Malkom rasped words to her that she didn't understand. But no matter the meaning, she knew they were words of feeling, convincing her that she hadn't lost him forever.

As he knelt before her, he again reminded her of a virility god. His towering body flexed with cords of muscle. His horns had nearly regrown and now flared back, darkening.

His damp blond hair whipped across his cheek, his blue eyes flickering to that intense black.

Yet as her gaze followed the golden trail of hair leading down to his shaft, his size gave her a moment of hesitation. If he wasn't gentle, he would definitely hurt her.

Trust him, you've wanted this.

When he lay beside her, she leaned over to stroke him.

But he cast her that stern look, slowly shaking his head. In English, he grated, "No more of your touches, witch, lest I finish in your hand." Then he gathered her wrists to pin them over her head. With his free hand, he readied two fingers to enter her, biting free his claws.

She shivered in anticipation, her sex clenching for those fingers inside her. "Then touch me, demon," she whispered, letting both of her knees fall wide.

With a groan, he cupped her with his rough palm, covering her possessively as he slid his forefinger inside her.

"Yes!" She welcomed the insistent stroke, even as she'd begun panting for more.

He dipped his head to nuzzle her breasts, his hot tongue flicking one of her nipples. With his brows drawn tight, he closed his lips around the swollen peak, muttering mindlessly to himself about how sweet she tasted ... how he'd dreamed of her scent.

By the time he returned with a second finger, she was nearly on the verge.

"Tell me you are ready." Before he took her other nipple, he rasped, "I want to be ... claiming you." He gave a decisive thrust with those two fingers. "Ah, fucking you like this." Another unyielding thrust. At his words, she grew even more aroused, and he could feel it. "My female is slick, needing her release."

"Yes, I'm ready." She sounded as desperate as she was. "Please, demon ..."

He moved between her legs, his tanned skin sheening in the rain, his shaft jutting eagerly. His eyes were now black as onyx and burning with intent.

So gorgeous. And about to be mine.

He gripped himself in his fist, positioning the broad crown against her entrance. "Tell me you want me, witch."

"I want you, Malkom." She moaned when the head nudged inside her. "I've never wanted like I do now."

As Malkom gazed down at where their bodies were about to join, he swallowed, nervousness and excitement warring within him. "At last to have this."

At last to have my wife.

"Yes, yes," she murmured, her hips rolling wantonly.

With each undulation, her sex moistened the head of his cock, giving him a taste of what he might yet feel, spurring him to thrust. He wanted deep within her, wanted his shaft to be covered in that wetness.

"Just please go a little easy at first."

As water drops collected over her pale skin, he began to press forward, groaning from the heat that greeted him. When her sheath enveloped the head, he watched, unable to catch his breath as he inched through her tightness. After so long wondering...

"Slow, demon." She grasped his shoulders as she maneuvered beneath him, wriggling her hips as if to receive him better. "Please."

Slow. Somehow. He clamped the backs of her thighs with shaking hands. Spreading her legs even wider, he painstakingly s"ueezed in deeper. His cock had already begun throbbing, bordering on pain. He wasn't even halfway in.

And still he watched their joining. A feeling like grief seized him when he realized that he'd never fit her. That her tender body had not been made for one like him.

"Witch, I cannot ..." Yet her eyes were still desirous, heavy-lidded. "Do you not ..." What to ask her? He could barely formulate thoughts, much less words. "I do not hurt you?"

"No, Malkom." She shook her head, and the ex"uisite scent of her hair nearly felled him.

Truly? If she had no worry, then his was relieved. Carrow would know about these things better than he.

"You feel wonderful," she added, biting her bottom lip.

My gods, so do you, woman.

His resolve renewed, he pressed forward. Sweating as he mounted her, he sank his aching shaft deeper.

"Demon, you're almost ..." She gasped when he'd gone as far as her body would allow, gloved within her heat. "Ah, there!" She arched her back, and her sex slipped along his cock.

His eyes nearly rolled back in his head.

