The cool air washed over my abdomen like calm lake water as I peeled off my damp tank top and draped it over the small table by the bed with Soren's shirt. My bra remained on, as did my cargo pants in respect for Soren. I definitely disliked wet clothes, and now that things had settled enough for me to feel it, I wanted them gone.

Oh well. When my shirt dried, I'd put it back on and dry something else. I wouldn't melt until then. After all, we had an actual bedroom here so I didn't need to complain.

Soren's soft drawn out sigh captured my attention and I glanced over to see him staring down at the floor. His toned torso shone with a light sheen of sweat and he rubbed the back of his neck before looking down at his hands. "Day?"

A small smile curled my lips at the nickname, and I sat on the edge of the bed. "What's up?"

He titled his head to look at me, his face solemn and his mouth drawn into a straight line. "I'm really sorry for everything. It's just when they kept prodding me. . . ."

"I know. It's okay," I assured gently, easing up from the bed. It took a few seconds for me to walk to him, and I settled my hand on his warm shoulder. "What they did was wrong."

He glanced down, biting his lip as he shook his head. When he reconnected eye contact, the struggle he felt showed itself in the worry lines creasing his forehead. "What if I had killed you?"

"You didn't though." I swallowed, gripping his shoulder and hoping I could bring him some form of comfort.

"But I could've," he argued and his voice cracked. His rough hand cradled the side of my head as he turned to face me, searching my features like it would be the last time he saw me. "What if I do that one day? Just lose myself and turn on you?"

I let out a silent breath and looked into his eyes, noting the gold beginning to gleam in them. "If I survived it, I'd still care about you."

"And if you didn't?" He prompted, his thumb moving over my ear.

I pressed my hand against his chest, his steady albeit quick heartbeat drumming under my palm. "Then what better way to go?"

He went to speak, but he stopped and drew in a breath. Heaviness pulled at his shoulders making them droop, and he swallowed before licking his lips. His nostrils flared every few moments, and his uneven breathing moved his chest in soft heaves.

I wanted to ask if he was okay, but it seemed like such a foolish question. If I were him I wouldn't be okay so I didn't ask. What could I do anyway? My presence wasn't helping much if at all. I didn't know what else to do, but I wanted his torture to end with everything in me.

He let his hand fall from my head and stepped back, his broad back facing me as he turned toward the door. "Goodnight. I hope you sleep well."

"What a damn minute!" I squeezed my body in the small space between him and the door. I felt his hand on the knob against my back, his knuckles poking against my skin. "Where are you going? We have a bed here and I don't want you out of my sight."

Torment flowed yellow in the usual color of his eyes as he looked down at me. "I. . .I've got to sleep somewhere else."

I didn't understand. Did I do something wrong? Shaking my head, I fought against the sting of betrayal threatening to creep up on me. "But why?"

Every trace of brown in his irises disappeared, replaced by revenant gold in full force. He breathed heavily, his lips parting for a moment as he drew in a deep breath. "It's taking everything in me not to pin you against the nearest surface and ravish the fuck out of you. And I don't want to be a monster again, not toward you."

My breathing hitched in realization. "The breeding season."

"Yes," he confirmed. He leaned in, his nose brushing against my neck and sending goosebumps flushing across my spine. "I'm so high on LycanZ right now that everything about you is driving me wild, Daytona. Your scent, the way you move. . .it's fucking killing me. You're intoxicating and I want you so bad. But I won't do this to you."

The soft touch of his breath against my neck and the husky way his tone thickened set my heart racing. His words and his curses turned me on more than I ever expected, but I told myself it was just the revenant in him causing this. That it wasn't of his own will.

No matter how much I repeated it in my mind, it didn't help at all. The steady ache in my lower stomach made me shift on my feet. "Soren, just take me," I tempted quietly.

"No, I won't." He moved his face back to look down at me. "I feel too much for you to be intimate because of this inhumane urge. What if I hurt you?"

"What if you don't?" I stepped forward, playing a dangerous game as my skin made contact with his bare chest. "I said I was here for you always."

