“Try, Anka. Try very hard.”

With a whimper, she gave him a shaky nod, then stilled her body. Under his palms, her thighs trembled. He could feel her want. Harnessing and holding it lent him another level of power he could use to pleasure her. She was giving him permission to undo her in every way he wished. It was the sweetest gift ever. He planned to savor it, just like he savored her.

Hungrily, he lowered his mouth and gorged on her, kissing her slick folds as he would her mouth, tongue darting and probing, lips brushing, nibbling at her, attacking with a passionate fervor that had her crying out loudly and clutching his hair in her fists as she dragged him deeper into her flesh. Her flavor exploded a kaleidoscope of sensations inside him, the strongest insisting one thing he’d never stopped believing: Anka belonged to him.

As he had the first time he’d tasted her, Lucan got utterly drunk on her flavor. Dizzy, head-buzzingly intoxicated. Her wild flavor seeping onto his tongue clawed him with hunger, made him relentless for more of her sugary tang. And her surrender.

Voraciously, he ate her. She fought to stay still for him. But with every lash of his tongue on the little bud of her nerves, every pluck with his lips, she fell deeper into the abyss of desire. He did everything possible to shove her deeper still. The same desire sucked him under. Lucan didn’t give a bloody damn if he ever found his way out.

Beneath him, her thighs trembled. Her body tensed. Her uneven breaths melted into a litany of pleading little cries, all in the sound of his name.

Her urgency drove him to possess her even more. He drew his tongue over her flesh again, an unhurried torture that had her fisting the sheet and screaming even louder. Her legs fell open wider. She jerked her hands in his hair mercilessly and brought him deeper still into her flesh with a cry. The way she completely opened herself humbled him—and it aroused the hell out of him.

He spared a moment to lift his head and growl, “Look at me.”

A keening cry fell from her mouth, protesting that he’d abandoned the achiest part of her body. But she complied, opening her glassy eyes to stare at him. Without a word, she pleaded.

Smiling now, he rubbed a slow circle around her little bundle of nerves with this thumb.

“Do you want me to keep licking your pussy, love?”

Frantically, she nodded, lifting her hips and crying out an unintelligible sound.

“Beg me.”

“Please… More. So close. Need it.” She dug her fingers into his hair again and tugged. He kind of liked the little bite of pain. “Need you.”

“Good. I’m going to remind you of that for the next few days. You’ll give me everything, yes? So I can help you past this spell?” He swirled his thumb around the hard little knot again. “Don’t hold back.”

“I won’t. No. Don’t stop. Please, Lucan.”

He might be twenty kinds of bastard for pushing her, but now he knew what she needed. It was as if demanding that she verbalize her desires had given her permission to unleash them. Or maybe he’d never pushed her hard enough before to work through her reserve. Whatever the case, he wasn’t settling for the silent, sweet trysts they’d once shared. She had a raw need throbbing inside her, too. He was going to keep that part of her needing and desperate. God knew that’s precisely how he felt.

“I’ve got you, love.” He pressed his thumb in on her. “I want you to fly apart now. Can you do that, come for me?”

She gasped and clutched the sheet with one hand, scraping her nails into his scalp with the other. “Can’t…stop…it.”

Excellent. He didn’t wait for her response before he fitted his mouth over her wet feminine folds again and consumed her. He curled his tongue around her clitoris, feeling her body thrash, freeze, then shudder as she screamed incoherently, a cry of pleasure that went on forever.

It was the sweetest sound, almost as sweet as her tangy flavor flooding his tongue and the pulses of energy darting around him.

Perfect. He felt like a giant, twenty feet tall and invincible. His cock throbbed against the slightly starchy sheet below them, angrily demanding a place in her soft, wet well. He peered at her as her breathing slowly regulated. A fine sheen of perspiration covered her chest. Her cheeks were flushed. She’d never been more beautiful to him.

“Perfect, love. Feel good?”

“No!” She arched and pulled on his hair ruthlessly. “Inside me. Now!”

Well, who knew under all those demure skirts and pretty curls that she could be so demanding? He liked this raw side of her.

“You didn’t ask me.”

Yes, he toyed with her. He couldn’t seem to help it. Having her desperate for his touch did something for him, and not just his ego, though that didn’t hurt. But it torqued up his own need. With her pleading desire ringing in his ears, there was no way he couldn’t grab her and take her relentlessly until exhaustion claimed them both.

“Lucan…begging you. Can’t wait.”

“Neither can I.”

He wriggled his way up her body, his arms curling under her knees to take her legs up with him, spreading her wide. As soon as they lay face to face, he stilled, wondering if this position would bring back terrible memories for her.

“Now!” she screamed at him.

He couldn’t quite stop the smile crawling across his face as he probed her hungry opening with his seeking cock and shoved deep in one thrust.

Instant nirvana.

Her flesh clung, so bloody tight. He shuddered as a tingle swept down his spine and settled into his balls. His eyes rolled to the back of his head. Bloody hell, he wanted her. He couldn’t restrain or contain his craving to incinerate her with his touch, with their need. Yes, in some ways she was familiar and beloved. Home. But this Anka was like a new sun dawning across his horizon, ushering in not just a new day, but a revelation. She’d always been lovely, but this Anka oozed sensuality, owned her femininity. The way she cried out for him, undulated under him, nipping hungry kisses across his shoulder to urge him deeper and faster, this passionate Anka unraveled him like never before.

Once inside her, he couldn’t stop to savor her. He couldn’t be gentle. In rapid strokes, he slammed into her, the wild cadence of his thrusts pinning her to the mattress. In some ways, he felt as if he’d never left her. His heart certainly never had.

Anka clung to him with her arms and her sex, as if she never intended to let him go. That suited Lucan. After today, he didn’t plan to ever release her again. She would never spend a night in any man’s bed besides his own.

