Tenderly, he slips his arms around me from behind and pulls me back against his chest. He presses a soft kiss to my temple and hugs me even tighter.
Despite my resolve, I melt into his embrace.
“Please, my love,” he whispers against my ear. “Don’t be mad at me. I only want you to be safe and protected.”
Tears sting my eyes and blur my vision as I turn to face him.
“How can you ask this of me? How can you just give me away to four other men? Ask me to take them to my bed?”
His eyes are bright with tears as he clenches his jaw.
“You think I want this any more than you do?” He shakes his head as he cups my cheek. “I love you, Kyra. I can hardly bear the thought of another man touching you, but my love is stronger than the jealousy I carry in my heart. If having a harem will keep you safe… if it will keep you alive, then that is what we must do, my love.”
He pulls me into his arms as hiccupping sobs rack through me, stroking his hand up and down my back in a soothing motion. I bury my face in his chest, struggling to blink back my tears.
“I don’t want anyone but you. I’ve never even…” I stop short. “And you want me to take four lovers? Four more husbands?”
He grips my shoulders as he meets my gaze evenly.
“It is killing me to even consider it, but my nightmare, Kyra… I remember what it was to lose you. When we went to the tomb, I remembered the devastation. You don’t know what I went through—the guilt, the pain, knowing it was my fault you weren’t protected, knowing I’d killed you in two ways. One because I’d allowed myself to be deceived by a dark mage, and two because in my jealousy, I’d refused to share you with anyone else. You did it for me. You denied yourself the chance to form a harem because you knew I didn’t want to share you.”
Memories flood my mind of the first time we were together. I ran to him in the woods and asked him to take me, to seal me to him. I meet his teal eyes evenly.
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I cannot bear it. Seal me to you, my love. I love you; I want you and only you. Make love to me, Cael.”
He stares down at me with a heated gaze. “You’re sure that you still want me?”
I stretch up on my toes and wrap my arms around his neck, pressing my lips softly to his as I breathe against them. “Yes.”
He lifts me into his arms and carries me to the bed. Gently, he lays me beneath the comforter and then moves in beside me.
I turn to face him and he wraps his arms tightly around me, pulling me close until there is no space between us.
He dips his hand beneath the neckline of my dress and I moan as he cups my breast. “I need you,” he whispers. He claims my mouth with a searing kiss as he rolls me beneath him.
I reach up and unfasten his tunic, sliding it back from his shoulders and baring him to my gaze. He groans as I run my hands over the hard planes of muscle along his abdomen and chest. I stare at him in wonder. He is masculine perfection made manifest before me.
He crushes his mouth to mine, curling his tongue around my own and deepening our kiss. I want him so much. More than I’ve ever wanted anything before.
He pulls at my dress, the material ripping as he tears the delicate fabric away from my body, leaving me only in my silken undergarments. He stares down at me, his gaze full of fire and hunger. “You are perfect,” he whispers.
I dip my hands beneath the waistband of his pants and slide them down his hips. His length is fully erect and engorged. A bead of liquid seeps from the crown. He groans low in his throat as I reach down and gently brush my fingers over the tip.
“You are mine,” he growls and then presses his lips to mine.
He kisses a heated trail down my neck to the gentle slope of one breast. He pulls the silk fabric away from my body and then closing his mouth over the already stiff peak. I breathe his name out like a sigh as he laves his tongue across the hard-beaded tip, sending small ripples of pleasure straight through me.
Heat pools in my core as fire burns through my veins. I want him more than I’ve ever wanted anything before in my life. He trails his lips down my stomach and then gently pushes my thighs apart. He fists the fabric of my silken panties in his hand, and I gasp as he rips them from my body. He lowers his head between my legs and then drags his tongue through my already slick folds.
A low moan escapes me as he turns his attention to the sensitive bundle of nerves at the top. He pushes one finger into my core as he teases his tongue over the softly hooded pearl of flesh, making my entire body light up with pleasure.
“Cael,” I breathe. “Please,” I ask, not even knowing what I’m asking for. I want everything. I want more, but at the same time, I want him inside me.
He strokes his finger in and out of my channel as pleasure coils tight, deep inside. My entire body locks up, going taut like a bowstring, then I cry out his name as I come harder than I ever have before.
I’m not even recovered from my orgasm when he moves up my body and notches the crown of his cock at my
