“Just one,” Jonas repeated hoarsely. She held her breath as he flipped up her skirt, exposing her to mid-thigh. His palms molded to her knees and slid to the lifted hem. His touch alone would have been enough to send her pulse skyrocketing, but then he lifted her left leg, leaning down to open-mouth kiss her inner thigh. “Where do you want your kiss? Here?”
“I-I mean, that’s really, really nice. But, um…” What were words? “I was kind of hoping for higher.”
With his lips still searing her thigh, he tossed her a wicked smirk.
“Oh Lord,” she rushed to say, red faced. “No. I meant my mouth.”
His tongue snuck out and dragged in a circle. “What I wouldn’t give for the ability to say next time we’ll be a lot more adventurous.”
Her heart stuttered. What if she couldn’t convince him to forgo taking her memories? The possibility of failing rammed into her with such impact that she fell back on the bed, caught between despair and arousal. Jonas’s weight dipping the mattress guided her once again toward desire, however. Especially when his face appeared above her, his gaze zeroed in on her lips.
“She won’t remember any of this,” he whispered to himself, his mouth descending. Closer. Closer. Sending her nerve endings into chaos.
“You will, though,” she whimpered.
His breath mingled with Ginny’s. “Yes. I will. Always,” he rasped. “With this kiss, I willingly damn myself to a lifetime of suffering. Happy birthday, love.”
What followed defied any preconceived notions she may have entertained about kissing. Lips making contact wasn’t merely something that looked pretty on a television or movie screen. It was what happened on the inside that counted.
He started by slanting his head, tasting her with groaning suction. It went on and on, him absorbing that first taste—and her being absorbed. Greedily. Absolutely. His hard body settled on top of hers, the momentous pressure making her gasp as Jonas’s tongue swept into her mouth. Ohhh.
Their tongues greeted each other like star-crossed lovers, demanding and bereft over their separation. Ginny’s eyes flew open to find the same wonder blazing in Jonas’s, before his lids drooped along with hers, the kiss taking over, sensations making demands and hunger sinking in its claws.
At the next slide of their tongues, Ginny’s knees drew up involuntarily and Jonas rolled forward with a growl, locking their lower bodies together. Pressing. Straining. The vast difference in their strength was obvious. As it was also obvious that he tried valiantly to hold his in check, his body shaking with the effort.
Unfortunately, Ginny’s body couldn’t seem to stop tempting that inhuman strength. Her inner thighs rode up and down his hips and thighs, sobs catching in her throat, releasing into his hot, seeking mouth. Lord, his mouth. It was at once skilled and frantic, like he knew damn well what he was about, but couldn’t keep up with the onslaught of lust.
Yes. God, this was lust.
An epic flood of it that required an ark for survival.
Their hands wrestled above her head, only to be pinned by Jonas. His hips rocked, the hard ridge of his sex riding to the start of her feminine flesh—and pressing down. Right there. Even through the material of her dress, she caught enough friction to cry out—and the threadbare sound did something to Jonas.
He leaned harder into the kiss, befuddling her senses with long, sensual slants of hard lips over soft, animal groans kindling in his strong chest, his fingers locked so tightly with Ginny’s above her head, she knew his willpower waned.
Good.
More.
Good.
Never stop.
Life wouldn’t be possible without this. It hadn’t been. She’d just been in a state of existence without the sensual plundering of his tongue, the weight of his body. All of it had been missing. Lost to her.
Ginny’s crossed her ankles at the waistband of his pants and arched her back, gasping excitedly when he pounced forward, holding her down with even more intention. Even more urgency. Voraciousness.
“Ginny,” Jonas said thickly. “I’m lost.”
“No. You’re found. Stay with me.”
Stay with me.
Those words echoed like a shout in a cave.
An image flickered in front of her mind’s eye. Jonas was still atop her, but their surroundings were a moving haze. Multicolored lights and pinging sounds whirred in the distance, loud and disjointed, but she disregarded them as inconsequential. Nothing mattered but the man and the way his essence promised not only pleasure, but an endless source of it.
As fast as their surroundings changed, they were back in her bedroom and Jonas was letting go of her pinned wrists to unfasten the buttons that ran down the front of her dress. When she took over the task, he looked her hard in the eye and hitched the hem of the garment up to her waist. “Remind me I could hurt you if I take you. Remind me there are rules and consequences.”
Wetness rushed to the juncture of her thighs on the wings of desire so wild, it didn’t have a name. She shook her head in a stubborn no to his command and peeled open the bodice of her dress, revealing the sheer peach lace of her bra, the breasts that swelled out of their cups.
Jonas’s fangs snapped into view, his gaze darkening to a dangerous dark green. “No, Ginny,” he breathed. “No, love. No. Don’t turn your beauty into my enemy.”
“You don’t have to fight the battle alone,” she said, threading her fingers through his hair and pulling him down for a soft kiss. “You don’t have to be alone at all. Give us a chance. I’m acknowledging the risk. I’m taking it.”
A shudder traveled through Jonas. A surrender. His lips peeled back from his teeth and he slowly lowered his mouth to her breasts, rubbing his lips over the peak of her hard nipple. He made a guttural sound and thrust his hips, absorbing Ginny’s whimper with that emerald intensity. He seemed to be powerless to do anything but kiss her and he did. Hard. Wild. They dove back into the hungry writhe of lips like they’d never stopped for a moment, and the pace accelerated quickly, making their bodies strain closer, her legs wrapping more securely around his hips.
Jonas broke away to let her breathe, eyeing her pulse while moving closer, closer to it as if drawn by hypnosis. He brushed the flutter of life with his lips and his hands gripped her thighs in a bruising hold, sending a thrill through Ginny, all the way to her toes. His willpower was on full display while he kissed her neck reverently, but when his tongue came out and licked the entire length of her flexed tendon, Ginny wasn’t expecting the deluge of lust—and she jolted.
His fang caught on her skin, causing Ginny a flash of pain.
Jonas drew back in horror, the flaming green fire transfixed by her neck. Reflected in his gaze, she watched the red trickle run down the paleness of her skin and couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.
What would he do?
So many times, he’d warned about the three rules and how easily they could be broken. A relationship led to drinking her blood leading to potential death. What if he couldn’t help himself? Had she pushed him too far?
With a growl of pure hunger, Jonas lowered his head and licked the trickle of blood from her neck, bringing it into his mouth and swallowing the way someone might with a fine wine. Almost immediately, his body fell forward on top of her. He caught himself with shaking arms right before he could crush her.