by Helen Scott
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” she said softly. The cold water was starting to make her shiver, so she wrapped her arms around herself.
Thad’s eyes took in the change and locked on hers.
“Cold?”
Cin nodded, trying to keep her teeth from chattering.
“Come here.” Thad opened his arms, and she gladly went into them. The water flowing over him was warm now, and that combined with the heat radiating off Thad had Cin’s temperature rising. She closed her eyes and leaned against him, luxuriating in the smell of his skin. Thad’s hand came up and stroked her hair.
“Why don’t we shower and try and get some sleep?”
“I don’t know that I can sleep. I’m too jumpy. I feel like my brain is buzzing with a million questions, none of which I have the answers to.” She sighed against his chest.
“Well, let’s shower and find some dry clothes for you, then. I can step out and dig out a T-shirt of mine.” He stepped away from her, leaving the cold water pelting her skin.
Cin was paralyzed with indecision for a moment. She didn’t want him to leave. His presence comforted her on such a deep level. She hadn’t even been aware of it until he had started to walk out of the shower. The small sense of calm she had was leaving with him.
“Stay,” she said quietly.
He stopped. “Cin, I don’t know that I have the control for that.”
“I won't let you do anything I’m not comfortable with. I do know Krav Maga, after all, or did you forget the hurt I put on that guy in my apartment?”
“Is that what that was?” Thad said, turning toward her.
“I took a few years of it in college. Helped me deal with stuff.”
“Cin, I should really go. You don’t know me.”
“But I want to, if you'll let me.”
Chapter 9
Thad faced Cin now, and all he wanted to do was gather her in his arms again. It had taken all his determination to let go of her before, and now that she’d asked him to stay? Well, the last slivers of willpower were quickly disappearing.
He stepped toward her, intending to hug her again, but his hands had other ideas as they dipped lower on her waist, pulling her toward him, not touching but close enough. He remembered the brief instant their lips met, and fire ran through his veins.
She wasn’t scared of him. She wasn’t some drunk one-night stand that he used to satiate his need. Cin was real and sexy and interested in him. It blew his mind.
Thad was so used to the rejection and fear, even disgust in women's eyes if they saw his own. He’d kept his hair long ever since he was a boy, using it as his shield so that he could hide from the world.
Then sunglasses had come along, and he’d breathed a sigh of relief. He could finally see the world without his hair in his face all the time. But sunglasses could fall off and frequently earned him strange looks when he wore them at night. Cin’s hands brought him back to the present as they ran down his back, slipping underneath the waistband of his boxer briefs.
“You know showering is generally done naked, unless you know something I don’t?” She grinned at him.
“Well, if that’s what convention dictates, then I guess we should follow along.”
“I guess we should.” Her voice was low and husky, making his cock pulse with need.
Cin’s hands gently pulled on the waistband, slowly lowering his boxers, until they caught on his dick. She moved her hands around to the front of him and gently pulled the boxers over his painfully swollen cock so they puddled on the floor about his feet. Gods, he didn’t think he could take it if she touched his cock.
Thad studied her. She never looked away, unflinching in the face of a supernatural being. The heat behind her eyes stoked the blaze inside him. His hands drifted up from her butt to the edge of her tank top, raising it achingly slowly.
Inch by inch, her breasts were bared to him. He wanted to drop down and worship them as they deserved, but he couldn’t break the eye contact he had with Cin. There was something more intimate about it than anything he’d ever experienced.
Even as she pulled her arms through the straps of the tank top, she kept watching him. There was a flash of black as the tank top was pulled over her head, but the eye contact never really broke.
His hands skimmed her, earning a ripple of goosebumps and a slight shudder as they traveled up toward her breasts, greedy to hold them. Her breathing was faster now, and something inside him reveled in the fact that he was causing her pleasure with his touch. He hadn’t gone slow with a woman since he was a teenager, but now he found he wanted to make every second of this encounter last, burning it into his memory.
He brushed against her nipples as he fondled her breasts, making her gasp. She still didn’t let her eye contact go. She didn’t close her eyes to focus on the sensation of his touch or to imagine someone else. Cin was present with him in this moment, letting him do what he needed, letting him set the pace.
Her hands simply rested on his lower back, her fingertips brushing his upper butt cheeks. Thad had expected her to be all over him like so many of the women he’d encountered over the years. It was almost like they were trying to hurry the experience along. Cin did no such thing. She watched and took her cues from him, which was everything he needed right now.
Being here with her, like this, it felt like time was an abstract concept, like they had all the time in the world to explore each other. Thad could feel each drop of water on his skin, hear each droplet that hit the ground, the scent of Cin gently invading his senses.
He listened to the faintest changes in Cin’s breathing. The feel of her pulse against his touch consumed him. When his brain combined all that with the unforgiving eye contact that allowed him to see her pupils dilate, he felt like the whole world had reduced to the two of them in this room together.
As his fingertips grazed her nipples again and again, her breathing became ragged. Thad could tell it was getting harder for her to let him take the lead as she kept starting to move and then stopping as though reining herself in. Still maintaining eye contact, Thad lowered his hands to the panties she wore, skimming his fingers over the outside, nudging her legs apart when he came to the junction of her thighs.
