She dropped her gaze back down as apologies tumbled out of her mouth.
"I'm so sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to tell you what to do. I—"
Samson cupped his palm against her cheek, his huge hand cradling her entire face, from the tip of her chin to the top of her head. It took every ounce of professionalism Cassidy had not to lean into his touch.
"I will never hurt you," Samson said gravely. "And I would kill anyone who laid a finger on you."
Cassidy found that hard to believe. There was only one person an alpha could make that promise to—his omega.
And she sure as hell wasn't that.
But it was also true that alphas didn't lie. Being so large and powerful, they didn't have to.
"Thank you," she said, trying to control the emotion in her voice.
"I can't speak for others," Samson continued, letting his hand drop away, "but I've never been with a woman who didn't become aroused enough to take me inside her."
Lucky fucking women.
Cassidy flushed with shame at the thought. She scribbled some useless notes in her notebook...as if she was ever going to forget a single word Samson said tonight.
"Tell me more," she found herself saying.
"You want to know how I make women wet?" Humor laced Samson's words, but other emotions lay beneath it. Deeper, hungrier emotions.
Another flash of shame, and another flurry of scribbles.
"I'm interested in the details of intimate interactions between alphas and betas," she tried, without looking up.
"You make it sound so clinical."
"That's because it is," Cassidy said. "In terms of my research, at least."
Samson let out a low, rumbling laugh that made it clear that he didn't believe her.
"Well, since it's for research, I should be thorough, shouldn't I?"
"I would appreciate you being as thorough and precise as possible." Cassidy winced at her stilted tone.
But Samson didn't seem to notice. "Let's say I was standing in front of a beta woman I wanted. I'd have already caught her scent, so I'd know that she wanted me back, but just to be sure, I'd lean in closer and look directly in her eyes."
Cassidy froze as Samson leaned closer. She couldn't even pretend to write. His chest was just a whisper away from hers now. His face directly above hers. His warm, sweet breath tickling her ear and the side of her jaw.
"And even though women often smell warm and alluring," Samson continued, "desire would have changed her scent, deepening it, giving it heat and spice. Complexity. Letting me know exactly what she needed."
"Samson—" Cassidy started, but he cut her off, touching his index finger to her lips.
"We haven't even gotten to the part where she starts calling out my name yet."
Cassidy could barely breathe. Samson's fingertip felt rough and sure against her mouth, and she had to fight an urge to open her lips and draw it inside.
"Then, I'd start to touch her." Samson traced his finger along her skin as he spoke. "Her lips. Her neck. The curve of her shoulder. And the whole time, I'd be watching her reactions. I'd be able to tell by the way she shivered that she liked it when I caressed her neck. I'd know by her scent that she'd shiver even more if I kissed her there."
Oh God.
"That her slick would start to flow if I flicked just under her ear with my tongue."
He bent forward, his jaw scraping against the hollow of her neck, causing exquisite sensations to race through her body. They only multiplied when his tongue stroked lightly against her.
This couldn't be happening. Cassidy was gripping her pencil so tightly that it snapped in half and fell to the ground. She couldn't resist the effects of Samson's words, his touch.
But though he lifted his head to watch her again, he didn't stop.
"Her response would let me know that the betas she'd been with before didn't know or care how to make her wet. They hadn't cared about her slick at all except for the way it warmed their cocks. So, I'd need to tell her that the scent of it pooling between her legs was driving me mad. Making me harder than I've ever been."
"Samson—"
"I told you, not yet," he growled in her ear, his voice reverberating through her entire body with such heat Cassidy feared she might ignite. "I'd tell her that I lay awake on too many nights, stroking myself raw, imaging her legs spread wide, my mouth over her pussy, and my tongue delving into her."
The notebook fell from Cassidy's hand and clattered on the patio.
"How I'd imagined drawing her clit between my lips and sinking my fingers into her heat, finding the spot that made her shake and clench all around me."
Cassidy's heart hammered in her chest, and her breathing grew shallow. Samson hooked his finger under her chin, lifting her face to his. His deep brown eyes, hot and ravenous, locked on hers, and she could not look away.
"Then, once she was wet and ready for me, I'd move up her body, feeling every part of her slide against me. And just as the head of my cock teased the opening of her pussy, I would claim her mouth so hard, so completely, that there would be no doubt who she belonged to."
A whimper of surrender escaped Cassidy's lips.
She couldn't help it. She knew what was going to happen next. There was no longer any question of stopping.
Maybe later she would blame the interview questions, or the moonlight, or even the whiskey. But right now, all Cassidy knew was that she needed to kiss him.
Needed it like she needed air.
There was no more pretending. No more hiding behind professionalism and protocol. There was only the two of them.
Cassidy threw her arms around Samson's neck and raised herself up on tiptoes. He growled in response to her touch. He splayed his hands around her hips, lifting her so that her ass perched
