Claiming His Virgin. Grace Goodwin
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He reminded me of the conversation we’d had in the dream the night before, when I agreed to meet him. I knew what he was talking about, this one word. On Earth, it was a safe word. But I didn’t want to be safe. I just wanted him and so I nodded.
His large hands cradled mine in my lap once again, his thumbs gently rubbed the palms, sending tingles in a hundred different directions at once. Scattering my thoughts as well.
“What is this word? What is the one utterance that always makes everything stop? What is the word that makes you the master and me your willing slave?”
I didn’t want anything to stop. Not now that we’d just begun. Not now that he was before me. Finally. I wanted everything he would give me. While I was nervous, I was confident he knew exactly what I needed, perhaps better than I did myself. The flare of heat from the mark was my belief in that. We’d been destined for just this moment.
But I gave him this, because he asked. Because it was all I had to give him at the moment. I licked my lips and said, “Butterfly.”
I chose the word because it was one I would never utter accidentally—were there even butterflies on Everis?—and because it represented this journey I was on, my transformation from scared and alone to being claimed. Useful. Protected. I felt like I was about to emerge from my chrysalis and become something more, something I never dared let myself be on Earth. Butterfly represented the risk I took traveling halfway across the galaxy. For him. For myself.
Warden Egara had promised me, when she’d processed me back on Earth, this match would be perfect. That the Coalition had been doing this for hundreds of years, even though Earth matches had been happening for only a short time. That the test never failed.
I chose to believe her, and my mark.
“Butterfly. Come then.” He stirred and took my hands, gently leading me I knew not where, but I had only taken a few steps when he swept me up into his arms. I gasped at the ease with which he held me as he carried me the rest of the way to…somewhere. He was so warm, so hard. So big. I relaxed in his hold, unknowing and uncaring where we might be going. Perhaps it was insanity. I could hear the voices from my past yelling at me, advising caution. To go off with a stranger, blindfolded. But I was beyond all that. This wasn’t Earth. The rules here were different. None of my friends at home had been tested. None of my friends back home had a mark that led them to their one true match. I wasn’t afraid, not with him. He was mine. I knew it, I knew it in the depths of my soul. And when we touched, when we shared dreams, this strange mark that I had believed a birthmark all these years heated on my palm as if I’d been burned by an iron. It proved it all. And so I smiled. Ready.
According to Officiate Treva, who was in charge of all the brides who arrived on Everis, the burning and dream sharing meant he was my Marked Mate, my perfect match, a one in a hundred chance. Hunters who’d served honorably in the Coalition Fleet and had earned an Interstellar Bride sometimes didn’t find their Marked Mate. But mine had. I had. I’d dream shared starting the first night and my mark had heated as soon as I woke up from transport.
Warden Egara’s testing seemed irrelevant if the mark on my palm matched me to him, if it proved he was nearby. But it had led me here, to him. Without the testing, I’d never have known it wasn’t a birthmark, that it was so much more.
He’d found me. Come to me in my dreams and now in person. He carried me away to claim me.
He held me as if I weighed nothing, the steel-like strength of his arms and chest seductive in their own right as I rested my head against his shoulder.
After a time, he settled me on my feet and stepped away, leaving me standing alone and unsure. I heard a door slide closed behind us, a lock click, and I hoped we were somewhere I would not have to hold back my cries of pleasure, for I knew they were to come. I had never done anything with a man before—I was completely untouched, but I knew he would pull them from me. I would give myself to him and he would give everything in return.
He let the tension build, made me wait and wonder and worry. Anticipation built as I followed the sound of his feet as he paced in a circle around me.
I could feel his eyes on me once again. This time, I knew exactly how close he was. Hear the rustle of his clothing, breathe in his scent.
“Step out of your dress and kneel.”
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