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In my vision, the ancestors were true mates. The possibility settled, taking root deep in my heart and anchoring itself with the weight of certainty.
Ginger’s eyes brightened. “Could we be something like that?”
I stared at her, my mind momentarily stolen. Images flashed behind my eyes. Waking up, preparing meals, basking in the sun…all done together. For a lifetime.
But when her eyes turned glassy, I returned from my dream vision.
“Your body’s probably just confused or something, right? You said I was your first. That you were a virgin before me?” She gulped and twisted her hand in the blanket wrapped around her. “I bet any woman would’ve changed your skin. True mates only works with a female Rock Dweller, right?”
What a blanting heap of garbage.
Her skin paled, and her eyes dropped, focusing on her fingers. She pulled on a stray thread unraveling from the blanket. “We’ll just need to test it with a female Rock Dweller.”
Cupping her chin in my thumb and forefinger, I lifted her glistening gaze to mine. “My mind and body aren’t confused. I know nothing of how a true mate bond is formed, but in my heart the truth rings clear. I have no doubt you’re my true mate. There’ll be no tests with other females.”
Tears streamed over her cheeks, and I swept them away with the pad of my thumb.
I swallowed hard. Heat shot through me like an electric bolt. “I must take you on instinct. I can’t fight my base needs. It may not be gentle… I have to mark you as mine.”
Ginger’s long eye hairs fluttered as she squeezed her eyes closed.
My hands trembled as I cupped her face. “Open your eyes.” When her clear eyes opened, they delved into my soul, and the connection threaded through my core like liquid gold. My rumba rattled as desire heated my skin to the point of pain. “Tell me. Tell me I’m yours. Ask me to claim you.”
On both knees, she leaned forward to trace the shell of my ear with one cool finger and stared straight into my eyes. “I’m yours, JayJay. Claim me.”
24
With the permission I’dgranted him to claim me echoing in my ears, JayJay’s forest-green eyes swallowed me whole. I sat on his lap, running my finger over the velvet texture of his ear, dismayed that I’d once believed his skin was a blah gray. Iridescent swirls glimmered like oil slicks, and I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
The urge to follow the path of every swirl my trembling hand traced overcame me. I trailed down his sharp jawline, paused on the throbbing pulse in his throat and circled a knobby bone at the base of his neck. Every solid muscle in his huge body leaned into me, straining with need.
He’d removed his chain mail earlier. It pooled against the black volcanic rock wall, and dim light glinted off the copper-colored rings. The river of magma skirting the cave’s main chamber pierced through the black holes of our alcove, and the heavy, humid air fed moisture to the blue moss floor below us, providing a living mattress.
Velvet skin warmed the pads of my fingers. Now and then, they’d catch on one of the many divots and bumps scarring JayJay’s otherwise smooth skin—a testament to the selfless life he’d chosen. A reminder that his blood flowed just as red as mine.
“Ginger?” He shuddered under my touch and closed his eyes. “I can’t…”
My palms ran over his round shoulders, traced triceps as large as hams, and dipped into the defined muscles of his forearms. One hand brushed over the tiny elephant charms, filling the room with their high chime. I half expected my palm to be covered in shimmer, but no, that was one hundred percent JayJay. Though I wouldn’t have minded.
His chest rattled, and the solid thigh muscles I was sitting on tensed even further. His thick coil came to life beneath me and nudged the sensitive crease of my ass. JayJay’s eyes flickered open, and the force of his gaze devoured me until I shifted about, swollen with arousal. What was he waiting for?
“Can’t what?” I smoothed the pad of my thumb between his knuckles. The deep rattle softened to a purr, making my eyelids heavy and turning my head light. I ached deep inside. Desire for his thick length to fill me completely overcame my senses. And it had nothing—zero, zilch, nada—to do with health benefits.
My eyes fixed on the swelling ridge that stretched down one side of his plum-colored pants. That could not be comfortable. I made a mental note to leave a little more slack than usual when I designed his next pair. Or maybe not. He made a pretty picture.
“My luck. I can’t believe my luck.” His hungry eyes ate me up, and all the while, his leather-covered bulge appeared to grow even larger. “Open them,” he rasped, his eyes directing me to the leather closure struggling to hold him.
On an inhale, my shaky fingers jumped to the laces of his pants, fumbling to loosen them. The intensity of this moment threaded with something I couldn’t quite name.
This time was different. This was hot looks, devouring eyes and a voice so deep it vibrated in my heart, like the resonance of a low drum, guiding us along a sacred path.
Free of its bindings, I finally reached in to wrap my hand around his length. Warm in my grip, the iridescent swirls traveled over his coils and circled the deep pewter head. When I released him, the iron-stiffness of his coil bobbed and smacked his stomach. JayJay’s chest heaved, and with what appeared to be borrowed restraint, he stood me up between his legs. With his eyes firmly on me, he scraped his pants down his endless legs until they bunched around his boots.
“Let me.” I dropped to my knees in the soft ocean-colored moss, still caught in the grip of his liquid gaze, and unlaced his enormous boots, lifting his right foot, then the left, and pulling the leather over. His exposed thighs flexed. Huge muscles bulged at my eye level—make that mouth level—and I dipped my tongue into one of the overdeveloped furrows on his thigh to lick hot, shimmery skin. Silvery liquid leaked from his plump head and dripped to the moss below.
JayJay’s long fingers grasped my head, forcing me to stop as my tongue ventured to even more exciting places. His legs shuddered where he sat.
“Undress,” he commanded as he loosened his gentle grip. In the next breath, his fitted tunic swooshed over his head. He stood naked and proud, the elephant charm bracelet wrapped around one wrist his only adornment.
