He feared this would just be an outpouring of need, the scratching of an itch for her when he knew it would be so much more for him. He feared he might accidentally hurt her too. Yasmin had given her healing a push, helping her along, but he was sure her leg had to hurt still.
A third worry emerged as she nodded, her blue gaze sultry and hooded as it fell to his lips, beckoning him to kiss her again.
What if he lost control?
She was human, fragile, and his bear instincts were already roaring to the fore, demanding he take her, that he stamp his mark on her and claim her. He struggled to hold back those needs, stared at her and tried to tame them with the sight of her.
“What is it?” She lifted her right hand and gently brushed her fingers across his forehead, her touch black magic as she drifted to his hair and stroked it.
“I’m afraid I’ll hurt you,” he croaked, meaning it in two ways, or maybe more. He wasn’t just worried about hurting her leg or being too rough with her while he was lost in the throes of passion. He was worried about hurting her emotionally too.
Some humans didn’t react well to the knowledge that there were shifters in this world.
And she would find out that he wasn’t like her.
He couldn’t keep it from her forever. If things got serious between them, he would have to tell her. He could probably go years without having to tell her, but at the same time, he couldn’t. He couldn’t do that to her. He couldn’t live a lie with her, keeping an important part of himself secret, hidden from her. If this thing between them turned out the way he wanted it to, then he would tell her as soon as he was sure of her feelings.
And if she walked out on him, he would just have to find a way to deal with that.
“You won’t hurt me, Lowe.” She dropped her hand to his chest, her palm warming him through his T-shirt. Her gaze was sincere as she looked deep into his eyes. “I’m not in pain right now and if I start hurting, then we’ll stop. Okay?”
He nodded.
Her faith in him floored him, had the rest of him warming as he gazed at her and realised it was already too late for him.
He was in love with this courageous, kind and beautiful female.
He focused on that feeling as he dropped his head and kissed her. She responded by grabbing the hem of his T-shirt and pulling it up his back, her eagerness bringing a smile to his lips. He broke the kiss just long enough for her to tug his T-shirt off over his head, seized her lips again as he wrestled his arms out of it and tossed it aside, not caring where it landed.
Lowe pulled the bedclothes aside and pressed his forehead to hers, looked down at her chest and wanted to growl at the sight of her in one of his T-shirts. The grey material hugged her breasts, did nothing to conceal the hard peaks of her nipples. He eased back and settled on his knees between her legs, skimmed his hands up over her thighs, shaking a little as nerves got the better of him.
Cameo moaned and arched, stretched her arms out above her head. He glanced at her, groaned as he caught sight of her with her eyes closed and her breasts jutting up, a look of bliss on her face. He pushed the hem of the T-shirt up, revealing her plain black cotton panties and then the flat plane of her stomach. He leaned forwards, pressed kisses to that expanse of smooth, pale skin as he ventured higher, his gaze fixed on her breasts.
His cock kicked hard as he revealed them, as their dusky rose peaks called to him.
Lowe swooped on the left one, savouring Cameo’s gasp and the moan that followed it as he sucked and swirled his tongue around her nipple. She jacked up off the bed, her stomach pressing against his chest and the apex of her thighs rubbing his stomach. He groaned and gripped her backside, keeping her pressed against him as he kissed his way across to her right breast, sucked that nipple too, eliciting another moan from her.
An urge to tear her panties from her ripped through him and he fought it, pulled back on the reins and focused on being gentle with her—making love with her. He wanted that. He wanted this to be about more than a physical connection to her. He wanted it to be an emotional one too, a strengthening of their growing bond.
Cameo had other plans, tried to derail his by reaching for his fly, her fingers swiftly tackling the buttons. He groaned and shuddered, lightly bit her nipple as she slipped her hand into his jeans and palmed his rigid length. His head went a little hazy as she stroked him, as her fingers teased him, each brush of them sending heat rolling through him, cranking the temperature of his blood up another degree.
She groaned in time with him as she wrapped her hand around him.
Gods.
If she was trying to get him to make a fool of himself, she was doing a good job of it.
He caught her hand before she could bring him to climax and eased back, didn’t miss her slight scowl as he stole her fun from her. That frown melted away as he dropped from the end of the bed to stand, as he shoved his jeans down and stepped out of them, kicking them aside. Heat blazed in her eyes as she raked them over him, her pupils devouring the aquamarine of her irises as she drank her fill, leaving no part of him untouched by her searing gaze.
He groaned and flexed, his length kicking as his muscles tensing tore another sultry moan from her, had her gaze growing darker and the scent of her need growing stronger. She licked her lips and dropped her hands to her hips, eased her panties down at an agonisingly slow pace. Teasing him now? He hadn’t been teasing her when he had flexed. It had been an involuntary reaction to the feel of her eyes on him, an instinct that had hijacked him and made him show her just how strong he was.
Lowe scrubbed a hand over his mouth as she revealed dark curls, as she lifted her knees to skim her panties over them, flashing the peachy globes of her backside.
She huffed.
He shook himself out of his hazy reverie and looked at her face, wanting to know what was wrong. Her lips compressed as she wrestled with her underwear and he realised what the problem was. Her cast had got in the way of her sexy reveal.
She gave up trying to get the left leg of her panties over it and shrugged. Looked at him.
Beckoned him with a crook of her finger.
Lowe growled, managed to make it sound like a groan, and mounted the bed. He caught her right leg and pulled her to him, moaned again as he settled between her thighs, as she lifted her right knee and pressed it to his waist, opening to him.
She threaded her fingers in his hair as she kissed him, breathless moans escaping her as he rubbed between her thighs, gliding along her slick heat. He groaned and kissed her harder, slipped his right arm beneath her and lowered his left one, skimming it down her side.
“Cameo.” He pulled back and gazed down at her, struck by her beauty all over again, by the instincts she stirred in him, ones that were growing stronger and clearer by the second.
He needed her.
The heat in her blue eyes said that she needed him too.
That she wanted him.
Lowe slipped his hand between them, gripped his shaft and eased back. He groaned in time with her as he slipped the blunt head through her folds, as he found her core and eased inside, savouring their first joining. Her eyelids drooped, her gaze growing hooded as he filled her, slowly easing into her.
Her hands gripped his shoulders, fingertips pressing into his muscles, and she moaned, another little breathless one that sounded more like a gasp as she stretched around him.
“Lowe,” she whispered, a plea and a demand in his name, and damn, he liked the way she said it, as if she couldn’t get enough of him, might go mad without him or if he didn’t do what she needed him to do.