She laughed. “I can tell you like the two sisters. That’s good. I’ve always wished they were bigger.”
Pulling his mouth off her nipple, he grinned. “They’re perfect. Just the right size for me to suck on, play with, and caress all at the same time. Besides on your frame, if you had big bulging boobs, you might fall over.”
Leah smacked him lightly on the side of the head. “I’m skinny, I get it. I come by it naturally. I eat all the time.”
“Don’t ever say that aloud in public. Everyone in the whole world will turn on you in anger.”
“You’re funny.” Her eyes shone brightly in the moonlight.
He thought about telling her he hadn’t been kidding and changed his mind. Not the time to ruin the mood. It helped, he realized, that they were naked. There wasn’t any need to remove their clothing. A benefit he’d never considered to the shifting process.
“Woo-hoo, Mister Mind, attention here on me right now.” Her eyes were still bright;
she didn’t seem to be insulted, which was a good thing.
“I’m sorry, my head just goes off on tangents that I can’t seem to control…”
“Really?” Her hand grasped his erection hard and he groaned. “Now do I have your total attention?”
“Every last bit of it.”
Letting him go, she wrapped her legs around his waist essentially trapping him between them. He kissed her, their tongues battling in each other’s mouths. It was no longer gentle; having reached a frenzy that seemed to say they should get serious about what they were doing or stop doing it.
In and out, their tongues swirled, one showing the other what they wished they had begun to do with other parts of their body. His desire for this woman, the one the universe had picked out for him and perversely stuck in a cage in his lab, grew stronger every second he was around her. Now touching her like this, in the most intimate way, he wasn’t sure he could survive it.
Leah St. James—five feet nothing weighing in, he would guess, at less than one hundred pounds could destroy him if she wanted to. For some insane reason, he was more than happy to give her permission to do just that.
“I’ve waited a lifetime for you.” His voice sounded lower than usual, not surprising considering the lump in his throat.
Her trusting gaze bore into his. “Sorry it took me so long to get here. I came as fast as I could.”
“I know you did.”
“Take me.” Her command was barely a whisper. He was thrilled to comply.
With one solid push, he entered her warm inviting core. She gasped and he stopped moving, realizing he’d just broken through a barrier. His eyes widened.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was raised to believe nothing short of mating was worth very much. If I couldn’t have that, I didn’t want it at all.” Her hands cupped his cheeks. “I waited for you, Az.”
Her words almost undid him. Snug within the heat of her body, her words were a salve for his wounded soul. He’d been drifting, miserable, waiting for her and even though her life had been so much briefer than his, in her way, she had waited for him as well. It was an amazing gift.
Almost fully inside of her, he desperately wanted to move, to place himself up against her womb, to know the real completion of being joined as one with her. With a last thrust, he broke all the way through, filling her completely. She moaned and he stopped moving again.
“Az,” she opened one eye to look at him. “This might be my first time but I don’t think we’re supposed to be so still and unmoving.”
“I’m trying to give you the chance to get used to me.”
She wiggled and this time it was his turn to gasp. She teased him into submission, his only thoughts were to fulfill her every need, her every desire. Placing his hand between them, he teased the sensitive spot he found with the tips of his fingertips.
She screamed her delight, her tight muscles clenching around his hard shaft. Az wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold on. In and out of her he plunged, all rational thought leaving his mind. There was only Leah, only the two of them on this planet.
Her fingernails dug into his back as she threw her head back and lost herself in release. He watched, as if from a distance, overcome with desire and love for the amazing woman the universe had gifted him. Seconds later, his own needs overwhelming him, he spilled his seed deep inside her.
Barely able to support his own weight, he pressed his forehead on hers trying to concentrate on just breathing for a while.
Leah’s indrawn breath brought him back to the here and now. He opened his eyes looking down at her. “What’s wrong?” Gods, please don’t let her regret what they’d just done.
“Look, Az.”
He followed her gaze to the small space between them and almost jumped off her.
Leah’s arms came around him. “Don’t worry. I’m sure this is the mating. Remember how you said you didn’t understand what changed between shifters after they mated? This must be it. I can feel your soul inside me.” She paused. “Can you feel me?”
He could. Nodding, because he couldn’t talk, he watched the dance of miraculous lights that illuminated between them, pushing parts of his soul into Leah and placing parts of hers inside his.
The warm white light that always came with a change surrounded them, but this time it made a giant circle around both their bodies. Each part of their souls seemed bathed in color. Reaching out, he touched the blue strand that floated from Leah, knowing instinctually that it represented her tremendous sense of loyalty. His hand moved through it as though it was no more than air, yet when it found its place inside him it felt solid like a brick being inserted into its spot in a wall.
Each color seemed brighter than the next. Red, for her sense of humor, yellow for the kindness she had for everyone around her, an assortment of oranges for her artistic nature. Looking down at her, he bit his lower lip.
“I’m getting all this goodness from you and you have to be filling up with insecurity and anger.”
Leah raised an eyebrow, a look he was becoming very familiar with. “That’s not what I’m getting from you, Az. Gods give me the patience to show this man who he really is.” She sighed. “Your soul is beautiful, it’s filled with brilliance, confidence in your abilities, compassion, love, loyalty and fun.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think of myself that way.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing you’re not in charge of this process, isn’t it?”
Another piece of Leah’s soul entered him and he sighed. She really was filling him up. He didn’t feel empty, or lost. She was always going to be with him now, even when they weren’t together.
He finally understood. “You know what this means? This is why we’ll never be able to live without the other one. You hold half of my soul in you. If you were to die,” and even saying the words die and you in relation to Leah made him ill. “Then you’ll take me with you.”
“Considering that the same goes for you, I’m going to have to insist that you don’t take too many chances there, Azriel Kane. I’d like a long, happy life.”
He smiled. Personally, he’d take a few lifetimes with her. “I’m going to start to age now. Since Theo mated, he’s found a grey hair.” The thought made him smile. “You’ll just continue to progress as you would have—twenty-six years old and onwards—but I’ll pick up like I’m really thirty and not,” he had to pause to think about it. “Eighty-two.”
“Best looking geriatric I’ve ever seen.”
He laughed, her smile touching him so deeply he had to lean down and kiss her.
Reluctantly, he lifted his head. He could already hear real life intruding on his luxurious thoughts.