Ascend Read Online Free PDF

grin.
    Then sheexplained everything.
    He held her tightly and buried his face against her neck when she stopped talking.
    “Are you angry?” she asked.
    “God, no. I just… Racha, you could have died before I ever got a chance to learn how good this feels. That thought terrifies me.”
    He suddenly flipped her over and kissed her roughly. His resurging erection pressed hot and hard against her belly.
    She laughed. “What are you doing?”
    “Forgive me. I just need to make love to you again. Gotta make extra sure you won’t self-destruct.”
    Racha pushed back against him and sat up when he leaned back on his heels.
    “What is it?” he asked.
    “There is just one thing I need to do first, if you’re willing. Are you?”

Chapter Seven
    A m I willing to be hers. Marked. Branded. Bonded? Corey’s mind ran through all the things she’d told him the mark meant. She admitted she hadn’t told him everything, just what mattered.
    He’d always imagined the day he would ask a woman to marry him. He’d get down on one knee, hand her a ring after saying something particularly eloquent that he could never have thought up himself. There might be music playing and champagne. And ideally they’d have been together long enough that he knew all her secrets well enough that there would be no surprises.
    This isn’t the same thing, by a longshot , he told himself. But somehow it was. Commitment wasn’t something he was shy about. Hell, he’d come on this expedition, hadn’t he?
    Yet every moment of this expedition had been a surprise and Racha was just the cherry on top. Fate was telling him something and maybe, for once, he ought to listen.
    Corey looked down at the petite beauty, finally letting himself hear what it was fate wanted for him. He answered her question with a kiss, tongue sliding deep. Every ounce of hesitation or reluctance disappeared with the stroke of her tongue against his.
    He spent a second vaguely aware that when they kissed her tongue felt as solid and fleshy as a human tongue. As human as all the rest of her now that the power had ebbed and her skin had regained its normal pink sheen.
    Except this is not normal for her. What I saw before is closer to what she is. The idea didn’t bother him as much as it might have the day before. On the contrary, it made him want her more.
    He held still while she traced her lips down over his jaw and throat, closing his eyes at the silken caress of her lips and tongue. She paused at his chest and pulled back. A gentle fingertip traced a large pattern on his pec just over his left nipple, leaving a tingling sensation behind.
    Corey looked down just as she darted her forked tongue out to redraw the same pattern with swift, stinging strokes. The sting didn’t bother him any more than any of his other tattoos had. Nor did the understanding of what it meant. She had explained that the glowing magic that infused the mark protected him, and established their bond—one that would not be broken until one of them died.
    The gravity of the small ritual hit him when she gazed up into his eyes. Her fingertips dug a little harder into his naked thighs. She seemed to be waiting for his reaction. He didn’t feel any different, however. The abiding need to be with her hadn’t changed, only now it was accompanied by a sense of permanence. Far from frightening, the feeling was a comfort.
    “You’re what I’ve always wanted,” he said.
    Racha raised up on her knees and wrapped her arms around him. He embraced her and carried her back down to the bed with him. Even the sounds she made were perfect little breathy moans as he explored her body with mouth and hands.
    Her fingers tangled in his hair when he lowered his head between her thighs for the first time, tongue flicking out, eager to taste the sweet place his cock had been deeply buried in earlier. She spread her legs wider and tilted her hips up to meet the thrust of his tongue deep into the hot, velvet depths of her. His