“Mina…Mina…” His mouth was a delicious thing. Bloody hell, he knew how to kiss. “You feel so fucking good. I don’t think…” He shuddered, pressing his face against her shoulder as the next thrust took her deep and hard. “I don’t think I can—”

“Then don’t,” she whispered, digging her nails into the hard curve of his arse. His pelvis ground against hers, just holding her there, as if he were trying to push his whole body inside her. Circling his hips just enough so the grind rubbed her sensitive clit, until she was moaning a little with harsh, breathy sounds of need, sounds she’d never heard from her own throat.

Her whole body clenched, locking tightly around his as she came with a sob. Then he was fucking his way into her, pounding her brutally against the wall, one hand outthrust against the stone, the other beneath her arse, holding her there. His body pinned hers, chest pressed against her own as he fucked her in a wild, desperate assault that she knew she’d feel tomorrow.

She had not been the only one who’d felt a little lost tonight. This…this was a claiming. And she encouraged it, let him take everything she had from her and still demand more. Everything that had not been spoken between them—the tension of the past, the fear of the present, and the hope for the future—broke between them. Leo sank both hands into the flesh of her hips as his thrusts became stronger, slower, deeper somehow, bruising in their intensity.

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she clenched everything inside her. It tore a torrent of filthy words from his lips as he swore and quivered, the hot spill of his seed drenching her inside.

He collapsed against her, his breath came in hard pants against her shoulder. His forehead pressed against the wall, the stubble on his cheek brushing against her jaw. He simply held her there, as if he had no plans to ever let her go.

Mina tipped her head back and breathed hard, listening to the pounding of their hearts between them. Sensation was beginning to return. One boot on, the other…lost somewhere. Trousers clinging to her left ankle but not the right. A mess.

She laughed then. Nobody would ever believe this to be her. Bitten and marked, her hair tumbling around her face, body full of the sensation of him. And this was her, she realized. A part of her that she’d never, ever allowed to surface, a part that only Leo had ever brought out in her.

Mina pressed her lips against his shoulder, one hand caressing the back of his head. Most of all, the sensation she felt was strangely…tender.

I don’t want to let him go. A weakness, she’d once believed. But she didn’t feel weak, not at this moment. She felt amazingly strong, like a phoenix bursting from her own scattered ashes, blazing anew. Far from undoing her, he’d been the making of this new, fearless creature that prowled inside her.

He owned her. The most terrifying thing in the world once. But he could only own her if she allowed it, and she held that power in her hands. For the first time, Mina felt as if she were truly seeing the world, realizing that by locking herself away, forcing herself not to let any man in, that…that had been the true weakness.

“You’re not alone,” she whispered.

His heart rate had been slowing against her. She almost felt it skip a beat as Leo jerked his head up, his half-hard cock moving within her. Mina winced a little.

“What did you say?” A hard demand that she couldn’t read.

Old doubt resurfaced, but she refused to let those shadows back in. “I said that you’re not alone. The w-way I feel… I was so frightened that you were dead and…” Her voice became a whisper. “I think I love you.”

It was hard, in the darkness, when silence fell. Her heart leaped in her chest and Mina froze. For the first time in years she’d dared to bare herself to someone else.

And there was no response. I’m afraid that I’m standing here alone in this new world…

Mina pushed him away, yanking her trousers on, her hands rough and trembling, and her mind blank as—

“Mina.” Hands caught her arms as she tried to duck past him. “Mina, wait.” Leo caught her face in his hands, and then his lips found hers in the dark. Instinct told her to run, but he wouldn’t let her, soothing her with the sweetest, most tempting kisses, his hands cupping her face and holding her there as if she were infinitely precious. She hesitated for a fraction of a second, then felt herself softening against him.

Finally he drew back. “You surprised me. I never expected you to…tell me such a thing.” Those tender hands rubbed up and down her back, softening the tension from her spine. His voice grew rough. “Maybe because I wanted to hear it from your lips so much.” He cleared his throat. “Here. Stand still.” He knelt again, a faint shadow in the blackness. Taking her foot, he slipped her boot back on, easing it gently over her calf. She caught only the faintest glimmer of the whites of his eyes, but she knew he was watching her.

“I told you once that you didn’t understand my motives,” he finally said. “Hell, Mina, I didn’t understand them either. I wanted you. I just didn’t know what I wanted of you.”

“And have you figured it out?”

“I think I’m getting there.” Leo pushed himself to his feet, sliding his hands over her hips. “These last few days have cost me everything—power, position, respect…the man that I called a father. Everything that I’ve spent years working to achieve, all gone. I kept thinking that if there was one thing I couldn’t bear to lose, it would be you, and the promise of what I hoped we had, but I didn’t know if you felt the same.

“I want what Blade has. What Will has. I want that, all of that. I want to hold my daughter in my arms and kiss her mother on the cheek. I want a family of my own to make up for the one that I’ve never had, and when I picture that, it’s your face I see. My wife, that’s what I want. But most of all, I would like to hear you say those words one more time.”

“Say what?” Her heart was starting to beat a little faster now, full of certainty.

“That you love me,” he replied, stepping closer, body to body. His hands whispered over her cheeks, tipping her face up to his. “It’s the one thing that makes sense in all of this. It’s the one thing that makes me feel like I haven’t lost anything at all. Or nothing of importance.” His lips brushed hers. “Right now, I feel like I’ve won the world.”