Instead of pushing me away, he stayed against me as if my very existence was the reason he lived. "Not for this."

"For this, and everything else that comes with it," I confirmed softly. My fingers slid up to caress his collarbone as my focus flickered between his eyes and lips. "How long has this been a problem for you?"

His Adam's apple bobbed. "It started a few days before you showed up with this overwhelming desire to, well, mate. Since I've been around you, it's been three times as bad. I just. . .I can't fight it anymore. Please, let me go. I can't do this to you."

"I want you to. Let me help you satisfy this," I stated in a low tone, biting my lip for a few seconds as half of me screamed in protest at this bold act and the other half yearned for such contact with him. "If you don't, think of what could happen."

His eyebrows rose in question, but he never spoke a word.

"Your urges could get too strong and you might pounce me out there where we can't risk any distractions," I continued, my other hand slipping to his back and rubbing it slowly, coaxingly. "Or you could run off with some female revenant and I would never see you again. I can't take a chance in either happening, not when I promised to get you to the Stars."

He knew my reasons were plausible, I could see it in the flash of understanding moving across his countenance. An unsteady breath worked from his parted lips and he slowly tilted his face down toward mine. "Daytona. . . ."

Instead of saying anything, I pulled him down to meet my welcoming lips. Heat rose within my abdomen with a fervent longing as he melted against me and brought me closer with his calloused hands on my lower back. As his fingers rose and began unhooking my bra, I slipped a hand down and worked on undoing his pants.

Once my bra was off, he threw it to the side and gripped both of my breasts in his hands. The way he held and cupped them so heatedly sent a shiver through my core and I brought his pants down.

"Daytona," he murmured into our kiss.

"Mmm?" I never stopped undressing him, guiding his boxers down and feeling how hard he already was. Size never mattered to me, and it didn't now even though I already wondered how his thickness would feel so deep inside.

A moan skittered from his lips when I gripped his member. "I love you," he confessed in a thick, raspy whisper before his gasp broke our lips apart.

"I. . . ." I paused and earned a hitched breath as I slowly stroked him. I couldn't say it back. Even with all the desire and affection filling each breath I took. Even with his naked body pressed against mine and my hand wrapped around his shaft. I wanted to. I really did, but I just couldn't.

Not yet.

"I know," I said softly, bringing our lips together once more.

If it hurt him that I didn't return the confession, he didn't show it. He tugged my pants down and grabbed handfuls of my ass with a light squeeze all while sliding his tongue along the rims of my lips as if asking for permission to enter.

I parted for him and accepted his tongue willingly, swirling mine with his. Pushing against him, I backed us closer to the bed and out of our clothes. There was no going back now, not that I wanted to. The only thing occupying my brain was giving him the best first time I could. Maybe I couldn't say those three little words, but I sure as hell could show them.

Pushing him down on the bed, I held onto his shoulders and straddled his lap in one fluid moment. He groaned as my folds moved against his tip and I couldn't stop one of my own from escaping. The more I dragged this out for him, the more I found myself itching to give him the ride of his life. But I resisted, taking it slow and easing him into this just as I had been.

He stopped me seconds before I lowered down on him, looking up at me with lips parted in wordless pleasure. "We don't have protection."

"I know. Don't worry about it," I promised with a hum.

I didn't tell him how I believed I wasn't able to get pregnant. A month of trying with Jonathan and I never conceived. Even unprotected sex with a few of the untold number of men I used as a means to forget didn't do it. Neither could a few raw sessions with Azrael.

If none of them could, I figured Soren couldn't either.

He nodded my words and held me so closely by the hips. All at once he pulled me down on his throbbing length with a gasped groan, burying his face into my tits with kisses and tiny suckles.

I responded to the attention with a soft pleasurable cry and a hand tangling in his hair. It was impossible to hold myself back any longer and I let my passion loose, moving my hips back and forth in strong, methodical pushes. The sound of him moaning my name only keyed me that much higher and I found myself slowly losing my grip on everything else.

I fucking loved him. Although I hadn't said it with words, I was going to make sure he knew without a doubt before I got off of him.

Even if I had to spend all night doing so.