“I took a couple of punches, I didn’t break any bones.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m not sure if you noticed, but Iama lion shifter. I’m not fragile—I won’t shatter if you touch me.”
“You were knocked unconscious,” he said, a dark shadow bleeding into his expression. “You might have had a concussion. I just think we should wait until…”
“You can do all the work,” she said, waggling her eyebrows at him. “I’ll just lie here perfectly still. Won’t move a muscle.”
Ramon’s shoulders started shaking with his laughter. “Mamita,” he said after his hilarity had subsided. “If that’s your best effort at seducing me…”
“I didn’t realize Ineededto seduce you,” she said. “But if that’s what it takes.”
She leaned forward and kissed him again, and at the same time, reached between them and pressed the palm of her hand against the front of Ramon’s boxers. He groaned against her mouth and as the kiss wore on, it got more and more heated, and Ramon hardened to her touch. He groaned again, then rolled them so that she was flat on her back and he was lying over her, weight braced on his arms so that there was just the barest whisper of air between them.
“Okay, okay, you win,” he said against her lips, much to her amusement and delight.
She slid her hands down his back and into the waistband of his boxers before sliding them over the cheeks of his ass. He helped her remove them before pulling down her panties and tossing them over his shoulder. When he came back, his head went to her sex and he closed his mouth over her clit and sucked then flicked it with his tongue.
“Oh!” she groaned, her back arching off the bed.
Ramon stopped what he was doing then lifted his head to meet her gaze. “I thought you said you weren’t going to move.”
She grinned down at him. “Umm, sorry?”
He shook his head, smiling wryly before getting back to work with his mouth. Then he brought his fingers into the mix, torturing her by bringing her almost to the brink, then backing off before she came.
“What are you doing?” she demanded breathlessly when he stopped his ministrations completely to move up and over her body.
He grinned down at her wickedly. “Callate, mi amor. Just feel.”
He kissed her again, his mouth surprisingly gentle and his hardness settled between her legs. Saffy groaned and opened her thighs wider to better accommodate him. The kiss was as tender and light as any they had ever shared. Until then, their lovemaking had been fast and frantic, but this was anything but. It seemed as if Ramonwastreating her as if she was fragile, but she was enjoying this new side of him so much, she couldn’t bring herself to call him on it.
They were sharing a new intimacy that she was only too happy to explore, and his kisses were producing an unexpected but eager response from her body. She grew impossibly wet and when he finally slid into her, it was with the same beautiful but aching slowness as his intoxicating kisses. He started moving in her with a slow, gentle rhythm. She lifted her legs and wrapped them around his hips, and he rocked into her with a tenderness that electrified her. There was no urgency to their movements, and yet it was as erotic and as passionate as any of the times they had come together previously. More so, even, if that was possible.
Ramon leaned up on his elbows above her and stared down into her eyes and as they continued to move their hips in a slow, erotic dance, they didn’t break the eye contact for a single second. She moaned aloud as her entire body flooded with desire, her breathing sped and her heart raced, and when her orgasm finally hit, it lingered on and on, intensifying when Ramon found his own release, and stilled deep inside her, her name sounding like a benediction as it fell from his lips.
Afterward, as they lay together in the cradle of each other’s arms, Saffy’s mouth stretched into a grin.
“It seems I need to offer to lie still and not do any work every time we—”
“Don’t even think about it,” Ramon said sternly, making a light, carefree laugh spill from her lips.
Chapter Thirteen
Ramon
Ramon scrubbed his sweaty palms down the thighs of his jeans as he led Saffy up the steps to the porch of his parents’ house. He had called his mom earlier that morning to say he was coming over to dinner that night and would be bringing a guest with him, but he hadn’t told her who he was bringing. He figured that was something that would be better done face to face. Saffy watched him wipe his hands and frowned.
“You’re making me nervous,” she said under her breath. “Relax. What’s the worst that can happen?”
He didn’t want to think about the worst thing that could happen, but images of his father telling him to get out and to never set foot inside the house again ran through his mind regardless. And after everything Saffy had just been through with her own family, he hated the thought she might face any sort of rejection from his. Maybe this had been a mistake. Maybe he should have told his family on his own and spared her from facing whatever their reaction would be. But it was too late now. He stopped outside the door and sucked in a deep breath.
Saffy pulled him to a stop just as his hand was raised to open the front door.
“Whatever happens in there, we’ll get through it together, okay?”
Feeling suddenly choked with emotion, Ramon pulled his mate into his arms and kissed her long and hard.
“I don’t deserve you,” he said when they pulled apart.
“It’s funny,” she said, “But I feel exactly the same way about you.”
