“And I know you’re not ready for that,” he murmured. “Not yet.”
“It’s not you.” She didn’t want him to think he’d done something wrong, or that she harbored doubts about being fated mate. “It’s just—I haven’t even told my mom about us yet. And Archie still has big feelings about all this. And there’s still the problem of his shifting?—”
He silenced her with a long, deep kiss. When he pulled back at last, she couldn’t help making a small, needy noise of protest.
“I understand. You’ve been putting your family first for a long time, and you don’t yet know how I fit into your life.” He brushed his thumb across her mouth. “Take as long as you need, Paige. I can wait.”
Oh, how she wanted this man. “But we don’t have to wait for other things, right?”
This time, his smile held a feral promise that sent a fresh wave of heat to her core. “That depends.”
“On what?”
“On what you want.” He leaned in close, fingertips trailed down the side of her neck. “Tell me what you want, Paige.”
“I want—” She caught her breath as his mouth followed his hand, his tongue flicking across her sensitized skin. “I want to not have to think about anything beyond the two of us. Just for a while.”
She felt his lips curve against her throat. Pleasure tingled down her nerves as he kissed his way back up her neck.
“Paige,” he murmured into her ear. “I can make you forget your own name.”
She squeaked as he scooped her up again. Another blur of motion, and then he was laying her down on a bed.
“I thought you said something about walls?” she teased him as he pulled off her shoes.
“We can do that too, if you want.” He took hold of each ankle in turn, removing her socks. “But some things are logistically difficult to do standing up.”
“Such as?”
Strong hands massaged her soles in delicious circles. “Well, this, for a start.”
She let out a groan, melting back against the bed. “That’s wonderful. But you’d better not be planning to stop there.”
“Definitely not.” He planted a teasing, tickling kiss on her instep. “I’ve had a long time to think about this, you realize. I have plans. Many, many plans.”
No doubt he did, but she was already practically on fire with impatience. Pulling her foot free of his hands, she satup. Conleth looked like he might protest, but she was already wriggling out of her t-shirt.
The look on Conleth’s face was everything she could have wanted.
“Change of plan,” was all he said.
She fell back underneath him, arching up to meet his hungry mouth. He practically ripped her bra off, tossing it aside with such force it was a miracle he didn’t take out a window. When she tugged at his t-shirt in wordless demand, he tore that off too—literally, the seams parting with a loud rip as he yanked it away from his body.
Thatwas more like it. Finally, she could touch what she’d previously only seen. She ran her palms over his bare skin, glorying in every hard, muscled curve.
“Paige.” The way he said her name was somewhere between a curse and a prayer. He covered her shoulders in urgent, desperate kisses. “Paige.”
She sucked in a breath as he worked his way down. “I’m not going to forget my name if you keep saying it.”
Green eyes gleamed up at her. “Then I’d better put my mouth to better use.”
When his tongue found her peaked nipple, she almost levitated off the bed. She clutched at his hair, hips jerking in an involuntary plea.
He let out a muffled laugh, coming up for air. “Patience. I’ll get there, I promise.”
True to his word, he did—though he took his sweet time about it. By the time he finally moved on from her breasts, she was a gasping, writhing mess.
“Patience,” he murmured again, his hands pinning her wrists to the bed. “If I let you go, are you going to stay still?”
