Ryker reached up and brushed a hand down her cheek. “There are no gods here, love. Just me and you.”
Once, she would’ve waited and let her body adjust to his size. Once, she would’ve been gentler. But after everything they’d been through, she couldn’t wait.
Their eyes met, and through some unspoken command, they moved as one.
She gripped his shoulders.
His hands came to her hips, his thumbs stroking her flesh as she rode him.
“I love you,” she whispered, her back arching as he thrust his hips upwards and met her movements. “So fucking much.”
Love was a difficult thing, she’d learned. It was possible to fall in love without ever seeing the other person—the Choosing had made that perfectly clear. It was even possible to fall in love with the person you were supposed to kill.
But love without trust? It was dangerous. Deadly, even. Itcould destroy someone from the inside out. It was too close to hate and anger. She and Ryker had hovered there for far too long.
No longer.
Now, they were stronger than before. She hadn’t even known that was possible. He’d proven to her that he would be there for her, that he would keep her safe, and that she was more than an asset to him.
He was hers as much as she was his.
His eyes darkened. “I love you, too.”
The words were exactly what she needed to hear. Knowing he could take whatever she gave him, Brynleigh abandoned the last shreds of her control.
There was nothing gentle or slow about the way she moved. Her wings spread behind her, and darkness slipped from her palms. This wasn’t a tryst meant to appease physical aches, nor was it the lovemaking of their wedding night.
This was a claiming, an apology, and forgiveness all wrapped up in one.
With every rise and fall of her hips, every gasp and moan and sound of pleasure that came from her, that trust strengthened.
She drew closer and closer to her release. She hovered on the precipice, her entire body coiled in eager anticipation.
“More,” she gasped. “I need more.”
Ryker’s gaze swept over hers, and he nodded. In a matter of moments, he lifted her hips and was out from under her. She barely had time to mourn the emptiness inside her before he drew up behind her. He kissed the back of her neck, his hands trailing over her bottom.
“You might want to hold onto something, love.” There was a dark promise in his voice that she desperately wanted to explore.
She grabbed the headboard seconds before his hands landed on her hips. Not even a heartbeat later, he lined his cock up at her entrance and thrust into her.
Stars exploded in her vision from the new angle.
This.
This was exactly what she needed.
He held her hip with one hand, his other trailing over her wings as he drove into her.
His cock hit that perfect spot, and she cried out. Everything else faded away except for the fae behind her.
She was his, and he was hers.
And when Ryker dragged his canines over her neck and growled, “Come for me,” she did.
She fell over the cliff, pleasure running through her like a tsunami, and she screamed his name. His own release followed moments later, his groans of pleasure music to her ears.
He held her close through the waves of pleasure, murmuring sweet nothings as they came down from the high together.