The couple of days between Isisa’s zombie marathon and Nandi’s book signing provided all the time I needed to get ahead of administrative work at the office before I turned the entire operation over to Sergio. I couldn’t dump a shit load of work in his lap, even if he swore he was up to the task.

Brothers didn’t do that to each other. Plus, he hated working the administrative stuff. Thankfully, Mariana had just returned from her honeymoon. I left Texas behind feeling confident about the job going smoothly in my absence.

After a long Wednesday on the road from Houston to Chicago, Nandi and I awakened Thursday morning to a free day before the hustle of her signing would take up the next two days. We’d fallen into bed sometime around two in the morning after checking into the hotel.

Her fluffy hair, fragrant with sweet almond and coconut oil, tickled my neck, and the plump curves of her nubile body invited me to linger in bed. Her soft breaths feathered against my skin, one of her legs twined between mine.

Nandi wore only a T-shirt and a pair of polka dot panties lacking enough fabric to cover her round cheeks. I squeezed one, tentatively at first, reluctant to manhandle the woman in her sleep. Her flesh was malleable and soft beneath my hand. Perfect.

She raised her head and smiled. “Mmm… Morning. Do I get to do the same?”

Prior to bed when we’d been too exhausted to do anything more, we’d stripped off our jeans and crawled under the covers of the king-sized bed.

“You’re welcome to.”

Nandi propped her weight up on one elbow and let her other hand wander over my chest, over a layer of cotton T-shirt I’d been too tired to remove the previous night. She edged it up, exposing my abs, and traced the chiseled lines until her gaze came to the morning wood I didn’t have a hope of hiding. She blinked a few times.

“You’re… so big,” she whispered. Her fingers crept along the edge of my boxer briefs but didn’t slip beneath the band or move any lower. As much as I craved one touch from her and kept imagining her delectable lips wrapped around my dick, I put the ball in her court and waited for her to make the first move. “Um. Muscles, I mean. Working construction gave you a lot of muscles.”

I grinned. “And you’re stunning even when you’re just waking up.” Smiling, I reached up and tucked a curl behind her ear. “What did you want to do today? Walk around downtown? Hit up the Navy Pier?”

“What’s there?”

“Shops mostly. A few restaurants. The Ferris wheel.”

“That sounds fun. I’ll go get ready.”

Was it wrong of me to feel a stab of disappointment as her hands fell away without exploring further? The question brought a well-deserved sense of shame.

Time, man. Give her time. Sasha said she was the shy one.

While Nandi showered, I brought her luggage up from the car and waited my turn. I made a call to Sergio.

“You’re supposed to be taking a break,” Sergio reprimanded instead of greeting me when he answered.

“I am. Just wanted to find out how everything’s going.”

“It’s fine. No trouble and everything’s on schedule. Now go have a deep-dish pizza for me or something.”

“Brat.”

“Pendejo. Have fun helping out your friend.”

Unwilling to own up to having multiple girlfriends, I’d fibbed to my family and told everyone I was helping a friend with a business matter out of state. It wasn’t far from the truth, but the lie put a sour taste in my mouth.

Two hours later, we hit the town. Chicago wasn’t new to me. I’d served a stint as a recruiter in the area.

I grimaced and pushed those memories aside, focusing on making new ones with Nandi. It took some coaxing, but I convinced her to ride the Ferris wheel.

She clung to me, nails buried into my bicep, face against my neck the moment our car ascended in the air.

“It kind of defeats the purpose if you don’t look,” I teased.

“Lions aren’t meant to be this far from the ground.”

“Does that mean you don’t fly?”

“On an airplane?” she squeaked. “No. No, no, no. Driving is what I do, and if I absolutely have to, I fly with the window shut.” She peeked, raising her face enough to peer out the glass for a split second. Her iron grip tightened.

“Losing circulation here, kitten.”

She hid her face again and lowered both hands to my thigh. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. If I knew how much it scared you, I’d have never asked.”

“You didn’t make me get on. It’s just…” She sucked in a breath and raised her cheek from my shoulder to look outside again. “I really did want to see the view, but it’s terrifying. I can feel every tremble from the machinery. It’s swaying and rocking and...”

“It’s perfectly safe, believe me. It isn’t like one of the county fairs out in the middle of nowhere. These rides undergo frequent maintenance. No one wants a lawsuit.”

