It took only minutes to get Paige back inside. With her words ringing in his ears, he’d taken her hand and walked her back inside his cabin. Once he’d closed and locked the glass door behind them everything changed.

Kid gloves. He’d heard the phrase before, but he’d never really thought of what it meant until now. Holding Paige in his arms, his natural instinct was to let go and bury himself in his mate. His tiger wanted to mark her and get it done, prove to the world who she belonged to.

She set her hand on his shoulder and the last few rays of sunlight gilded her skin with gold. The same hand that should bear his ring. He may be a tiger, but he was also a human. A human that understood that Paige would want a ring.

A ring he didn’t have.

“Are you regretting your choice now?”

He heard the tight uncertainty in her voice and struggled to rise up out of the miasma of his own thoughts to attend to her need. “What?”

“To marry me?” She swallowed, and he had to drag his eyes away from her throat. The throat he desperately wanted to nibble on and then soothe with his tongue. “It was probably crazy enough to see what my father and his staff thought of you… of us. But now,” she shook her head, “you have those other… shifters angry with you too.”

“They can be a lot to deal with,” he told her with what he hoped was an easy smile, “they’re all Alphas in their own right. A little thick in the head sometimes, but they understand. They want what I want.”

“Headstrong, if they’re like you.” She smiled at him and he saw a little bit of her worry slip away. “You said they want what you want. You mean mates?”

“Yes. They understand why I did what I did, even if their lives are going to change because of it.”

“You’ve kept yourselves out of the spotlight for your safety and now, because of me, you don’t have that anymore. I wouldn’t blame you for regretting your choice, or resenting me for the microscope you’re going to go under.”

He wanted to say something, but she kept talking, and heaven help him, he loved hearing her voice.

“But I want you to know that I want to be here. It’s not because it would make things easier for my father, that’s just a lovely side-effect of this. I look at you and I remember the way you jumped in to save me. Everyone around me thinks before they do things. They examine all of the outcomes before they make a decision. They don’t act out of passion or need to help others.

“But you do. You did.” She moved her gaze all over his face, her fingers up his shoulder and over to his neck, tentatively exploring his skin. “And yet, here I am not because I want to help someone. I’m here because I want you. I don’t understand this need, this rush of selfishness that I feel inside of me.”

He smiled at his mate… his bride. It was hard for humans to understand shifters, he’d had a precious few that he’d let into his world over the years. The fact that they’d only become aware of his existence because he’d saved their lives made it easy to convince them to keep his secret. But his beautiful mate had seen him rip a man to pieces for her in front of cameras. Most people would want nothing to do with the circus he’d created, but she was here, with him.

And she wanted him.

He heard her words, but it was more than that. He saw it in her eyes, her rapid in-drawn breaths, and he could smell her arousal. She’d never been with a man, but she wanted to be with him.

She wasn’t just brave, she humbled him with her innocent spirit. How she’d laid herself bare before him.

“I can help you, Paige.” His tiger wanted him to shut the hell up and do something, but he was wrapped up in his concern for Paige. A first time wasn’t easy. The last thing he wanted to cause her was pain. “Let me show you.”

She nodded a moment later, no hesitation at all.

He moved away from her, taking her hand in his, and walked her toward his bedroom.

* * *

In the bedroom, he left her standing by the door and moved away so she could see him and have some semblance of safety. Shirt buttons, cuffs, undone. A formal cotton shirt dropped over the back of the chair he used beside the window.

Belt, released and removed, the tail sliding through the loops until it dangled from his hand toward the floor. Paige had known that his waist was narrow, but it was more than that. The muscles of his torso were like sculpted marble shaped by the hand of a Grecian God.

Paige pinched the fabric of her bodice until the neckline of her dress pulled away from her neck. It gave her a bit of relief from the heat, but not nearly enough.

Devlin was like a roaring fire, but even though she felt the very air lick at her skin like a flame she wanted more.

She heard the heavy fall of his belt buckle on the floor and then the hushed whisper of the button on his waistband pulling free. Her ears were useless as her eyes followed his fingers as they drew down the zipper of his pants and then pulled the last of his garments to the floor. She saw his body, highlighted by the rays of the sun that made their way in through curtains. Gold fire licking at his bare body made her stomach twist and her heart pound inside of her chest.

She lifted her hand across her body to tug at the side-zipper of her dress, and at the first brush of air she shivered. Her hands grasped handfuls of her skirt, but she hesitated, wondering if she should undress herself.

