were teenagers.”

He flinched and a sour expression marked his face. “We’re not teenagers anymore. Is that the only fulfillment you find with me now?”

“You told me yourself when I first met you. You’d never get married. You told me you didn’t believe in true mates, and that you would never bind yourself to just one person.”

“I admit it. That’s how I felt, until I fell for you and found out what you were to me.”

“After you found out…do you admit to seeking fulfillment with women other than me?”

He closed his eyes, and shook his head. “I have a mate that doesn’t want me. One that leaves the state just so she wouldn’t have to face me. It has been shameful for me. What did you expect me to do?”

“I wasn’t ready to commit then.”

“And now…?”

“The commitment that you require from me is a lifelong one.”

“Arianna, I love you. What in the world do I have to do to convince you?”

She broke their gaze, and exhaled. “Don’t say that.”

“I won’t say anything, then. I’ll keep showing you.”

He kissed her lightly on the lips. They were butterfly soft kisses. The kind that produced a reassuring feeling in her gut. One taste and she was done. One touch…and she submitted.

Slipping his fingers behind her head, he led her to lie onto the bed and came down on top of her. Their lips meshed together, and then parted. She opened and explored his mouth, pushing any thoughts of resistance aside.

His hands roved up and down her body as his tongue dipped inside her mouth again and again. He reached up under her tank top and cupped her breast. She inhaled sharply when his teeth scraped the column of her neck. He sipped hungrily at the veins on her throat. By the time he made his way to her chest, her body was already hot and ready for him.

She lifted her arms, allowing him to shed her of her top. As he sucked on both nipples, he growled softly into her flesh. His breath was hot and cold on her, all at the same time.

‘Arianna.’ He’d breached her mind, and somehow she’d allowed it.

He sucked hard on her and she screamed out and arched into his mouth. She could feel his thick rod through his pants as he pressed it into her thighs. Letting her fingers tangle into his hair, she moved him from one breast to the other. He obliged her silent request and took turns playing with each nipple until they were taut like round dots.

Reaching down between them, she unbuttoned his jeans and pulled his belt out of the loop. Pushing her hand down inside, she groped his thick cock. He was already wet and slippery at the crown. She licked her lips in remembrance of the sweet and salty taste of him.

Groaning, he slid down her body, kissing every inch of her and removing her shorts and panties in the process. He took his time tasting her skin and making love to her with his mouth for what seemed like too long to bear. He left all her most sensitive areas untouched.

“Jayson…” She writhed on the bed, ready for something more solid to dominate her.

‘I remember how it was. You’d let me taste you for hours, just like this.’

He rubbed her mound lightly with his chin.

“Please.”

‘The foreplay always made listening to you climax much sweeter.’

His mouth was directly above her, and his cool breath fanned her clit. He took her thighs in his hands and spread her. Something wet slid up her thighs and her legs quaked in his grip. He kissed her, only slightly grazing her bare pussy lips.

Her nails dug into the mattress, and her toes curled in untamed impatience. She tried to close her legs, but he pushed her thighs open again with the sides of his face. He took long swipes at her lips, careful not to touch her needy core. She could feel warm liquid pooling inside of her.

He didn’t seem to care that she was in pain and pleasure. He tortured her with the expert strokes of his tongue.

“I’m going to come,” she panted.

He stopped teasing her long enough to push two fingers into her wet pussy. “Damn it, you’re wet.”

Her gaze moved lower, and she was forced to observe him as he pumped into her while watching intently and licking his lips at the same time.

‘I always know when you’re ready for me.’ He rolled the pad of his finger over her clit. ‘When you’re like this…plump, ripe, and ready.’

‘Jayson, take me, please.’ She gave in, responding in the way that only true mates could do.

A low grumble erupted from his throat before he sucked her clit between his lips. Her pussy clenched as he lashed her clit again and again, and dipping lower to dip his tongue into her.

Her body was on fire. Pleasure wrapped around her, holding her on the edge of a precipice. Her lips fell open and she gasped for breath.

Jayson seemed determined to conquer her. It was the way in which he gripped her thighs and pulled her to his mouth to feast on her that told her this.

She cried out as an orgasm ripped through her. He lengthened her climax, holding his lips firm to her clit. Only when she was still and panting for dear life on the bed, did he stop the torture. Her body continued to pulse under him as he came up over her, kissing her damp skin as he rose.

‘How do you want it, Arianna?’

Arianna took one look at his throbbing erection and grinned. The things he was capable of doing to her had her pussy clenching again in anticipation. She rolled over onto her hands and knees. Pushing her hips back, she pressed her ass against the thick length of him.

“Fuck me like this,” she demanded.

He bent over her and pushed in just past her opening.

She moaned, and pressed her eyes closed, bracing herself.

“You make demands, but are you prepared to accept?” He teased her earlobe with the tip of his tongue.

She rotated her hips, wishing that he’d give her more. “I know what I like.”

He speared her, burying himself to the hilt.

She screamed as the pain cut through her body, and clutched at the headboard in front of her.

Jayson wasted no time as he pounded into her with intense determination. He filled her, stretching her to accommodate his throbbing cock. The tempo of his strokes changed from quick and powerful into long and deliberate. He gripped her hips and titled them up for maximum penetration. His testicles tightened and slapped against her. She pushed her hips back meeting him thrust for thrust. Her core tensed and a second climax began to build like a bundle of nerves.

“Jayson,” she called out.

“Let go.”

She came again, arching her back as what felt like fireworks shot through her. Icy hot sensations pulsed through her body throughout her climax. Jayson was relentless, riding her through the peak and deliberately quickening his thrusts to keep her in a state of elation.

Spent, she leaned forward and pressed her face into the pillows. Her clit still throbbed uncontrollably begging for another release. Jayson pulled out, and then placed the crown of his cock at her anus. She bit into her bottom lip, bracing herself once again. He kneaded her ass and kissed the back of her neck. His dampened forehead rested in the middle of her shoulder blades.

Jayson pushed into her, slowly and carefully. The pleasure-pain ripped through her as he buried himself as deep as her tight canal would allow.

“Ah, Arianna, how could I have lived without you and without this?”

He moved within her, in and out, with even unified thrusts. Each drive into her ass sent her closer and closer over the edge. His fingers played with her clit as he worked her toward ecstasy.

His cock plundered her repeatedly. She gripped at the headboards and took him deeper still.

Suddenly, he stiffened and pressed his mouth to her shoulder. He wanted to bite her. His wolf wanted to claim her. He held back, just as he’d done hundreds of times before—just as she’d requested.

His hot seed splashed within her, and a fiery sensation forced itself through her veins and cells, reaching the surface and skating across her skin. Jayson’s serum took her into a third climax, and she joined him at mountain’s peak.

They both collapsed on the bed of rumpled sheets and clothing and stared into each other eyes, as the evening sky folded away making way for nightfall.