“Fuck,” he groaned and his eyes closed tightly as he hissed out a breath. “I expected you to feel like paradise but, holy hell, this is motherfucking nirvana.” He started to slide out and I dug my nails into his arms, not ready for this to end. His jaw clenched and his nostrils flared as he began to slide back in. The slow rocking of our bodies caused pressure to build inside me, starting from the pulsing buzz that had been there the first time he ever touched me.

I begged, I panted his name, I made noises I’d never made before, and I couldn’t get close enough. I wanted there to be no beginning and end to us.

Our lovemaking grew faster and harder. The slapping of our bodies only added to my delirium. It was as if Rathe was trying to bind us permanently. “Goddamn,” he said and I felt his body tremble against me. His hand slid up my thigh, pressing my knee back so that he could get even deeper inside me. “You make me so fucking crazy,” he said with a growl. “Nothing should feel this damn good.”

It was his words, the way he was looking at me, our bodies being so close and touching everywhere, it was all of it that sent waves of pleasure slamming through me. A bolt of ecstasy shot through my body and exploded into a million pieces.

I screamed Rathe’s name and clung to him, afraid I’d lose him in this unknown bliss. I wanted him with me. He shouted and I heard my name come from him as if it had been torn from his chest. He was there with me.

When the rapture began to ease enough that I could open my eyes again, Rathe wrapped me in his arms and rolled to his side, taking me with him. His eyes were still closed. He was panting and there was a fierceness in his brow and line of his mouth. I reached up and ran a finger over his lips, not sure what he was feeling. My body was still humming from everything that had just happened between us and I wanted him to feel the same. I needed him to feel the same.

His fingers wrapped around my wrist then and his eyes opened. I stared at him and the same fierceness was there in his gaze. “I won’t give you up,” he said in a thick voice.

“Good,” I replied. All the reasons we shouldn’t be together no longer seemed important. There was no way I could give him up, either.

“Is it good, Catalina?” he asked then.

Probably not. Would he still want me if he knew the evil inside me? Would he be terrified? Or would he stay?

“I won’t give you up, either,” was all I could say, even though this was a vow I knew I had no right to make.