“Do it,” it didn’t sound like a command. It felt like a request… as if he was asking her a favor. How could she deny him? She closed her eyes as she lifted her skirt, bunching up the fabric in her hands as she lifted her dress up over her head and dropped it down to the ground behind her.

Paige looked up at Devlin and felt his eyes on her face, unwavering.

“All of it, Paige.”

She reached her hands up behind her and unhooked her bra, letting go of the straps, she pulled it off her shoulders and dropped it down at their feet.

Paige turned her gaze to the floor. It was mostly fear and a little bit of self-loathing. She’d always known that her figure wasn’t what most people found appealing. She’d had years and years of taunts at school until she’d developed a bit of a thick-skin, or at least deaf-ears to the insults. After her father began his campaign to be elected Mayor, his advisors had plenty to say to her about her body.

Being bare in front of Devlin was terrifying. She didn’t want to see regret or disappointment in his eyes, it was a blow she wasn’t sure she would ever recover from.

When she felt his hands on her bare skin, her eyelids slid closed and a soft moan fell from her lips. His palms warmed her flesh, cradled her breasts in his hands.

“Ohhh…”

“Open your eyes, Paige.” His words were a request, but his tone was a command. And heaven help her, she liked it… too much.

She opened her eyes and saw him looking at her. Her breasts.

Paige looked down and felt a rush of heat between her legs. Devlin slowly swept his thumbs over the crest of her pale skin, brushing his thumbs across her nipples. They pebbled, drawing tight in reaction to his touch as her breasts felt heavier in the palms of his hands.

“I could touch you all day long.”

The words tore through Paige and she trembled before him.

“If this goes on all day long I’ll probably faint.”

Devlin gave her a smile, his eyes full of mischievous promise. “Then I better get to it.” He moved closer and took hold of the last piece of clothing left her on her body. She wiggled a little to help him work the fabric over her hips and she felt a warm puff of his breath against her belly even as she saw him lift his eyes to meet hers.

“Keep moving like that baby, and I’m not going to be able to go gentle with you.”

The little voice inside of her told her to do it again, but she couldn’t seem to move, not when he leaned forward and placed a kiss against her belly.

She squeezed her thighs together, embarrassed by how easily her body reacted to him, almost weeping in need.

Devlin’s gaze crawled up her body to meet her eyes. “Second thoughts?”

Paige dug her teeth into her bottom lip for a moment while she struggled to get her body under control. She shook her head.

“Is something wrong?” She could see the worry in his eyes, the careful way he looked at her.

She knew deep down inside that if she didn’t tell him how she was feeling, he was going to stop. And the last thing she wanted him to do was stop.

“I don’t want to embarrass myself. Or you.” She looked away from him and squeezed her thighs together, even tighter than she had before. “I’m-”

“You’re wet, baby.” She felt both of his hands slide around toward the insides of her thighs and his fingers skimmed her flesh, making her gasp. “If you weren’t, then I would worry.”

She was going to ask him why, but then she couldn’t even speak.

Devlin slipped a finger in between her legs. Her knees buckled as his callused finger stroked the slick folds of her body. A gasp tore from her lips and she widened her stance instinctively.

“Like that?”

She heard the note of humor in his tone, but she also heard the rough scratch of his voice and she bit back a moan as she answered him. “Yes.”

He turned his wrist and stroked her flesh again and leaned forward to press a kiss against her silken curls.

She heard the moan before she felt it vibrating in her throat. “Devlin?”

“Tell me what you want, Paige.” His answering smile was self-assured, but not over-confident and she wanted to taste a bit of that herself. “Tell me, and I’ll give it to you.”

She knew what she wanted to say, but the knot in her throat was making it nearly impossible. She finally made the decision to let go of all her fear and go after what she wanted.

“I want you inside me. I want to be yours, Devlin. Your wife, your mate,” she licked her lips and bared her soul, “and your lover.”

A growl filled her ears and before she could move, Devlin was on his feet, his mouth was on hers, slanting across her lips. His hands anchored her by her hips against him before they traveled up her arms to cup her face, so he could take possession of her.

The tip of his tongue against her lips had her parting them in an eager gasp. The taste of him made her shake, the rough scratch of his tongue had her fingers digging deep into the muscles of his back.

He pushed against her lips in another searching kiss, tilting her head back, tipping them both off balance. They fell to the bed, his body taking the brunt of the impact before he rolled her onto her back.

* * *

Devlin pressed kisses to her jaw and then the underside of her chin, tilting her head back so that her gasp of pleasure was a breathy echo in the room.

