Page 75 of Enslak

The tears came then.

I couldn't stop them. Couldn't hold them back anymore. They poured out of me—a century of pain and fear and loss I'd been holding inside, locked behind walls I'd built brick by brick.

And Niki held me. Let me break apart in her arms.

"I'll stay with you. Always," she whispered against my hair. "As long as you want. As long as you need. We don't have to go back until you're ready. We can stay here. Just us. For as long as it takes."

Something in my chest cracked open at those words. Something that had been locked so tight for so long I'd forgotten it was even there.

I pulled back enough to see her face. Her eyes were red, her cheeks wet with tears. But she was smiling.

Actually smiling.

"Why?" I asked. "Why would you do all this for me?"

"Because you're important." She said it like it was the simplest thing in the world. "You're the most important thing in my life. Maybe the most important thing ever. And I'm not leaving you. Not now. Not ever."

The sensation in my chest intensified. That connection I couldn't quite name, couldn't quite understand. But it was physical. Real. Binding us together.

"Niki." Her name was both prayer and promise. "I don't know what I did to deserve you. But I'm so grateful."

"You don't have to deserve me." Her voice was soft. Certain. "You just have to want me. Do you want me, Enslak?"

"Yes." The word came out fierce. "More than anything."

"Then that's enough."

She kissed me.

And the last thread of my control snapped.

I crushed her against me, my mouth claiming hers with a hunger that bordered on desperation. She gasped against my lips and I swallowed the sound, my tongue pushing into her mouth, tasting her, devouring her. Her hands fisted in my hair, pulling hard enough to sting.

The pain only sharpened my need.

"Enslak." She breathed my name when I finally let her come up for air. "Please. I need—"

"I know what you need." My voice came out as a growl. Rough. Possessive. "I can smell it. Your arousal. It's driving me insane."

Her pupils dilated. Her breath came faster. "Then do something about it."

I lifted her. She wrapped her legs around my waist immediately, grinding against the hard ridge of my cock through our clothes. The friction dragged a groan from both of us.

I carried her back toward the cave, my hands gripping her ass, feeling the heat of her core even through the fabric.

Inside, the afternoon light cast everything in warm golden tones. I laid her down on our makeshift bed.

Not gently. Not carefully.

I was done being careful.

"I love you," I said, the words fierce and raw. "And I'm going to make you feel exactly how much."

"Yes." She breathed the word, her eyes dark with need. "God, yes. I love you too. Now stop talking and fuck me."

The crude words from her mouth made my cock throb painfully.

I reached for her clothes. The soft gray tunic she'd salvaged from the ship. The loose pants cinched at her waist. My claws extended instinctively.