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He nipped my ass cheek with teeth that weren’t entirely human. “You keep dying for me. But I need you to live for me. Do you understand?”
My heart flipped over. It wasn’t something I was certain I could promise, because out of everything, I wanted him to live.
“I’ll try,” I whispered.
He growled, fingers digging into my hips, denying me the thing I desperately wanted in that moment, him inside me.
“Jude.” One word. My name. A warning and a plea wrapped together.
“I won’t let anything happen to you,” I said.
He sighed. “Then you better live, because I’m going to follow you wherever you go.” He held up his arm, the dark veins snaked through it, branching like poison working its way toward his heart. “Even if it isn’t the easy way.”
I stared at the lines that shouldn’t be there. The motes fighting a losing battle beneath his skin, desperate to keep him in this world, and maybe me?
He slid the head of his cock over my quivering hole, teasing. “Promise me.”
And I desperately wanted to promise him.
He leaned in to nip my shoulder, tugging me back until his chest pressed against my spine. “It’s not you or me, Jude. It’s us. Together. Understand?”
I let out a long breath. “Yes.”
It really was. My eventual fade meant his. That was the point he was trying to drive home. If I could save myself, I’d save him too.
Right?
“I promise to try to live.”
He pressed a kiss to the back of my neck. “I’m going to hold you to that.”
His mouth left me for just a moment, long enough for me to whimper at the loss, and I heard the familiar click of a bottle. Cool gel hit my entrance, then his finger was back, slippery this time, gliding deeper with an ease that made my breath hitch.
He took his time. Made sure I was slick and ready before—
A second finger joined the first. Stretching me, opening me, working me loose with a patience that should have been illegal. He crooked them again, hitting that same spot, and my vision went white at the edges, while I fought to keep from coming at just the feeling of his fingers inside of me. I needed him, around me, touching me, in me.
“Please,” I begged, pressing my hips into his fingers, demanding more, and willing to beg.
Angel’s rhythm faltered. His fingers stilled inside me, and I felt him shudder against my skin.
The air ignited with an electric charge. The growl that rumbled from his chest wasn’t entirely human. It vibrated through me, deep and possessive, raising goosebumps along my arms despite the steam still clinging to the air.
“Mine.” The word was barely intelligible, half lost in that feline rumble, but I understood. Of course I understood.
“Yours.” I agreed, needing him to feel how much I meant it. “Always yours.”
His skin burned against mine, fever-hot, human-warm. His fingers slid out of me, teasingly, deliberately, and I whimpered at the loss. But then his grip tightened, repositioning, and I felt the difference. His palms were still human, but his fingertips had changed. They were longer. Sharper. The careful press of claws against my skin, not breaking it, but dangerous. A warning and a promise all at once. A reminder of what he was holding back. More than just his cat, but a beast still settling into his skin from our bond.
His mouth found the back of my neck, teeth scraping, and I groaned as his hands gripped my hips.
He nudged against my entrance, and I forgot how to breathe.
“Angel,” I breathed. “Please. I need you.”
He was bigger like this. The blunt tip of him pressed against my opening, almost painful, begging me to stretch, to yield, to let him in.
I relaxed into his hold. Let his strength cradle me, steady and sure. Then I pushed back.
