GERYON REMOVED HIS BREAST cloth and tossed it aside, his too-corded chest with its scars, fur and over-large bones revealed. His hands shook as he then unwound the leather wrapped around his waist, as well as the rounded piece of armor, slowly revealing his hardened shaft, his scarred and fur-lined thighs.

He tensed, waiting for the inevitable gasp of horror, even though Kadence had assured him of his “animal magnetism.”

“Beautiful,” she said reverently. “A true warrior. My warrior.” She reached up and ran her fingertips through that fur. “Soft. I like. No. I love.”

Breath seeped from his parted lips, breath he had not realized he’d been holding until just then. “Kadence. Sweet Kadence,” he rasped. She was…she was…everything. What had he ever done to deserve her? If he hadn’t fallen in love with her already, he would have fallen then.

“Want to taste you.”

“Please.”

As the hottest thrum of desire he’d ever experienced pounded through him, he kissed his way down her stomach, stopping only to dip his tongue inside her navel. She trembled. When he reached the apex of her thighs, he worshipped her, sipping, licking, nibbling, loving, and the trembling became writhing.

“Amazing,” she gasped, fisting his hair. “Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”

He could feel the power of her, wrapping around him, trying to drive his actions. He wasn’t sure if he could have disobeyed and he didn’t care. He wanted to devour her, possess her, and he did.

Only when she came apart, screaming her pleasure, did he rise above her. He was proud and honored to have given her such ecstasy. But he was trembling now himself, his body on fire. Desperate. Aching. For her, only her.

“Pain?”

“Gone.”

The fact that this bonding could save her might be the reason he’d dared broach the subject, but he had never been happier. She would be his. She would live.

Her legs wound around him, and she cupped his cheeks, staring deep into his eyes. “Please don’t change your mind. I need more of you.”

He had stilled, he realized, poised at her entrance. “Never change my mind. Must have you. Ready?”

“Always.”

He entered her an inch, one blessed inch. Stopped, gave her time to adjust. He’d go slowly if it killed him. And it might. Torture. The sweetest kind of torture. But he would make this good for her, the best.

“Why do I not feel the need to master you?” she purred into his ear. She bit the lobe.

Sweet fire. “That’s how it was, before?” Sweat beaded all over him and dripped onto her.

She nodded, arching her hips to take more of him. Another inch.

He had to cut off a groan. “Perhaps because my heart is so completely yours, there’s nothing left to master.”

“Oh, Geryon. Please.” She stroked his horns, circling a fingertip over the hard points. “Take me all the way. Give me everything.”

He could deny her nothing.

Releasing his fierce grip on control, he pounded forward and she cried out. Not in pain, but in joy, he realized. Their souls—he had a soul, he truly had a soul—were dancing together, intertwining…joining. Yes. Yes. Over and over he filled her, giving her all of him. Their wills intermingled so completely, it was impossible to tell who wanted what. Pleasure was the only goal.

His nails raked the floor beside her head, his teeth even nipped her, but she loved it all, urging him on, still begging for more. And when he spilled his seed inside her, her inner walls clutching him in her own surge of satisfaction, he shouted the words that had been building inside of him since the moment he’d met her. “I love you!”

To his surprise, she gave a shout of her own. “Oh, Geryon. I love you, too.”

They were mated.

They were bound.

THEY QUICKLY DRESSED. Kadence was still weak, but at least the pain had stopped.

“Are they still at the gate?” Geryon asked. He was ready to end this. To take her away from this realm and cherish her always.

What if she still could not leave?

The thought drifted through his head but he ignored it. He would finally have a happy ending. Because they were together. Because they loved.

“Oh, yes,” she said. “They’re working it feverishly.”

He kissed her lips, and he reveled in another taste of this woman he loved. “We will hike there. The moment you spy them, lock them in place, and I will do the rest.”

“I hope this works,” she said, “because I couldn’t bear the thought of being parted from you.”

Neither could he. “It will. It has to.”