“Well, I can’t seem to stay away from you. My bed was just too empty. I can’t sleep. I want to sleep here again if that’s okay.”
Thorne held up the edge of his blanket higher.
I came forward on bare feet and discarded my robe, letting it fall about my feet.
One eyebrow rose, slender and surprised.
My nakedness didn’t shame me anymore. I wanted him to see me again. And again.
“Don’t look shocked. You know I sleep in the nude.” I shrugged at him, then slipped into the bed against the cool sheets and his warm, also very naked, body. My half-hard cock slid against his taut thigh.
“I’m not shocked.”
“You are,” I countered, skimming my chin along his shoulder.
“Hmm.”
Were we lovers? I wanted to be. Did the Burn count?
I had never given him pleasure yet. It had all been for me, for my need during the Burn. Of course I had noticed his arousals during that time, but he always remained covered, even when he held me up in the shower between my bouts of knotting. I still had never seen him nakedly hard for me. I had never seen him come.
Tonight he had been adamant about me staying away from him during his Burns, so I would have to take this pleasure I craved before his time. And after. The question was, would he let me?
I intended to use my Alpha education—the identity I’d always been comfortable in—and boldly make my demands. The fact that he was Alpha, too, didn’t matter to me. It didn’t seem to matter to him, either.
I wanted him.
When Thorne reached up to turn off the lamp, his chest pressed against my nose and forehead, filling me up with his clean, autumn scent.
I gripped him under the arm, hugging him to me, and when he fell back I rolled on top of him.
His hands went to my shoulders. “Kris, you don’t have to.”
I rocked my pelvis into him. Obviously, he could feel my interest. “Have to what?”
“This,” he said as if helpless to explain any further.
“Then that kiss on the couch was just to tease me?” To take the sting out of my words, I smiled, hoping he could see it through the shadows. Probably not.
“I went too far. Got caught up.”
“So?” I asked, letting my voice rise.
“I’m not good for you.”
“That doesn’t make sense. Everything you’ve done has been good for me. Everything!” I wasn’t going to let him close himself off to me now.
“You won’t be complete, Kris. Not with me. Not if I can’t share the Burn with you. You’ll want to search for more, and you should. You should have whatever you want.”
“What you just said is hilarious, since all I want is you.” But I wasn’t laughing.
Thorne thumped his head on the pillow, sighing.
I started to kiss him on the center of his chest, my lips moving gently over his firm skin, my long hair trailing along his side.
“Kris.” He said my name with the conviction of a lover, not someone who wanted to throw me out and away.
I lifted my head. “I want to taste you. Suck you like you did for me. Please?” Did I sound pathetic or sexy? I didn’t care. I wanted him and that was that.