I didn’t need instructions.

Opening my legs, I let his touch drop downward, stroking my entrance, slowly inserting a finger.

My hand stroked him in return, rippling over the velvety stone of his erection.

My back bowed as his thumb pleasured my clit, effortlessly playing me into a ballad of pleasure.

I cried out as his one finger turned to two. The pressure became indescribably decadent.

With his free hand, he caught my hips, holding me as I rocked on his hand. “God, you’re beautiful.” His voice was desperate, his fingers fucking me almost leisurely but completely possessively.

Uncurling my fingers from around his cock, he pressed his erection against my thigh. “Feel me. Feel how much I want you—not just now, but for the rest of our lives.”

My hands flew downward again, recapturing him, working him faster, harder.

He groaned, driving his fingers inside me, matching my vicious beat.

A ripple of bliss caught me; I moaned as his thumb continued strumming. “Jethro…”

He stopped. “Don’t come. I don’t want you to come. Not yet.” His teeth caught my ear as his harsh breath sent delightful goosebumps over my skin. “Not until I’m inside you and claiming your body as well as your heart.” His voice held a warning, growling with bite.

“Jethro…take me, please.”

His lips fell into a stunning smile. His fingers withdrew, and he smeared my wetness around my throat where the diamond collar rested. A slight shadow clouded his eyes. “You’ll wear this for the rest of your life.”

“I know.”

“I’ll try to find a way to take it off.”

I shook my head. “No, I like it.” Holding up my hands, I showed him my tattooed fingertips. “Just like I like these. Our beginning didn’t start the way a romance should, but I wouldn’t part with any memento. Including the Weaver Wailer.”

His forehead furrowed. “Let’s not call it that. It needs a new name.” His hips rocked, joining his puzzle piece with mine. His face darkened as the tip of his cock found my entrance. Without looking away, he sank inside me, impaling me slowly. His jaw clenched as my body welcomed him.

The slowness and friction of his penetration drove me mad.

I gasped as he pushed past the barrier of comfort, sinking his entire length inside me. Only once he sheathed completely and could speak through echoing pleasure did he whisper, “How about Hawk Redeemer?”

My core clenched around him. “I like it.”

“Me too.” The rasp of his voice drugged me as he rocked once, twice.

“Oh...” My eyes shot closed; all I focused on was where we joined. I’d never grow tired of sleeping with this man. Never cease loving him.

“Fuck, I love when you think those thoughts.” His eyes gleamed with awe. “They’re so strong and pure—it feels as though I’m reading your mind and not just your emotions.”

“I have nothing to hide from you.” My head fell back as he thrust into me again, driving deeper, changing the angle of his direction. My body accepted him in one smooth glide.

We fit together so well. We always would.

“Shit, Nila.” His head fell forward. “You’re so tight, so amazing, so fucking precious.”

Words abandoned me as I accepted his every thrust. His cock throbbed inside, so hard and thick.

Jethro kissed me. Hard and fast. His lips trailing to my ear. “I want you forever and always. Like this. No lies. No falsehoods. Nothing between us but honesty.”

“Nothing.” I wriggled beneath him, craving more. “I promise.”

The delirium he caused in my blood sent my thoughts scattering. I needed to come. I needed to shatter and be reborn from everything that’d happened.

“I don’t think I can wait,” Jethro growled, rocking his cock so the base of him rubbed against my clit. I gasped as yet more blood incinerated.

“Then don’t.” Holding onto his nape with my good hand, I begged. “Please…give me what you want. I need it, too.”

Heat misted across my skin as he thrust harder, fucking me, adoring me, driving me up the cliff of ecstasy. Heat flushed until it was an inferno, turning me sick with sex-fever, demanding medicine in the form of an orgasm.

“God, yes. More. Please.”

Jethro slammed his fists into my pillow, using the bed as an anchor as he rode me. His cock drove in and out.

I accepted every punishment, cresting higher and higher, wrapping my legs around his hips, begging, loving, soaring faster and faster toward a release.

His forehead met mine, warmth enveloped us and his pace turned frantic.

I couldn’t…I couldn’t handle it any longer.

Ecstasy turned to euphoria. Tingles shot from my toes, crackling through my legs, detonating in my core.

Explosion and bands of bliss.

I came. “Yes. Yes. God, yes.”

My pussy fisted him, clutching desperately with waves of pleasure.

Jethro cursed, but he didn't come. He hovered above me, giving me a gift, all the while watching me come apart. It made my release so singular and special—turning our moment into something so intimately vulnerable.

Only once I’d wrung myself dry did he fist the pillow and wedge his face into my throat. His guttural groan as he came undone sent another flash of intoxication through my system.

“Fuck, I love you.” His growl dripped pure sexuality and unrestrained reverence.

His orgasm quaked his body, wringing him dry as he spurted inside me. I hugged him, letting him splash with his release.