“Right.” She nodded a few times and sucked in another breath. She went still beside me, staring out the window with large eyes, frozen by the view of Lake Michigan’s crystal blue water stretching toward the horizon. There were boats out today in all shapes and sizes, dozens of them sailing at the harbor.

“I’m thinking of buying a boat sometime soon. My family has a timeshare up at Lake Conroe.”

“A boat?”

“Yeah.”

“Sasha likes boats.”

“What about you?”

“I like water,” she said, skirting the question. “I’ve never been on a boat.”

“Well, if you’d like, maybe I can rent one for a weekend this spring and you can come out. It’s quiet on the water. You could stretch out with your laptop and write or read.”

“That sounds kind of nice.”

“Good experience for your writing. I’ll teach you how to sail.”

The tension vanished from her shoulders, and a bright smile spread across her face that was more radiant than sunshine. “I’ll look forward to it. We can try to surprise Sasha and Isisa, maybe. I’ll give you dates free on their calendars. They tease me for writing all of the time, but no one works more than they do.”

“Then this is long overdue, and Operation Lioness Vacation begins when we return to Texas. Deal?”

“Deal.”

---

At the end of a long day playing tour guide for Nandi, I slouched in a chair and passed the time with a puzzle game on my cell phone while she soaked in the tub.

We’d traveled over every inch of Navy Pier, saw the Field Museum, and visited the Adler Planetarium before meandering back toward our hotel on foot and discovering a local teahouse serving Russian cuisine.

I tossed my phone on the dresser and knocked on the bathroom door. “You alive in there?”

“I think so.”

“Making sure you didn’t drown. Or weren’t needing mouth to mouth.”

“I didn’t drink that much vodka.”

“You had two flights.”

“You’re the lightweight, remember?” she called back.

“You mean, I’m the human who lacks a supernatural tolerance for alcohol.”

“Same difference.”

Nandi emerged from the bathroom in a puff of steamy, coconut-scented air. We exchanged places, and when I exited in my shorts, it was to the sight of her sprawled in bed on her iPad.

“Have fun today?”

“Yeah. I’d love to bring Sasha and Isisa here one day and spend more time so we can all enjoy the sights.”

“So I’m invited too?”

Nandi snuggled up to my side, swaddled in cobalt silk pajamas and the essence of vanilla and coconut. “Of course you are. All of us together for, like, a week. We can visit the museums and the aquarium, oh, and eat at that place again every day.”

“Pretty sure you’d have to roll me outta bed and down the street if I had duck strudel, beef stroganoff, and everything else we ate every day.”

She poked my stomach. “No worries there. Besides, they’d love the place I think. Sasha’s the one who likes to eat adventurous, and she always makes us try new things.”

“Speaking of, I was curious about something.”

“Okay…”

“Isisa mentioned growing up alongside Sasha during their teens, but they didn’t mention how you came into the equation.”

“Oh, that. It’s sort of embarrassing.”

“You don’t have to tell me.”

“No, it’s all right. Really. I met Isisa at the library. She was researching something for a case, and I dropped my pile of books when I saw her, like some idiot teenager facing their dream crush.”

“She startled you?”

“Sorta. It’s a shifter thing. When we meet our ideal mates, there’s something about the way they look or the way they smell that our animal half senses. Our souls recognize each other, even if our minds don’t realize what’s happening.”

“I see. What did you do about it?”

“Nothing.” Nandi laughed. “I tried to run away, but I left one of my books, so Isisa chased me down outside of the library to return it to me. I was shaking so hard she guided me back inside. We had coffee at the cafe and talked all afternoon.”

“When did you meet Sasha?”

“Not for almost six months. She was deployed at the time.” She twisted a rust-red curl around her finger. “It was rough on Isisa.”

“I imagine it was rough on you, too.”

“Yeah. I didn’t think Isisa felt anything in return,” Nandi admitted. A fond smile curved her lips. She nestled closer and set her cheek against my throat. I ran my fingers down her back.

“So how did it develop into the relationship I know now?”

“Isisa and I became friends. I knew all about Sasha and was terrified to meet her, thinking I’d get ripped to shreds or something. But the moment she stepped through the security gate at the airport and came into view, I knew I could never want anyone else but them. I felt the same draw to her as Isisa. She came right up to me, pulled me into a hug while I stood there in shock, and told Isisa over my shoulder that I was welcome into their pride. If I wanted to be.”

“And of course you said yes.”

