Just like me.
For the first time since I’d met him, there was common ground between us.
We ate the delicious meal he’d prepared with light conversation right there at the kitchen island, eventually moving to the living room couch with plates of the rich, cocoa-dusted dessert.
I moaned around the first bite, eyes closing in utter bliss as the sweet, creamy taste melted over my tongue.
His low growl had them popping back open in surprise. His eyes glowed again, his fist clenched around the dainty little dessert spoon so hard, it wasbending.
“Brute? You okay?”
He cleared his throat, as if he was suddenly aware of his over-the-top reaction. “You can’t make noises like that. My wolf likes it a little too much.”
“Yeah?” Heat stirred low in my belly as I drank him in from head to toe. His golden-brown hair was pulled back, his neatly trimmed beard dark along his jaw. Those delectable, plush lips he’d taunted me with earlier teased me.
All thoughts of dessert fled, and I slid my plate over to the coffee table.
There was only one thing I wanted a taste of, and it was him. His own plate clattered to the tabletop seconds after mine, but he was frozen in place, watching me with the eyes of a predator.
A predator who could eat me up and spit out my bones.
But on a foundational level, I knew he wouldn’t. He wanted me, but he’d shown over and over again that he respected me and was happy to take things at my pace.
So if I wanted it, I was going to have to take it.
Damn, I wanted it.
Making a snap decision, I rose to my knees and threw a leg over his lap, straddling him and putting us chest to chest.
A low rumble in his chest told me he liked the bold move, his hands coming to rest lightly on my waist, even now protective as he waited to see what I would do next.
It felt wrong to justtake, though, after how patient he’d been with me. How giving. This whole night had been him giving to me, and I wanted to give him something back.
But what?
I had very little experience with relationships. Okay, basically none.
I’d had several quick fucks on weekend leave, but that was just curiosity. Scratching the occasional itch for release after a hard week of training.
This… was more. So much more.
Perhaps honesty was the best policy.
“I’ve been thinking about kissing you ever since you teased me with that almost kiss earlier.”
His eyebrows shot up, the side of his mouth quirking up in a half smile. “Is that so?”
“Mm-hmm,” I murmured, tracing my hands up his muscular arms, all that harnessed power in one hot-as-fuck package.
“Do you want me to do it again?” he asked, his own hands starting to rove a little, up under the hem of my shirt, to the sensitive skin of my lower back. Nothing inappropriate; just his fingertips, a ghostly promise of more.
All of a sudden, I wanted so much more. But moving fast wasn’t the point of tonight. This was dipping a toe in. Testing the waters, getting to know each other so that my eventual heat wouldn’t be awkward. Nothing more, nothing less.
Surely one little kiss wouldn’t hurt?
I bit my bottom lip, worrying it between my teeth.
He lifted a hand from my hip, tugging it free with his thumb and soothing the spot with a gentle touch. “All you have to do is say the word, Elodie.”
