“He controls naught if you cease giving him the power to do so. Touch my mind, see for yourself how committed I am to the path I’ve now chosen, a path that will only ever lead to you.” He caught her cheeks, smoothed his thumbs across her lips, his breath stuttering as he leaned in and pressed his forehead against hers. “Accept me. Choose me, the same way I wish to choose you. Allow me to honor and cherish you, for the rest of our days.”
A gentle breeze whispered through the trees and swirled over them, fluttered his tunic’s drying hem and gave a glimpse of his muscled thigh. She squeezed her eyes shut, opened them again and almost melted at the intoxicating heat in his golden eyes. Like liquid fire, his gaze blazed strong and true. “Kiss me, Ronan. Please.”
“I’ve longed to hear you say that.” He captured her mouth with his and licked across her tongue, his breath mingling so seductively with hers and making her arch into him for more.
Gently, she sucked on his indecently full lower lip then indulged in her need for even more. Fingers digging into his shoulders, she kissed him back, so wantonly before she pulled him fully on top of her and sighed as his heavenly weight settled exactly where she needed it. Reveling in his hot and virile scent, the sun overhead rising higher and bathing them in its warmth, she embraced her mate and the depth of their bond. “I like your kisses, my stubborn mate.”
“Aye, I can be beyond stubborn when my course is set, and currently my course is set on you.”
“So I see, yet you’ve returned for me when you shouldnae have.”
“I would never have been able to stay away from you.” He kissed her again and she held on, grasped a firm hold of his mind and tunneled deep inside.
“What did I do to deserve you, Ronan?” She would crave him for the rest of her days, her heart clenching at the thought of ever having to let him go. This was pure torture and denying him was impossible.
“You’re everything I could ever desire in a mate, all I’ve ever hoped for, a woman of strength, loyalty and passion. I adore and respect that you stand so strongly at your foster brothers’ sides, but now ’tis time for you to stand just as strongly at mine.” He palmed the back of her head and held her mouth to within a breath of his lips. “You are my destiny and have been since the moment of your birth, just as I will always be yours.”
He swooped in and took her breath away with his fierce passion and powerfully spoken words.
Aye, he was her destiny, except how did she go about making everything right? How could she protect her parents from Colin if she chose Ronan over Duncan? Never had she been placed in such a difficult position before.
With all the longing he held deep inside him, Ronan allowed his desire for Kyla its full release. He rolled them both until she came up over top of him, caressed down her sides and roamed over her lush bottom. Hands bunched in her wet undergarment, he scrunched the long length of it up and smoothed over the backs of her legs. Her fast breathing and racing heartbeat had his passion flaring. He took her mouth with his and kissed her, deeply, until her sweet and alluring fragrance wrapped around him and saturated his senses. Since the moment he’d found her in the dungeons, she’d tempted him beyond his endurance and he didn’t doubt she always would.
“Mmm, Ronan.” She murmured his name against his lips then kissed him with such soul-searing passion in return. “I have so much to tell you.”
“I want to touch you, as freely as those who are mated do.” All that roared through his mind was the need to mate, to bind his chosen one to him in the most elemental way. “Will you allow it?”
“Allow what, exactly?” She nuzzled his neck, licked over his thumping pulse point then hands on his chest, pushed up and straddled him, her legs either side of his thighs and her shift stretched tight across her knees. Her damp golden-red locks cascaded down her back and swept across his legs behind her.
“Allow me to bring you pleasure, to tighten the bonds between us.” Slowly, he slid his hands along her upper thighs toward the heat of her pressed against him, her shift rising inch by inch as he did and his need for her an unstoppable beat in his blood. “I’ll take naught from you, will leave you fully intact, but I want to love you right here and right now, with all that I am.”
“I can barely think straight.” She wriggled against him and his cock hardened painfully.
“Then allow me to do the thinking for both of us.” He needed to touch her, all of her, to show her how it should be between a mated pair. He eased one hand underneath the fabric of her shift, the cotton sliding cool and wet across the back of his hand. He couldn’t halt his current desire, didn’t have a chance of doing so. All he wanted to do was push his fingers deep inside her, to give her whatever pleasure he could, to hear her scream his name and know she did so because of him.
“Aye, touch me.” She licked her lips, slowly leaned in, her breasts swaying forward and he lifted one clear of the sagging neckline and flicked his thumb over the beaded tip.