Determined to consummate the wedding before their excitement overwhelmed them, he stopped caressing her, but continued to kiss her as he urged her backward and onto the bed. Catching her around the waist then, he lifted her slightly and took her with him to the center of the bed before easing to rest on top of her.

Magnus broke the kiss then and Allie moaned in protest. But he nuzzled her ear and growled, “Spread your legs.”

Allie did, and then gasped and clutched at his arms when he rubbed himself against her. They were both so excited he didn’t dare do that a second time, however, but instead repositioned himself a little and thrust into her.

Magnus half expected it would be more than either of them could take and they’d scream in pleasure, orgasm, and faint as life mates were said to do during life mate sex. Instead, his excitement was interrupted by a sudden sharp pain and shock. He froze at once, struggling briefly with disbelief and the sudden death of excitement, and then, still buried deep inside her, raised himself a little to peer down. “Allie? Were you a vir—?”

She slapped her hand over his mouth, silencing him, and then groaned with what he could only guess was something like embarrassment, before mumbling, “Jeez, how many girls told me in college they didn’t even feel anything the first time? Liars,” she added bitterly.

Sighing, Magnus started to withdraw, but Allie dug her nails into his arms in a panic. “Wait! What are you doing?”

He hesitated, and then said uncertainly, “I thought you would wish to stop.”

“Yes, but no,” she said at once.

Magnus peered at her uncertainly. “Which is it? Yes, or no?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted unhappily, and then bit her lip briefly before blurting, “What if you pull out and it heals? Am I going to have this pain every time?”

Magnus found it heartening that she was considering having sex with him again. He knew that she’d married him planning on avoiding the marital bed and he’d let her believe that was a possibility because he’d counted on the life mate thing to change her mind for her. But the pain he’d just experienced through her had rather killed the pleasure and he wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d shied away from the marital bed after it, at least for a while. But now she’d raised a new concern and asked a question he couldn’t answer. He’d never bedded an immortal virgin before. In fact, he hadn’t expected her to be one at her age. Not in this era of free love and whatnot. Or perhaps that was ancient history now, but he knew that women today didn’t have to marry and took lovers as they liked. He’d just assumed that she was experienced.