“Because I like Texas. It’s big, it’s bold, it’s not afraid of the world. I like to brag that I’m from the most in-your-face state in the country.”
“But you’re from Colorado.”
Ellison grinned his big Texas grin, then subsided. “You want to know the truth?” He traced a soft pattern on her breast, which slid fire to her heart. “When my sister and I and my nephews were rounded up to be brought here, Collared and registered like cattle, I didn’t know what was going to happen to us. By the time we were dumped here, left in front of this house, which was at the time a rundown pile of crap, I’d figured out one thing. Deni and I had left behind a lot of sadness, a hole where our lives used to be. I looked around at this vast place, and I decided Texas would be our new beginning. I left behind my old life and totally embraced the new, every part of it. Got me a big pickup, a flag, a belt buckle, and an accent. The hat and boots I already had, ’cause you know, real cowboys come from Colorado.”
Maria laughed again. “You have a big ego.”
“So I fit right in. But I learned to love everything Texas, my new home, my new life. It saved me.”
She nodded, understanding. “Like me trying to learn to be American, and go to school, and live with Shifters.”
Ellison drew his fingers up her throat and around her chin, his touch featherlight. “We’re both carving out a place for ourselves.” His voice went quiet. “How about we do it together?”
Words welled up inside Maria, so many words that she couldn’t make them coherent. “Yes,” she said softly.
The Shifter wolf flashed into his eyes and out again. “Maria, honey, yesterday, in the water, everything was slow, sensual.” He slid his touch to her breast again. “Tonight, I don’t know if I can be as sweet.”
Maria’s heart beat faster, a point of heat curling between her thighs. “I don’t want sweet.”
“You sure?” Ellison’s breath came faster, his body tightening. “I don’t want to rush you, or scare you. But if I start . . . I won’t be able to stop.”
More excitement licked through her. “I’m sure. It’s not the same.” She laced her fingers through his hair at the nape of his neck. “You’re Ellison. You care about me. It’s different.”
“I do care.” Ellison’s voice gentled. “I love you, Maria. I’ve been waiting for you for so long.”
Maria had been waiting for him. She hadn’t known it those long years, through the misery and the pain. But she’d realized, that day she met him, when he’d touched his hat and said, “Ma’am,” that her knight in shining armor had come.
“I can’t . . .” Ellison said. “Goddess.”
He rolled off her, coming to his feet, his eyes pale gray in the moonlight. He yanked off his belt and boots, jeans and shirt, emerging bare. Bruises and abrasions were dark across his torso, but they were healing, his Shifter metabolism working on them already.
Ellison leaned down and yanked open the button of Maria’s jeans. She tried to help slide them down, but he had them off in a few swift jerks, pulling the panties after them. He left her shoes, slim sandals, on her feet, too impatient to remove them.
Ellison came back onto the bed, his warm bare body over hers, lowering himself without hurting her.
That was the last thing he did gently. He skimmed back her hair from her forehead and took her mouth in a deep, long kiss. His tongue tangled hers, the kiss hot and satisfying.
His kisses fell on her throat, her br**sts, her belly, back to her br**sts again. Ellison closed his mouth over one nipple, suckling, until Maria arched, the tight little pain bringing out a noise of pleasure.
More kisses, down her abdomen, one pressed to her navel, and the next between her legs. Maria felt his tongue, and she cried out. Ellison licked her there, moving his tongue around her opening, plunging inside it, her hips lifting from the mattress. Maria had never felt such a thing, had never experienced this kind of fine wildness.
Because Ellison did it for pleasure alone. The feral Shifters had cared only for their pleasure, and for creating cubs, and hadn’t been concerned about Maria.
Ellison was taking the time to show his mate pleasure, joy, how it felt to be treasured. It was loving, caring.
The sensation also had Maria winding toward climax. White fire rippled through her, radiating from Ellison’s skilled tongue all the way to her fingertips. She rocked against him, her hand furrowing his hair, pulling him closer, closer.
Ellison lifted his beautiful mouth away and slid his body up hers. He enclosed her in his arms, catching her cries of climax on his lips at the same time he slid straight into her.
Maria’s eyes widened. Yesterday in the water, she easing herself onto him, she’d not had this fullness. He’d filled her, yes, but tonight she had the entire length of him, and it was powerful. Ellison spread her wide, she tight and hot, the place where they joined filled with wonderful ache.
“Ellison,” she said, her voice rolling through the room. “I love you!”
“I love you, Maria.” His voice was fierce, his body strong. “Mate of my heart. Together. We do this together.”
“Always.” Together in life, in family, in love, now.
Maria rose to meet him, Ellison’s openmouthed kisses like washes of fire, Maria burning to ash beneath him.
She reached out to brush aside her fear, and found it dissolving under his heat and love, like dust motes over bluebonnets on a Texas spring breeze.