Fade Out (The Morganville Vampires #7)(57)
As her hips rock, her body guiding my movements, demanding release, I clasp her around her waist. My cock is thick and hard and straining achingly against my jeans. But she’s so close; I can feel the need thrumming through her body with every swirl of my tongue, every caress of my fingers—then she tenses, and a rush of adrenaline goes right to my cock.
She moans out my name, and her walls clench around my fingers as a violent shiver takes her body. I push my fingers in farther and work the throb until she’s breaking around me, her heavy breaths heightening my need for her.
When she bucks her hips against the aftershocks of her orgasm, I pull her down on top of me, wrapping my arms around her damp body. She reaches up and removes the band from her hair, letting her destroyed ponytail free. Her scent fills my nose as her hair falls around my face.
She moves to run her hand along my chest, working her way down…but I clasp it still on my stomach. “I need a minute,” I say. If I don’t calm down, I’m going to f*ck her hard and raw. I’m so attuned to her, so turned on, that I’ll just relinquish all control—and I need some level of it right now. The night at the beach leveled me; I can’t lay myself out on the altar like that again.
She raises her head and catches my gaze, a knowing look pulling at the corners of her mouth. Then, as if she wants to just pull the trigger and kill me now, she brushes her lips against mine, tasting herself on me. And I’m through.
My heart ramps, beating wildly against my chest wall, an ache scorching me from the inside out. My hands go to her face, needing to keep her there. She begins to grind her bared * against my aching dick, and a hoarse groan expels from my mouth.
But no, I’m not letting her take that shit again. I’m going to have her fully naked, skin-to-skin, letting me ravish every inch of her. With hurried movements, we make quick work of losing our clothes. I strip her of her thermal; she tears at the buttons of my shirt. Her skirt is lost to the floor as I push her back on her knees and wriggle it down her thighs and toss it aside. My jeans are discarded right along after she frees my zipper and hauls them down. Then she’s taking me in her hands, both of them, and my eyes close on a hiss.
Kneeling before her, my muscles strained and my jaw locked, I feel my balls tighten as she strokes me from root to head. My eyes open, my gaze flicks to her heated eyes, filled with want. Her round breasts heavy, silky pink nipples peaked, are begging for my attention. Her breastbone betrays the stress she’s under—from her parents, school, maybe even possibly me; though I’m not that vain to believe I measure up in her world—as they protrude over the swell of her breasts.
But it’s not enough to take away from her beauty; only make me desire her all the more, wanting to shelter her from the world that wants to destroy her. Before I can lose myself in the sensation devastating me at the feel of her gripping my cock, I pull her to me and kiss her lips. Softly, tenderly, letting my feelings for her melt through her with each sweep of my tongue.
Grabbing the backs of her thighs, I lift her, and she wraps her legs around me. I cradle her against me, moving my palms desperately over her body until they’ve found her shoulders, then I’m bringing her down hard against me.
A fierce shudder of pure bliss racks me as her wet, slick lips slide sensually along the shaft of my cock. God, but I would die to be inside her—just like this. No barrier between us. But then I really would be lost. I’ve never felt that with any girl before, and Ari would end me—needing her to be the last.
I hold her back as I ease us to the bed, pressing her into the mattress, as if the solid object beneath us will get her that much closer to me. My mind is spinning, her scent and soft skin draining me of any willpower.
As I reach over to my nightstand, she stills beneath me, and a shot of alarm fires through my awareness. I pull back to look at her.
Her gaze dances over my face. “You have to promise me something,” she says, her voice cracking at the end.
If she thinks there’s anything I wouldn’t vow to her in this moment, she obviously doesn’t realize how much she’s infected me—how much she owns me. In answer, I kiss her. Softly brushing my lips against hers.
Her quick inhale steals over me with dread. “Let me trust you, believe in you, for however long this lasts. I don’t expect a commitment, because that would be the ultimate hypocrisy on my part…” She trails off. “But I need to at least believe I’m not a conquest.”
I part my lips to say all the things that will chase away her doubt, every profession that this is beyond anything I’ve ever experienced, and that I’m scared shitless, too—but she breaks my thoughts apart with, “And you can’t fall for me.”
My mouth clamps shut. I can’t make that promise, because that was a done deal the second she looked at me with those bottomless amber eyes. I have to give her something, though. Anything that will alleviate the fear I see in those eyes right now.
“And yet I’ve fumbled the whole way,” I say, giving her a cocky grin. It works, and she smiles, her body vibrating beneath me as she releases a throaty laugh. I run my thumb along her cheek, saying, “Rather, how about this. I’ll only fall as far as you do.”
As soon as it leaves my mouth, I regret it. It was meant as a dare; but it’s more than clear my feelings for her run deeper than hers for me. And though I’m pretty confident in my abilities to get the job done where most girls are concerned, Ari is not most girls—I’m in over my head with her. Not sure if I can win her completely over before her family steals her away. Before some douchebag is putting a ring on her finger. The thought has me furrowing my brows, and Ari reaches up to smooth her thumb between the crease.