“I did, and I’ve never been happier.”

“So… if it’s okay to ask. Have you ever been with a man?”

“No, I only write about dicks.” She waited a beat then nudged me in the arm and laughed. “Yes, I’ve been with a man. Taylor, remember?”

Somehow that both relieved me and made me jealous.

“Anyway, I should put my hair up for tomorrow if I want to avoid being a frumpy mess. I was so tired last night I didn’t bother.” Nandi slipped away and crossed the room to sit at the table where she’d laid out an assortment of jars and bottles alongside a wide tooth comb.

Fascinated by her routine, I sat at the foot of the bed and watched her for a while as she made precise parts and twisted her curls into long braids. “Do you need help?”

“Help with my hair?”

“Yeah. Let me rephrase that—do you want help?”

Nandi pursed her lips and studied me. “Have you ever messed with a black girl’s hair?”

“No, but I can learn.”

“If you want, sure.”

Following her step-by-step instructions, I brushed sweet coconut oil into her dark hair and divided it into uneven sections. None of my clumsy braids resembled her examples, and we laughed together when a few unraveled.

I shook my head and rubbed my palms against both thighs. “I think you were better off without my help, chica.”

“It doesn’t have to be perfect when I’m only going to take it down in the morning. Besides, everyone has to start somewhere, and it gets easier with practice.” She tilted her face up to me and smiled, features angelic in the glow of the nearby lamp. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Nandi fell asleep first once we were in bed. In the dark, with only a sliver of light from the Chicago nightlife penetrating the heavy curtains, I watched the peaceful rise and fall of her silk-covered chest. I tried to imagine the lioness within her and pictured golden-brown fur covering a cuddly soft body.

The image came easily. I’d seen Sasha at the camp, and maybe tomorrow, Nandi would have enough trust to show me the same in our private room.

---

Nandi was up before the alarm, fussing around the room with her loaded cart and going back and forth on what to wear. Should she wear the skirt and sophisticated blouse or the dress? Would she be overdressed if she didn’t wear jeans and a T-shirt? She changed three times then finally settled on a black pencil skirt paired with a pink, V-neck blouse that revealed enough of her tits to be sensual without showing off the entire package.

Outside of our room, it was a mess, especially when we reached the elevators. The entire hotel must have been trying to call them and they were probably stopping on every floor. By the time we were able to get on, Nandi had checked her watch a dozen times.

“Nandi Mokoena? Oh my gosh, so excited to meet you,” the woman at the check-in table gushed. She passed over two tote bags and a table assignment map. “You can go ahead on in. Just be sure to wear your name badges, they’re your lunch entry, and I hope you have fun.”

“Thanks,” Nandi murmured.

The woman beamed. “Don’t hesitate to ask for help if you need it.”

With the layout in hand, we wound our way through the busy room to Nandi’s table.

“Where do you want the boxes? Under the table? Behind it?”

“Behind it against the wall. I’ll help.”

“Nah. I got it.”

“But I can—”

“Look,” I said, taking her by the shoulders. “I know you can lift these boxes just fine. I want to do this, because it’s just the way I was raised, and it has nothing at all to do with you being a woman or me thinking you’re weaker than me. Because I don’t. Let me be nice to you.”

Nandi bit her lower lip and nodded. “Okay.”

I removed the boxes from the cart and set them behind the table while she fetched a tote bag of pens, stickers, and small objects of interest for her table.

“Each box has two titles in it. I need, um, let’s say five of each out on the table for now. Please.”

“Sure thing.”

Clueless and out of my element, I followed Nandi’s directions while the rest of the room exploded into chaos. Flyers, standing banners, and book covers featuring half-naked dudes dominated every corner of the convention hall. The tables followed the perimeter of the room, and then rows of them covered the floor.

Nandi’s table appeared to be in a prime position, set in the center of the room against the back wall with a wide, open aisle directly in front of her that led to one of the three sets of doors leading into the room.

We’d been placed to the left of a young woman with pink and blue hair. Her model glanced at me and sized me up like a dog guarding his territory. I stared back at him until he looked away first. To our right was a table set up with gift baskets.

“Those are for various raffles,” Nandi explained.

With all her books out, Nandi directed me where to set them up. We displayed paperbacks on plastic frame holders, and I unfurled her banner. The art displayed a man and a woman in a sensual embrace with a howling wolf in the background beneath a full moon.

