The blood pulsing through his ears made it difficult for him to hear anything. His fingers caressed her smooth skin as he moved his hand further up under her dress. He touched her panties, pleased to find they were already damp as he rubbed against her through the satiny material.
His body throbbed with his need to possess her. He forgot about everyone around them; he simply had to be inside of her, to consume her. He was pushing her underwear to the side when she jerked away from him.
Reality was like a slap in the face as it crashed back over her. "Wait! Stop!"
She heaved in heaping gulps of air as she braced her hands against his chest and her gaze latched onto his. Emma remained immobile as she waited to see what he was going to do.
Disappointment crashed through him, but he dropped his hand away when she glanced anxiously around them. Heat flooded her face; her lashes lowered over her eyes as she adjusted her dress.
"Emma..."
She turned her face away when he tried to grasp her chin. She couldn't look at him again; she couldn't stand to see in his eyes what he probably thought of her right now. She didn't know what she thought of herself. It was one thing to get swept up in a man; it was an entirely different thing to be about ready to screw him in public. She didn't even know him. What was wrong with her? What was she thinking?
Ethan moved his other hand away from her hip and rested both his palms on the wall beside her head. He may have released her, but he wasn't ready to let her go anywhere right now. He was nervous she would run and never come back if he did. "You must think...I'm not...this isn't something I do," she muttered.
He stopped her with his hand against her waist when she went to move away from him. "Emma, look at me," he coaxed. She threw her shoulders back, took a deep breath, and finally met his gaze. "We didn't do anything wrong."
"I don't behave like this. I don't almost have sex with people I don't know in public places," she retorted defensively.
The fire in her eyes dared him to disagree with her, to say something different. "I didn't think you did." She was still the color of a Maraschino cherry as her gaze went away from him again. "Really, Emma, I didn't. We both got a little carried away; there's nothing to be ashamed of."
"Yeah." Though she was having a difficult time looking at him, and she wasn't completely convinced.
Ethan leaned forward and kissed her forehead to soothe her a little more. His erection still pressed uncomfortably against his jeans. He shifted as he tried to find a more relaxed position, but he didn't think that would be possible until he was inside her. Something he had every intention of being before he left this island, but it wasn't going to happen tonight. Right now, he needed to ease her embarrassment, not make her feel even more pressured.
"Let's go back to the table," he suggested.
"I think I've had enough for tonight."
"I'll walk you home." She opened her mouth to protest, but he continued before she could do so. "I'm only going to make sure you get there safely. I'll keep my hands to myself, I promise."
He held his hands up innocently beside his head and smiled at her. She couldn't help but smile back at him as she brushed the hair back from her forehead. Embarrassment over her actions remained, but his tone and demeanor helped to ease it. "Okay."
"Let me tell Issy and Stefan we're leaving."
He took her hand and turned away from the wall. A few people glanced at them as he led her through the crowd, but thankfully most barely noticed them. Mandy and Jill had joined Stefan and Isabelle at the table when they returned. "I'm going to head back to the house," Emma told them.
"I'm ready to go too," Mandy said.
Jill looked at her drink before shrugging; she chugged down the rest of it and put it on the table. "Let's go then."
Emma turned to Ethan, she was still a little unnerved about what had transpired between them, but she wasn't ready to say goodbye to him yet. "You don't have to walk with us," she said.
"I've had enough for the night too," he said. There was no way he was going to let her walk around unprotected at night when there were other vampires on this island.
"I think we all have," Isabelle said and rose to her feet.
Ethan was hoping to have some time alone with Emma, but it didn't look like it would happen. Isabelle's eyes focused on their joined hands; she frowned at them before her gaze shot up to his. He could practically see the questions racing through her mind, but he had no answers for her, and he wasn't ready to search for them either.
Chapter Six
Emma stretched and opened her eyes to the sunlight filtering around the edges of the blue curtains she pulled over the glass patio doors last night. She stared at the material as the events of the night came crashing back. Embarrassment curled through her, her face heated at the memory of the wanton way she had behaved, but fresh excitement also spread through her belly as desire pooled inside of her.
She stopped him last night before it went too
