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Mated to the Beast(56)

By:Grace Goodwin


“Mmm. Your breathing changed. You’re upset.” His large hand traveled the curve of my hip and waist as if he gentled a wild animal. “What troubles you?”

Curling into a ball, I kept my back to him, unsure what I would see on his face if I turned in his arms, unable to bear the thought that I might see disinterest, or regret. “Nothing. Go back to sleep.” I could sneak away if he no longer needed me. Surely someone in the main house could help me remove the cuffs. I’d leave them for his new Atlan bride, the quiet, serene woman he truly wanted.

The gentle glide of his hand turned to a sharp snap of pain on my bare bottom and I yelped as he turned me to face him. “You’re lying to me again. I thought we discussed that.”

Determined to maintain what little dignity I had left, I held back the tears that burned in my eyes and studied his handsome face. He looked truly relaxed for the first time since I’d known him, the ease making him appear younger, less fierce. A small smile played at the corner of his mouth as he leaned forward and kissed me once, softly, before pulling back with raised brows. “Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you, or do you require another spanking?”

“I—”

“I know every part of you, Sarah, as you know me. There are no secrets between mates.”

I stroked my finger down his cheek. “A girl has to have some secrets,” I countered.

He gripped my wrist directly over the cuff.

“Not with me. This cuff, it served a purpose. It freed you from the coalition so you could go after your brother and come to Atlan, with me. It kept us together until the fever was broken, keeping my beast in check until it was safe to free him. Now… now they are no longer needed.”

I frowned then, surprised that he’d spoken so directly to my fears. “Are you saying I’m no longer needed?” The stab of pain spread from my heart up my throat to my head where it lodged behind my eyes, squeezing them in a relentless, fiery grip. Tears gathered and I could not stop them from spilling onto my cheeks.

Dax shifted on his pillow and lifted one hand to capture a stray tear on his fingertip. “Woman, you are indeed crazy. I’ve said the same words over and over and over. You are my mate. Mine. How many times did I say it last night? You. Are. Mine. I am not giving you up. I am not letting you go. Not ever. I don’t care if you wear the cuffs or not, you’re mine. You’ll always be mine. I’ve fallen in love with you. I will not allow you to rid yourself of me.”

“Then why… why do you want me to take them off?”

He wrapped his large hands around the cuffs and pulled them forward to settle over his heart. “I want you to stay beside me because you want to, not because the cuffs require it.”

My big battle-hardened beast. I cupped his sharp jaw and smiled, letting all the love I felt for him shine brightly in my eyes. “I love you, Dax. I don’t know how it’s possible after such a short time, but I do. I love you. And after what we did last night, I don’t think you have to worry about me going far. I’m going to want your beast to take me again… soon.”

Cupping the back of my head, he kissed me slowly, as if he had hours. When he finally pulled away there was a sparkle in his eye I’d never seen before. “You only want me for my cock then?” he teased.

“Mmm. Definitely. I want all of you.” I swallowed my pride and my fear and told him exactly what I wanted. “And, I want to keep the cuffs on.”

His eyes widened in surprise. “That means you can never be far from my side, you can’t go off on any wild adventures. You’ll have to be next to me, close, always.”

I shrugged, trying to act casual when what he described sounded like heaven to me. “Isn’t that what Atlan mates normally do?”

He nodded. “Yes, but I did not dare hope you would agree to such a thing.”

“Don’t you want me close to you?”

“Always.” The word was a vow, and the sincerity behind that one word shocked me to my core as tears fell from my eyes for an entirely different reason.

I traced his lips with my fingertips, doing a little teasing of my own in a vain attempt to hide how deeply his promise affected me. “We wouldn’t want that big, bad beast to come out to play without me around.”

He rolled over me and I lay back, happy to open my legs to him, to the hard probing heat of his cock. He pressed me into the bed, his hard length sliding slowly into my awakening body as I came to life, hot and wet and ready for him. Buried deep, he held himself up by his forearms so I could only see his face, could only look into his dark eyes as he filled me, shifted within, made me sigh with pleasure as I wrapped my hands around his neck and my legs around his hips, pulling him closer.