“Picking up where you left off?” I asked. The last time he’d kissed my sensitive neck like that, he’d been helping me choose what to wear for my party.
“Mm-hm,” he murmured, bringing the heat of his chest against my back.
After all the input I’d had today, and the day before, and the weeks before that… Ever since I’d stepped across the threshold to Rowan’s clinic and left with life-altering information, life had worn me out.
The one and only thing I wanted to say to Tanner was, “Yes.”
“Yes what?” he asked, taking both my breasts and nipples into his palms and drawing me tight against his chest.
“Yes to whatever you want tonight because I am tired of fighting and planning and—”
Tanner pressed a finger to my lips.
“Shh,” he said. “You can always say no, but let’s go explore that yes.” He took the glass from my hand, steered me inside, and slid the door closed. I grabbed at the handle, turned the lock, and allowed our dance to continue, down the hall and into my bedroom. I locked that door too.
I had no condoms. I had no stashes of personal lubricants or sex toys.
My desire went into overdrive as Tanner peeled off my T-shirt and his, wrapped his arms around me from the back once again, and undid the closure on my pants. He shimmied the linen over my hips, planting slow kisses over my butt and down the backs of my thighs. I stood naked, facing my bed. His skin brushed mine as he finished disrobing, tangled his fingers in my hair, and pressed himself against me.
I didn’t want to say words, but I could make noise. With no one home, I could make a lot of noise. I moaned as Tanner dug his fingertips into my scalp and massaged away at least twelve layers of tension.
“When I imagine making love with you, Calliope Jones, I…” Tanner stopped working on my head and wrapped both arms across the front of my shoulders. “I imagine us in a different place. Somewhere neither of us has been before.”
I touched his forearms. His skin was roughened by a light layer of scabs from his encounter with the Apple Witch. I didn’t shy from touching his wounds. He was healing on the outside and, I hoped, healing on the inside.
Someday, his wolf would heal too.
“Somewhere without friends and family.” His soft laugh moved through his belly muscles. “I love them all, Calli, I truly do, but there are times when Wes and Kaz can be a little too watchful of me.”
“They love you,” I whispered.
“Yes, they do.”
His cock pressed against my backside. I reached up and behind to run my fingers through his unbound hair.
“I said yes to you, Tanner, yes to whatever we have time for tonight. I have no expectations,” I added, spinning in his embrace so I could wrap my arms around his waist. “Other than honesty. Honor me by being honest with yourself. And I’ll do that too.”
The necklace—his necklace—warmed from being pressed between Tanner’s chest and mine, became more than a pouch filled with magic seeds. Its presence was palpable. Tanner leaned away, lifted the cords off my neck, and placed the pouch on my desk.
“There,” he said, “now we’re both completely naked. Shall we get to know each other’s skin?”
When I slid across the fresh cotton sheet, air-dried in the sun, I could almost imagine Tanner and I truly were in a new place.
I lay, belly up, and stretched, my gaze on my druid. He crawled the short distance to my side of the bed and placed himself over me, knees to either side of my hips, hands to either side of my shoulders, a wicked glint in his eyes. He slid one knee against my outer hip, crossed the top of my thigh, and nestled it snug against my sex. I pressed down and around, my arousal immediate and urgent.
“I see you,” he said.
He tucked a stubborn hank of hair behind his ear while running his gaze over my body.
“I feel you,” he continued, placing one palm on my forehead.
Tanner stroked my face and the front of my throat, squeezed gently, and smiled. He placed his palm on my sternum, spread his fingers, and pressed down, all the while watching me, then ran the same hand over my ribs side to side, into the curves of my waist and over my belly. His thumb ended up hidden in the patch of crinkly hairs nestled against his knee. He backed off enough he could explore my clit.
I moaned, tried to show him the movement I most enjoyed, especially when I was pleasuring myself. He grinned at me and shifted his body until his nose was buried where his thumb had been.
He inhaled deeply, eyes closed, and said, “I smell you.”
Tanner separated a path for his tongue and licked me.
“And now I want to taste you.”
I reached my hand to part my own lips further and came up onto my elbows. “I’d like to watch.”
His grin was the good kind of wicked, promising trouble ahead if I didn’t do as he wanted, which was spread my legs enough to accommodate his shoulders. I bent my knees slightly, pressed my heels into the mattress, and gave him the go-ahead to explore.
I didn’t know I liked to watch a lover licking me, to see my reactions to his giving me pleasure mirrored on his face. To see my juices streak his nose and cheeks and react to the pinch of pain as he gripped the fleshy part of my thighs to lift me higher.
My arms gave out. I closed my eyes, fumbled for a hold in the headboard’s spindle frame, and let go into a world of pure sensation.
Let go, Calli. Let go.
The voice in my head was
