Motherfucker. His peripheral vision had warned him of the movement coming from his right-hand side, but it hadn’t warned him fast enough. He was now flat on his back with a hot female straddling him. Not that he was at all complaining. He slid his hands up her thighs to shape her waist.

“I taught you too well.”

Smiling smugly, Jaime bunched up his T-shirt in her hands. “I want this off.” He arched a brow. “Oh, you do?”

“Oh, I do.”

He had no problem with that. Springing upward so that he was sitting upright, Dante allowed her to slide the T-shirt over his head. Then his mouth was on hers, urging her into him, as he slid a hand into her hair and gently tugged off the tie holding it up. Long sable hair that smelled of vanilla tumbled down, sweeping over both their shoulders and down her back. He fisted his hands in it—

something he’d missed over the past month. He crushed her body to him, growling at the feel of her pebbled ni**les stabbing into his chest through her sweater. He loved the way she fit him just right. It drove home that this female had been made especially for him, was all his in every way.

“Lie back.”

He gave her order a mock frown. “You didn’t say please, baby.”

“Why would I, Popeye?” When she pressed a hand against his chest, he allowed her to push him to his back. The man really did have an amazing body. A body that she’d missed and intended to bite all over. Other than her claiming mark, all her previous brands had healed. That would never do.

Leaning over him, Jaime brushed her nose under the line of his jaw. His scent—a mix of his and hers—swam into her system, tickling her senses, comforting her and arousing her. When she bit down on his neck, he growled, but it wasn’t a sound of complaint. He tangled a hand in her hair and pressed her closer to him. Taking the hint, she bit harder and sucked. He growled his encouragement.

She kissed, licked, and bit her way along and down his chest, running her tongue between the grooves of his abs and scoring her nails down his sides. With her touch, teeth, and claws, she marked her mate over and over.

When she came to the waistband of his jeans, Jaime tugged them open and smiled at the long, hard c**k that sprang out. How could she not? Holding Dante’s heated gaze, she licked him from base to tip, sweeping up the bead of precome there. She bit his inner thigh hard, replacing a mark that had once been there, and smiled at the way his c**k twitched. Then she took him into her mouth.

“Christ,” rasped Dante, knotting both hands in her hair. Just the sight of his mate with his c**k in her mouth was enough to make him want to come. He didn’t though. He planned to come inside her, to fill her up with his c**k and come, marking and claiming her all over again.

“Suck me deep, Jaime.” He growled when she swallowed him whole. “Fuck, baby, I love it when you do that.” Her cheeks hollowed as she sucked hard, rubbing her tongue along the underside each time. The feel of her hair over his thighs only added to the sensations. But feeling that she was enjoying doing this for him, enjoying tasting him and pleasuring him…not much could beat that. He tugged on her hair to lift her head. “I want to come inside you.” Jaime gave him one last lick before standing. As Dante, who was still lying down, tugged off her boots, she unsnapped the fly of her jeans and shoved them and her panties down to her ankles.

Dante helped her step out of them and threw them aside as she removed her sweater and bra and tossed them to join her other clothes. Jaime quickly got to her knees above his cock, letting the head dance between her folds. Suddenly Dante was again sitting upright, biting hard into her shoulder as he sank two fingers inside her.

“You’re already wet for me.” He curled his tongue around her nipple, suckling and nibbling.

Slowly he f**ked her with his fingers as he scattered kisses and bites from breast to breast. When she was moaning and squirming restlessly on his hand, he replaced his fingers with the head of his cock.

“I want inside that pu**y, Jaime.” With those words, he pulled her down forcefully on him, making sure she took every last inch.

Jaime cried out and arched her back at the sudden sensation of being stuffed and stretched.

That first deep penetration always hurt, but it hurt in the best way. She’d missed it.

Dante lay back again, loving the picture she made, naked on his dick with her lips parted, her hair tousled, and her eyes drowsy and heavy-lidded. “Fuck yourself on me, Jaime.” That was fine with her. Gazes locked, bodies joined, Jaime repeatedly slammed herself down on him just as he raised his hips to thrust upward. His fingers dug into her hips, claws drawing blood and marking. She dug her own claws into his shoulders as she rode him hard, knowing he loved it.

When he suddenly tightened his hold on her and held her still on his cock, she growled in complaint.

“Tell me that’s my pu**y.”

She might have snorted at the possessive demand if she couldn’t sense the fear, anxiety, and insecurities still lurking in his mind. He needed to feel that she was irrevocably his, that she was going absolutely nowhere, and that she accepted every part of him—even the controlling and possessive streaks. “It’s yours.”

“Good girl.” He bucked his hips, ramming his c**k into her once. “Tell me that you’re not going to leave me again.”

“I won’t leave.”

Again he rammed into her rewardingly. “Have you missed this?” She nodded, but when he went to thrust up into her again, she shook her head. “Wait, let me up.”

His hands flexed possessively on her hips. “No.”

“Let me up. I have a surprise for you.”

Intrigued, he felt his lips curve into a smile. “A surprise, huh? Okay, go get it.” He expected her to dash to where her clothes lay and take something out of one of her pockets. Instead, she simply got to her feet and turned. And that was when he saw it. Stunned and amazed, he drew in a sharp breath. Just above the small of her back was a miniature but detailed phoenix with its wings outstretched. Across the wings and body in fancy, bold, italic ink was his name.

“It was supposed to be a surprise for the night of our mating ceremony, but we kind of missed that. I hope you like it, Popeye, because that’s the closest you’ll ever get to having your name tattooed on my—” She broke off as she felt a tongue flutter along the design.

Drawn to the tattoo like it was a magnet, Dante repeatedly danced his tongue over it. He couldn’t believe she’d done this for him. It was so f**king hot seeing his name right there. Yeah, okay, it meant he was probably unhealthily possessive to be so turned on by the sight of his name on his mate’s skin like a brand, but so what? She accepted him as he was, cared for him as he was, and that was all that mattered to Dante. “I absolutely love this, baby.” Jaime cried out as the two strong hands that were clamped on her hips tugged her to her knees and then pulled her roughly down onto a long, thick, rock-hard cock. Just like that, she was stuffed full again. When she tried to ride him, he locked his teeth on her shoulder in sexual warning.