“Make me come, Gunnar.” She tried to shift under him but couldn't budge him.
“Beg me.”
“Ass.”
“Oh, yeah. Here I come.” He yelled and shot hard, filling her with slowing thrusts. “Oh, baby. Motherfucking perfection.”
The jerk. The scent of his cum made her mad to draw him in. She needed to climax, to join him in that same bliss.
“What's that?” he asked, panting. “Need something, little Circ?”
“Gunnar, please.” She rocked back, feeling his balls slap against her clit.
“Pretty please, mate. Say it.”
“Pretty please, mate.”
“That's right.” He remained inside her ass, still half-hard, and rubbed her clit with his rough thumb.
She came hard, clenching her ass around him again.
“Damn, that's good.” He lifted her back to his chest, still joined as one. “This little pearl is so full.” He wiped her cream over her clit. “You smell so good, Ava.
Like me, but sweeter.” He buried his nose in her neck and wrapped an arm around her waist, holding her against him with ease. “I never want to move again.” After a moment, she gave a weak chuckle. “You might not want to move again, but we're going to have to. I'm swimming in you, and that iron bar up my ass refuses to soften.”
He laughed. “I can't help it. I'm always like this around you. And now I know why. I swear, sticking my dick in you is like shoving into an electrical outlet. So hot in there. That pussy and that ass.” He gently withdrew, leaving her sore, sated, and wanting to do it all over again. “I have water, but we both really need a shower.”
Ava wondered if she should press him about his berserker, but she didn't want to spoil the mood. “Do you think we could lie here together, in all our filth, for just a few more minutes?”
Grinning, her Viking pulled her with him onto some blankets and positioned her atop his chest. She leaned up on her elbows so she could see him.
His light blue eyes looked bright through her Circ senses. He liked that she smelled like him, but she liked more that he smelled like her. Claimed, taken. Off the market.
Pleased, she started purring.
“You are so sexy when you do that.” Gunnar stroked her back and began to purr as well.
“So are you.” She sighed. “I hate to ruin the moment, but I have to say this. If I ever catch you with another woman, without my consent, I will gut you and make it really hurt.”
His eyes narrowed. “Yeah, same goes.”
“I don't suffer mating heats. You don't need to worry about me.”
“Well I do, worry about you, that is. You're too pretty for my peace of mind,” he grumbled. “And I don't like the way other men look at you. Never have.” She liked this side of him very much. “Yeah, well, how do you think I feel, knowing you've banged everyone in the house with the exception of my grandmother?” At his flush, she added, just to be mean, “You didn't have sex with Alicia, did you?”
“Ava, please.” He cringed. “Give me a break. You know about me and the guys and why we fucked. It's a—”
“Circ thing, I know. And I understand about Olivia and Sheridan. But that's over now.”
“I know.” He sounded glum.
She stretched her claws over his chest and dug in.
“Sometimes you are such a bitch.” He grinned. “No wonder I fell so hard for you. Don't worry, baby. Yeah, I was with the guys a few days ago. Circ stuff. Sue me. I'm part of the team.”
She frowned. “I get that, I said.” And she wanted to see the guys in action for once. How sexy to watch three men take her mate down, to see him as a part of something greater, the Dawn Endeavor team.
“Olivia and Sheridan don't smell right anymore. I haven't craved anyone but you ever since you came out that you were Circ.”
“Good. Keep it that way,” she growled, satisfied when he hugged her closer.
“Whatever you put in that shot did the trick, baby. God, I was so scared of hurting you. But we can be together without worry now. Just dope me up with that suppressant and we can fuck like bunnies.”
Ava paused. Great. How to tell him the needle had been full of a saline solution, a placebo she'd stolen from the lab before searching out her stubborn mate? She'd always known he could control himself if he stopped being afraid and just did it. But she didn't think now was the time to tell him. He hadn't hurt her because it wasn't in him to harm someone he loved. Which brought back what he'd said before, about killing his family…
“Gunnar?”
He ran his fingers through her hair, and she relaxed into his arms. “Yeah?”
“Tell me what really happened with your family. I know you didn't kill them.” Curiosity over his history had plagued her since he'd tried to scare her away. She could only hope the great sex had softened him into telling the truth.
“Ava, I don't want to ruin this.”
“You won't. We claimed each other, right?” Actually, she'd claimed him. She wondered if he realized he had one more step to go—releasing the berserker, the core of him, to claim his mate. Until he truly accepted that part of him, he—and she—would never be complete.
“Right.” He sighed. “You really want to know, huh? I guess you should. In a nutshell, my dad was a psycho. He had his own berserker, but he couldn't control it.
He never turned into a freak show, like me. He was totally human. But the fucker was strong and always so goddamn angry. I grew up under his fists. He had big hands.” He lifted his own hand and glanced at it. “Like mine.” Ava took his hand in hers and kissed his fingers.
Gunnar blinked and tried to smile at her. The horror in his eyes brought her to tears, but she knew he wouldn't welcome them, so she forced them away.
“Yeah, the old man was a dick. My mother wasn't much better. She was a shell of a woman who blamed me for everything wrong in her life. My younger sister was the one good thing in my family. She could do no wrong, unless Dad had been drinking. He tended to forget everything but being angry with a bottle of Jack in his hands.”
“Gunnar.” I’m so sorry, baby.
“I loved Sophie. We all did. Life sucked, but it was all I knew. I don't want your pity,” he suddenly snapped.
“You don't have it,” she snapped back, one blink away from tears.
Fortunately, he didn't call her on it. “Anyway, there was a girl at school I couldn't get out of my thoughts. I'm not sure why, but she liked me back. I knew it was wrong, but somehow we were going out.”
She could see where this headed.
“I had warned Susanna not to come to the house. Told her all about my asshole father. But I didn't show up for school for a solid week, and she was worried.”
“Why?”
“My dad had beaten me pretty bad. I jumped in front of Sophie during one of his rages, the way I usually did. But I wasn't thinking. I yelled back at him, sick of what he was doing to us, to me and Sophie. My mother just watched, blaming me, probably. Dad went mental. Broke my arm and nearly my back.”
“Holy crap.”
“Yeah.” He rubbed her hair as if seeking a source of comfort but not wanting to ask for it. He glanced away from her face, caught in memories she'd forced him to relive. “Well, Susanna came to the house on a bad night. I was still healing. Even then I healed fast, but nothing like now. So Susanna snuck in, and my dad caught us.”
“Having sex?” she asked in amazement.
His dry chuckle relieved her. “No, he caught us in my bedroom. She was packing me a bag. We were going to grab Sophie and leave. But he found us.” Gunnar grimaced. “It happened fast. Dad hit me around. Sophie came in, already bloodied from his fists, and tried to protect me. So he struck her again. This time he killed her. My mom started shrieking, and he slapped her too. But she was conscious, could have called the cops for help. Instead she watched while he broke Susanna's neck.”