I admired it for a moment.

“Did it come out okay?”

“It’s eye-catching and sums up your books. It’s great.”

Nandi settled behind the table in one of the two chairs provided and folded her hands against her lap. She unfolded them again and fiddled with the stack of business cards on the table beside a candy dish overflowing with chocolate treats and cock-shaped lollipops on plastic rings.

I stared at those and mouthed, what the fuck? When had she put those out?

“Those were Isisa’s contribution.”

“I thought you were moving away from romance?”

“Most of my backlist is romance,” she explained with a gesture to the assortment of covers baring male chests and muscular torsos accompanied by animals of some kind. Even the books featuring pale-skinned dudes with blood smearing their mouths were portrayed shirtless. “And this particular signing is the hottest romance convention in Chicago. I signed up and paid a year ago when I thought…” She shrugged.

“Thought what?”

“It’d be easier to talk to people in person. I’m a nervous wreck.” She wrung her hands together and fidgeted in her seat.

“Why? Because of the line around the corner taking numbers to see you? You did notice that, right?”

Nandi dipped her chin. “Maybe. What if I’m not what they expected? Am I overdressed?”

“You look perfect.”

“But—”

I kissed her. Driven by impulse and a spike of simmering desire, I cupped her face between both hands and brought her mouth up to mine. The older woman across the aisle gasped.

I ignored her.

It was supposed to be a brief kiss, reassurance and affection in one brush of my lips over hers. But it didn’t end there. Couldn’t. Once my tongue swept into her mouth, no one but Nandi mattered. Even when the kiss bordered indecent, I couldn’t stop myself, because every taste of her was as intoxicating as the last, and something about her scent enveloped me, surrounded me, lured me in like a fucking siren’s call. She made a startled little squeak, but then she softened and leaned into me. It wasn’t how I’d planned our first kiss—not that I had been planning—but somehow it felt right.

“You look like a goddamned piece of art, and there isn’t another author here as talented or beautiful,” I told her in a rough whisper, startled by how little breath I had left in my lungs. My lips skimmed against her ear. When I leaned back, glazed brown eyes peered up at me. Her lipstick hadn’t budged at all.

Nandi stopped fidgeting with her hands and skirt after that. Our neighboring author also faced forward, fanning herself with a flyer. She didn’t introduce herself for another ten minutes.

We remained busy throughout the event with little downtime once the line of people queueing for specific authors were allowed inside the event hall. While Nandi ran credit card transactions, I took cash payments and arranged the purchased books in neat stacks for her to sign. By lunch, I’d assumed control of the phone and credit card reader too when a voracious horde of readers swarmed the table.

During a blessed lull, a tiny, gray-haired woman came by and paused by the table to lift a book from the holder. Her spectacled gaze drifted from the cover to me, and then she passed the novel to Nandi to be signed. “I’ll take that one.”

“Thank you. Who should I sign it to?”

“Bethie. It’s for my daughter. Work wouldn’t allow her to make it, so I’m visiting her favorite authors in her stead. She would have given anything to meet you, dear. Oh, and your model is so handsome.”

Nandi’s startled gaze flew up to the old woman’s face.

“Oh, I’m not a model, ma’am. I tagged along to help out and give her some support.”

“Really?” She smiled at Nandi. “Dear, you certainly have a sweet boyfriend. You should put him on one of your covers. I’d snatch that right up.”

“Oh, well…” Nandi turned her gaze on me. “I might try to convince him.”

As much as I took pride in remaining in shape after the military, I didn’t want to imagine thousands of ladies pressing their love buttons to my image. I kept my mouth shut anyway.

“Which book of hers is your favorite?” the lady asked.

“I actually enjoyed her newest release the most, but she didn’t manage to get paperbacks in time. Out of the ones here, I’d say…” I scanned the covers, searching for the novel I’d completed a week ago on my phone, scanning the pages during lunch breaks at work. “This one.”

While Nandi stared, I reached across the table and picked up a matte paperback featuring a bare-chested vampire on the cover. A large raven perched on his arm.

The old lady nudged the center of her spectacles and leaned closer. “What is it about?”

“An unlikely attraction between a vampire and a shapeshifter. Awesome premise. The love story is great and all, but my favorite part is the action. Nandi has a knack for writing out fight scenes. The hero has had his dream woman in front of him the whole time, but she has to sort of beat him around before he notices.”

