My Devil was still super pissed at me for claiming my mate without explaining a fucking thing to her. But the last quarter moon was high in the sky, and tomorrow I turned forty.
Tonight was my mating night, and beneath the gods and all their glory, I was going to claim Penelope for once and for all.
I didn’t have time to undress us the way I wanted, so I used my magic to whisk away our clothes, bringing a thick mattress covered in silk sheets to the grassy knoll where I was two fingers deep inside my mate.
Her eyes were rimmed in the red of her she-Devil and I was lost inside the velvet warm depths. Her breathy moans intensified.
“Max, please,” she whimpered, trying to force my touch to her needy little nubbin.
“Not till I say, Sugarplum. Now, lie down,” I instructed.
Penelope did as she was told, sitting on the mattress I’d conjured and sliding backwards. Her ripe body on display was better than anything I’d ever seen, and my dick pulsed painfully hard.
“W-why me?” she asked before I could join her on the makeshift bed. “Why do you want me? Is it just because the Fates decided?”
“No,” I answered quickly and truthfully. “It’s true the Fates bring souls together, but I would have recognized you anyway in an instant. And I never even saw you coming, Sugar. Just look at you. So fucking perfect.”
“I’m not perfect,” she said, shaking her head.
“You are to me. And you have ruined me forever for anyone else. I was born to love you, Penelope. I will die loving you. I’m sorry. Not for claiming you, because that was happening no matter what. But I am sorry for not explaining it. For fucking it up. I am sorry if I did it all wrong,” I said, and that much was true.
“I’m not saying I forgive you. But maybe I am saying make it up to me,” she said, meeting my eyes.
Challenge accepted.
I crawled over her, breathing in her spicy cinnamon scent. My dick ached. My heart hammered.
“What are you waiting for?” she asked, and her sly smile was so damn sexy.
It hit me straight in the chest. My Devil rumbled, and more than that, my magic pulsed through me.
Hot little thing.
Penelope lay beneath me, her hair like a silky sail billowing across the sheets, and I dipped my head to taste her lips.
Sexy woman. Sugar sweet kisses all for me.
I needed this. Needed her. Possession roiled through me like a living, breathing thing. Penelope meant so much more to me than I could have ever imagined.
This woman was beyond all my expectations. She might not understand yet. Might not know the depth of my affection. But I knew her. I saw right through to the very heart of her.
She was good. Nurturing. Caring. She’d stuck by that maggot just because she promised, and he never gave her anything in return.
But I would.
He tore her down. Tried to make her smaller so he could make himself feel like a big man. But not me.
I was going to lift her up. To show her how much I cared with my body. My woman was destined to shine. She deserved it.
The way she ran her bakery, pouring her heart into her recipes for her customers and bringing joy to the people around her. That was a gift.
She was a gift. For me. Only me.
Mine.
Her flavors exploded across my tongue, and I delved my tongue deeper inside her mouth. Licking into her, I groaned at the pleasure she gave me.
I needed all of it. All of her. I had to touch every inch of her as I staked my claim on this most special of nights.
“This time I’m gonna make you come so hard you won’t know where you end and I begin. And I’m gonna tell you everything you want to know, Sugarplum,” I murmured, using my body to widen her legs.
Her hot slit kissed the tip on my dick, and I groaned at how wet she was, how ready for me. But I didn’t press inside her. Not yet.
She had questions. And I was going to give her the answers she needed.
“Ask,” I growled, holding still.
“A-are we evil?” she whispered breathlessly, trying to flex her hips, but I was holding her too tightly to allow the movement.
“Were you evil before I bit you?” I countered.
“No,” she answered, and I growled my approval, flashing my descended fangs before I bucked into her in one hard thrust.
“Oh!” I don’t know who was louder, Penelope or me, but we were both struggling to hold on.
My dick was so ready to explode, but I’d never come without my mate. Pleasing her was everything.
“Ask,” I growled, my voice even deeper now that I was buried inside her hot little cunt.
She moaned, and her walls squeezed around my cock. This was torture for us both. But it was sweet. And I wanted to make it last.
“W-will I need to drink blood?”
“No, we’re not vampires. The claiming bite is a one time thing with me and you,” I said, flexing my hips and grinding my pubis against her needy clit.
Fuck. I was so desperate to pound into her. But not yet.
“Ask,” I said again.
“Do I get any powers, too?”
“Not sure. You were not born a Devil, and it is rare to pass the gift. But I think we were blessed twice my love.”
“Love? D-does being your mate mean you love me?” she whimpered as I circled my hips.
“Oh, I love you. You would hear the lie in my voice if it wasn’t true,” I told her honestly.
“I can hear lies?”
“Yes. You can hear lies. Scent emotions. You’ll learn. I will teach you,” I whispered, kissing her as I rocked into her, keeping my thrusts shallow.
“Now, any more questions?” I asked, desperate to fuck her the way I wanted to. The way I needed to.
“Just one,” she said on a long, keening moan.
“Then ask me, my love.”
“Do I get to claim you, too?” she asked, her red-rimmed velvet eyes boring into mine, and fuck me, my balls were so tight, so full, so ready to burst.
I reached for her, my hand on her neck, and I held her still, squeezing her just a little bit. I felt her heart going wild beneath me.
My mate liked this, did she?
Oh yes.
I knew the answer as her arousal flooded between her legs, coating my dick and leaking down my balls.
“It would be the greatest honor of my life, Penelope Abruzzi, if you claimed me back,” I told her.
“Then consider yourself claimed, Maximillian Leeds,” she said, and struck the same shoulder where I’d marked her.
“FUCK!” I roared as pure unadulterated pleasure shot through me like an arrow through the heart.
I couldn’t hold back anymore if I tried.
Penelope was mine, and rain or shine, I was hers now, too.
“Mine,” I snarled, rearing up to my knees and flipping her over on all fours.
“Max,” she moaned, pressing her chest against the bed.
I gripped her hips, slamming my cock all the way home in one thrust. Then I grabbed her by the hair, pulling her head back so I could see her face as I fucked her hard and fast.
“You’re mine. Say it.”
“Yours, Max. All yours, and you are mine, all mine,” She hissed, snarling as I slammed my hips against her ripe ass.
Power sizzled through me, flowing over onto her, and I worried it would hurt. But she moaned louder, and I knew she felt the same thrill I did.
Heat surrounded us, lightning flashed, and as the thunderclouds rolled in, the last quarter moon sparkled. Its magical rays shined down on us. And when the rain started, our bed was in the clear.
“Now, Come for me, mate,” I commanded, turning her onto her back, and putting her legs on my shoulders before leaning forward, spreading her so damn wide.
“Max, you’re so deep,” she moaned.
“Yesss,” I hissed, moving my hand between us to rub her tight little clit.
“I’m gonna,” she moaned.
And she did. She came, and I followed right after, feeling it in every single nerve ending, every cell, every plane of existence.
“Mine, Sugarplum. Tell me, again,” I said, rolling my hips.
My dick was hard again already. Penelope moaned, squeezing me with her channel. I watched every expression as it crossed her face.
Gods, she was beautiful.
And I needed her more than I needed air. I held my breath, waiting for her answer.
“I’m yours, mate,” she said, and the truth of that statement rang loud and clear in her voice.
It was too much.
It wasn’t enough.
But I wasn’t even close to being finished yet.
Not yet. Not ever. MINE.