My arms were around her now, and I tightened my grip. “Crazy is good?”
She kissed me softly this time, and my beast settled, as did I. She could tame me with a touch, my mate. I thanked the gods for her every second of every day. “Crazy is definitely good.”
Pleased with myself now, my beast strutted around in my chest, wanting out to play. Which meant, he wanted to take our mate up against the wall and make her scream with pleasure, but I was enjoying her reaction too much to let him have his way.
At least, not yet.
I had her in my hold, and that was what mattered. She had not been out of my sight since the incident on Transport Station Zenith. Not because of the cuffs, but because we were both still wary. It was not a hardship to be beside her constantly. Far from it.
Quinn took my hand and pulled me along behind her as she explored the house. The entire place was decorated and furnished in what Ellen had insisted my mate would like. She had hired an entire team of people to decorate and giggled like a small child when I gave her the small piece of plastic the banking man had given me after I opened my Earth accounts.
A credit card, it was called. I didn’t understand it, which meant Quinn was right. I needed to learn Earth’s monetary system.
“Ellen hired a team of people to decorate, but you may change anything you wish.”
She sighed as she spun in a circle. “Bahre, this is beautiful. I can’t believe this. I just can’t.” We ended our tour in the largest bedroom, and my mate gasped with delight when she peeked into the connecting bathing room and saw the Atlan-sized tub. She glanced over her shoulder at me and kicked off her shoes.
My beast, and my cock, came to immediate attention.
“Should we break in the bathtub?” she asked. “You do take baths on Atlan, don’t you?”
The tub in her current home was too small for me so I’d used only her shower tube.
My cock pulsed at the idea of her lush, curved body sinking into a warm bath, of licking the moisture from her breasts, her pussy. I wanted to run my soap-slicked hands over every curve and hollow.
I could barely speak, and I had to clear my throat. “Yes. We have baths.”
Her smile was pure invitation as she turned her back to me. She glanced at me over her shoulder through those red lashes. “Can you get my zipper?”
I bungled and grasped at the tiny metal thing with my huge fingers, but I would see her naked. That determination saved me from failure as I carefully slid the zipper down her back and over the curve of her ass.
Gods. Fuck. She was wearing the lace underthings she preferred. Which I loved. Today they were dark blue to match her dress, the G-string—an Earth term I’d quickly learned and had a fond appreciation for—gave me the perfect view of her ass as she stepped out of the dress and bent over to start the warm water flowing into the tub.
I practically swallowed my tongue at the sight.
I had no doubt now that my mate was inviting me to claim her, to bury my hard cock in her soft body, to lick the water from her skin.
She looked over her shoulder once more, the fingers of one hand under the running water, testing the temperature. An auburn brow winged up, the corner of her mouth tipping up into an alluring smile. “You going to take your clothes off?”
Fuck. Maybe she was claiming me.
My mate. “Mine.” The beast spoke the word, and she knew it, wiggling her bottom a little to tease me into hurrying.
The extra temptation was not necessary. I was barely holding on to control.
Pale gray marble surrounded her, the floor and tub, the stone embedded with swirls of black and silver. The bathing tub was large enough to fit both of us easily, which was one of my requests.
Her eyes tracked my every movement as I dropped my pants and human shirt and stepped out of my boots. Completely naked now, I stood before her wearing nothing but the mating cuffs, nothing but the symbol of her claim over me, and allowed her to look her fill. My cock was erect, curving up toward my belly, and her gaze finally focused there. I was always hard for her. Always ready. I would always desire her. Give her the satisfaction she needed from my body.
I took a deep breath, picked up the scent of her arousal.
She stared far too long. When her gaze finally reached my eyes, I saw what I needed to see. Lust. Love. Trust.
Need.
“You are perfect, Bahre.”
I was not. I was scarred and broken and ugly, but I was not going to talk her out of her delusion. Instead I would fuck her into oblivion, make sure she was sated, pleasured, replete. Touch every inch of her and make sure she knew exactly how devoted I was to her care and protection. I was going to fucking love her so thoroughly the skewed view she had of me would never fade.
And if it began to? I would make sure to fuck and care for her and make her pussy pulse on my cock until she thought I was perfect once again.
Walking toward her, I removed the small bits of lace from her body with quick tugs until the scraps drifted to the floor. I lifted her into the water. Smiling, she dropped down into the quickly filling tub and moved to the back edge, farthest from me, and placed her arms out to her sides, her breasts floating at the top of the water. Her cuffs shone brightly in the light, wet from the bath, and I could not stop the surge of satisfaction at seeing them on her body. Her nipples peeked at me in enchanting invitation, a shade darker in