“Well then, I’ll get this one for me. Could you make that out to Amanda, dear?”

“Of course,” Nandi said. She signed in her looping script and passed it over with a smile. “And I’ll see if I can sway Esteban here into a photoshoot.”

Amanda beamed. “You do that.”

The last few hours passed with the same hectic but fun vibe. By the time the room closed for the day, Nandi and I both were ready to relax with our shoes off.

“Need any of this taken upstairs?”

“Just the money and iPad. They lock the room.”

After I packed her valuables into her tote bag, we joined the line of authors and readers filing out of the convention hall. We didn’t make it ten yards before a gang of writers approached to say hello and gush about Nandi’s books.

From that moment forward, the next half hour passed in a blur of unfamiliar names and friendly faces eager to meet her. Eventually, the crowd thinned enough for the last of us to cram into an elevator with a panel of lit buttons destined to stop at every floor.

Fuck, socializing with so many women had exhausted me, and I wanted to kick my shoes off and lay down before the dinner party. By the time the last guest exited the elevator, my head throbbed.

The elevator doors closed behind the final passenger off and the box shuddered to a start upward. Then my back slammed against the mirrored elevator wall and Nandi’s mouth slid over mine.

She stood on tiptoe with her fingers around my nape, body pressed flush to mine as her lips moved with sensual urgency. Her other palm flattened to my chest, and she stroked downward, petting my abs.

In one quick tug, I twisted her back against the wall instead and guided one of her thighs to my hip. The softness of her cradled me, plump, perfect, and real. A lush handful overflowed my palm when I squeezed her right breast and circled my thumb over the budding nipple. She made a small sound of pleasure, almost a purr, and pulled my shirt free from my slacks.

“You read my books,” she whispered against my mouth.

“I wanted to surprise you.”

Her scarlet lips turned up in a smile. “You did.”

The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. Nandi took me by the hand and pulled me into the quiet, blue-carpeted hallway. When we reached our room, the card reader rejected her first two attempts to unlock the door. She hissed a swear between her teeth and tried again, fumbling the door open on the third attempt.

One second, I was setting her tote bag aside, and in the next, the door had slammed and she was guiding me back against the bed, tugging my belt free, loosening the fly with agile and eager fingers. Clothes littered the floor in seconds, and then we were just bare skin against bare skin with her beneath me on the mattress.

The intoxicating scent of vanilla lotion wafted from her skin as I kissed my way down her neck then back up again to the hollow behind her ear. Every inch of her was satin smooth, cocoa silk beneath my hands. I molded a palm against one of her full breasts and laved my tongue over the tip.

“God, I love these.”

“They’re enormous. Too big.”

“More for me then.”

They weren’t as round as smaller breasts, full and a little bottom heavy like plump teardrops with high, dark nipples. I suckled the tip of one between my lips. When she writhed and arched beneath me, I scooped both breasts together and tasted both at the same time.

“I love every inch of you. No part of you is too big, or too small. You’re perfect.”

To show her how much I meant those words, my lips found other interesting places to visit while both hands remained at her breasts, thumbing the nipples. With her sprawled before me, knees bent and feet planted against the sheets, I leaned back on my knees and surveyed all that was mine.

Thank God.

Nandi had the kind of sinful curves that could turn a heathen like me back into a praying man. Like she’d read my mind, her hands turned busy, stroking over my muscles and smoothing across my back. She kissed my shoulders, my neck, and traced her lips across my pecs before one of her small hands caressed my balls in passing but didn’t linger. My cock jutted up straight, heavy and hard as steel, so stiff it hurt. Her and Sasha had a way of making me feel like a teenager again. I tried to mentally compel her to touch me, but it didn’t work.

“I don’t want to rush this, corazon, but I need to be inside you. Now.”

A coy smile came to her lips. “I know.”

“Should I grab a—”

“No, I don’t want anything between us.” Her brown eyes studied my face, and after a quiet moment, she murmured, “Is that okay with you?”

“Not worried about me?”

“You’re clean.”

“And you know that how?”

“I trust you.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m clean.”

“Even if you weren’t, it wouldn’t affect me.” She snuck her hand between our bodies and glided her index finger down my dick, stroking a straight line from root to tip. I jerked at the contact and sucked in a sharp breath.

Note to self: Nandi is also a dick magician.

I traced my hands down her ribs, hips, and thick thighs, molding my palms to every inch. When her legs parted, I took it as a hint and slid my middle finger inside her.

