I looked into his gray eyes. Assessing.
He meant it. He hadn’t had sex in three years, but he’d rather go without than let me believe I was scratching an itch any female shifter could have scratched.
“So then, if I’m not convenient…what am I?”
“You’re unforgettable. Irresistible,” he said, and suddenly I felt like I was in freefall on a swing set, waiting for my stomach to catch up with the rest of me. “I’ve hardly been able to think about anything else since the moment you popped up in my rearview mirror.” He shrugged. “Since the moment I saw you in the Di Carlo’s dining room, actually. And every time I think you can’t get any more incredible, you come up with some possibility I haven’t thought of, or you shut down some bullshit I don’t even realize I’m spouting, and you do it all with this sexy little smile.” Titus took my hand. “I don’t want to give you up, Robyn. I want you here with me, even if I never get the Pride back. If you’re willing to stay.”
My heart pounded so hard I felt dizzy. “But you told the council…”
“When Blum had you pinned, I thought I was about to lose you, and I realized Icould notlet that happen. Not to him. Not to the council. Not to anyone. We’ll figure something out. If you want to stay.”
Looking up into his eyes, I believed him. Titus was a different kind of Alpha, and not just because he wasn’t natural-born. “I want to stay with you,” I said, and he looked so relieved I almost laughed. I wanted to help him guide and support new strays, whether or not he ever got his Pride back. I wanted to see him looking at me with that hunger in his gaze every day. Every night…
I smiled and ran my hand over his side, to the lateral bulge of muscle at his hip. “So, you stopped me so I’d know I’m…inconvenient?”
“No.” His face flushed a little. “I stopped you because it’s been a while for me, and…” He brushed hair from his forehead. “Your turn.”
Titus knelt in front of me at the side of the bed, his gaze burning into me. He put a hand on each of my knees and pushed them open, and anticipation gathered low in my stomach. Then he pulled me forward as I lay back on the bed and closed my eyes.
His hands disappeared, leaving me cold and exposed for a moment. Then his fingers skimmed from my knees up my inner thighs. Parting them wider.
I moaned at the first touch of his tongue, wet and blisteringly hot against my most sensitive parts. He started off with long, slow caresses, the tip of his tongue teasing me at the end of each stroke. Then my hands found his hair, and he licked faster, harder. He stroked deeper, longer, until a blissful pressure began to build up, tightening with each touch of his tongue. Each breath came short and fast. My hands clenched around his hair, and I arched up, aching for more from each little bit of contact.
“Titus. Please…” I begged, each word a throaty whisper.
“Not yet.” He rose, and I let go of his hair reluctantly. “Wait for me, Robyn.” I propped myself on one elbow, watching as he fumbled in his brother’s nightstand, then tore open a condom. A moment later, he settled over me, supporting his weight on his elbows. His tongue trailed up my neck, pushing my head to one side as he sucked my earlobe into his mouth. “Almost…” he whispered, as he positioned himself between my thighs. Then he slid inside me in one long, smooth stroke.
For a moment, neither of us moved. I tightened around him, enjoying the pressure and friction, and he groaned softly in my ear. Then I rocked beneath him, and he groaned louder.
Titus pulled back, then sank into me again. And again. We found our rhythm, and I rose to meet him over and over. Soon that pressure built again, an ache made of promise.
When I couldn’t wait any longer, I wrapped one leg around Titus’s thigh and pushed on his shoulder. He slid one arm around me and rolled us over.
Pleased, I sat up, both hands braced on his sweat-damp chest, and took control of the rhythm. Driving us faster and faster as I chased that swelling, spiraling release.
“That’s it,” he moaned as I rode him. “Show me what you like.” Titus’s hands slid down my waist to grip my hips, pinning me to him, increasing the friction as I set the pace.
“Robyn,” he groaned, his fingers digging into my hips. He was close.
“Almost,” I panted. I sat upright, my hands in my own hair, grinding into him at a new angle, and suddenly everything tightened.
Pleasure erupted through me, tearing a cry from my throat as I rode him frantically, and for a moment I was aware of nothing but the release washing over me with every rock of my hips. Every new jolt of friction.
“Robyn!” he cried as he came, thrusting into me, pinning me against him as he bucked up from the mattress.
I rode my release until it ebbed into an aching satisfaction. Until finally, I collapsed against his shoulder, my hair spread over his arm. We breathed in sync, his heart pounding frantically beneath my ear.
Still buried inside me, he throbbed, and little aftershocks of pleasure fired through me as I tightened involuntarily around him.
“Three years, huh?” I teased, running one hand down his side. “That was some pretty impressive control.”
“It was an effort,” he admitted. “But it can only get better, right?”
I groaned. “I’m not sure I can handle anything better than that.”
He laughed, one hand wrapped around my back, holding me to him. “I have confidence that you’re up to the challenge.” Then he rolled us over and withdrew as he stood. “Be right back.”
I got up to find the pillows, and Titus returned as I was spreading the flat sheet over the bed. “Oh good. I was afraid you’d be dressed.”