Cin stepped wider, giving him access to her core. He inched closer to her, watching her eyes widen as his fingers stroked her sex over her panties. Her scent surrounded him, and he forgot the water that was raining down over the two of them.
Pressing a finger against where he guessed her clit would be, Thad received a sharp intake of breath in return. He smiled, pleased with her reaction. Cin’s smile in response was beatific, and his heart leaped. He hooked his fingers in the edge of her panties on each hip and began pulling them down. Lowering himself to kneeling in front of her, still she watched him. Thad couldn’t remember ever keeping eye contact with someone for this long.
He pulled the panties down excruciatingly slowly, lifting her feet one at a time to help her step out of them. Her hands rested on his shoulders now, and while they were close to his face, the nervousness he usually experienced didn’t set in. Thad trailed his fingers up the inside of her legs until he reached the apex of her thighs.
His fingers trailed along the outer edge of her sex and back up over her stomach to cup her breasts. He leaned forward, watching Cin’s eyes as his tongue darted out, playing with each nipple in turn. She gasped, and Thad felt more of her weight on his shoulders.
He was making her weak in the knees.
Good.
He laved each nipple, rolling whichever one he wasn’t paying attention to with his mouth between his fingers, earning small moans from that beautiful mouth. He pulled back and watched her. Her expression was one of frustration and bliss. Working one nipple with one hand, his other sought out that little nub of pleasure that he knew by now she was craving he touch.
His fingers slipped between her folds, and he found her more than ready for him. He teased her entrance before sinking one fing
er into her. Her brows drew together in pleasure, but she tried maintaining eye contact, although her blinks were getting longer. Thad wondered how long he could tease her before either he exploded or she couldn’t keep up the eye contact anymore.
When he sunk a second finger into her, she moaned louder this time. Thad thought he had finally found her limit, but her eyes snapped back open and focused on him. He raised an eyebrow at her, and she grinned at him. She wasn’t going to give up easily. As his fingers thrust in and out of her, he began rubbing around her clit with his thumb. Not quite touching it.
Cin laughed, deep and throaty, as he circled her. He was teasing her, and she knew it, pushing her to her limits for how much she would take and keep her eyes open, and she wasn’t willing to back down. He ran his thumb over her clit, which caused her body to buck. As she looked down at him again, she bit her bottom lip, just on one side.
It was almost enough to undo him right there, staring at her from between her breasts with his fingers deep inside her. Gods, he couldn’t wait for it to be his cock. Thad’s own breathing was ragged, and Cin only made it worse by moving her hands from his shoulders to his chest, her fingertips just able to graze his nipples.
He skimmed her clit again with his thumb, and her body bucked. Finally, he pressed on her clit, and she bucked so hard, he thought she was going to fall over. Her legs trembled, and he knew she was close. Standing up, he hunched over slightly so his fingers could continue their administrations. Their eyes locked with each other, and their faces were almost touching. He hadn’t voluntarily been this close to a woman’s face in centuries. Her breath tickled his lips, and as he withdrew his fingers, she pouted ever so slightly. He was sorely tempted to kiss the pout away, but he didn’t want to ruin what was happening.
Thad wrapped one arm around her waist, pinning her to one side of him, while his other hand went back to her clit. Now, with her body pressed to his, he could feel every tremble and twitch. He circled her clit, and each time she trembled and quaked. Finally, he grazed the bundle of nerves, and she moaned, her breath warming his cheeks. He hadn’t realized that they were both cold until that moment. He pressed her clit and circled it firmly, and she gasped and moaned. Each time he could feel her almost let go, something held her back.
“Come for me, Cin.” He stared into her eyes, willing her to lose herself to the pleasure he was trying to give her.
“I’ll fall,” she panted.
“I’ve got you, Cin. Let go.”
He circled her clit again and again, his tempo increasing, her body writhing against his. Gods, he wanted to bed this woman more than he wanted anything.
“Look at me when you come.” His fingers were frantically circling her clit now, flicking his fingers over the top of the nub, and he felt her body tense. He did it once, twice, three times more. The third time, she exploded around him. Shouting her pleasure, briefly keeping eye contact with him before nestling her head against his shoulder. Her body clinging to his, he lifted her higher, and his fingers plunged into her, causing another orgasm.
Thad felt her core clenching around his fingers, and he flicked his thumb against her clit. She flung her head back, letting her orgasm wash over her. Thad never wanted it to end. He drew out the orgasm, wringing every last drop of pleasure from it for her that he could. Then, he shocked himself and kissed her. He hadn’t planned on doing it—he just did. Now she was moaning into his mouth as his lips pressed to hers.
Her lips were silky soft and felt like pillows under his own. His tongue darted out and ran along the seam, causing her to open her lips. His tongue delved into her mouth, exploring and tangling with her own.
Why hadn’t he done this earlier?
Oh yeah, cause he didn’t like what happened when people saw his eyes. Cin was different, though. She had never shown fear or disgust. He pulled back from the kiss as the tremors in her body slowed. She was limp in his arms as her eyes fluttered open.
