Psy & Changelings 06 - Branded by Fire

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    Fifteen minutes later, they emerged into a glade screened by the mist of a waterfall he knew would shimmer with rainbows in sunlight. But the moon ruled the night, and its rays reflected off the water to cast a silvery glow over the lush vegetation. Things glittered to his night vision, fascinating and wild, even as ultrafine droplets whispered over his skin.
    Mercy walked behind him as he stood soaking in the beauty. Not saying a word, she wrapped her arms around his waist, her cheek pressed to him. He realized then that she’d shown him a secret place, given him a present wrapped in the intrinsically generous nature of her spirit. His heart tightened to the point of pain, and then the pain spread out in a wave of indescribable warmth.
    Closing his hand over hers, he said, “Thank you.”
    She nipped at him, but it was playful. Her purr was something else altogether. Fingers dancing up his shirt, she tugged at the buttons. “Off.”
    He was more than happy to oblige. She peeled it off from behind and dropped it to the ground, then said, “Everything else.”
    Smiling at the command, he decided he had nothing to lose by obeying. And everything to gain. She didn’t change position even when he was naked, his skin gleaming in the moonlight.
    Fingers running down his spine, skating lower, then back up. This time, she spread her hands and stroked, petted, caressed until he felt a light sweat break out over his body. As he waited, held in place by her pleasure, she pressed a kiss to the part of his back closest to her. “I like the way you’re built, Riley. All hard and solid and bitable.”
    Every dominant instinct he had urged him to take control. But something else, another set of instincts, pulled him back. If his mate wanted to tease him to insanity, that was her right. And, difficult as it was to restrain his wolf, he liked this, liked knowing his mate found him attractive.
    Teeth grazing over his back. “Beautiful.”
    “Come here.” A husky request.
    “Not yet.” But she stroked her hands up his body and pressed herself to him. She was still completely dressed.
    “I want skin.”
    Hands gliding over his arms, testing his muscles. “And I want to pet you.”
    The wolf was a master negotiator. “You can do it as much as you want if you take off your clothes.”
    Soft feminine laughter. “It’ll torture you.”
    “I like being tortured by you.” Damn if it wasn’t the truth. “Mercy, kitty cat.”
    Claws digging into his skin. “I’m still not sure I like that nickname.”
    “Tough.” When dancing with a leopard female, the trick, he’d realized, was to give a little, but never too much. “You’ll get used to it.”
    Those claws didn’t release. “Or maybe I’ll peel the skin from your bones.”
    Playing, he thought in wonder, his mate was playing with him. “I didn’t realize you liked to talk dirty in bed.”
    She laughed then and the claws were retracted, his unbroken flesh kissed over by soft feminine lips, flicked by a tongue he wanted to feel on every part of his body. God, when she’d gone down on him . . . his head had about exploded. Now his cock twitched, eager. Shuddering, he felt her draw back, heard the soft susurration of her shedding her clothes . . . but not her boots.
    His entire body turned into one big flame.
    He expected her to press herself up against him again, but she came around to face him instead. Groaning, he raised a hand to cup the lush heaviness of her breast. “You’re the one who’s beauti—” The word ended in a growl as she closed her fingers around his erection and pumped once. “Mercy!” His hands were in her hair, and his mouth on hers before the shout ended.
    She tasted like fire and earth, true and real, strong and unique. On his cock, her hand was a brand, and he realized in the dim depths of his mind that he was being taken in a very feminine way. So when she tore away her lips to run them down his neck—oh, God, the pleasure of it—he didn’t force her back. Instead, he angled his neck so she could close her lips more easily over him . . . so she could close her teeth more easily over him.
    The bite shook him to his toes. Not with pain—he had so many endorphins in his system by now, he doubted he’d feel anything less than a deathblow—but with the heartbreaking pleasure of it. She’d marked him, in a place no one could miss. It was a claiming and it soothed his predator’s soul as nothing else could’ve done.
    Perhaps