diff --git a/Cake/ORM/Association/BelongsToMany.php b/Cake/ORM/Association/BelongsToMany.php
index 7d41a84d745..7734dced79c 100644
--- a/Cake/ORM/Association/BelongsToMany.php
+++ b/Cake/ORM/Association/BelongsToMany.php
@@ -386,6 +386,56 @@ protected function _saveLinks(Entity $sourceEntity, $targetEntities, $options) {
 		return true;
 	}
 
+/**
+ * Associates the source entity to each of the target entities provided by
+ * creating links in the junction table. Both the source entity and each of
+ * the target entities are assumed to be already persisted, if the are marked
+ * as new or their status is unknown, an exception will be thrown.
+ *
+ * When using this method, all entities in `$targetEntities` will be appended to
+ * the source entity'property corresponding to this association object.
+ *
+ * This method does not check link uniqueness.
+ *
+ * ###Example:
+ *
+ * {{{
+ * $newTags = $tags->find('relevant')->execute();
+ * $articles->association('tags')->link($article, $newTags);
+ * }}}
+ *
+ * `$article->get('tags')` will contain all tags in `$newTags` after liking
+ *
+ * @param \Cake\ORM\Entity $sourceEntity the row belonging to the `source` side
+ * of this association
+ * @param array $targetEntities list of entities belonging to the `target` side
+ * of this association
+ * @param array $options list of options to be passed to the save method
+ * @throws \InvalidArgumentException when any of the values in $targetEntities is
+ * detected to not be already persisted
+ * @return boolean true on success, false otherwise
+ */
+	public function link(Entity $sourceEntity, array $targetEntities, array $options = []) {
+		if ($sourceEntity->isNew() !== false) {
+			$error = __d('cake_dev', 'Source entity needs to be persisted before linking');
+			throw new \InvalidArgumentException($error);
+		}
+
+		$property = $this->property();
+		$links = $sourceEntity->get($property) ?: [];
+
+		foreach ($targetEntities as $entity) {
+			if ($entity->isNew() !== false) {
+				$error = __d('cake_dev', 'Cannot link not persisted entities');
+				throw new \InvalidArgumentException($error);
+			}
+			$links[] = $entity;
+		}
+
+		$sourceEntity->set($property, $links);
+		return $this->_saveLinks($sourceEntity, $targetEntities, $options);
+	}
+
 /**
  * Appends any conditions required to load the relevant set of records in the
  * target table query given a filter key and some filtering values.
diff --git a/Cake/Test/TestApp/Model/Repository/TagsTable.php b/Cake/Test/TestApp/Model/Repository/TagsTable.php
index 7315ccf64d4..1776a44a7e1 100644
--- a/Cake/Test/TestApp/Model/Repository/TagsTable.php
+++ b/Cake/Test/TestApp/Model/Repository/TagsTable.php
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ class TagsTable extends Table {
 
 	public function initialize(array $config) {
 		$this->belongsTo('authors');
-		$this->belongsToMany('tags');
+		$this->belongsToMany('articles');
 		$this->hasMany('articlesTags', ['propertyName' => 'extraInfo']);
 	}
 
diff --git a/Cake/Test/TestCase/ORM/TableTest.php b/Cake/Test/TestCase/ORM/TableTest.php
index b76dd889d7e..8795a5b325d 100644
--- a/Cake/Test/TestCase/ORM/TableTest.php
+++ b/Cake/Test/TestCase/ORM/TableTest.php
@@ -2762,4 +2762,40 @@ public function testSaveDeepAssociationOptions() {
 		]));
 	}
 
+/**
+ * Integration test for linking entities with belongsToMany
+ *
+ * @return void
+ */
+	public function testLinkBelongsToMany() {
+		$table = TableRegistry::get('articles');
+		$table->belongsToMany('tags');
+		$tagsTable = TableRegistry::get('tags');
+		$options = ['markNew' => false];
+
+		$article = new \Cake\ORM\Entity([
+			'id' => 1,
+		], $options);
+
+		$newTag = new \TestApp\Model\Entity\Tag([
+			'name' => 'Foo'
+		]);
+		$tags[] = new \TestApp\Model\Entity\Tag([
+			'id' => 3
+		], $options);
+		$tags[] = $newTag;
+
+		$tagsTable->save($newTag);
+		$table->association('tags')->link($article, $tags);
+
+		$this->assertEquals($article->tags, $tags);
+		foreach ($tags as $tag) {
+			$this->assertFalse($tag->isNew());
+		}
+
+		$article = $table->find('all')->where(['id' => 1])->contain(['tags'])->first();
+		$this->assertEquals($article->tags[2]->id, $tags[0]->id);
+		$this->assertEquals($article->tags[3], $tags[1]);
+	}
+
 }