The corner of his mouth kicked up as he stroked his thumb up and down the side of her throat. «Don’t hear that very much from women who’ve spent more than a couple hours with me.»
«So you keep reminding me.» She tilted her head, baring more of her neck. «I think they haven’t figured you out yet.»
«And you have?» The callused pad of his thumb swept down toward her collarbone, then up the front of her throat. His fingers were warm against her nape. «What have you figured?»
She swallowed hard. «That you’re not crazy. You just hurt.»
His smile faded, and his hand stilled. «I think I’ve hurt so long that I might be a little crazy.»
Maybe they both were. It couldn’t diminish the heat that blazed inside her at the thought of his mouth on hers. «I’m an empath, remember?» Even as she spoke, Carmen reached up to guide his head closer. «I’d be able to tell.»
He froze with his lips almost touching hers, and no amount of urging could budge him. «What else can you tell?»
Dominance pulsed between them, and every beat of her heart answered it with growing arousal. «You want me to submit,» she whispered. «To let go of everything that isn’t you and feel.»
«Mmm.» His fingers tickled the back of her neck as he twisted his wrist, twining the damp strands of her hair around his hand. «Just enough wolf in you to bring it out. This isn’t a human game. It’s not about power. It just is.»
«I know.» He evoked it like no one else ever had, that quiet instinctive need to belong completely to someone. «It’s not control. It’s caring.»
«Always.» Hot breath spilled across her cheek as he shifted his lips to her ear. «It’s always about caring, but it can be about dirty goddamn fucking too.»
Blood roared in her ears, and her hands began to tremble. «You say that like they don’t go together.»
Laughter spilled out of him, low and dark. «Oh, sometimes they do. But not everything is about fucking.»
No, not everything. «Alec?»
He tilted her head back with the fingers curled in her hair, and his short beard lightly chafed her jaw as he pressed a kiss beneath her ear. «Yeah?»
«Sometimes, you talk too much.»
«That so?» His teeth scraped against her skin. «And here we are, doing the one damn thing I’m not half bad at talking about. But if you don’t like it…»
Before she could respond, he bit the spot where her neck curved into her shoulder, a rumbling growl of pleasure washing over her along with his intense satisfaction.
The forceful caress stole her breath, and she whispered a curse. «Just to clarify, we’re not starting something we’re not going to finish, right?»
«Not unless you decide to stop it.»
It was all she needed to know. She rose on shaky legs, his hand still clutched in hers, and tried to pull him up beside her. When he resisted, she growled and climbed onto his lap. «Maybe I’m going to bite you now.»
Alec just smiled and slid one hand around to the small of her back, edging her shirt up. «Take this off.»
Nothing less than a command. She watched him as she drew the thin cotton up, hesitating just before it bared her breasts. He narrowed his eyes, his gaze dark and hot, and she shivered and stripped off the shirt.
He leaned forward without a word and tugged his shirt up and over his head, baring tanned skin marked by one or two thin scars and the black ink that curled around his arm and the back of his shoulder.
She ached to taste him, so she traced the hard line of his shoulder with her fingertips, then followed the same path with her mouth.
An approving noise vibrated up from deep in his chest as he caught her hair in one hand and stroked the bare line of her spine with the other. «Gonna bite me or not?»
«Impatient.» She breathed the word against his skin. As soon as it was out of her mouth, she bit him — hard. He sucked in a breath. His hands tightened, one pulling her hair and the other dragging her hips to his.
He was hard under her, aroused. Nearly giddy with her own arousal, Carmen licked his shoulder before lifting her mouth to his ear. «You make me hungry.»
«Good.» He tugged lightly at her hair. «Come here.»
He kissed her, at once sating and inflaming that hunger. His tongue drove past her lips to slide against hers, his own ardor so deep and sharp that it shook her. She tilted her head, fusing her mouth to his, and battled the urge to lower her shields so she could feel every reaction that shuddered through him.
But she couldn’t keep them up forever, not like this. She broke the kiss, her head spinning. «Have you done this before?»
That earned her a hoarse chuckle. «Am I that bad at it?»
It took her a moment to realize what she’d said, and her cheeks heated even further. «Not sex. Sex with an empath.»
«Once.» His mouth found her jaw, and he left a trail of teasing nips down the line of her throat before dragging his tongue along her collarbone. «She wasn’t very strong. Couldn’t project at all.»
With his tongue on her skin, she could barely manage a husky murmur. «Then this might be different.»
«You holding back?»
«For now.» She licked her lips. «Unless…you want me to let go.»
He urged her head back again, and his mouth found the top of her breast. «Let go. Let me feel what you’re feeling.»
Her breathing hitched. If she did what he asked, it could be fast, maybe even rough, a blinding blur of carnal pleasure.
It might be like that anyway.
Carmen closed her eyes and released her tight hold on control. He’d leaned her back so far that the only thing keeping her from tumbling off his lap was the steely strength of his hand at the base of her spine.
He would hold her.
She arched farther, shuddering through her pleasure and his when her nipple brushed his mouth. Teeth scraped the tender bud, followed by the hot swipe of a tongue, so good it left them both groaning. «Christ, you like the teeth, don’t you?»
It was her turn to laugh, and she scratched her nails over the spot on his shoulder where she’d bitten him. «So do you.»
«Most places.» He closed his teeth on her this time, increasing the pressure until just a tiny bit more would have made her squirm away. Then the biting edge of his teeth vanished, replaced once more by the soothing heat of his tongue.
Most attentive men could gauge a woman’s reactions, figure out when to apply a softer touch here, a quicker stroke there. Alec was going beyond that, using empathic feedback to give her exactly what she wanted.
She could do that too.
He was new to the give and take of empathy, but she’d lived with it her whole life. She’d already felt his libido stir at the sight of her on her on her knees, submissive and eager, and she knew they wanted the same thing.
It was part of what made him perfect for her.
She moved slowly, climbing off his lap only to ease between his legs and slide to the floor. She knelt there, her hands resting lightly on his knees, and waited.
Something dark stirred in his gaze, feral and hot. «You’re cheating.»
«But you like it.» She trailed one hand up his leg and closed it around his belt buckle.
Alec dropped his hand to cover hers. «You wrap your lips around my dick, and there’s a good chance I’ll be fucking you over this couch. You ready for that?»
The image made her body throb, and she let the slightest hint of challenge show as she held his gaze. «If I get you in my mouth, I’m not stopping until you come.»
He smiled and released her hand. «We’ll see.»