The heat of his mouth, the way he flicked each nipple with his tongue before nipping gently, and the pleasure/pain as he drew on it made her gasp.
Pleasure drove her. Cassie arched her back as he licked a path over her stomach. Then she spread her legs when he moved lower to trail the tip of his tongue up her inner thigh.
But when he slid his hands under her bottom, lifted her to meet his mouth, and then used that same tongue tip to tease the sensitive nub that was control central for what seemed to be every nerve ending in her body, she took a dive into the same place she’d visited the first time they’d kissed.
“Please, please, please.” Her breaths came in tortured gasps as she pleaded with him. Please hold me so close that you absorb every cell in my body. Please fill me so the emotions won’t hurt so much. Please let me touch you. Cassie didn’t think she meant his body with that last “please.” But then she wasn’t doing much thinking at all right now.
Raw emotions and sensations that threatened to wash her away shook her until she gripped the bottom sheet as an anchor. She whimpered as he slipped his tongue in and out, in and out.
Cassie clenched her muscles around the indescribable pleasure—trying to slow it down, hang on to it. Finally her emotions overflowed the dam she hadn’t done much to shore up.
Need, want so intense that it hurt, and an unnamed emotion that tugged and tugged at her heart until she expected it to explode from her chest battered her. With a growl she didn’t even recognize as coming from her, she raised herself enough to tangle her fingers in his hair and yank.
He didn’t fight her. She sensed that his eyes would be black behind his glasses, and she would’ve sworn his hands shook as he grasped her arms and flopped onto his back, dragging her on top of him.
Cassie wasn’t sure who the vampire was here, because she wanted to eat him alive, drain him of every drop of whatever magic he was feeding her. She whimpered as she rose to straddle him the same way he had her. Strands of thoughts mixed with the sensations and emotions, driving her into a feverish frenzy to . . .
She knew if she didn’t put her mouth, her hands, on his body, there’d be nothing but an empty husk of a woman left when this was over. The heat of her hunger would burn her to gray ash and then the ash would blow away on the wind of her frustrated need.
Cassie memorized every line, every curve of him as she slid her fingers over his smooth sleek body. Her fingers trembled as she spent quality time running one fingernail lightly over the hard length of his erection. Before she knew it, her mouth had replaced her hands.
She’d never get enough of him. She glided her tongue over his cock—all velvety soft skin and hard male need—and slipped her lips over the head. As she mimicked the rhythm of love, she soaked up his deep groans.
It wasn’t enough, it would never be enough. Her feelings fought the tangle of physical sensations, trying to tell her something, something important.
But all coherent thought fled on the surge of what had to be her own Second One, and it was shouting, “Now, now, now.”
It must’ve been loud enough for Ethan to hear because he put his hands on her hips and effortlessly lifted her onto his erection.
Slow. She wanted to make it last. Forever. But her body didn’t agree. Cassie felt the head of his c**k pressing, pressing and . . . She. Couldn’t. Stand. It.
She lowered herself slowly, with exquisite care, with deep breaths each time she felt him spread her apart and push in a little farther. Slowly, focusing on the moment, the sensation, the feeling.
Then he moved. With a hard thrust, he drove into her and she lost it.
She met his thrust with her own, joining them completely, and nothing she’d ever experienced felt like the sensation of him completely filling her—pressing, pressing.
She cried out as the deep dark emotional place she’d found before swallowed her. Want so powerful, so primal that she felt tears streaming down her face. She wanted, no needed his body, his soul, his everything. This couldn’t be love, because love wasn’t this savage. And right now she could’ve stepped right out of the primordial ooze.
Then she stopped thinking.
The friction. The rise and then the plunge to meet his thrusts. The hammering of her heart. The harsh rasps of her breath. The sensation of his body hard between her thighs. The friction, friction, and oh my God!
Her orgasm caught her and shook her with so much power that she couldn’t even scream. She hung there while spasm after spasm shattered her past and rebuilt her future expectations. Never would she feel this way again.
And as the spasms slowly grew weaker, she mourned their loss. She was thinking again. Had he gotten his release? He hadn’t . . . “You didn’t bite me.” She weakly climbed off him and lay on her back beside him.
He picked up her hand and placed it over his heart.
Surprised, she could feel his heartbeat. “It isn’t racing.”
“Believe me, for a vampire, that’s a racing heart. Any more excitement and I would’ve been the first vampire to die of a heart attack.”
She laughed, but then grew silent. Something was wrong. Cassie didn’t know how she knew, but she felt the tension in him. Was it her? “Is everything okay?” Did she sound pitiful or what? Tell me I didn’t take the most incredible trip of my life alone.
“What we just had . . .” He didn’t turn his head to look at her.
Lost for words? Not something she expected from Ethan.
“It changed everything, Cassie.”
What the hell did he mean by that?
“But something’s wrong. I feel it.” Strange how she was so sure she could sense the feelings of a man she’d known for such a short time. It was what it was, though.
Ethan finally looked at her, but his glasses hid his emotions.
“You felt what happened between us.” He held up his hand to stop her response. “Just know that I will keep you safe.” His lips softened into a smile. “Because I can’t imagine ever finding someone like you again in a thousand lifetimes.”
Chapter Nine
Cassie’s surge of joy came first. It was all emotion. No thoughts involved. She would have been happy to stay in that state forever.
But her mind couldn’t keep from messing with her happiness. The doubts began. He hadn’t mentioned love. Vampire or not, he was male. Was this only about mind-blowing sex? And he’d mentioned a thousand lifetimes. She’d be able to share only one with him. He’d have to trudge through the other nine hundred ninety-nine alone.