Eyes flying open, I pin her with a warning look. “You’ve had enough excitement for one day.”
Pouting, she smiles.
I swear, she’s enjoying this.
She turns to face me and slowly unbuttons her shirt, backlit by the lamp on her bedside table. Her white lacy bra is torturing me, showing me a hint of dusky pink skin and the outline of her stiff nipples.
Lisa reaches for my hand, drawing it up, and presses my palm flat against her chest, right over her heart, which is racing beneath her silky soft skin.
"You missed a spot."
Our eyes lock, the power of the connection between us overwhelming. The bond between us pulls tight, almost painfully so, and the rumble in my chest grows. Her lips part, her breathing quickens, and I know she feels it too.
She sits on the edge of the bed and pulls me toward her by my belt.
I go willingly, standing between her knees, her hands now resting on my hips, looking up at me.
"The marking thing. Tell me more."
While her nimble fingers work on the black leather, I fight to bring my brain back online and answer her question.
"When a shifter, like me, bonds with their mate, there's a bite." I touch the spot where her neck meets her shoulder, and goosebumps rise under my fingertips. "It's permanent. Just like the bond. It tells every other shifter you're taken, and it forges the bond between us, strengthens it. You'd feel me the way I've started feeling you."
Her fingers trace the ghost of a bruise on the swell of her breast. "Is that what you did when you bit me?"
My eyes lock onto the mark, wishing it was darker, that the skin there was broken. "That was instinct. The real mark goes deeper."
She moans, a sexy little sound that travels straight to my swollen cock, and I run my fingertips in circles around the fake bite before cupping her breast, taking its weight in my hand and brushing my thumb over the stiff peak.
"Does it hurt?"
I shrug. I can only go by what I’ve heard. "Briefly. Not as much as you’d think."
"And after?"
A wave of lust slams into me. I want her. I need her. And more than anything, I long to know exactly what the after part feels like, with her.
“I’ve never marked anyone, Lisa. This is a once in a lifetime thing. There’s no going back.”
She swallows and nods.
"From what I’ve been told, my bear will settle, satisfied that you're his forever. The moment itself is meant to be… intense, erotic… mind-blowing." My thumb traces the line of her waist down to her hip. "And you'll carry a piece of me with you wherever you go."
My finger dips into the waistband of her pants and slides along, teasing the edge of her underwear, tickling her sensitive skin, but not daring to delve further. Not until I’m sure she can handle it.
Because the way I’m feeling right now, if I taste her, feel her wrapped around me, there’s no way I could stop myself from claiming her entirely.
“Careful,” I hiss through gritted teeth when she pops the button of my trousers open and slips her delicate fingers inside, running her palm along my hard length, down and up. Groaning,I grip the footboard of the bed with one hand to keep steady, and to stop myself from grabbing her.
“I don’t want to be careful. We’ve been pretty reckless so far, and it seems to be working for us.”
Lisa's hand comes up and wraps around the back of my neck, pulling me down until our foreheads touch. Her breath is warm against my mouth.
"I want it."
My bear goes perfectly still, and I stop breathing. Both of us scarcely believing what she just said.
"Lisa, I…"
