Zarina let out a sigh of relief. No one was attacking the camp. Thank God. “That’s not something we need to worry about,” she told him softly. “I began taking birth control pills as soon as I knew I was coming out here so I wouldn’t have to worry about dragging all that monthly female stuff around with me.”
He looked at her in confusion for a second, but then understanding dawned on his face. “Oh. I hadn’t thought about that.”
She reached up and draped her arms around his shoulders, tugging him close again. “Now we have that out of the way, maybe we can get back to what we were doing.”
He flashed her a sexy grin, then paused. “Wait. What were we doing again?”
She pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “I’m pretty sure it had something to do with you sliding into me and giving me multiple orgasms.”
The grin was back, along with the smolder. “Oh yeah. Now I remember.”
She laughed, but the sound was cut off as Tanner slowly slid halfway in with a single thrust. Half sigh, half gasp, she threw back her head and arched off the bed as he pulled out a little, then plunged in again, going even deeper this time. Even though she was wet and ready for him, the feeling of his thick shaft buried inside her took her breath away. The shock waves of pleasure rippling through her as he began to pump made her pant, and it was all she could do to wrap her legs around his hips and hold on tight.
Zarina buried her face in his neck, lost in the sensation of him gliding in and out, feeling the telltale tremors of a strong orgasm building deep inside her. If Tanner kept moving like he was, she was going to explode soon. Even so, she wanted more, wanted him to move faster, thrust harder. She tightened her legs around him, digging her heels into his muscular ass, moving her body under his and urging him on.
But Tanner ignored her unspoken but obvious demands, instead continuing to tease her with his gentle thrusts as he carefully held his body weight off of her. That was when her instincts told her something was off. Even though what they were doing felt amazing, she couldn’t shake the feeling Tanner was holding back.
When she saw his tight jaw and expression of total concentration, she knew she was right. Tanner’s head was a hundred miles away, focused on maintaining complete control of his inner hybrid and not on making love to her.
She reached up and threaded her fingers in his hair, then dragged his face down until he was staring straight into her eyes. His gaze sharpened, and he slowly stopped moving. “What’s wrong? Am I hurting you?”
If it wasn’t for the fact that Zarina had her legs wrapped around him too tightly for him to move, he almost certainly would have pulled out. No way in hell was she letting that happen.
If she hadn’t been sure before, she was now. Tanner had been aggressive and confident when it came to getting her naked, but now that they were making love, his worries about going full hybrid were making him pull away. Well, she wasn’t going to stand for it.
“Don’t you even think about holding back on me,” she said firmly. “Not now. Not after everything we’ve been through together.”
She expected him to deny it, and if he did, she was going to smack him. Surprisingly, he didn’t even try.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he whispered. “Being with you here, like this, has me close to the edge. I don’t think I can stay in control if I don’t focus.”
She cupped his face in her hand. “Then don’t be in control. You think I want our first time to be like this, with half of you not even here? I want you to be in the moment with me right now.”
He shook his head. “It’s not that simple. If I lose it, I could kill you.”
“You’re not going to lose it, and you are not going to kill me. You’re going to let go of all those worries, and you’re going to make love to me for hours. And it’s going to be incredible.”
Tanner shook his head. “I wish it could be that way, but I can’t take the risk.”
She knew he was seconds away from sliding out. If he did that, she couldn’t imagine how this moment was ever going to happen again. The thing that had been forming between them would be gone like it had never even been there.
She couldn’t accept that.
She wouldn’t.
Zarina pulled him down and kissed him so hard, his slightly extended fangs nicked her tongue and drew blood. But she didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was showing Tanner he didn’t have to be held captive by the beast inside him, that they could be together in every way that mattered.
The kiss caught him by surprise, and in that moment of stunned confusion, she took control of the situation, shoving at his shoulder at the same time as she twisted violently beneath him. She normally would never have been able to move a guy his size, but he’d been so careful to keep his full weight off her that she was able to flip him over onto his back. She didn’t waste the advantage, keeping her balance on top of him as she drove him deeper inside her than he’d been before. Then she leaned forward and looked him straight in the eye as she began to ride him exactly the way she’d wanted all along.
“Zarina,” he warned, his voice a soft rasp.
She kept moving, fighting to hold in the moans that threatened to spill out of her. “I’m not going to stop. If you want me to, you’re going to have to physically
