Her breath rushed out in a ragged cry. “Jake. It’s too much.” Flames seemed to engulf her from the inside out. Every part of her body was aroused beyond imagining.

He pulled back, giving her a moment of relief and then slammed inside her again, harder and deeper than the first time. “This is . . .” He pulled back and drove home again, her cries of pain turning to sobs of pleasure. He clenched his teeth and tightened his fingers on her hips. “What we . . .” He pulled her to him as he slammed forward. “Need.”

He was right. Every single nerve ending in her body was on fire, the pleasure agonizing, taking her outside herself to another realm. He showed no mercy, pounding into her, driving her higher so that her body clamped down on his, and every breath in her was poised, waiting—waiting, but she couldn’t go over the edge. It just wouldn’t happen. It was agony, her climax hovering just out of her reach.

“Jake, I can’t. I can’t.” She was sobbing now. “I can’t get there and my body’s on fire. What’s wrong with me? I wanted this so much, I thought and I feel like I’m going insane. I can’t . . .”

He loosened his tight grip on her hips and pulled out. Emma cried in protest, but he flipped her back over and dragged her thighs apart, lifting her legs over his arms and slamming deep, harder than ever. He filled her completely, more than filled her, so hot and thick, so deep she swore he was part of her body. But even though he set a merciless pace, each stroke sending streaks of fire through her, she only wound tighter.

“I can’t,” she said again.

Jake reached for her hands, joined their fingers together and pulled her arms over her head. “Look at me, honey. Open your eyes and look at me.”

She whipped her head back and forth on the sheets, her fingers clinging to his, her hips feeling his body as he moved in and out of her, desperate for release.

“Emma, honey, open your eyes and look at me. See me.” His voice slid over her like a soothing balm, caressing her sensitive skin with strokes of velvet—with tenderness. “We left something out and you need it. I need it.”

“I’m going crazy, Jake. I am. She’s driving me insane.” She wailed it, pushing her hips tight into him, grinding, trying to get release when her body refused to give it to her.

“Emma,” Jake said softly. “Love me. I want you to love me.” His voice was husky and tender. “You think you’re separate from your cat because she did something you found abhorrent, but she saved our child. She saved me. She’s you, Emma. And you love me. Every time you touch me, you love me. Look at me and let me see you loving me.”

Hot tears burned her eyes, but she forced her lashes up and looked at Jake. There was love etched into every line of his face. It was there in his eyes. He leaned forward and kissed her trembling mouth, his fingers pressing her wrists into the sheets. “I love you, Emma. And thank God you love me.”

He continued to thrust hard, pounding deep, yanking her legs to him and drawing up her hips to the angle he wanted, his gaze holding hers so she couldn’t fail to see the love there.

Her eyes went wide, glazed over as her orgasm ripped through her, destroying everything she was, shattering her with exquisite pleasure, making her wholly his. She cried as every bone in her body seemed to melt into him, as they shared the same skin, the same body, the same soul.

Jake emptied himself into her, pleasure ripping through his body beyond anything he’d ever known. He collapsed, holding her tight as her body rippled and rocked around his. He buried his face, hot with his own tears, against her throat, which was marked with wounds gotten from defending their son. She stroked his thigh, her fingers running caresses over each scar.

“I love you, Emma. I can’t live without you and I don’t want to. We can’t separate love from sex. You taught me that. No matter if we’re feeling like the cats, rough and hard, or more like my Emma, tender and gentle—we’re making love. We’re showing each other love. It’s the same. You saved our lives with your courage. And you gave me the courage to love you.”

He lifted his head, framing her face with his hands, his voice filled with emotion. “Do you have any idea what you’ve given me? I love my son and my daughter because of you. I feel love for them. I have friends. Most of all, I have you. I love how you love me, Emma. You take everything I give you and make it into something special. That’s what I want to do for you.”

He wiped at her tears with his fingertips. “Emma, I’ll never be easy. I won’t. I’m not going to pretend your life will be a bed of roses, but I can tell you that no man will ever need you more, want you more, or love you more than I will.”

She stared up at his beloved face through the tears swimming in her eyes. “We just seem so crazy sometimes, Jake. It isn’t normal.”

“Why do we have to be normal, honey? This is normal for us. The children are happy. I swear I’ll make you happy. You certainly make me that way. Let this be our normal.”

She squeezed her eyes closed tight. “She killed that man. I tasted his blood.” She began to cry all over again, this time burying her face in his neck. “There’s nothing normal about that.”

He held her tightly, reaching down with one hand to press her hips tighter against his. “Honey, my cat—me—I killed him. Without you there to protect me, I would have been dead. If not me, Joshua or Conner. You did what you had to do by stopping him. We don’t have to like harming others or ending life, but we had no choice if we wanted to survive.”