“Yes.” Her voice came out a whisper. “Tell me your rules, Leopard Boy.”
He laughed, just as she knew he would. He moved around her to face her. Meiling was very slight, but most of the time he didn’t notice unless they were working a case and her diminutive stature was to their advantage, or like now, when he towered over her. His shoulders were wide, and his body seemed to make two of hers. He looked straightinto her dark eyes as his hands dropped to the little buttons on her very feminine blouse.
“I get the pleasure of removing your clothes first, before anything else.” Very slowly he slipped the first button from the loop, the pads of his fingers brushing bare skin.
She didn’t pull away. Her long lashes fluttered. She had those beautiful black sweeping lashes that were feminine beyond description and called attention to her dark, hypnotic eyes. He kept his fingers moving down that line of pretty little square buttons until her blouse was open, revealing her mint-green bra and the appealing bare strip of skin on her belly. Gedeon pushed the material from her shoulders and let it flutter to the floor. He paid no attention to her sudden shyness when he reached behind her, unhooked her bra with one hand and tossed that little scrap of lace aside as well.
He let his breath out. “You’re so damn beautiful, Meiling.” Catching her hips, he drew her closer to him and took her mouth. He’d resisted for what seemed an entire day. The moment his lips touched hers, she caught fire—or he did. They ignited. The chemistry between them was explosive. He wanted to give her tenderness. Leopards were hot as Hades when they came together. He wanted a slow burn for her, not this crazy wildfire that roared through his veins and poured steel into his cock.
“Lotus.” He breathed her name, trying to slow things down, pressing his forehead to hers. He could still feel her on his skin, in his mouth, down his throat. Most importantly, he could feel her moving in his soul.
“Without you, I’ve got nothing at all. You know that, don’t you?”
She gave a little shake of her head, her eyes alive with too much emotion, just as he knew his were. They both felt it. It was impossible not to be shaken when neither of them had been loved, Meiling even less than him. Now, knowing what they had together, Gedeon felt vulnerable, wideopen. It didn’t matter. She was worth it. If he lost, he would always have had this time with her.
His hands dropped to the waistband of her jeans even as he kept his forehead pressed against hers. All the while he forced air through his lungs. Breathing with need of her. With love for her. “I don’t want you to ever think I want you for Slayer and Whisper. I’m a very selfish man. You found your way inside me, and I don’t want to give you up. Not for any reason. Not for our leopards and not for misunderstandings.”
He pushed her jeans and panties over the curve of her hips, crouching down in front of her as he did so until he could pick up her foot and slide the material free and then the other foot. Her hands went to his shoulders to steady herself. His name was a whisper between them. An entreaty. He didn’t know whether she intended to pull him close or push him away when her fists knotted on his hair, but he wedged his wide shoulders between her legs, the scent of her calling to him.
He moved his palm gently up the inside of her thigh and allowed his tongue to follow the pads of his fingers. Her skin was pure satin. His took his time reaching his goal, that liquid honey that drew him like a magnet. He couldn’t resist tasting her. He was already addicted, having fed hungrily on her when her leopard had driven her beyond her endurance. It wasn’t the same. Now he wanted to spend time worshiping her.
Standing, Gedeon lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bed. Her eyes were half-dazed, her arms circling his neck, drawing him down with her when he placed her in the middle of the duvet. Using one hand to rid himself of his T-shirt, he stripped the rest of his clothes from his body, unable to take his gaze from hers.
She was so beautiful. His woman. He moved over her. Slow. Blanketing her. Pulling her hands above her head. Threading his fingers through hers. Staring directly intoher eyes. He swore the earth moved. Time seemed to tunnel. Kissing her sent flames slow dancing through his veins. Arrowing to his heart.
He felt the heat of her entrance welcoming him with her honey. So hot. Surrounding him. So tight. Too tight. Until that silken haven gripped his steel cock and reluctantly allowed him home. It was a struggle to move through those incredibly constricting petals that were hesitant to give way to his invasion. Then he was all the way in her, sinking deep. For a long moment they were together. Sharing the same skin. The same soul.
Gedeon began to move. Slow at first. The friction was enough to send fiery streaks of lightning arrowing down his spine. Her silken muscles clenched even tighter around him, dragging over him. He felt every one of her heartbeats right through her sheath.
Her feathery lashes swept down and then back up. She made a sound in her throat and her fingers tightened around his. Her hips rose to meet his. She caught his rhythm as he increased his speed. He thrust harder and she gasped.
“White lightning. It’s going to take us with it,” he whispered to her. “Do you feel it, Lotus? Moving through us? We’re going to burn together.”
Her gaze never flinched away from his, not even when he knew raw emotion poured from him to her. Not when his eyes blazed with the absolute inner fire of his kind. With sheer possession. She didn’t fear his strength. Or his brutality. She knew he was different, and yet she didn’t run from him; she stood with him. She was his partner in every sense of the word.
Now, as his body took hers with exquisite care, he worshipped what was his, taking his time, never hurrying, keeping the burn building slow and steady. Making her feel what he couldn’t say. Letting her see into his heart and soul. Looking into hers.
Gedeon expected resistance. She had to know there wasno going back from this. Once he took her like this, she would belong to him for all time. There would be no separating them. No getting them apart. His body moved faster in hers. Streaks of fire rushed over both of them. She gasped. He tightened his hold on her.
“That’s it, Lotus. Relax. Come with me,” he encouraged.
She gave that little shake of her head, but her gaze clung to his. He could see fear as they climbed higher and higher. As the flames seem to crackle around them and the white lightning arced and forked, jagged bolts that rocked them from the inside out just as he’d promised, he also saw trust in the brown eyes that never flinched away from his.
Her body followed the lead of his—moved with his in a perfect tango as the slow burn turned into a wildfire that burned hot and fierce. Gedeon held her on the edge for what seemed an eternity, whispering to her in a mix of shifter and Russian before coaxing her to let go for him. To fly with him. To let white lightning burn them together.
To his shock, she did exactly what he said. His woman. Fingers threaded through his. Dark eyes staring straight into his. She let her soul fly with his while they burned in the white-hot lightning together.
He let himself collapse over the top of her, desperate for air, trying to drag air into his lungs for both of them. He wasn’t certain he had lungs. He thought the fire had, for once in his life, burned him clean. He buried his face in her neck, all too aware he couldn’t stay with his full weight on her slight body. He was crushing her. It was just that in this moment, with his cock still jerking in her and the aftershocks rippling through her, he could still share her heart. He still shared her body. Even, like now, her very breath.
Very slowly, reluctantly, he eased his body from hers. He felt bereft. Her arms slid around his neck and clung for a moment. “I’ll be right back, Lotus. Let me get a washcloth.”
He washed the evidence of her innocence from his cock, reluctant to even do that. Then he returned and very gently cleaned between her legs. A little shiver went through her, but she didn’t flinch away from him.
“Did I hurt you, Meiling?”
“No, it was beautiful.”
He returned from the master bath and lay down on the bed on his belly, as close to her as he could get without crushing her. The moment he did, her fingers found his hair, just as she had done so many times before, only now it felt so much more intimate. Peace settled over him.
