Page 67 of An Alien for Her Heart

“Then take me,” I breathe, reaching for him with trembling hands. “I’m yours, Varek. Now and always.”

I reach for him, but he catches my hand. His hips roll underneath me as he forces me upward, bracing me above him with one arm as he undoes the clasp of his trousers with the other. A deep, reverberating groan tears from his throat the moment his shaft is released. Even without touching him, I can feel the heat of it between us. With a sinuous roll of his hips, he notches himself at my entrance and thrusts forward, sheathing himself to the hilt in one powerful stroke.

I cry out at the sudden fullness, my body stretching to accommodate his girth. He stills beneath me, his massive frame trembling with restraint as he gives me a moment to adjust.

“You feel…” He shakes his head, seeming to struggle for words. “There are no words. You consume me, my sura. Body and soul.”

Overwhelmed by the depth of emotion shining in his eyes, I dip my head to capture his lips in a searing kiss, trying to pour everything I feel for him into that one point of connection.

He drinks me in like a man dying of thirst, his tongue plundering my mouth in a drugging slide. Slowly, carefully, he begins to move, withdrawing almost completely before surging forward again, starting a rhythm as old as time itself.

I meet him thrust for thrust, drawing him impossibly deeper. Our bodies move in perfect sync, our gasps and moans mingling in the charged air between us.

Varek buries his face in the crook of my neck, his sharp teeth grazing the sensitive skin almost as if he wishes to pierce my flesh with his fangs. He keeps them there as he drives into meagain and again, stoking the embers of my desire back into an inferno.

“Let go, my sura,” he commands, his dark voice seductive silk against my ear. “Let me feel you come undone around me.”

His words ignite something primal inside me, an urge to obey, to surrender myself completely to the ecstasy he’s offering. Throwing my head back, I give myself over to the sensations, letting them build and build until I’m teetering on the knife’s edge of release.

“That’s it,” Varek encourages, his thrusts becoming erratic as he chases his own end. “Give yourself to me, Catherine. You’re mine. The gods know it. The fates know it.Iknow it. And you will, too.”

With a keening wail, I do just that, my inner muscles clamping down on him like a vice as rapture floods my veins. Varek roars his own completion, his shaft throbbing with each pump of his release as he fills me up.

I’m a boneless mess as I collapse against him once again.

In this moment, cradled in the strength of his arms with desire thrumming through my blood, I know he’ll be true to his word. He won’t rest until every cell within me belongs to him. Until the mere brush of his fingers is enough to set me aflame.

He will ruin me. And oh, what a sweet, exquisite ruin it will be.

21

CATHERINE

Maybe an hour or two passes and I’m still wrapped in Varek’s arms. I’m cramped—probably can’t move without someone helping me up—but Varek has made no indication of wanting to stand and stretch. I remain content with his arms around me.

My gaze shifts to his face. The faint scar from the wound he’d appeared with that day.

“Varek,” I whisper.

“Mm, sura?” His yellow eyes shift up at me, warmth making them look more vibrant than ever.

“That day…the day you returned to the farm. You were hurt. I didn’t want to ask but I guess…I want to know. What happened? Why were you bruised? Why did it look like you hadn’t eaten in days?”

He studies me for a moment, his gaze searching mine. Lifting a hand, I brush his hair back from his handsome face, marveling at the fact that he’s mine.

“I went to the fighting pits,” he finally says.

My hand stills.

“You were gone. I thought…I thought I’d lost you.” His gaze shifts away to stare at the wall at my back. “I needed to feel pain. Physical pain.”

“Oh, Varek…”

His gaze shifts back to me. “But the pain didn’t help. Didn’t erase the pain in here.” He touches his chest. “Long after, I realized the only way to heal it was to come to you—even if you didn’t want me the way I wanted you. Just seeing you that sol made it a little better.”

My heart aches and I pull him into me.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, holding him tight.