Wrapping his hand around the back of her thigh, he drew her leg up toward his hip and stopped short. Pulling his lips away from the column of her throat on a soft muttered curse, he grumbled to himself, “I need more.”

He struggled to control himself as his eyes trailed over her exposed skin. “You’re a dream, Paige. My dream.” He took in deep breaths, his chest expanding under his broad shoulders as he drew in her scent. “Get up on the bed, baby. Higher, so you can lay your head on my pillows.” She crept back onto his dark blue sheets. The contrast of the darker color beneath her body stole his breath.

“I love your legs, Paige,” he prowled after her on the bed, “open for me, baby. Show me how pretty you are.”

He watched her skin flush with heat, the pale peach of her skin warming under his hot gaze.

She swept her tongue over her bottom lip and touched her palms to her knees and gently drew her legs open under his hungry gaze.

And his tiger crawled along with him, fur just under flesh.

He heard Paige’s soft gasp and met her eyes from less than a foot away.

“I can see it,” she sighed, “in the way you move.” Paige reached out a hand and touched his bare shoulder. She moved her palm over his skin. “I almost expect to feel the fur of your tiger under my hand.”

Devlin shifted his weight and sat his hip down on the bed, laying himself out beside her, his gaze now a warm amber as he flexed his body beneath her hand. “Later,” he promised her, “let me love you and you can see my tiger later.” His voice rumbled in his chest when she trailed her fingers over his chest. “I need you, Paige.”

He leaned closer and watched her eyes.

She leaned back against the pillows and reached out her hand to urge him closer.

And closer he was, rising up on his hands and knees he moved between her legs, his arms caging her in beneath him.

He leaned forward to press a kiss on her lips, a soft brush of sensation that had her digging her elbows into the bedding to raise herself up to return the gesture.

Devlin lowered his hips and pressed against her, swallowing her surprised gasp as she felt the heavy evidence of his need rock against her, stroking between her folds.

He felt her body rise up to press back against him, and he could feel her natural instincts surface like a living thing under her skin.

Paige drew up one foot and then the other, opening her body to his touch.

He fed from her lips, eating at her moans, nibbling at her sighs, all the while rocking between her legs.

His skin was slick, wet where she felt his stokes near the tops of her thighs. It felt like liquid fire licking at her skin.

His lips closed over her earlobe. “That’s you, baby,” he slid his hard flesh between her legs, “all that heat is you.”

Devlin lowered his hips on the next long stroke and she felt his length score her body with his need, felt the heavy press of his balls against the open lips of her sex.

* * *

She opened her mouth to speak and lost the train of her thought. So, the words she spoke rose up from both impulse and need. “I’m so empty, Devlin. So terribly empty.”

He tucked in his knees, pressed them in under her backside, moaning as he moved. “Do you want me inside you, Paige? If you do, I’ll give you what we both need.”

She reached up a hand and smoothed his hair back from his face. “You mean the mark?” She dropped her hand back down and traced the skin along the side of her neck.

She saw how he watched her fingers, how his eyes looked like liquid amber, shifting in the darkness of the shadows across his face. “It’s necessary isn’t it?”

She saw the tick of a muscle in his jaw, saw the roll of muscle under his flesh. Heard his voice nearly claw itself out of his throat. “It can wait.”

Paige pulled him closer, rubbing her cheek against his chest. “I don’t want to wait. There’s something between us, Devlin. I’ve felt it from the moment I looked into your eyes. I don’t fear you. I don’t fear what’s between us.”

Taking his hand in hers, she drew it down her side, over her hip, and under her thigh. When he turned his hand, digging in his fingers under her leg, lifting it up and over his hip, she arched into him. Her skin was tight, hot, itchy.

His chest rubbing against hers, turning her pebbled nipples into aching points. Devlin’s breath on her throat, his tongue painting his desire on her skin.

“Devlin?” Paige lifted her other leg and slid her heel along the back of his thigh. “Devlin,” she sighed, “I need more.”

She felt him shift above her, along her… felt his hips roll back and the length of his erection slide deeper, harder between her folds.

“I’m going to give you more, Paige, but you don’t have to take the mark.” His voice was rough as if the tiger within him was trying to drown out his words. “I won’t force it on you.”

“It’s not force if I’m wanting it and you, Devlin.” Her hips rose up under him and left them both panting. “Please.”

Devlin went still against her. “Don’t move, Paige.”

