“This is why I love the dreams,” she said abruptly. She tugged her other hand from mine and laid her palm against my other cheek. “Because this is the way you look at me when we’re together. Like you’re dying to touch me, to devour me. It makes me feel… cherished.”
I surged forward, our bodies colliding as I took her down to the bed. I cradled her head in my hands and kissed her. She was right, I did want to devour her. To consume every bit of her and carry her with me always.
Lifting my head, I stared down at her. “You are cherished,” I murmured.
Her eyes were serious as she looked up at me. “I don’t want you just to break the curse.” She paused after she spoke then shook her head slightly. “That came out wrong. What I mean is that I want you, not because this will probably break my curse, and yours, but because of you.”
I kissed her again, tasting her. My fangs elongated and I was careful not to cut her with them. I wanted to keep my sanity. If I tasted her blood, any semblance of control would vanish and I would take what I wanted without finesse or gentleness.
We were both breathing hard when I released her mouth again. “I won’t be satisfied with just your body, Ava,” I stated. “If you aren’t willing to give me that, I have to know now. We are more than one night. We are everything.”
Though her lips were swollen and I could hear the swift thud of her heart in her chest, Ava stared up at me with somber eyes. “I can’t promise you my heart, Macgrath. I’m not sure it’s capable of more than affection. In all these years, I’ve never loved a man.” When I started to withdraw, she wrapped her hand around the back of my neck. “Hey, don’t pull away from me. Let me finish what I’m trying to say. I can’t promise you my heart, but I can promise you that I’ll try. I’m open to the idea. I feel things with you I haven’t felt before and I want to see where that takes us. I want more than your body too, Ewan.”
Her words filled me with hope. Hope that I would no longer be alone in this world, that my mate wouldn’t reject me.
I wanted to show her how much her words meant to me. I straightened, my hands moving from her cheeks, down her shoulders and chest, and over her abdomen to the hem of her shirt.
I lifted the thin cotton, revealing her slim torso. Inch by inch, her pale skin was bared. When I reached her breasts, the edges of my thumbs brushed over her hard nipples. She gasped and shivered, as though even that small touch affected her as strongly as if affected me.
Ava’s arms lifted as I gathered the material and pulled it up and over her head. A moment later, she was naked from the waist up. And she was even more beautiful than in my dreams.
Her shoulders were narrow and her collarbones were delicate. I worried for a moment that I could hurt her. Break her. Her breasts were full and rounded, and I could see the pattern of her blue veins beneath her pale skin. I wanted to lick and suck her rosy pink nipples before sinking my fangs into one of those veins.
I traced a finger from the flutter of the pulse in her neck, over a collarbone, and down between her breasts. She sucked in a deep breath as I dragged my fingertip over her stomach and down to the waistband of her shorts.
Hooking a finger into the side of the sleep shorts, I reached out with my other hand and tugged them down, groaning when I realized she wasn’t wearing underwear beneath them.
As I knelt over her, Ava reached up and grasped a fistful of my shirt, yanking it up and off my body with surprising strength. I was forced to release her shorts and lift my arms because she tugged so hard.
My heart pounded in my chest from the need that roared through me. Her enthusiasm pushed me to the edge of reason. Taking a deep breath, I resumed the slow slide of the fabric down her legs until the sleep shorts were completely removed from her body.
As her fingers tangled in the elastic of my shorts, I grabbed her hands and pulled them away from my body. She shifted restlessly as I stared down at her naked body.
“Ewan?” she asked. When I didn’t respond, she tried to pull her wrists from my hold. “Let me touch you.”
“Just…” I swallowed hard because the desire to bite her somewhere, anywhere, on that pale body was overwhelming. “Just let me look at you. I don’t want to rush.”
Her half-hearted struggles ceased and she lay still before me. As my eyes moved over her breasts, her nipples hardened further, and when my gaze stopped on her pussy, her thighs pressed together as she shifted.
I released her wrists and reached down to spread her legs. I angled my body between them. Her hands lifted to my shoulders, running over my arms and chest as though she wanted to touch every part of my body she could reach.
I hesitated then, worried that I wouldn’t be able to hold back, that I might hurt her. Ava’s hands touched my cheeks, bringing my attention back to her face.
“Touch me, Ewan,” she demanded. “And let me touch you. This is about the two of us and what we make together.”
When I still hesitated, she lifted up and put her lips on mine. She nipped my bottom lip and dipped her tongue into my mouth, moaning as she tasted me.
All thoughts of gentleness and savoring her body fled my mind. I needed to taste her. All of her.
I sank into the darkness, drowning in her. I would take what she offered and more.
I would take it all.
