Buck stood on the city sidewalk, looking down at Beatrix, trying to read the expression on her beautiful face.

The summer breeze swirled around them, lifting her hair in inky ribbons. But the rest of her was stone still, shoulders squared.

Behind her, the others stepped through the door and joined them on the street.

“Are you okay?” Buck asked.

“Let’s go home,” Beatrix said. “I need to talk with you. Alone.”

“Um, we we’re going to grab some dinner,” Solo said.

“No we’re not,” Cecily said. “We’re going to fix things with Dirk’s blogger. Come on.”

She shot Buck and Beatrix a confident wink as she turned to head back inside. He didn’t know what she had in mind, but she seemed like she had it under control.

That was good. Buck’s mind was too full of Beatrix to be much help in planning.

The others trailed off toward the main entrance of the convention center, leaving Buck alone with Beatrix.

Bea began to march down the street toward their rental. She seemed to be moving awfully quickly on those short legs of hers.

Buck jogged to keep up.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before,” he told her. “Dr. Bhimani said we shouldn’t share our gifts until we were mated. She said it might frighten you away.”

Beatrix stopped her march.

“Do I seem frightened?” she asked.

“Well… no,” Buck said. “You seem, um, determined.”

“I am determined,” she told him with a half smile.

Then she turned and marched on.

Buck’s heart lifted as he began to understand that the reason for her pace might just be urgency, rather than fear or anger.

They had reached the lobby of the building now.

Beatrix walked briskly through the doors and pressed the button to call the elevator.

The doors slid open immediately.

They both stepped in.

It wasn’t until the doors closed again that it hit him that they were alone.

Bea gazed at him like a hungry tiger.

Buck’s instincts took over. He slammed his hands against the walls of the elevator on either side of her and leaned in to take the kiss that he knew she wanted to give.

But at the last second he restrained himself.

He had to know.

“Why?” he asked as gently as he could, sliding one of his hands from the wall behind her to caress her cheek.

“Why what?” she whispered, her eyes on his lips.

“You didn’t want this before,” he said. “You must have had your reasons. Why don’t they matter anymore? Will they matter again tomorrow?”

She looked up into his eyes for a moment.

“I had a million reasons,” she said. “I’ve never had a serious relationship and you want a mate for life. My career is taking off and falling in love is a complication. You want privacy and one day I may become a very public person. There are countless reasons why this doesn’t fit what I thought I wanted.”

“So, this is a mistake then,” Buck murmured, unable for the life of him, to remove his hand from her soft cheek.

“No,” she smiled up at him. “What I thought I wanted was the mistake. There’s not one part of my life plan that wouldn’t be better with you in it.”

“But your movie,” he said.

“You know I’ve been thinking about it since my talk with Esther, and I had it all wrong,” she said. “Door to Everywhere is kind of a cult favorite. It has an indie following but it never hit a bestseller list. It was a small budget book. Hell, I couldn’t even afford color panels.”

“It’s a wonderful book,” Buck said.

“I think its humble presentation may have something to do with that,” Bea said slowly. “Esther Martine’s been doing this a long time. If she doesn’t sense a blockbuster I trust her instincts.”

“Door to Everywhere will make a great movie,” Buck said, furious that one person’s opinion could influence Bea’s sense of confidence.

“Oh, it will definitely be a great movie,” Bea smiled up at him. “But it’s going to be a small budget indie film, not a big studio production. If I lose my funders over that, it’s fine by me. I’ll come up with the money we need and we’ll do it on a shoestring. But I’ll do it my way. The story will come first, it will not be outshone.”

“Are you really okay with that?” Buck asked.

“I feel the same anticipation I did when I wrote it,” Bea said with a smile. “And this is the first time I’ve felt that, since the talks of an adaption started.”

He could sense that she was telling the truth. The air was practically humming with her happiness.

He leaned in again to give her the kiss they both longed for.

But the ding of the elevator interrupted them.

He took her by the hand instead and led her out of the elevator to the door of the condo.

She slipped the key out of her pocket and opened it.

The last of the afternoon’s pink sunset filtered through the curtains. It was enough to show them the way to her room.

Beatrix smiled when she reached her door.

“Why are you smiling?” he asked her, charmed by the curve of her lips.

