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CASSIE:
SOMEHOW THEY MANAGED TO stumble back to their apartment. As soon as his palm print cleared the outside door, she bounded in. The door swished closed behind them, sealing them from any other computer programming. She headed for the bedroom, Milo right on her heels. Once there, she crawled across the bed. Milo yanked her back, and then his lips crashed onto hers. His hips went smooth as an exotic dancer, rolling large circles into her pelvis, hitting her clit with every smooth move. She was already wet and eager for him, so after enjoying a few more pumps, and she was done with playing. She rolled out from under him and crawled on top of him. Cassie lifted slightly, gripped his thick shaft, and slid over him slowly, watching his focus on her intensify as she did.
“Fuck,” Milo rumbled, one hand hard on her hip, guiding her, and one hand gripping the back of her hair. He stared down at where their bodies connected. “Baby, look at you. Swallowing me whole. You feel so good, Cassie, my love.”
When he bucked and went deep on the next stroke, Cassie was already gone. She took all of him so that he hit her clit just right. Ecstasy. She rocked faster, kept him deep, teased him as his muscles twitched. He pulled her closer, and he moved against her, hips meeting hers time after time.
He felt so good inside of her. Perfect. Like everything. He really was her match.
Needy sounds escaped her throat every time he bumped that right spot. Milo was being gentle, but she could feel his control, held tightly in check, letting her set the pace. Oh, she pressed tightly against him, but he was pure power that he’d contained for her. He was staying in control, being just rough enough to keep it fun.
“Cassie!” he gritted out.
And then suddenly, she was flipped to her back on their bed, and Milo was even deeper, her thigh held up by his leg, thrusting so hard, so fast, ramming her upward again and again. Holy shit, he was beautiful. Muscles rippling above her, abs flexing against her stomach as he stroked into her. Large, thick, powerful man losing control over her, unable to contain the lust he’d kept in check. Faster, faster, deeper, and the sounds in his throat said he was close with her.
He grabbed her hand and slammed it onto the headboard behind her, and followed with the other, pinning her wrists together and squeezing slightly to show her he wanted her to stay in that position. The idea that she was helpless with her wrists somehow bared to him was sexy. She arched her back as her body exploded around him. Milo yelled out, the veins in his neck bulging when he threw his head back. His cock throbbed hard inside of her, pulsing releases making him groan. It was so intense she closed her eyes and wrapped his hips with her thighs as hard as she could.
And then there was his teeth, rough against her neck. One second of that, and then there was pain, a sharp, driving ache at the curve where her neck met her shoulder. It was quick and shocking, and her orgasm pulsed harder when she realized what he’d done.
Claiming mark. Bitten, like a vampire. Her orgasm started again, or a new one rolled in, she wasn’t sure which.
When the waves crested, she realized Milo had just claimed her. He’d marked her so the whole world knew she belonged to him. That she would never belong to anyone else—not human, not Xeno Sapien, not to any new person that came around. He’d just picked his forever mate, and the scar would be on display for the world to see. He’d picked her despite the fact that she hadn’t been sure between him and Landon. He’d been sure all along. She wanted to cry out his name, just cry in relief, hug him for being the one, her happy-ever-after. Her man.
Milo cupped her head again and lifted her quick, pressed her face against his throat, begging in silence for understanding or forgiveness while his cock pulsed inside of her, filling her with wet warmth. It was several moments before he spoke.
“I’m sorry I hurt you,” he rumbled. “It was my instincts—I wanted to mark you. Make you mine. I should have asked.”
“I’m proud to wear your mark,” she whispered. “Like a vampire bite, bat-boy.”
Surprise made his laughter deep and made his cock twitch inside her. They both groaned, connected deeply, in body and in spirit. She sensed that he needed her when his mouth sought hers and she raised her mouth for his kiss, his tongue, his lips sliding against hers again and again. Over and over until their orgasms faded to nothing. Until he relaxed into her still unvoiced love. Until he was petting his fingertips down her arms in comforting strokes.
