by Anna Lowe
“This is crazy,” she mumbled.
“Crazy?” Yes, he’d been crazy to ever let her go. But watching her like this felt just right.
“All this time apart, and what are we doing now that we’re finally together?”
His mind skipped and replayed her words, packing in a thousand echoes in the pause that followed. Now that we’re finally together…
“What?” he gulped.
“Watching.” She shook her head.
“I like watching you.”
“I like watching you, too. But I like feeling you even more.”
His chest rose with a huge lungful of air he savored along with the words. The room was thick with the scent of her desire.
“I can feel you,” he insisted.
She tilted her head.
“Close your eyes.” He saw the protest on the tip of her tongue and hurried on. “Just for a second, close your eyes.”
He watched that she’d done it, then let his eyelids drop. “Now, feel,” he whispered.
He sent his mind out to tap hers and let his body replay her movements. How her fingers opened and closed and curved around her breast…
“Soren…”
“Shh. Just feel.”
He imagined it was her hand, wrapped around his cock, and his fingers, playing over her breast. So soft, so perfect. He touched one, then the other, and lowered his head to kiss. To lick, too. He imagined the moon shining on her skin, and it felt so real, so incredibly good…
Moonlust, his bear gave a dreamy nod.
“Soren…” Sarah called, but it wasn’t a protest this time. It was a moan. “So good…”
When he squeezed his lips tighter around her nipple and pinched the other side harder, he could feel her rise against him and her hand tighten around his cock. The boundaries blurred until it didn’t matter who was touching whom any more, because he could feel himself and feel her at the same time. He could feel her pleasure and her building need.
She pumped down to the base of his cock, then slid up and played with the velvety tip, driving him crazy in the very best way.
“Soren,” she called, and his hand slid toward her sex. Her hand, actually, but it felt like his.
Touch her! his bear called just loud enough to break him out of the spell. Take her!
His eyes snapped open exactly as hers did, and they watched each other pant for five or six heartbeats.
“Wow,” she breathed.
He nodded. It had been so real.
She rolled sideways and reached out her hand. “You. I need you. Not just in my imagination.”
A faint hallelujah chorus filled the corners of his mind.
She held up the edge of the sheet, and two steps later, he slid into place like they’d choreographed exactly that move a thousand times. And of course, they had in the past, but not quite this way. There was the baby to work around this time, but somehow, he knew exactly where to go, just how to fit. One arm over here, one leg along hers over there, and his mouth…
The second his lips closed over hers, he consumed them. Devoured them. He reached deeper and deeper until she was whimpering with pleasure. All the need pent up over a year of abstinence and sorrow came pouring out — his and hers like two waves moving in opposite directions and coming together with a crash. He came up for a breath of air, and suddenly, it was her, pushing him onto the mattress and engulfing him with a hundred hungry kisses and licks. Her tongue danced with his, and she made desperate little noises that drove his bear wild. So wild, he jackknifed up and rolled, rearing above her again.
I like feeling you, she’d said.
He’d let her feel him, all right. He hung on to the kiss until his lungs burned, and after a quick breath of air, he moved down her body to her breasts. The left side. God, the right side. Both so, so good. Soft and malleable yet hard in the center where her nipples practically begged for his mouth. He sucked on one, much harder and longer than in the vision they’d shared, and Sarah writhed beneath him. Her hands were everywhere, igniting separate fires everywhere they came down — fires that spread and blended until his bear roared for more.
Mate! his bear crowed wildly. Mine!
“Yes…ahh…”
God, he loved the noises she made.
He feasted on her taste, her scent, her soft skin. Wondered how the hell he’d survived as long as he had without her and why he’d ever thought he could. And when he slipped a hand lower to trace the folds of her sex, his ears just about exploded from the rush of blood through his veins. Or maybe it was Moonlust, letting him feel the rush in her veins.
He swept his finger deeper, making her buck and moan.
He didn’t say much because he couldn’t say much. He just thought it over and over.
Love you. Love you. Love you.
Want to make you mine, his bear added in a growly undertone. Make you mine.
His gums ached from where his bear teeth pushed, trying to extend, ready for a mating bite. He’d fought the same urge off a thousand times before, but it was harder than ever this time. This time, he knew what he was risking. He knew it was crazy to assume he’d have another chance. If he didn’t take her now…
But if he did take her now, he’d be betraying the trust he was only barely starting to win back. Sarah didn’t know about shifters. She didn’t know about the mating bite.
She’d want it! his bear cried. She’d agree!
He could have snorted. Like a bear could judge. Like he could judge in the state he was in.
No. Tonight was not for mating or confessing or explaining. It was to reunite. To learn her body all over again. To try to make things up to her. To make her sing with pleasure.
“Soren,” she cried as he touched deeper.
That was the song. That was what he wanted to hear.
He ran two fingers through her folds, then dipped in.
“God, Soren…”
She was warm and slippery and so, so ready for him.
He turned his head from one nipple to the other while circling his fingers inside her.
“Oh, yes…”
She danced on his hand and under his mouth. Her fingers raked his hair. Her hips rose right off the bed.