Her hips raised into the touch, and her expression turned euphoric.

“You’re so wet, baby.”

“I’ve been thinking about this since lunch.”

I turned my face against her breast and chuckled. “That long, huh?”

“Let’s just say that resisting the urge to straddle you on the table was a close call, and some readers almost received a free show.”

“Ha! Maybe you should write that into one of your books.”

She writhed against the sheets, fingers clutching against my shoulder while I stroked her. “I think I will. Now give me more to write about.”

Determined to live up to her expectations—no, determined to outdo them—I kissed my way down her body until my lips and tongue replaced my fingers. That first taste of her nearly undid me. Nandi was the sweetest fucking thing I’d ever tasted, and her mewling cries stoked my ego.

She moved in subtle rocking motions, hands in my hair directing me where she liked it best. I teased her clit, toying with her by circling it one moment and avoiding it in the next, driving her up and up and up until her toes curled. My tongue plunged into her, and I licked, loving the sound of my name on her lips.

When I finally gave her the orgasm she deserved, I didn’t stop until her quivering body went limp against the sheets.

“Don’t think I’m done with you yet,” I whispered against her skin, kissing my way back up to her breasts, then up again to her throat.

“Good.”

I licked my fingers for a final taste of her. Her golden eyes locked on mine as her nimble fingers circled my dick. She slipped the tip of me against her entrance, and in one thrust, she was mine.

The way her body gripped me should have been criminal, her pussy just short of being a satin-lined vice grip for my cock. I groaned a low, guttural sound against her throat and lost myself with each thrust, aware of her fingers wandering my back, her nails scoring my shoulders, and the whispers of my name.

She thrust her hips up, meeting me stroke for stroke and never tiring.

Shifter stamina was infectious as fuck apparently, because my endurance carried on long after her first orgasm. Sweat beaded across my shoulders and brow, my entire body feverish from the efforts of pleasing a supernatural woman.

Nandi cried out the hardest when I pounded away at her, so I gave her that, our bodies slapping together at a furious tempo. Her ankles crossed above my ass, and her head fell back, expression filled with rapture and dark hair fanned over the pillow.

I came when she reached her third climax, the relief of spilling inside her sweeter than all orgasms before it. I had no idea how I’d lasted so long, but she was insatiable and irresistible. Nandi rolled and curled up against me, eyes closed and breaths shallow.

“We have enough time for a nap before your dinner thing.”

“I vote we stay here,” she slurred in a drowsy mumble.

Grinning, I stroked my fingers down her spine. “But you paid for this, sweetheart, and after all that, I’m starving.”

“Room service is an amazing thing.”

“People wanna see you.”

She cracked open her eyes. “I only wanna see you.”

Nandi traced her fingers down my abs and took my soft cock in her hand. It tensed and then became rock hard again in her grip. Neither me or my dick could get enough of her. She grinned and straddled my hips, bracing both hands on my chest.

In the next moment, she slid onto me, and I thrust up, driving deeper than before, plunging into her anew with the boundless energy only a South African goddess could inspire.

“Fuck.”

“Oh, I plan to.” Her satisfied grin widened, and she rolled her hips, setting a demanding pace right from the start.

My hands found their way to her ass and gripped twin palmfuls of flesh. Nandi bent forward, lowering her hands to the sheets at either side of my head. Her breasts pressed into my chest, and she turned her face into my throat, teeth skating across my skin over my beating pulse.

“I know what you want. Do it.” I threaded my fingers into her hair and delivered a slight tug. “Don’t resist, baby.”

“But—”

“I want it.”

A purr, or something very close to it, reverberated in her throat. The sharp sting of her teeth nipped my earlobe first, followed by a gentle suckle that made my toes curl and my hips thrust upward. She drew it out, taking her time, alternating teasing love bites with kittenish licks.

Her teeth caught me in the muscle above my left nipple, seizing me with a spark of pain and ecstasy. I didn’t black out again this time, but her magical essence swarmed over me, a sizzling rush of sensation searing into my soul. I gasped.

She clenched around me. Any self-control I’d retained during our bonding crumbled into dust. I shuddered and collapsed against the bed, drained and vulnerable, trembling beneath her. My uncooperative limbs wouldn’t even raise to wrap around her.

Her limp body covered me like a warm, velvet blanket. “Now you’re mine, too,” she whispered, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.