In Heat (In Heat Shapeshifter Romance Series #1) (22 page)

Leaning over, she placed a chaste kiss to his cheek, and slowly worked her way downwards, finding her courage along the way. She began to alternate between licking and kissing, letting her mouth discover his body all over again while her fingers memorised the curves and her nose the way he smelt.

She glanced at him furtively out of the corner of her eye. He had his eyes closed, his fingers loosely gripping the two poles of the wooden headboard that he could reach.

She wanted to hold him so badly, but she made herself continue, knowing that this would reassure him more than her arms around him. If she gave him this, a soul stirring moment of togetherness, then he would know that she was never going to leave him.

Reaching the cuts across his chest, she kissed them lightly, wishing she could somehow heal them for him and make them go away. He sighed beneath her.

She smiled against his skin and began to work her way down over his stomach, kissing each muscle, thoroughly covering it. She wished she could study all of him, just sit back and watch him walking around naked. He had such a beautiful body, toned but not overly built. His compact muscles made her feel the power in him right down in her core.

Sitting back, she ran her fingers over his shoulders and up his arms, delighting in the softness of his skin and the shape of his muscles. He was staring at her. She could feel the intensity of his look boring into her. Her eyes met his and she kept herself open to him, showing him everything he made her feel. His head cocked to one side, his gaze becoming questioning. She smiled at him, trying to show him that what he saw in her was the truth.

“Speak to me,” he said.

“About what?”

He craned his neck and looked at her hands, and then stared back into her eyes. “What you're thinking. I want to hear what you're thinking.”

Her hands stopped moving. The idea of having to speak her thoughts made her want to clam up, but she told herself that it could be good for them. They could say everything to each other without words, with a single look or touch, but this would bring it down to that intimate level they were both searching for.

Moving her hands again, she traced the veins and shape of his forearms, working her way towards his wrists. She stopped when she touched the cold metal of the handcuffs.

Nerves made her tremble and she was sure that she wasn't going to be able to speak without him hearing them. She'd never done anything like this before. She'd never felt this way about a man.

“You have an incredible body,” she said, not daring to look at him. She half expected him to say thank you to her, but he remained silent. She chanced a look and saw he wasn't smiling, but there was tenderness in his eyes. Bringing her hands back down his arms, she held his gaze. “Sleek. Powerful. Like your inner panther. I could spend eternity doing this.”

He smiled now.

“You have a beautiful body too. I'd give anything to see it.” His voice was husky, deep and seductive. Clearly, he'd found his confidence again.

Sitting back on her heels, she unbuttoned the dress and went to slip it off over her head but stopped when she remembered that she wasn't exactly wearing what could be deemed underwear suitable for such a moment. She could see he was wondering what was wrong and continued, pulling the dress off and letting it fall to the floor as his eyes fell to her body. They narrowed. He purred and a thrill ran through her.

God, he could purr.

The sound of it empowered her.

She didn't think her underwear was sexy, but maybe he did. Were plain cotton knickers and bra a turn on? She'd always thought it was lace and satin that set men's hearts racing, but the look in his eyes said different.

Hooking her leg over him, she sat astride his waist, her eyes locked with his and their groins together. She could feel him hardening beneath her. His hips shifted, grinding his cock against her pussy. She pressed a hand into his stomach, pushing his groin back down, and gave him a chastising look.

“Tell me what you're thinking,” she said.

He didn't hesitate.

“I could eat you whole,” he whispered at her and a flicker of fear entered his eyes.

She smiled and chased it away. She knew he didn't mean his panther side. Remembering that she had to say everything she was thinking, she held his gaze and ran her fingers lightly over his stomach.

“I could eat you whole too, wrap myself up in you and never leave.” She felt a little giddy with nerves as he smiled, all his feelings for her showing in his eyes. She could sense a question in him and didn't want to answer it. Even though she didn't want to leave him, she wasn't sure she wanted to become like him.

Leaning over, she kissed down across his chest and then shifted downwards until her knees were against his and her mouth was tracing a line above the waist of his boxers.