“So good…”
It was more than good. It was heaven. All these months, he’d been a ghost. Now, he was alive. Blissfully, joyously alive, because he had his mate.
Her chest lifted as she tipped her head back and cried out. She was so, so close, but stubbornly holding out at the same time. Every muscle in her body was wound incredibly tight.
Her nails clawed at his shoulders as she sought out a new position.
“You,” she panted. “Need you inside. Please, Soren.” She twisted and rolled.
He rolled, too, in another one of those perfect moments that some outside hand seemed to be guiding them through like a couple of puppets on strings. She rose up, taking the top as he stretched on his back. She split into a straddle and gazed down at him with wild, hungry eyes.
Her mouth opened with words she didn’t utter as she slid along his body, seeking his cock. He guided her hips higher, gritting his teeth as the ache in his cock increased. He was so close to entering her. So close to home.
She pushed down exactly when he thrust up, and for a moment, they both froze there, practically in midair. Her whole face went slack with ecstasy, and her mouth opened in a silent Oh.
Sweet and tight and hot, her body swallowed him up, and her head tipped back as she began to rock, riding him with long, slow strokes of her hips. Her eyes were half closed, her mouth open, and the sounds that escaped her were music to his ears.
“Yes…”
She went faster, taking him deeper. Leaning farther and farther back until the angle was perfect and his cock seated sinfully deep.
Her hair swayed with her shoulders, and her perfect breasts danced just above his eyes. The baby bump rested on his stomach, not at all the issue he thought it might be. He wrapped his fingers around her hip
s and stretched his thumbs as far toward her center as he could, strumming one and then the other against her clit.
Sarah cried with every breath she took.
“So good…” she croaked, driving her whole body against his.
His cock burned. Ached. Begged, but he sure as hell wasn’t coming until she did. But damn, it would be close. He thrust harder and tweaked his thumbs faster, rushing over the last steps to an awe-inspiring peak in exact time with her. They teetered on the edge, and Sarah shuddered and moaned.
He closed his eyes as release hit him like a flash of white lightning, and for a moment, pleasure burned through him. It burned through her, too, and he swore he could feel that just as well. How good she felt. How deep he was, almost a part of her.
When she dropped down beside him, going from taut to beautifully limp, a cottony blanket of bliss washed over him.
“Soren,” she panted into the skin of his neck. “Soren…”
Mine, he mumbled, sweeping his arms around her to hold her close. Mine.
Chapter Fifteen
Sarah all but melted into the sheets, trying to catch her breath. Not caring too much that she couldn’t because all that really mattered was staying close to Soren. Warmth washed over her, and a crazy little leftover current shot through her body, lighting up her nerves.
It had been so long since she’d touched him. So long since she’d felt this good, this safe.
She was about to say something when her body shuddered with an aftershock of pure pleasure.
“Yes…” she moaned as Soren tightened his hold on her. Jesus, the man wasn’t even in her any more, and he could still make her high. “Oh…”
It was yet another one of those times when she wanted to say everything but couldn’t manage anything, and yet Soren seemed to understand. Calm, quiet Soren, the man who listened more than he talked. When he cuddled her closer and ran a finger over her lips, his impossibly clear blue eyes shone brighter than ever.
“What are you looking at?” she asked, gazing up at him with what had to be the world’s goofiest smile.
He smiled one of those rare Soren smiles that was more than just upturned lips — it was bunched-up cheeks and shining eyes and a hazy kind of inner glow.
“You,” he said quietly. “You.”
Then he dipped his head and proceeded to nuzzle her halfway into the mattress, scrubbing his stubble up and down her neck, her cheeks, her chin. He rubbed from one sensitive spot to another, and every part of her that had forgotten about joy and hope over the past few months suddenly came back to life. Her skin begged for mercy, but her soul wanted more. More of the close contact, the intimacy. The I love you, I need you, I want you buried under every long scrape of his chin. Words she even imagined hearing in her head.
I love you, Soren, she nearly replied. Need you. Want you, too.
They lay gazing into each other’s eyes, and she didn’t know whether to measure the time in minutes or hours. Whenever his eyes roamed over her naked body, they didn’t seem to snag on her protruding belly the way they once had.
When the baby shifted, she nearly panicked, because his eyes went wide.
God, this was it. The magic spell — the Moonlust — that had bound him to her was about to burst. She braced herself, waiting for him to frown and roll away.
But Soren didn’t frown. He didn’t roll away. He just looked at her with a question in his eyes. His hand slid along the sheets, closer to her stomach, and she held her breath.
Can I touch? his raised eyebrows asked.
A funny question coming from a man who’d just touched every part of her body in the most intimate way possible. But yes, this was different. Completely different, the way opening a diary was different than opening a notebook.
She bit her lip, knotted her fingers through his, and rested all four of their hands on her belly.
The baby turned a little more, and Soren’s mouth cracked open. His hand flattened against her skin, and the breath he’d been holding came out in a long, even sigh. He watched intently for another minute, then stroked her skin with one thumb.
