Page 92 of The Ice Prince's Fated Mate
Something about those last words, about knowing it was for me, made it all the more personal. Even as my own bodyfollowed him into that beautiful agony, I bent forward and plunged my teeth into the marked flesh of his pec.
Dirk roared and heat erupted inside me as he spilled his load, filling me with its liquid warmth.
I floated on that bliss, my teeth in his chest for an eternity, and then the next second tried to condense into a ball ashispleasure came barreling into my mind like an avalanche, cascading over me and ripping another orgasm from my body before I could react.
Dirk cried out my name, his cock stiffened inside me, and he came again right away. His arms wrapped around me like cables, squeezing tightly as we lost control together, neither of us prepared for the blossoming of our connection.
We lay flat, my head on his chest, gasping for air and sanity for minutes on end, neither one speaking at first.
“That was intense,” I whispered, staring at the tiny marks on his chest in a mixture of awe and confidence before tracing a finger down his arm, where the mate marks had become a full sleeve, no longer stopping at the elbow.
He wasminenow. Fully. Completely. Forever.
A thunderous echo of that possession filled my head, and I lifted it from his chest to stare into his eyes.
Desire turned to wonder, and we smiled at the same time. Then we laughed as our shared humor at the synchronicity reached the other. That caused us to laugh some more. And more. Until we were in hysterics, fueled by the other person’s laughter and the vibrancy of the joy pounding into our heads.
Eventually, we calmed. I was still on top of him. We were still naked. His hand cupped my ass but did nothing more, content to simply grab and hold what was his.
“We’re linked now,” I said.
He nodded but didn’t speak. He didn’t need to for me to feel his immense satisfaction.
“Now you really will always know if I’m in danger,” I said, running my fingers over his chest and playing with the soft curls of hair in the center.
Amusement and something else trickled through our bond. Given the newness, I wasn’t sure what it was.
“That doesn’t mean Iwantyou to be in danger. I won’t let it happen,” he said, holding me tighter.
I kissed his chest. “I’m not going to go out looking for trouble, Dirk, but you can’t keep me locked away in the citadel either. Things are changing. We’ve been trying to figure out what it means, without any luck yet. We need records from before the Unification Wars, we think. But this—Anna and I finding mates, having our dragons awaken—meanssomething, and if I can help others like me, I will. I don’t need any of them ending up broken.”
“You arenotbroken,” Dirk snarled. “You are perfect the way you are.”
“My insides would disagree,” I said.
“Don’t make light of it,” he admonished. “I can’t imagine how painful it was, physically and mentally. But nothing is wrong with you. I would not have you any other way, my mate.”
The tidal wave of desire and care slapped my defenses aside and threatened to drown me in his emotion. I gasped at the intensity of it. He’d expressed this before, but now that we were linked, I could feel the truth of it in my mind.
“My only regret is that I wish I could have prevented it. For your sake, so you did not have to suffer.”
His voice was heavy, but through our bond I sensed the regret, though it had a flavor I could not place. What was clear was that he was trying to hide it, to hold it back.
“Being a Hunter is dangerous,” I said, wanting to move to a new topic. “I’m sure he’s long dead. A feral, or one of those rage-Fae finally got their teeth into him. Heck, maybe Cerberus got that one-eyed asshole in the end. That would have been fitting.”
Dirk went incredibly still against me. “What did you say?” he asked in a quiet, cold tone.
Nothing came through our link. He was blocking his emotions, hiding them.
“Cerberus? You know, the legendary ‘Guardian of the Clippys.’ He was a thing for like ten years or more. Rumors everywhere that he would bring an end to the Hunters by killing them all. He was kind of a hero to us, doing the things we wanted but never could.”
“I know all about Cerberus,” Dirk said, still quiet. “That’s not what I was referring to.”
I frowned.
“What did you mean by ‘one-eyed prick.’”
“Exactly that?” I sat up. “What’s going on? The one who took me to the surface had one eye. Big scar down that side of his face, from here to here.”
