Summer pulled her mouth from his and grinned in a way that could only be called sultry. “I don’t know what’s coming, Cullen. But with every part of me I know I want to be with you. Whatever it is, we’ll be better if we’re together.”
She might be wrong, but he was past the point of arguing. He pressed his lips to hers one more time before he decided to give up all his self-doubt and make love to his mate—the woman he’d waited three hundred years for, the one fate had picked out for him. He didn’t deserve to be happy, but he would make sure Summer was for the remainder of their days together.
Summer made a small noise of satisfaction in her throat when he kissed her and he felt momentary relief. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d done this but he was glad she seemed to be enjoying his ministrations. She pulled her mouth away in order to kiss his neck. She was so gentle in her caresses, so tender, the need to do this slowly, do it right, filled him inside, and broke through the crazed sexual lust that had owned him for a moment. He pulled away, balancing himself on his hands as he leaned back on his knees to admire her perfection.
“Summer, I’ve been waiting for you my whole life. You are a vision of perfection. Beyond anything I could have ever dreamed.”
He was rewarded by the blush that crept to her cheeks and the gleam in her eyes before she averted her gaze.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” He caressed the side of her face with his hands. He would find a way to stop if she wanted him to.
“I’ve only done this a few times. Before I met you, it was always just kind of bland. After I met you, I couldn’t even stand to have other men touch me on the arm let alone anywhere else. I’m worried that I won’t measure up to your expectations.”
Cullen shook his head. “I have no expectations and believe me, it’s been a very long time since I’ve done this at all. I’m probably the one who is not going to get it right tonight.”
“So then we’ll practice?” The glint was back in her aquamarine eyes.
He couldn’t help the laugh that came to him. His heart pounded with desire and an emotion he was unfamiliar with but he might call hope. “As much and as often as you want.”
His hands shook as he reached out to caress her torso. She shivered and his body temperature raised another two degrees. He could feel the heat between them and he was afraid he might burn them both. Her breasts were small and firm. Her nipples hard and pink sat atop and he promised himself he’d pay them their due in a moment.
Moving of their own volition, his hands reached out and cupped both her breasts while his body moved to straddle hers more efficiently. Her skin was softer than any silk he’d ever felt on any of his travels and he wanted to move down and lick it. But he knew there’d be time for that later. For now, he wanted to move slowly.
She reached up and pulled his neck down until he kissed her. Each kiss getting hotter than the one before it. She moved beneath him restlessly, squirming. Each little movement sent electricity to his groin, which begged for him to hurry up and relieve the mounting pressure. He did his best to ignore its demands.
He wanted to memorize every part of her body with his hands and mouth. He leaned down to kiss a line down her chest, stopping again to fondle her breasts. She moaned and he squeezed them harder before he followed the path he’d begun and arrived with his mouth on her belly button. He spent a few minutes tonguing the small indent as his hands pushed and caressed her flat abdominal muscles and round hips. Summer might be small in stature, but as far as he was concerned, she was curved in all the right places.
“Cullen, please.” Summer’s small movements became more directed. Her hips finding and pushing against his groin.
“What’s your hurry? I want to know every part of you.”
He moved his hands to her breasts as his eyes roamed down her body until they reached the v-shaped patch of hair that covered her core. He stroked and played with the soft hair, carefully avoiding actually touching the tender flesh it covered.
“Are you teasing me?” Her eyes sparkled even as her voice shook.
“I am. But it’s only fair play since you can’t be in the room with me without me getting completely hard.”
He kept his fingers gentle and slow. “I wish you could see what you look like to me.”
“You won’t be seeing anything in a moment if you don’t stop torturing me because I will gouge out your eyes.”
That was his Summer, feisty and forthright. She was a woman who knew what she wanted and she was right, she was every bit his match. If it was possible, she might have been even more stubborn than he was.
“Okay, enough.” Summer grabbed his hard length in her hands. He thought he might spill his seed right there. “Two can play the teasing game.”
Was this really happening to him? Was this woman really being playful with him? His throat felt tight. He could have cried when she gave one long hard stroke up his shaft. “Summer, don’t do that again. Damn, it feels really good, baby, but I don’t know if I can hold out.”
Summer raised one eyebrow at him. “Is that to be my nickname then, baby?” She said the last word with a bit of a sneer. He groaned.
“Don’t like it?” She shook her head in response.
“How about goddess? Summer, my goddess, please don’t do that again.”
She nodded and giggled. “Okay, that one is better.” Finally, to his relief, she removed her hand from him and he felt like maybe he might actually make it inside of her before release.
He pushed down on top of her, their bodies entwined so it was hard for him to tell where she began and he ended. In one swift motion, he entered her, pleased beyond reason when she cried out in delight. She wrapped her legs around him and pulled him in tighter. But, gods, she was flexible.
If he’d thought the heat between them was intense before, it was nothing compared to the molten lava intensity he found inside of Summer. He closed his eyes for a second to regain control so he didn’t embarrass himself and ruin it by ending too quickly. Feeling safer, he pushed in and out of Summer’s hot womanly embrace. Every noise and movement she made drove him on. He could feel completion coming and he was desperate to hold it off. Summer was so tight, so warm, so welcoming. Had anything in his life ever prepared him for this?
She was his mate. She would always be his. He had waited three hundred years for this very moment and he would treasure every breath she took for the rest of their lives. Beneath him, Summer cried out his name as he felt her release take her. Her face in rapture was the most exquisite sight he’d ever seen. He followed her into oblivion.
Cullen wasn’t sure how long his brain collapsed. When he came to he realized there was a change happening to him. He looked up. He and Summer were both bathed in a warm white light. She reached up and stroked his face.
“What’s going to happen now?”
This was mating. The part that none of their kind ever discussed because it was so private, so eternal. Truthfully, Cullen had no idea.
“That’s okay, we’ll figure it out together.”
Had he spoken his thoughts out loud? How had she heard that?
“Because I can hear you in my head. I bet you could hear me too if you calmed down.” He laughed. She was right. A reassured sensation filled his body and he was overcome with the feeling that just was Summer. Pieces of Summer’s uniqueness, parts that could only be called her soul entered his body and lodged themselves in his very core. He knew he’d always be able to find them now.
For the first time in his life, he felt complete. As if he’d always been hollow and just now realized it as he filled with Summer’s warmth. He could see each piece of her clearly as it opened itself up to him through a translucent cord he could see but not touch. They flowed to each other through it, connected as strongly as if it had been made out of steel. Honesty—Summer was practically encoded with the inability to tell a lie. She was truthful from her head to her toes. Its color shone a bright orange, the kind you saw on small children at Halloween. Loyalty, trust, protectiveness—they each had their own colors wrapped around thousands more as the depths of who Summer was plunged into him with loving completion.