She pulled them down a little, following them with a trail of wet kisses. Unable to resist a glance at him, she saw he had his eyes closed now, his fingers finally tightly gripping the headboard. His whole body sung to her of what he wanted. She tugged the waist of his boxers down and he raised his hips. The underwear slid easily off and she stopped when they reached his thighs. Running her hands under him, she moaned quietly at the feeling of his taut backside under her fingers. She stroked along the curve of it towards his thighs and hooked her fingers over his underwear again.

Kissing down his legs, she moved backwards, bringing his underwear with her and eventually pulling it off over his feet. She stopped to explore them, fingers dancing across his toes and sweeping up the arch of his soles. He wriggled a little. Another place he was ticklish. She splayed her hands out and ran them slowly back up his legs, memorising every inch of him and the way he felt. She circled his knees and pressed a kiss to each. He wasn't ticklish on the back of them. She'd die laughing if he tickled her there. Not that she was going to tell him that.

“You run a lot don't you,” she said, breaking the silence as much as his heavy breathing had been.

“Yes.” His voice was hoarse and quiet. It sounded as though it had taken a lot of effort to say that one word.

“What are you running from?” She moved up his thighs and looked at him, wanting to see the truth in his expression in case he tried to cover it with his words.

He paused and then took a deep breath.

“Nothing...maybe...sometimes the other side of me.” He looked uncomfortable and she thought about letting it go, but couldn't.

Her fingers traced the dips in his buttocks as he tensed them. She went around to the spot on his hip where she knew he was ticklish. He raised a brow, silently telling her not to dare. She didn't. He'd never talk if she did that.

“Why?” She leaned over, pressed a kiss to the ticklish spot on his hip, and then sat back again.

“Because sometimes I feel like a freak, outnumbered and unloved in this world...and I want to feel normal.”

Her exploration of him halted and she looked deep into his eyes. She shouldn't have asked. She hadn't realised that she'd hurt him so much by pressing the subject. Crawling up the length of him, she kissed him tenderly, slow and deep, with as much love as she could pour into it. He wasn't a freak. He wasn't unloved.

“You're not alone...” she whispered into his ear, pressing her cheek against his. Her brows furrowed. “You're never alone and you're not unloved. I'll stand by you until the end of time...I just don't know whether I'm ready to be like you yet.”

The words had left her before she'd had a chance to consider their implication. She drew back, giving him a fearful look. She'd wanted to open her heart to him but now that she had, she was scared he was going to hurt her. Was this how he felt? She was lost in a turbulent sea, crying out for him to throw her a line and rescue her before she drowned. Why wasn't he saying something?

He was just staring at her.

The room suddenly felt cold and oppressive, but she didn't dare move. She couldn't until he'd either saved her or drowned her.

“You're beautiful,” he said at last. Her heart pounded against her chest, making her feel sick. His eyes narrowed on hers. “I've never met a girl so beautiful and that I loved so much.”

Her eyes flew wide.

She gasped at air.

That wasn't a lifeline. That was like drying out the entire ocean in a split second just to save her.

E
rik tried to sit up but fell back again when the handcuffs stopped him.

“Don't panic.” He sounded panicked so Kim wondered exactly how she was supposed to not panic. “I've loved you my whole life...you're mine and I'm yours. You can command me, tell me never to say those words again, and I won't.”

She stared at him.

How could he be so crazy?

“Say them again.” Her voice shook as it tried to squeeze out of her dry throat.

She leaned over him and looked down into his eyes, her palms pressed against his chest to support her. She could feel his heart beating, and it was beating frighteningly fast. It felt as though it was going to break free of his chest.

“I'm in love with you,” he said with so much intensity that tears crept into the corners of her eyes.

She kissed him deeply, all the while thinking about how much she wanted to ask him where the key to the handcuffs were so he could make love to her. He wouldn't go for it. This was about him surrendering control to her, and they could still make love like this.

“Erik...” She drew back and looked into his eyes. He raised his brows, his honey eyes sparkling at her. “I want you inside me, where you belong.”