Easing back, he cupped her cheek and searched her eyes as he murmured, “I’ll always be here, Cassie. The father for your babies. I’ll take care of you and them.” He kissed her forehead, the tip of her nose...her lips. “I’m here for you. Always.”
“Milo,” she gasped between kisses. “You know I love you right?”
Shocked, he pulled from her, staring down at her like he couldn’t believe his eyes.
“I love you completely, irrevocably, forevermore. I’ll take your vampire bites all over my body if necessary.”
She could feel what he wanted to ask before he asked it. “Landon?”
“A part of me may always love him. But that’s because he was a part of you. It was your DNA used to grow his organs, his wings, even the color of his skin. His eyes were yours. I can’t unstop loving that but I love you so much more. It’s deeper and more true.”
“I love you, too, Cassie,” he said, his mouth sinking to hers. “So much.”
He didn’t need to earn her trust. He always had it.
––––––––
CASSIE AND MILO FINISHED up their few dishes from the lunch casserole when a knock sounded. It was odd to hear a knock at the door. They stared at each other for a few moments while the knocking continued in a steady stream.
“Oh, it’s visitors at the door,” Milo grinned. “No house computer to tell us we have guests.”
They scrambled to get to the front door, throwing it open. A crowd of people waited out in the hallway and one by one, traipsed in.
“I told him he didn’t have to keep knocking,” Irina said. “Once was good. He seemed to think a continuous knock was best.”
After the seven or eight people wandered in, someone shut the front door.
“Well, this is an awkwardly tight fit,” Blaze said, plopping onto the crowded sofa and pulling his mate, Irina on his lap. With a grin, his best friend Reson plopped himself onto her lap, since the sofa was already overloaded with couples and some stood around the kitchen.
“What are you all doing here?” Milo asked.
“Therapy session,” Robyn said. “We’re your support group to head down to the gladiator pits. Beast and Tempest are set up to give us a horrific show of unrestrained violence. It’ll break you both in. Of course, if you can’t sit through the whole thing, we understand.”
“All of you are here to help us through this?” Cassie looked at the crowd, bemused.
“Of course,” Alannah said, squeezing the hand of her sister next to her. Both women sat on their mate’s laps. “No one should have to suffer alone. And most everyone here remembers Landon so it’s good therapy for everyone.”
Irina peered at her neck. “Is that a mating mark?”
“Gross,” Reson said, from where he sat on her lap. “You let Milo do the nasty?”
Next to him, a purple Xeno Sapien snickered. Irina sighed. “Feel sorry for me. I’m surrounded by the three of them. They’re much better behaved when their mates are present.”
“Like I am right now,” Blaze said from behind her, where he was pressed into the couch under hers and Reson’s weight. Then he whispered, “That’s not my dick poking up against you, baby.”
“Yes, it is my claiming mark,” Milo said, coming behind her to press a kiss onto her temple.
“We should have you two come into medical,” Irina said. “I’d like to check and see the healing on her claiming mark. And I’d like to see how your wings are doing.”
Milo nodded. “Neither are priorities, though, so give us some time to mentally prepare ourselves for the excursion.”
Everyone knew what he meant. He used to jump at the chance to come and explore options for delving into the idea of fixing their wings for flight. He and Leo would toss around new concepts—but now that was what coming into medical reminded him of. The fact that he was no longer friends with Leo.
“If you guys are brave enough to venture right out, it’ll keep Temp and Beast from killing each other,” Sunny said—then winced when she realized what she said. “I mean, oh, crap, I can’t believe I just said that.” Her lip trembled and her eyes filled with moisture.
The room was so quiet, a pin could drop.
“Well, that was an ice breaker,” Milo said. He stepped toward Sunny and stretched out his arms.
Everyone began talking and laughing at once as he wrapped her in his embrace.
“So glad it was her.”
“Figured I’d have been the one to say it.”
