“Yes.” A bold admission offered on a breathless groan without a beat of hesitation. “I missed this.”

He’d missed it, too. Had been lost without it. Confused and wounded.

But no more. He knew his focus. Had accepted and owned his fears. He lifted her upward, her ass cradled tight to his pelvis and her back flush against his chest as he pounded into her. Every slap of his hips against her perfect ass and the slick wet sounds as he shuttled in and out drew him deeper. Pushed the man farther and farther away and let the beast control all.

He wrapped his hand around her neck. Felt her pounding pulse against his fingertips. “I will be your protector. Your provider. In this. In everything.”

She moaned, her fingers digging into his hips. “Kir.”

God, he loved his name coming from her lips. Loved the huskiness of it when she was this lost. The need and the plea behind it. Keeping his hand at her throat, he played her clit with the other. Circled and teased until her body was drawn tight, her back bowed and her muscles around him quivering. “You are mine, Cassie. Mine in every way.”

He firmed the pressure at her clit and angled his cock so it hit her deeper, nudging the sensitive spot along her front wall. “Your body knows this already, malyshka. Come for me, and let it show you.”

Her voice rang out, the back of her head digging into his shoulder while her pussy convulsed around his cock.

He tried to fight it. Squeezed his eyes shut and focused on drawing out her pleasure. But the pulsing vise of her sex was too much. Too powerful for him to fight.

His own release jetted free. Filled her as his roar ripped up the back of his throat.

His woman.

His chance to take what he thought he’d never have.

His promise, and his light.

He rolled his hips against hers, milking the sensations of her fluttering sex around his shaft with unhurried, leisurely undulations.

Beneath his palm at her throat, her pulse slowly steadied and the pattern of her breathing eased, but the feel of her in his arms—utterly replete with eyes closed—that was heaven. A gift beyond measure.

He guided them down. Reverently caressed her belly, shoulders and arms with all the gentleness in him and skimmed tender kisses along the nape of her neck.

“That was...” She rolled her head to give him better access to the juncture where her neck and shoulders met. “Amazing.” She shivered when he grazed the spot with his teeth. “Seriously. It just gets better. Every time.”

He chuckled at that. A low, satisfied rumble so loaded with masculine pride he had no prayer of hiding it. “I told you, milaya. Your body already knows and accepts you’re mine.” He slid his hand from her belly to their joined bodies, slicking his fingers through their combined release. “And now I’ve marked you as such.”