“Hey.”
Cecilia turned her head and watched as Finn bended at the waist and offered her a mug of coffee. “Thank you,” she said. She accepted the cup and continued to watch as he folded his tall, muscular frame onto the blanket next to her. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“You left the bed,” he said simply. She understood. She always felt just a little better, a little more secure, calmer, when he was there. Especially when he was touching her.
“Besides, I knew you’d sneak out here to greet the sun.” He squinted as he looked at the horizon. The bright yellow mass was just beginning to peek over the wavy line that separated the dark blue of the ocean from the paler blue of the sky.
Cecilia smiled. “Silly of me, I know. Down here, it’s as if the sun never stops shining. My magic has never felt stronger. I’m not sure I ever want to go back.”
“I think you do. Despite everything that happened, family is too important to you to stay away.”
He was right, of course. Olivia, her aunt and uncle, Olivia and Tanner’s unborn pup, even Tanner had become family to her.
“Thanks, by the way, for going to my sister’s house with me first, before we came down here to paradise.”
Cecilia smiled. “Of course. Your new niece is utterly adorable.”
“Yeah, she’s pretty cute. Looks just like my sister did when she was a pup.” He paused and then added, “I noticed the two of you were getting along better than the last time we visited.”
“I showed her a couple of cooking tips I picked up from Carley. Now that they have three pups, she said she needs every shortcut she can find. And I think she’s finally accepted that you’re going to stay in the coterie.”
Finn nodded and sipped his coffee. “Ben said they’re planning to come visit for a week next summer.”
“That will be nice.”
They fell silent, sitting side by side on the beach, watching the sunrise and drinking coffee. After a few moments, Cecilia asked, “Do you think…?”
“Carley’s still alive? I don’t know. But if she is, we’ll find her. Alexa said she’d healed her almost entirely before she disappeared, so there’s hope.”
She liked that he could finish her thoughts, without her having to speak them out loud. “Do you feel guilty for spending this week down here, when so much is still unresolved back at the coterie?”
“Nope. You needed this. We needed this.”
Cecilia very deliberately placed her coffee mug in the sand and twisted her body so that she faced Finn on the blanket they shared. “Do you want to know what I truly need?”
He arched an auburn brow.
“To mate with you.”
She’d shocked him. It gave her a little frisson of pleasure to know that she could, especially considering they could feel one another’s emotions. She had been worried that he would have figured it out by now.
He tossed his coffee mug into the sand and leaned toward her, pressing his fists into the blanket. “Are you sure?”
“I have never been so sure of anything in my life, Finn.”
He crawled forward, pressing her back into the blanket as he did so. She lay down and stared up at him, towering over her on his hands and knees. “I was under the impression we had to be in a different position to mate,” she said, her voice breathless with anticipation, excitement. Desire.
“We’ll get there.” He leaned down and kissed her. When he pushed up onto his hands again, her bikini top was lying on the sand next to her.
“You’re slick,” she teased.
“I’m determined,” he responded.
“Shouldn’t we go inside?”
“No one else gets up at this ungodly hour. Although, if you get up and run toward the cabana right now, I can promise you that we’ll be mated in about ten seconds flat. Chasing our prey makes shifters seriously hot.”
She giggled and snuggled deeper into the folds of the sun-warmed blanket. “I’ll remember that for future reference. But for now, if you aren’t worried about getting caught, I’m not.”
“I have every intention of getting caught. Forever.” He leaned down again, nuzzled her breast for a moment before sucking the nipple into his mouth. She arched and gurgled, her hands fisting the blanket.
When he pulled his mouth away, she flipped over onto her stomach. “I can’t take it anymore,” she complained, wiggling her ass while thrusting it into the air, inviting him, tempting him, promising him.
She felt his hand smooth over the roundness, then slide up her spine to massage her neck, before slipping back down again. His fingers caught the waistband of her bikini bottoms, tugging it down over her legs. His hand trailed back up her leg, cupped the inside of her thigh, and then stroked the cleft of her ass, his fingers grazing the moisture gathered there.
“So wet,” he murmured. “And so damn sweet.” She heard him smack his lips, and she groaned.
“Finn…”
“Yes, Cici?”
“Please…”
“Are you ready?”
She dropped her face to the towel and curled her fists. “Just do it, Finnegan,” she growled.
He chuckled and smoothed his palm over her ass again. “Patience, sweetheart, patience.”
“You’ve been torturing me for hours,” she complained.
He chuckled again. “It’s been maybe five minutes.”
“I can’t take much more. I think I’m going to combust. Just do it already!”
“Are you always going to be so bossy?” She heard rustling as he shimmied out of his swim trunks.
“Only if you insist upon torturing me about every—ah! Yes-s-s…” Her voice dissolved into a groan as he thrust into her, impaling her, filling her, mating with her.
“Mine,” he said as he pulled out and thrust again.
“Yes!”
“Forever,” he said on another thrust.
“Yes!”
He bent over her, so that his lips were near her ear. As he continued to thrust, continued to bring them both closer to the brink, he whispered, “I love you, Cici.”
As she exploded with her orgasm, Cecilia threw her head back and shouted, “I love you, Finn!”
When she was coherent again, Cecilia turned her head and regarded her new mate, who was lying half on top of her, with his eyes closed and his face inches from her own on the towel.
“I liked that,” she whispered.
“I’m glad I could accommodate you,” he mumbled without opening his eyes.
“Does this mean we can do it that way any time we choose?”
Finn opened his eyes and smiled. “This means you can do whatever the hell you want to, so long as it’s with me. Forever.”
“Including use a feather?”
Finn groaned and then said, “Yes. Even that. Anything you want, Cici.”
She kissed his unshaven cheek. “I’m so glad you’re my mate.”
The End
Publisher’s Note
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