Her soft, keening cry drifted from the porch to the forest, the sound of their bodies coming together in a rhythmic, frenzied mating as molten fire poured into her body, and the pleasure burst through her like the rush of a drug. She began to thrash under him, her breath now a sob as the building pleasure increased until she thought she might not survive.

Conner’s face was a mask of harsh lines, lust etched deep, love blazing in the golden eyes as he furiously claimed her, jerking her legs over his shoulder, pounding ever deeper until she stiffened, her body clamping down like a vise on his. Her orgasm tore through her, taking him with her, so that she could feel the hot splash of his release in the midst of the ferocious waves ripping through her. She screamed, a loud, long wail of pleasure as the release gripped her and refused to let go, a fiery inferno that burned both of them alive.

Conner collapsed over her, his breathing as harsh as hers. She could hear his heart beating wildly as she linked her fingers behind his neck. She would have told him she loved him, but she couldn’t find enough air. He smiled and knelt back up, very slowly and deliberately running his hands from her breasts to belly and lower, and she knew it was a claiming. His. She loved being his.

She smiled at him, drinking him in there in the darkness. It felt to her like the perfect day. She had a fairy- tale wedding, and her leopard had finally emerged. She’d experienced running free as well as the kindness of strangers. They’d made love until neither could move and now they were here in their own little world where the ugliness of someone like Imelda Cortez couldn’t touch them.

“Some days are just perfection,” she whispered.

He leaned down again, kissing her mouth, nibbling on her lower lip and then licking his way down her throat to the slope of her left breast. “You are so beautiful to me, Isabeau. When I saw you walking toward me in that dress, my heart stopped.” He couldn’t bear to separate his body from hers. He knew her mouth would create miracles if he just gave her the chance, but her body was a cauldron of fire surrounding his. The little aftershocks rippling through her sent waves of pleasure spiraling through his belly and down his thighs.

“They were all so kind,” she said. She reached up to stroke his cheek—the four scars adding to the masculine perfection.

“I don’t want this to be over.” He threw his head back and looked up at the night sky. Stars were so thick the inky dark appeared milky.

“Silly man.” She pushed at him. “I love keeping you happy.”