“But,” her words were breathless, “I want-”

“And I’m trying to be gentle.” He turned and looked at her, the upper corner of his mouth curled up, showing her a long, curved fang. “But if you rub that pretty pussy against me again, I won’t be able to hold back.”

* * *

He watched her face, wondering if he’d shocked his innocent wife. He saw her cheeks flush with heat before the color spread down along her neck.

His eyes feasted on the rush of color on her breasts and the way they rose and fell as he watched her.

Paige trembled, but he wasn’t sure why and he certainly didn’t have the control to speak much at all. Every inch of him needed a release.

Needed her warmth around him.

Needed to hear her voice screaming his name.

But he needed her softness too. That part of her called to him somewhere deeper than the need to bury himself in her until she came apart all over his cock.

And then she touched him.

Her hand slipped between them, wrapping around his shaft, squeezing him ever so slightly.

Stars formed behind his eyelids as he felt her slide her hand up towards the tip. “Paige,” he curled his hips and slid his length through her hand, “it’s going to feel like this, when I’m inside you.”

Her breath hitched in her lungs as her gaze lifted to meet his.

“Damn.” The word was wrung from his lips at the look in her eyes. “Paige, baby, I-”

At first, he thought her eyes looked like glass, reflecting the aching need inside of him, but then he saw the shifting color of her hazel eyes, mimicking the amber of his. He knew when her tongue darted out to lick her bottom lip he knew he was long gone in love with his innocent wife.

“Inside me, Devlin. I want to feel what it’s like to have you push inside me over and over and-”

One hand holding him off the bed, the other covered her hand and together they pushed the tip of his cock between her slick folds.

Her eyes widened as she felt her body stretch to surround him, pulling him in just enough to feel her shudder against his skin, and draw him deeper into her body.

Devlin took their joined hands and lifted them to his mouth, sucked her fingers between his lips as he lowered his hand to her breast, his fingers plucking gently at her nipple, trying to draw her deeper into the spell of desire.

“Devlin, more.”

But it was his wife, her luscious curves, and her innocent need, that had him wrapped around her as her body stretched around him and wept at his intrusion.

And when he was all the way inside her, his shaft held tight by her heat, he let out a groan that shook them both from head to toe.

“Paige, it’s always going to be like this.” He looked down at her when she remained silent and expected to see hesitation in her eyes.

She tilted her hips, just an inch or two, seating him even deeper than before. She couldn’t have known, the words dashed through his thoughts, just how to move… just how to hold him.

His tiger paced inside of him, somewhere in the darkness. Instead of making a demand, he gave Devlin the answer.

Instinct, he told his human. Nature. Destiny.

“Yes,” Devlin felt the truth of it in his bones, “destiny.”

He looked down at his mate, and felt everything inside of him shift. “Hold me, Paige, wrap yourself around me… and hold on.”

She didn’t question him or hold back.

Paige wrapped her gorgeous body around his as he stretched over her, leaning into the mattress. The first stroke was a long slow push of his hips, the second made her sigh, as he picked up speed it seemed as if every stroke of his length inside of her pushed a breath from her lungs.

And suddenly they were breathing together, moaning together… and as his fingers fisted into the bedding near her shoulder, climbing together.

The tremors he felt weren’t just hers, they rolled through both of them, trading energy and need back and forth in a tug of war they were both winning.

Her eyes snapped open and her inner walls clamped down on him, pulling a keening cry from her lips.

Devlin felt his fangs extend, scoring the inside of his upper lip as he fought to ignore the need that rode along his spine. It was too much, too soon.

But his mate surprised him yet again. Grasping the sides of his face, her fingers held him tight and with some kind of other-worldly strength, she drew him down toward her.

He was ready to give her a kiss and keep it at that, pushing them both over the edge without the mark, but Paige had other ideas.

She turned her head to the side exposing the pale sweep of her neck and shoulder.

It was as close to words as either of them were able to manage, but an invitation he wasn’t going to refuse. Devlin felt her tremble on the edge of her release and he was only too happy to join her. One last forceful thrust and they both fell into the release they were searching for.

Paige’s fingers dug into his shoulders as if she could climb even higher than he’d taken her, and the only way he could hold her down on earth were his fangs in her flesh.

They slid into her like need, seeking the hot blood just beneath the surface. Paige bucked against him, her nails drawing blood from his skin.

He could barely move.

Holding Paige against him, he laved his tongue over the fresh mark, making her shiver in his embrace. Devlin breathed in and smelled their scents mingled together, her tangy sweet mixed with the sharp spice of his skin.

Together, the way it was meant to be.