If Sarah hadn’t already cried a river that day, she might not have blinked her tears back. But even if they were tears of joy and relief, she’d had enough crying for a day. For a lifetime, really.
“Hey,” she whispered.
He looked up with shining eyes. “Hey.”
Not exactly poetry, but coming from Soren…
She smiled and tugged on his shoulders, bringing him face-to-face for another kiss. His lips were dry on the outside, soft on the inside. She skimmed the perfect line of his teeth with her tongue, and damn it, there she went, making hungry cat noises all over again.
Her hips pushed against his, and she wrapped a leg around his calf.
“Mmm,” he murmured in a Hungry already? kind of way.
Of course, she was hungry for him. They had a hell of a lot of lost loving to make up for.
“Mmm,” she mumbled, nodding through the next kiss.
They lay side by side, and a shockingly calculating part of her mind raced ahead to their options. They’d just done her-on-top, and she’d been breathless knowing it was a rare instance of Soren surrendering control of anything to anyone. But the cat-in-heat urge building in her demanded something hotter. Harder.
“This way,” she whispered, turning her back to him.
Soren sucked in a quick breath, like he’d been waiting for just that chance. He pulled her tighter, keeping her back to his chest. They were still on their sides, now both facing the window.
His breath tickled her ear, and he looped an arm over her side. He dropped kisses on her shoulder and stroked her ribs, then the underside of her breasts.
“Mmm. Nice.” She exhaled, arching into him.
“Nice,” he agreed, teasing her nipples into tight peaks.
“Nice,” she mumbled, pushing her rear back into his groin.
The hard length of him jutted up against her tailbone, and her body practically cried for satisfaction.
Once Soren had the reins, though, the ride was all his, and he wasn’t quite ready to let her gallop away.
“Patience,” he growled in her ear. His hand slipped lower, gently guiding her legs apart.
“Patience?” she panted as he teased her folds.
A just-watch-this grunt came from over her shoulder as he circled her clit, then rubbed her entrance with the flat of his palm. His big, broad hand teased her, driving her wild.
She moaned, and he kissed her shoulder, telling her he liked that, so she let herself do it again. Not enough to alert the whole neighborhood, but enough to let him know how she felt.
“God, Soren. How am I supposed to be patient when you— Oh!” she cried out as two thick fingers warmed her inside.
She couldn’t help but rock against his hand, relishing the feel of his arousal against her body. She tilted her head back, desperate for his nipping kisses.
“Here,” he whispered, guiding her hand to her nipple and rolling it together with her. His fingers were slippery from touching her inside, and once he got her going at her own breast, he drew a line down her side and went right back to toying with her sex. He scissored his fingers inside her then circled and pumped.
“God, Soren…” she whimpered over and over, about to come undone.
He wasn’t that far off, either, judging by the tension building behind her. When he finally whispered in her ear, she was all too happy to oblige.
“Like this,” he said, helping her get to all fours.
Yes, yes, yes! her body cried, feeling him come up behind her.
One callused hand toyed with her swaying breasts, then dragged her hips back against his, and when he thrust forward—
“Yes!” she cried.
He withdrew, then rammed back, and her whole body pitched forward.
“Too hard?” he asked through clenched teeth.
She panted, ramming back against him. “I want hard.”
He withdrew far enough to nearly break contact, then pushed back in.
“Harder,” she breathed, dropping her head.
He pulled out, waited just long enough to torture her, then burst back in with a grunt.
“Harder,” she cried.
The deeper he reached, the more she craved him, and her cries grew more and more desperate. He drove her higher and higher. Physically higher, too, working her up the mattress in heated spurts that made her crazy with desire.
“So good,” she croaked as his steady rhythm tipped over into a frenzy. Anchoring her elbows on the bed, she pushed back against him, countering each thrust until they were both panting and groaning and urging each other on.
He took hold of her left hip to help her push back, and she squeezed her eyes shut against the beautiful friction building inside.
“Yes…yes…”
She yesed him through four more thrusts and the long, shuddering high that overcame both of them a second later.
“Yes.” Even Soren succumbed to the need to moan something at the peak of the ride. He held her tight against his body as he came inside her.
“So good,” she whispered a second later.
Panting into a pillow with her ass in the air shouldn’t qualify as the most glorious high of her life, but she was pretty sure it was. They’d had sex so many times in the past, but this was different. It was raw and a little rough. Possessive, and though she hated to admit it, she needed that. God, she needed that.
“Sarah,” he whispered in a way that suggested he still couldn’t believe it was her.
Then she was melting again, and it was all she could do to slide around and clean up with a corner of the sheet — a mess she’d feel guilty about later. Right now, all she wanted was Soren.
He scooped her against the curve of his chest, and there they were, back where they’d started. They kept their hands wrapped around each other, and their chests rose and fell in perfect time.
She stared hazily across the dim room. The crescent moon was higher now, a sliver of light in the upper corner of the window that smiled at her.
“Goodnight,” she whispered, more to the moon than to Soren.
“Goodnight,” he echoed, kissing her skin.