Page 160 of Red Rooster

“Don’t stop,” she said, just before he kissed her.

He didn’t stop.

He hesitated, just one more endless second, lips still against hers, fingertips shivering against the sensitive skin just under her waistband. And then something in himsnapped. She felt the break in the way he surged against her like a whip-crack; pushed her back hard against the tree; shoved his hands down inside her jeans and gripped her ass; hiked her up higher against the rough bark, and fastened his mouth to her throat.

She panicked, for just a second, when she felt the damp heat of his mouth against her pulse. Felt the faint scrape of his fangs dragging across her jugular. He’d just done this, hadn’t he? Bitten a man and drained his blood.

What was to keep him from…

Why wouldn’t he…

Did he even have any self-control…

When he pulled back, she realized her heart was racing, breath coming in quick little bursts, but it no longer had anything to do with arousal.

His eyes seemed to glow in the shadows, more reflective amber than their usual brown. “Trina.” His voice fell warm and honeyed against her face, and she felt her anxiety ebb in response. “I wouldnever,” he said. Face pained. Sad. The face of a man who’d lost something important, rather than gained a whole new lease on life.

She took a deep breath, chest aching for him. “I know.”

“Do you?”

“…Yeah. I do.” And she did, she just…

The next kiss was yet again different. He leaned in slow, and kissed her deep, and wet, and lush. Messy, his tongue hot in her mouth.

“I would never hurt you,” he murmured against her lips.

She pushed her hands through his short hair and held him to her; melted against him. She’d wanted this for so long, had wanted him, a constant urge, a grab in her belly and a tightness in her lungs that she’d never allowed to fully bloom for fear that the let-down would crush her. It was that, she realized, that still haunted her; her own self-control. He wouldn’t hurt her, she knew that. She wasn’t afraid of his fangs in her throat; she was afraid that somehow, now that she finally had what she’d always wanted, that she’d manage to screw it up, and that Lanny, strong and healthy again, would find someone else. Someone better.

That was too painful to think about. She shoved it, and every other extraneous thought, firmly away.

“Lanny, I need you.”

“You got me,” he whispered back, like a promise.

He put his arms around her and held her close while he turned and put his back to the tree. Sank down so he was sitting in the grass at its base, Trina on his lap, straddling his hips.

He pressed gentle, sucking kisses to her jaw, and throat, and along her collarbones when he tugged her shirt to the side. Until heat gathered like a weight low in her belly, and she was rocking against him, teasing herself against the hard line of his erection through both their jeans.

Getting her jeans and underwear off was awkward, her movements drugged and clumsy. Lanny tried to help, and chuckled when she accidently elbowed him in the face.

“Oh, are you alright?”

“Pretty sure I’ll live,” he said with a laugh, and pulled her in close, closer, his hands warm and heavy on her hips. “Hey, come here.”

One hand slid in, along the join of hip and thigh, calluses on his fingertips sending goosebumps racing across her skin when he touched her inner thigh.

She tried to kiss him again – and it turned to a gasp instead, lips hovering above his, when his hand went rightthere. Fingers teasing against her damp folds, teasing them apart.

That had been the big surprise the first time – theonlytime – they did this. A part of her – a disappointed part – had always worried that Lanny would be the sort of guy who pawed at a womandown there. Clumsy, inexpert, just a lot of wild groping while he asked her how good it felt.

Instead he was almost delicate. Exacting.

He worked her with his fingers until she was riding them, chasing for more, panting. “Attagirl,” he murmured against her temple, and kissed her there.

She shivered all the way down to her toes and reached with shaking, clumsy hands for his belt.

He hissed when she wrapped her hand around his cock.