body, bringing my legs with him until they rested on his arms.
“Um, Ben. This is . . . I mean, I’m kind of exposed,” I said, feeling both vulnerable and yet at the same time desperate to have him where I wanted him most.
“Yes, I know. You’re at my mercy. Like the feeling?”
“Imogen told me that you were naturally dominant. I didn’t understand quite why she said that, but I guess now I know what she—Ben!”
He leaned forward to capture my gasp as he slid into my body with a movement that left me breathless.
“I begin to think I’m doing this wrong,” he said, releasing my lower lip from where he had been sucking on it. His hips flexed, and this time my eyes did cross as he released my legs. I wrapped them around his hips and arched up against him.
I scraped my nails down his spine, enjoying the sensations he was mentally feeding me. I could feel his arousal building, which just fired mine to new heights. “I can’t imagine that what you’re doing is anything but absolutely perfect. Particularly that.”
He gave another hard little thrust that had me digging my fingers into the thick muscles of his behind, trying to pull him in deeper. “If I was doing it correctly, you shouldn’t be able to talk at all, let alone think.”
I started to laugh. I couldn’t help myself, it was just so funny that in the middle of all that thrusting and heaving and wet, slick noises that were slightly embarrassing since I knew they had their source with me, in all of the passion that wrapped us in its fire, he thought he wasn’t doing it right.
I kissed him, savoring both the taste and feel of him as our bodies moved together in a rhythm that seemed wholly unique to us. I wanted to say something profound, something that would tell him what this moment meant to me, but all that came out was a plea.
His mouth moved to my neck and down to my shoulder, trailing burning kisses in its wake. I had spoken the truth—the desire to feed swamped him, filling his mind with a need that claimed me as well.
He licked a spot on my shoulder, his teeth scraping as he fought a war between need and self-control. I couldn’t stand it, couldn’t resist any more of the sensations of pleasure he was pouring into my mind. My body tightened around him as I was sent spiraling into a moment of pure, unadulterated rapture. Ben groaned, arching back to yell something in a language I didn’t understand, his hips making a couple of short, fast thrusts before he collapsed down onto me.
I welcomed the weight of him, my breathing as ragged and rough as his. I held him tight as our hearts beat wildly, slowly calming until some minutes later, when Ben roused himself with a murmur about crushing me.
“Not in the least,” I told him as he rolled over onto his back, pulling me flush against his side. I was glad he did—I felt as boneless as a newborn baby.
Ben suddenly cracked an eye open. “Are you taking some sort of—”
“Yes,” I answered, reading the question he was about to ask.
“Good. Not that I wouldn’t have taken care of you if you weren’t, but it’s just easier this way. I assume you do not wish to have children yet.”
“Not yet, no.”
“I find it interesting that you are not seeing any men, did not wish to see me, and yet you are utilizing birth control.”
“Are you implying I expected to have sex with you?” I asked, wanting to be annoyed, but as I’ve mentioned before, Inner Fran doesn’t let me lie to myself very often.
He closed his eye again, his arm tightening around me until I was lying halfway on his body. “I would never presume anything so clearly out of the bounds of possibility.”
I giggled into his damp chest, wanting to say something, but hesitant to ruin the lovely postcoital afterglow. “I’m sorry, Ben,” I finally said.
“You’re sorry you ever doubted I could bring you more pleasure than your toys?” he asked, his eyes still closed, but his fingers making lazy circles on my behind.
“No. Well, yes, although I think we both know that was never really in doubt.” I snuggled into him, cherishing the sensations of my body plastered against his.
His eyes opened again. They held a certain sated look that made me feel extremely smug. Just let Naomi try to bring that look to his eyes, I thought cattily to myself.
“What is it? Why do you look so pleased with yourself, but there is apology in your mind? Did you wish to Join now?”
“No. I enjoyed this. I still am enjoying it. I think it brings our relationship to a new level of intimacy, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to sign away my life to you. I think we need to explore what it means to be us more, before either of us makes a decision.”
He just looked at me, his eyes lightening as I spoke.
“What I meant is that I’m sorry that I asked you to feed off of me. It wasn’t very nice of me to try to tempt you when you explained why you didn’t want to take what I offered.”
He sighed, a gesture that came from the depths of his being. “Francesca, there is nothing in this world that I want more than to conduct all the steps of Joining with you, including feeding from you. But you yourself set bounds, and I am trying to keep within them as best I can, and do my duty by David.”
I was silent for a moment, stroking the thick line of his pectoral muscle. “I didn’t set bounds to harm you, you know,” I said finally. “Now that we’ve done this, are you going to be okay with them?”
“If it will make you happy, yes.”
“Good. I imagine it’s a lot harder for you than it is for me.”
He grinned. It was a wicked grin, one that melted me. “It’ll be hard for you again if you give me a little time to recover from your lusty demands.”
I pinched his nipple. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it, Mr. Mind Reader. It was hard for me to feel the need inside you, and not want to give you what you wanted.”
He rolled onto his side, both arms around me as he kissed my eyes. “I promised to not ask you for more than you can give, and I appreciate that you have done the same for me.”
An echo followed those words, so faint I wasn’t sure I caught it.
I kept my thoughts from him as he pulled up the blankets and settled me so I was more or less tucked under him, one of his heavy legs thrown over mine in a manner that left me feeling protected. Ben might not want to ask for anything more, but I could. The question was, did I want to?
Chapter 12
Some nine hours later I stared at a little beam of sunlight that had penetrated the blinds, falling with golden cheer onto the spot on the bed next to me. I leaned forward, unable to keep from sniffing the sunshine. It smelled like Ben. My toes curled happily.