“You kissed me,” she breathed.
“I did," he said, looking down at her.
Cin closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder for a moment before the shivering started. At some point, the water had turned very cold. Thad turned the shower off with the hand that wasn’t supporting her and walked them out of the shower. He propped her up on the sink counter.
“Don’t fall. I’m getting us towels.”
“Okay,” she said sleepily.
Thad grabbed a couple handfuls of towels and put one around Cin’s shoulders, pulling her hair out to rest on top. He wrapped one around his waist, but had to leave it parted over his cock, which was still rock hard.
“That was . . . amazing,” Cin said as he handed her another towel, which she wrapped around her waist. She grinned at him. “How on earth did you hold me up like that?”
“I’m stronger than I look.”
“You look pretty strong, but that’s a whole different level.”
“What can I say, I’m a man of many talents. Supporting you while you orgasm is one of them.”
“You’re welcome to support me anytime.” She sighed and stretched. Thad smiled. She looked satisfied, which was his goal. “Now, what are we going to do about you?” Cin said, looking at his cock.
“Get warmed up first. You’re still shivering.” He didn’t need any attention right now. He could handle himself, if he needed to. “Let's go start the fire.”
“Whatever you say, boss.” She tipped an imaginary hat to him and followed him out of the bathroom to the fireplace in the living room.
Thad turned the starter and cranked the fire up. It wasn’t as good as a wood fire, but it would do for now. He pulled the blanket he’d been using down off the couch and laid it out on the floor in front of the fire.
“Lay down. I’ll get us some drinks since neither of us seem to want to sleep right now.” Thad padded into the kitchen and grabbed a couple beers from the fridge, popping the caps off as he wandered back to Cin.
She was lying on the blanket in front of the fire, the towels puddled around her on the floor. The light was playing on her curves as she watched the flames. Her breasts were mountains, and her hips were the foothills in the light. Thad’s hungry gaze traveled over her body to her face. Her cheeks were getting rosy from the heat.
“Hey there, handsome,” she almost purred as she looked up at him.
“Hey, beautiful,” Thad said, his voice heavy with need. “Drink? If you don’t want to, it’s totally fine.” He didn’t want her thinking he was trying to take advantage of her.
“I'd love one,” she said, taking the cold brown bottle.
A drop of condensation dripped onto her stomach as she brought the bottle to her lips, causing her to gasp. Thad knelt and licked it off. Cin moaned, and it was the sweetest sound in his ears. Thad took the bottom of his beer bottle and ran the edge of it around her nipples, causing a high-pitched gasp to escape her.
“Did you squeak?” He chuckled.
“Maybe,” Cin said, her eyes still filled with lust. “I wasn’t expecting that.”
“No?” Thad smiled. He set the bottle down on the tiles by the fire. “Were you expecting this?” he said, using his cold fingers to trace the line of her core, stopping over her bud of pleasure.
“Thad,” she moaned as her hips rolled into his hand. “I don’t think I can take another orgasm.”
“I think your body has other things in mind," he said, watching her nipples harden in the firelight.
“It might, but right now, I want you inside me.” She stared into his eyes as she spoke. “Do you have a condom?”
“Maybe?” Thad knew he had a box a while ago, but he hadn’t had sex in such a long time that he didn’t have the first clue where it would be.
“Oh.” The disappointment in Cin’s voice was like a punch to the gut. She truly wanted him, not a random guy at a bar like the other women he bedded.
“I have an idea where I have one. Hang on.” Thad went into his bedroom and rummaged through dra
wer after drawer, pleading with himself to have one. Finally, he gave up.
He stood for a moment, frustrated at himself for not being prepared. It was okay to be unprepared sometimes, he reminded himself. Even though he didn’t have a condom, he could still touch and be touched.
The thought of gathering Cin into his arms, her ass pressed against his groin, his cock nestled between her butt cheeks, flashed across his mind's eye, and his mouth went dry. He had never held a woman before. There had never been a reason to.
Most of his previous encounters had been ones of necessity that took place swiftly either in a bathroom or the back of a bar. He rarely went to a woman’s house, and Cin was the first woman ever who had been in his home. Thad wondered what she thought of it. The thought of asking if she would like to stay crossed his mind briefly before he banished it. She’d never want that. Besides, she had already mentioned leaving.
He walked back out to her. “I don’t have one.” He tried to hide the disappointment on his face, but got the feeling he didn’t do a very good job.
“That’s okay. Maybe we can pick some up tomorrow?” She smiled up at him, and his heart soared with hope.
“Yeah, sure.” A smile spread across his face at the thought of having the opportunity to get her naked again tomorrow. “Do you want to go to bed?” he asked.
“Only if you come with me.”
He extended his hand and helped her up, watching her body move. “After you, my lady,” he said, bowing slightly like a gentleman.
She smiled and walked ahead of him, her hips swaying and her ass cheeks jiggling ever so slightly with each step. He wondered if she was trying to drive him crazy. He increased his pace until he was a hair’s breadth from her and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her snugly against him.