“Lucan!”

“Take it, love.” His thrusts picked up speed, punctuating every word he spoke. “Take. Me. Deep.”

With every plunge inside Anka, her eyes widened with pleasure. Her body softened. Her nipples engorged with more blood. Bloody hell, her berry sweet lips called to him, and he couldn’t keep from tasting them. He slanted his mouth over hers feverishly, filling her with his tongue as he stretched her sweet, clenching folds with his cock. Every instinct screamed at him to seize her, inhale her, never let her go.

As she dug her nails into his shoulders, an electric jolt zapped through his body. He threw back his head with a moan. “Yes, Anka! I’m never going to stop touching you. Mine.” He bared his teeth and growled at her. “Mine!”

She opened her mouth, an obvious apology on her lips. He stopped her with a brutal kiss, drinking her in as he sank deeper and deeper into her, losing himself in her utterly. When he finally lifted his head, a heartbreaking frown overtook her face, mixed with denial, sharp desire, and finally resignation. He wasn’t sure what she intended to say, but he couldn’t let those words out.

“Not a word. Now that you’ve chosen me, I won’t let you leave me again. Take me. All of me. Yes. God, yes. Love, oh… Just. Like. That.”

Again, he picked up the pace, hearing Anka’s breathing race, watching her skin flush, her eyes glaze over. As her defenses fell and she surrendered, he could see her heart, bare and honest, reflected in her shimmering eyes.

“You love me.” His heart soared when he saw hers in her eyes, begging him to love her back. “You do, but you’re scared. Don’t be. I never stopped loving you.”

“But…” She cried out, part pleasure, part sorrow.

“No! I’m not letting anything come between us again. Ever. Mine. Mine. Mine!” He ground deeper inside her with every word.

Her back arched as her legs spread even wider for him. Head thrashing, mouth gaping, she began to pulse around him. Lucan changed the angle of his stroke to hit that one perfect spot inside her designed to give her total bliss. Anka felt the change, gasped when the head of his cock scraped those sensitive tissues.

“Lucan, oh my… I…yes!”

Her face said that her head wanted to cease all yielding to him. But it was too late. Whatever ran through her brain made absolutely no difference now as her climax rushed to a peak. To Lucan, there was nothing they wouldn’t and couldn’t work out, given enough time. “Yes! Beautiful, love. Perfect. We belong together. Look at me, Anka.” She blinked up at him, her gaze fastening on his. “Give it all to me.”

He refused to let her look away as her mouth opened with a helpless scream of ecstasy. Hovering directly above her, he fused their gazes together and fell into her, deeper under her spell. “Oh…yes. That’s it, love. That’s right. Give me everything.”

She came apart for him, her eyes wide and beseeching, as if so much pleasure scared her. As many times as they’d made love before, it had never been this profound, so directly from the heart. The thought that he might have finally won back the woman of his dreams and planted his seed in her womb made Lucan lose the last thread of his composure. Gripping her hips in his hands as she continued to shatter around him, he growled out her name in an agonized breath and emptied himself utterly inside her clasping body until he felt boneless and replete.

His strokes slowed, as did his heartbeats and his breathing. Peace covered him like a blanket, and he sighed in contentment as he looked down at the witch he loved more than his life.

Anka closed her eyes against him, crossing her thin arms over her chest and curling into herself as tears leaked from her eyes.

Gently, he grabbed her wrists and firmly eased them to the sides of her body. She might feel as if he’d scraped her raw to the soul. God knew that’s how he felt. But no more hiding. No more evading feelings, conversations they needed to have, emotions they needed to share. Whatever they had to face now, they’d do it together.

~ ~ ~ ~

Lucan brushed damp curls away from her cheeks and smiled down at her. The gesture squeezed her heart until it bled love for him. “Anka, don’t cry, love. What we shared was stunning.”

She nodded, unable to disagree—even as more tears fell and regret rolled through her. Their lovemaking had been urgent, primal…and yet soul-soaringly beautiful. But if he could see the ugliness of what she was and what she’d done lurking underneath her pretty surface, all the way down to the lies she’d kept hidden, he’d be horrified. Eventually, he would hate her.

With a thumb, he wiped away her tears again. “I see you trying to crawl back into your shell, and I won’t have it. I love you. I believe you love me, too. Do you want to deny that?”

She hesitated. Hurting him more wasn’t an option, but if she opened herself up totally, she’d only fall deeper in love. Still, it wasn’t fair to him to give him nothing but lies. She’d done it for a century, swearing to herself that she’d do everything else possible to make him happy. But in the end, all her dirty little secrets had pulled them apart—and always would.

“I don’t deny it,” she whispered. “But please believe me. I can’t be what you need.”

“What I need?” He rolled to his side and propped himself up on his elbow. “Love, I don’t think I’ve been what you’ve needed until right now. I will search for the rest of our lives to find ways to atone for that. But don’t you dare shut me out. I won’t allow it.”

His voice rang with a note of steel she’d never once heard from him during their mating. She wasn’t sure where that deep, shiver-worthy voice came from, but she found not heeding it nearly impossible. Still, for his sake, she had to try. “Lucan, listen…”

“No, you listen.” His eyes narrowed. The passion-dark blue that had lured her in moments ago now turned flinty and hard. “You chose me over Shock. I am the mate of your heart. We both know it. And I want that heart, along with your devotion and your soul because I’m going to give you mine in return.”

“But you don’t know what sort of soul you’re getting anymore. Mathias…changed me. He tainted me. He used me in ways you can’t fathom.” She bit her lip, realizing that Lucan would take that to mean sexually. Mathias had, but that didn’t disturb Anka as much as the rest of the ugly truth did. “There are things you don’t understand.”