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A seductive smile spread across her face. “He doesn’t want to share you with us.”

“Yoichi?”

“Yes, but he must.” She slipped her gaze down to my breasts. “Because you belong to all of us.”

Heat flushed my skin.

I stared at her with my arm still locked across my chest.

She simply lay there with her head on my pillow, watching me the way a cat watches a bird it has already decided to eat. "You look at me like I'm a stranger, but we’re more than that now since you shot me."

“Is that how it works?”

“Oh, yes.” Her chuckle came out soft—wind chimes in a storm.

She tilted her head, and the jeweled ornament in her hair sparkled. "Yoichi growls. The beast warrior threatens. I ask."

"Ask what?"

Her gaze drifted to my mouth. "May I kiss you, Gabby?"

That was such a big question. I’d never kissed a woman before or even had the desire to, but with her. . .with my mate. . .I yearned to do it all.

Shocked at myself, I whispered, "Yes."

She shifted closer. Her dress rippled against the silk, and then her soft fingers were at my jaw, tipping my face toward hers.

Oh, shit. I’m really about to do this?

Her lips touched mine.

Soft.

So damn soft.

Where Yoichi had devoured me, she savored. She pressed a slow kiss to my top lip, then my bottom one, then the corner of my mouth, tasting like plum wine and smelling like night-blooming jasmine.

A sigh escaped me, and she drank it in.

Her tongue traced the seam of my lips. I opened for her, and she slid inside, teasing and curling against my tongue until my fingers loosened from the lace at my chest.

Soon, her hand drifted down, and she peeled the lace aside.

Cool air touched my breast, then her palm replaced it.

Warm.

Gentle.

Hungry.

Her thumb circled my nipple over and over, making it ache.

"Oh," I breathed.

"Mmm." She broke the kiss and trailed her mouth down my jaw.

"He's been imagining these breasts for eight hundred years." Her lips found my throat. "So have I."