“I was thinking of my door to everywhere,” she said. “And how it always leads to you.”

Overcome with emotion, he swept her into his arms, closed the door behind them and placed her gently on the bed.

She looked up at him, her eyes luminous.

“Do you want to sleep on this?” he asked her.

“No,” she said, smiling, her hands dancing down the buttons on the front of her dress.

“By the moons of Aerie,” he murmured, mesmerized.

“Aren’t you going to undress too?” she asked him.

He turned from her, peeled his t-shirt over his head, took off his shoes and socks, then unbuttoned his jeans and slid them off, taking the boxers with them.

When he turned back she was naked, her dark hair spread across the pillow, arms outstretched to him.

He paused for just a moment, trying to memorize the glow of her skin in the twilight, the longing in her dark eyes.

Then he could restrain himself no more.

He crawled on top of her, pinning her to the bed with his hips, resting on one elbow and sliding his hand into the silk of her hair.

“Bea,” he crooned. “You are so beautiful.”

“Thank you,” she smiled up at him. “You’re not bad yourself.”

Then she looked downward, eyelashes kissing her cheeks.

“Don’t you dare do that,” he told her. “Don’t be shy with me.”

He kissed her eyelids and she giggled.

“Are you giggling at me?” he demanded playfully.

She shook her head but her eyes were dancing.

“Now you will be punished,” he informed her.

Her eyes widened.

Quick as a thought, he pinned her hands over her head and lowered his face to hers.

“I’m going to have my way with you now,” he whispered. “Is that okay with you?”

She smiled.

“I need to hear you say it, my mate,” he told her.

“Yes,” she whispered.

A wave of lust surged in his veins, but he fought it back.

“Nice,” he praised her and brushed his lips lightly against hers.

She seemed to melt under him.

He kissed her again, pressing his lips firmly against hers this time.

She kissed him back parting her lips slightly as if in invitation.

But he was already nuzzling her jaw, burying his face in her neck and feasting on the tender flesh where it met her shoulder.

Bea inhaled and angled her head to give him better access.

Her utter submission was exciting him wildly. His body, which he had kept so firmly under control, ached and roared with need.

Bea whimpered as he trailed kisses down her chest.

“I’m going to let go of your hands now,” he told her, his own voice a raspy growl he hardly recognized. “But you’re going to leave them right where they are.”

“Yes,” she whispered.

He pulled back and looked down at her, arms twined above her head, her face flushed, breasts heaving, the dusky nipples pouting, begging for his touch.

He fell on her, licking and nipping at one breast as she made sweet sounds of pleasure, then abandoning it to tease and torment the other as he grazed the first with his thumb.

When her hips began to tremble, he gave each breast one last kiss, then made his way down past her belly to the apex of her thighs.

Beatrix was panting now, her eyes wide as she watched him position himself between her legs.

She knew what was next - he had done this to her before.

But she still cried out the moment his tongue touched her.

She tasted like honey and he lapped at her frantically.

Beatrix whimpered and lifted her hips to meet his mouth, angling herself as if desperate for his tongue to caress her stiff little clitoris.

He responded with long, slow strokes of his tongue against her opening, teasing her with a feather light touch where she most wanted firmness, prolonging the anticipation for what they both knew was coming.

He had just begun to ease a finger inside her when she began to beg.

“Please,” she moaned plaintively, her sex swelling against his tongue.

His own corresponding wave of desire stiffened his cock to the point of pain.

“Oh my love,” he whispered to her, crawling back up to cradle her head in his arms. “I will take care of you. I will give you what you need.”

She pressed her lips to his, bringing her arms down to twine around his neck.

“Beatrix Li,” he whispered to her. “I choose you as my mate. Will you accept me?”

“I accept you,” she whispered back with shining eyes.

Buck’s heart was filled to bursting.

“Are you ready, my angel?” he asked her.

She nodded.

He took his bursting cock in his hand and guided it against her.

The satiny hot feel of her against the tip of his rigid penis was almost enough to send him over the edge. He gritted his teeth against the pleasure and pressed himself slowly inside her.

At last he filled her completely. The feeling was so heavenly he felt almost unmoored from reality.

He looked down at her beautiful face to anchor himself, and prayed for the strength to make this good for her, as perfect as she deserved.