It left her feeling cold inside.
He was hers.
“What if Magic is right?” she asked quietly.
“He’s not. Taking other lovers has nothing to do with our instincts. I know because of the way I feel about you. I want you happy and whole more than I want anything else. Me being with another female would never make you happy, so I have no desire to do it. That’s my instinct. Being faithful is a matter of choice. And I—just like Renner—would choose to be faithful to my mate.”
“To me.”
He nodded solemnly. “To you, little woman.”
The way he stared directly into her eyes, the way he spoke like this was the most serious topic in the universe… he’d thought about this. A lot.
“So… a mutual mating.”
“Yes. One where both make a commitment. Both are bonded.”
“Bonded?”
He brushed her lips with his middle finger. “Yes, mate.” His voice was dark. A summer’s night like so many she’d spent outdoors. Sultry. “Ours has already begun. Every touch, every kiss, every shared moment, we draw closer to one another. Can you feel it?”
“Yes.” She could barely get the word out, because she felt exactly what he was talking about. She’d felt it earlier, when she spilled all her secrets to him. There was no one else in existence that she felt safer with, closer to.
It was only Eagan.
She sighed, running a finger down his bare chest. “I have so much to learn.”
Slowly, a smile formed on his lips. He had the best lips. She could stare at them all day.
“Don’t worry, Clara. I’ll teach you.” He rose up to tower above her, his hands braced on the mattress on either side of her head. Just like he’d done when he was a cat. “We should start with something functional, don’t you think?”
His words shot right between her legs, and she bit her lip to keep from moaning at the idea of what he suggested. He was already naked. It would be so easy for them to come together. And it would mean something with him, she knew.
“Less functional maybe.”
Eagan’s gaze went instantly hungry and it lit her up even more. His eyes traveled downward to the peaked nipples that jutted from the t-shirt she wore.
“More sexual,” he husked, tracing his finger around her beaded tip.
“Very sexual,” she breathed.
He lifted his gaze, brow knitted, eyes burning hot with lust. Did he see that in her gaze too. Because damn it, that’s how she felt. Lusty and hot and wild. She wanted to climb him like a tree and ride him like a bike.
“Sure you’re ready?” His tone was hard, but she knew it was just because he was holding back.
She couldn’t catch her breath for how powerful he was, poised above her, ready to do the most basic of bodily functions with her. He was pure, raw instinct and she knew it, needing her body to slake his. But she needed his too.
It didn’t get any more basic than that.
She reached forward, wrapping her hand around his neck and yanking him down for her lips. She kissed him hard and urgent, like he’d done in the kitchen. She had to relay her message the old fashioned way because she was shaking with anticipation too badly to talk.
Eagan straddled her hips, one knee on each side, and grabbed her face with both hands. She was powerless like this. He decided which way her head went. He decided how much she moved, how hard they kissed, everything.
He explored her mouth like uncharted territory, even though he’d been there before, angling her for more of his tongue.
He pulled back, not even an inch, breathing heavy. “Your mouth, mate… it’s so fucking sweet. I want to ruin it with mine. I want to kiss you so much, so often, that you taste like me. I want… I want… fuck, I want to make you mine, Clara. Mark you so everyone knows.”
Yes. Do it. She was already his in her heart. Maybe she had been from the moment he’d cast judgment aside and shown her kindness.
But she couldn’t get any of that past her throat before he kissed her again.
“Did you know,” he said between nibbles to her jaw, “that I can smell you? Your arousal, it’s filling up this cabin. Just how it should be.”
“You can?” she squeaked.
“Mm hm.” His heavy hand cupped one breast and her back arched into his touch. “It’s making my jag crazy, baby. So fucking crazy.”
His attention was solely on her breast. That single one he couldn’t quit touching. She squirmed beneath him, and in response, he closed his lips over the tightened bud, shirt and all. It was the single hottest thing she’d experienced to date.
But why did she have a feeling he was about to blow that right out of the water?