“What are you thinking about?”
“I was just noticing how you seem very…happy.” He pulled back a bit to look at her face. Her eyes were open, and she was glancing downward. Then he realized why she’d gasped; his cock was hard as granite and pressing against her.
“Peaches, I’d be lying if I denied you were the cause of that.”
“I have to say…nobody’s ever used a term of endearment with me before you.”
“That’s a shame, ‘cause you are downright endearing. Didn’t you know?”
She laughed. “Rosie tells me that all the time. And…I guess I can’t be all that bad to look at if Vann West is getting a boner.”
“Don’t do that,” he said, slightly letting go of her.
“Do what?”
“Don’t put me in this untouchable box where I’m only a celebrity. I’m a human man with needs. And I need you.”
She scoffed gently. “You need me.”
“I need you in all kinds of ways, most of them in my bed.”
Her face flushed deeper. “You said you weren’t into one-night stands. I thought you were safe.”
“For the record, I’m anything but safe. I’m going to make you come undone, little one. Can you handle that?”
GiGi’s body shivered against him.
“I’m a fucking panther,” she said, squaring her shoulders. “Do your worst.”
Her pulse quickened. The animal in her rose to the surface, he could feel it. He stared at her lips as she spoke. They were thick and luscious and aching to be kissed. “GiGi, I have zero chill when it comes to you, so if you mean that, I don’t know if I’ll be able to control myself.”
Chapter Ten
GiGi
She froze.
But before she could run away, Vann wiped the fight-or-flight expression off her face with a deep, forceful but slow kiss. Her blood flooded all her dormant nooks and crannies with urgent, dark desires, but also relief. She had been aching for his lips all night.
While they kissed, he tugged up the front of her dress and pushed one thick thigh in between hers. She gasped at her body’s reaction to this. Her dress hiked up around her hips, she suddenly found herself riding his thigh, her body’s building need demanding not just contact but friction.
“I want to smell and taste every inch of you,” he said.
Her breath was a little shaky as she responded, “I want that too.”
God, she was so sweet and innocent underneath the tough exterior.
“I don’t want to hurt you, so we’re going to go slow…I’m going to make sure you’re totally ready for me.”
“It’s not that… I’m worried that I might hurt you,” she said.
He quieted her with another kiss, then smiled. “I trust you. Do you trust me?”
She bit her lip and nodded.
Vann slipped his fingers under the hem of her dress and hiked it up even higher, stroking her thigh. She let out a small sigh as they kissed, her gooseflesh rising at the touch of his fingers. He ran his hands upward and over her breast, squeezed a little, and felt her breath catch. She pressed herself closer into his hands. His thumbs worked over her nipples, and they became hard little buttons at his touch.
“God, you’re so damn sexy, did you know that?”
“I didn’t,” she said, her ragged breath causing her breasts to heave closer to him.
“I need to touch you,” she said.
“You’re going to let me taste you first.”
GiGi smiled. “I kind of like it when you tell me what to do.”
He returned her smile with a wicked one, scooped her up in his arms, and carried her across the room, thundering through the door to his bedroom.
His rough hands scraped against her sides, her ribs, and the sides of her breasts as he helped her off with her dress. They were so big, his hands. She looked down and saw how small her breasts looked inside his hands and felt slightly embarrassed.
But then she looked at his face and saw the way he was looking at them, at her body. Her average body with hips a little wider than they should be, breasts a little smaller than they ought to be, shoulders too sloped, neck too short. She saw none of that reflected in Vann’s eyes.
He had the look of someone who didn’t know which delicious morsel to take first from her. He finally chose to sit down on the edge of the bed and held out his hand for her to stand between his thighs.
She put her hand in his and stepped in close. Vann closed his eyes and inhaled her scent. Nipped at the fabric of her bra. Kissed her belly. Smoothed his palm over the front of her panties, causing her body to twitch with excitement.
“Closer,” he whispered, not waiting for her to respond but bracing her with his arm, pulling her so close he buried his face in her panties and inhaled deeply, then exhaled a low, throaty moan against her skin.
She pressed into his face, weaving her fingers through his golden locks. The thick mane felt good in her hands, and absolutely erotic the way they brushed against her legs as she mused at the thought that he was a wolf. He’s built to be a lion.
Vann reached around and cupped her ass with both hands, squeezing her cheeks while kissing over every inch of the skin of her lower belly, her upper thighs, every bit of skin showing.
“Vann, please,” she begged. GiGi barely recognized herself; she did not beg for it. Something was lighting her on fire from the inside out, whether it is being nearly naked while he was fully dressed and making demands, she didn’t know. She just knew everything he was doing and saying was some kind of magic deeper than the shifter curses, if she dared think that.
Vann whispered praise about her body and continued in this manner while exploring between her legs with his fingers.
GiGi slipped one thumb under the waistband at her hip; she desperately needed them to come off now. But
