“That day with Eithan I had a vision, or whatever it was. Of someone pinning you to the ground with a sword. You’d been just a boy, and you were reaching for me.” She lowered her hand to her chest. “That’s when our bond sparked to life.”

As if her mentioning their bond called to him on an instinctual level, Jaren threw a leg over both of hers, and leaned down over her face. Her heart, which had only just settled, picked up with a vengeance.

With his long, dark hair falling into his eyes, his naked torso inches from pressing against her, and his full lips curling into a devilish grin, he was the most gods damn beautiful male she’d ever seen.

A flush crept into her cheeks. “What are you doing?”

Propping himself up on one arm, he caressed his other hand along her jaw and down her neck. His jaw clenched when he reached her shoulder, and she swallowed, nerves firing up.

But he continued down, trailing his fingers over the fabric between her breasts. “When I think of that moment, it becomes so hard not to claim you, little star.”

His hand lifted, and a second later she felt a sharp pinch on one of her nipples. She yelped, smacking at his hand, but he only pinched harder, chuckling.

Her pulse went erratic at the sound, and she wondered if her heart was pumping faster now than it had in the water. “Then why don’t you?” She breathed.

He was so hot and cold, rejecting her one minute, and then playing with her nipples and declaring he wanted her the next. It was hard to keep up.

He rolled the rest of the way over, nudging her legs apart and tucking himself between them. She instinctively bent her knees, her borrowed tunic riding up her thighs as she opened for him.

His eyes darkened, and a vibration worked up his chest when the hard length beneath his trousers pressed against her bare center. She could barely make out his words through the gravel of his voice.

“Because I promised my mate a palace.” And then his lips crashed into hers.

She didn’t hesitate, needing the distraction, needing the release, needing him. She tilted her head, opening her lips for his tongue to dive in, sweeping her mouth in a silent demand to taste every inch of it.

He teased her, gliding his tongue along her own, but as soon as she responded in kind, he pulled back, sucking her bottom lip into his mouth. Then he did it again. After a third time, a growl worked up her throat, and he smirked, biting down just enough to turn the sound into a gasp.

“So fucking needy for me, little star.”

“So fucking full of yourself, green eyes.”

Those eyes sparked with challenge, and he rolled his hips against her while taking the same nipple he’d pinched and rolling it between his fingers through the fabric.

She locked her spine, biting down on her tongue, and tried in vain to fight her body’s response. The asshole’s head didn’t need to grow any larger.