"Carrow!" Dizzy with pleasure, he rasped, "There is nothing better." He wanted to savor this, to revel in the connection. But instinct drove him, commanding him to thrust. He withdrew his hips and bucked for the first time. The bliss of it wrenched a roar from his chest. His back bowed.

Another thrust.

Gods almighty. He'd never lived before this moment.

With a ragged groan, he gazed down at her, telling her in Demonish that she was soft, perfect.

That this was heaven.

He stretched his body over hers, heaving forward, needing to do this hard.

Okay, now he was hurting her.

"Easy, demon." He didn't seem to hear her. At first it'd been so good, but he was growing even thicker. She was pinned on his length, could feel him throbbing inside. "Please, c-can you just give me a second?"

Seeming to wake, he rose above her with an incredulous look. But he did go still.

Denying his instinct was obviously agonizing. His jaw bulged at the sides. The muscles in his torso, arms, and neck were tensed, the ridges sharp. "You are hurting," he grated, his accent more marked than she'd ever heard it.

"Yes, a little. I need to get used to you."

Sweat beaded his chest and forehead. "What ... what do I do?"

"Would you kiss me here again?" She cupped her breasts in offer.

His brows furrowed as if she'd just struck him out of the blue.

With a desperate groan, he gripped her breasts with his big palms, kneading them as he took one peak between his lips. His greedy mouth sucked until it was almost agony.

She arched her back again. "More, demon!"

He moved to her other breast, still kneading the first, pinching the nipple he'd left aching and damp.

Soon, she was panting, now craving the thickness wedged within her. "Malkom, now," she pleaded, rocking her hips to urge his own. "I'm ready."

In answer, the demon gave a measured thrust.

Pleasure radiated throughout her body. "Ah, yes!" No pain. Only rapture. "More ..."

Another forceful stroke.

With nothing to distract her, Carrow noticed how perfectly he ground against her clitoris with each thrust. How his sweat-slicked hips rubbed between her sensitive thighs.

How he filled her so deeply, she felt as if he were a part of her. One being, unending.

"Cannot stop again, witch," he growled against her nipple.

When he drew his hips back, she cried, "Whatever you do, don't stop!"

Now his female wanted him to continue. Grappling for control, determined to feel her come, Malkom did.

He bucked against her, once and again, until he found a driving rhythm.

"Drink me," she moaned as their skin slapped.

He rose up on straightened arms. "What did you say?" Another plunge of his cock made her plump breasts "uiver. The tips were puckered, still moist from his tongue. Had he heard her right?

"Take my neck ..."

"Cannot." Already, he doubted he could deny the tugging grip of her sex in the final moments.

Much less while her blood coursed through his veins.

Her head thrashed. "Suckle blood from my breast, like you did before."

"Carrow! Be silent," he hissed, even as his gaze was riveted to that soft, giving flesh. So easy to pierce her pale skin. To drink from her, pleasuring her.

What would it feel like to have his fangs and his shaft within her body, both gloved by her sweet skin?

He shook his head hard, struggling to outlast her, to keep from tasting her. Her throaty moans had grown constant, her nails digging into his back, clutching him close. She was on the edge, and he was determined to take her over. Cleave to me, witch....

Pounding betwixt her legs, driven by her lush heat, he gripped her nape, yanking her up. "I cannot give you up. Never will I release you."

Cleave to me!

"Demon ..." Her anguished expression transformed to one of ecstasy, her eyes glimmering like stars. "Oh, you're making me - " She threw back her head and screamed, "Malkom! Yes, yes!"

He felt her s"ueezing as she began to come, clenching round his shaft as he'd imagined so many times.

But 'twas all so much better than his fantasies. Her scent, her cries, the way her body writhed wildly beneath his. Plunging into the wetness of her orgasm...

"Gods, Carrow!" he bellowed. He was about to explode, the seal soon to be broken, his semen climbing. For four hundred years he'd waited to ejaculate, to offer his seed to another.

When he'd grown so large he could barely thrust inside her, when he was about to come harder than he ever had in his life, his mind whispered, Nothing but need.