It was the corniest line in the world, but she didn't care. When he was inside her, she felt complete and nothing mattered in the world but him, but the feeling of them together.

He grinned broadly, clearly amused by her corny line too. She rolled her eyes. He motioned in the direction of the drawer where he'd got the cuffs.

Getting off him, she pressed a kiss to his lips and then one to the head of his cock. She walked across the room, wriggling her hips just a fraction so he'd get a good show. She could feel him watching her.

She pulled the drawer out and found the condoms. Taking a couple out of the packet, she spotted the key to the cuffs and decided to bring it with her too. She bunched everything up into her fist and then shut the drawer.

A smile crept onto her lips.

Turning, she raised a brow at Erik. He looked so damn delicious stretched out on the bed completely naked. She glanced down at her body, at her underwear, and then back at Erik.

“Take them off,” he said.

It wasn't a command, it was part wish and part voiced hope.

Reaching around behind her, she unhooked her bra and drew the straps slowly down her arms. She let it drop to the floor when she reached the foot of the bed and put down the stuff she was holding. She slipped her thumbs into the waist of her knickers and shimmied out of them, losing them as she knelt on the bed. Taking hold of the condoms and the key, she crawled up the length of Erik, her eyes taking in every inch of him and the devastatingly seductive look he was giving her. It said everything she could feel he was about to say.

“I want you, Kim. We belong together...come to me.”

She was surprised when she felt pulled inside, drawn to him, as though those last three words were a command and she didn't have the will to ignore them. She was glad that he hadn't said exactly what was in his eyes. She knew that he wanted them to be together forever, and she wanted it to, but the process frightened her. To be with him forever she would have to become like him. She just didn't think she was ready.

Even though her heart said yes.

She shunned her thoughts and focused on what was happening now. The future could wait.

“Erik?”

He gave her a look that said to go on.

She froze, her hands against his thighs and her eyes locked with his. He was looking at her with so much love and affection that she clammed up, the words she wanted to say fluttering away unspoken. She held his gaze, her brows furrowing slightly as she struggled with herself. Her words of love wouldn't come back, and she wanted him to hear them and know that no matter what decision she made, she did feel the same way about him as he felt about her.

She loved him.

She loved him with heart, body and soul.

Shaking her head, she watched his eyes narrow and a frown marry his brows for the briefest of moments before she chased it away by lightly running her fingers down his hard cock.

His eyes closed, his lips parting as he breathed deeper. She looked at his erection, fingertips tracing the ridges and veins, brushing over the sensitive head. She needed him inside her. She needed that dream to become real.

Leaning over, she ran her tongue up the length of him, his flesh velvety beneath it, warm and soft. She moaned low in her throat, her hands pressing deep into his sides as she swept them up towards his chest. The chains of the handcuffs rattled and she could feel him straining beneath her. She wondered what it felt like to be tied up, unable to join in and do what your body was begging you to. He couldn't hold her where she was or touch her. All he could do was moan his encouragement.

She explored the head of his cock with her tongue, sliding around it and slipping it into the sensitive crevices. His hips jerked up and she complied with his silent request, taking him into her mouth and sucking him slow and gentle.

He groaned.

There was an edge of growl to it that thrilled her, sending a wave of arousal through her that made her slick with desire. She took him in deeper, turned on by the noises he was making. Her tongue teased and tortured him, licking up the length of his cock as she sucked it. He growled and she whimpered at the sound of it.

She'd never felt so powerful before. She had him at her mercy, helpless and hers for the taking, whichever way she wanted to. Her eyes roamed up the length of his body to his face. He had craned his neck to watch her, his eyes glittering yellow in the soft light of the bedside lamps.

Releasing his cock, she took hold of one of the condoms and tore the packet open. She rolled it down onto his length, doing it slow to tease him a little more, and then moved up so her face was level was his. She kissed him slow, her lips barely touching his. It stirred a heady lightness inside of her, drawing out her feelings as he tenderly kissed her.