He eyed her while he raised his hands to rest upon hers. For a terrible moment, she feared he was going to remove her hold on him, return to that “don’t touch” manner he sometimes projected. Instead, he caressed the backs of her hands, feather-soft strokes of his fingertips over her knuckles, between her knuckles and, most sensitively, between her fingers. She trembled in reaction, amazed that her hands could react to his touch so. A warmth gathered in her belly.
He did lift her hands off, but linked fingers with his and brought their arms down together, pulling her up against him again. Perhaps he too craved touch despite his… She bit her lip.
“What, Callie?”
“Earlier you said you weren’t interested in sex.”
He stiffened and she closed her eyes, wishing the thought hadn’t flitted through her mind, wishing she could have lied or at least fobbed him off with a “nothing”, though it was important to her that she be honest with Dev.
She rested her face against the crook of his neck and willed him not to push her away after her reminder. When she kissed him, he shuddered. They were soft, almost chaste kisses, not like his that had ravaged her neck.
He brought her arms behind her, clasped both wrists in one large hand, while with his other, he pressed a palm against the small of her back. Her belly felt him hard against her. Aroused.
That made her smile into his neck.
“Look at me,” he demanded, so she tilted her head back to meet his gaze. “You like that, that you’ve made me hard, that you’ve made me want you?”
“Yes.” She struggled a little, which resulted in her writhing against him, but he didn’t release her arms. Lifting his free hand to her face, he held her gaze to his, palm on her cheek. With the pad of his thumb, he traced the bone just under her eye, traced her cheekbone, then ran that thumb over her lips.
“You’re beautiful.”
It made her breathe faster, these words, these intense caresses, this attention. He trailed fingers down her neck to the swell of her breast. He was watching her very carefully as he lightly palmed her breast and her sensitive nipple began to ache.
“Dev?” She wasn’t sure what she was asking.
“Hmmm?” His mouth dipped to her neck, teeth scraping the soft skin, then soothing it with a kiss. And again. His hand slipped under the hem of her T-shirt, and rose to catch her nipple between thumb and finger, rolling the nub. “Do you like that?” he murmured as he kissed her throat.
She arched against him and he swallowed her “yes”, his mouth taking hers in a punishing kiss.
Her knees gave out this time, but he caught her, finally releasing her arms, though not her mouth, as he lifted her and she wrapped herself around him. He brought her to the bed.
She tried to contain her disappointment as he set her down on the mattress. He yanked off her shirt, then his, her shorts then his, all in short order. It had been a revelation, this kind of foreplay, but now he was ready to fuck.
He crawled over her and for a moment she thought he was going to move up so he’d fuck her mouth, but he reached back and pulled her up so they were face to face again, her under him. He’d wanted to make love, she remembered, and that reassured her.
“You make me feel, Callie.” The words seemed almost to be dragged from him and she touched his face, roughened because he hadn’t shaved.
“I think you’re beautiful too, Dev.” She wanted to offer him something of her feelings, though that barely described her real emotions. Tentatively she ran a hand through his short hair, which was surprisingly soft to touch.
“Are you scared to touch me, Callie?”
“No.” The question caught her off guard, and it must have shown.
“You prefer that I touch you?” He skimmed a hand down her side and across her stomach. Her underside. It made her feel vulnerable and he seemed to notice, because he crossed his palm back and forth across her soft belly until she relaxed into the touch. “Tell me what you like,” he urged.
She didn’t know. He traced some ribs, but he didn’t release her gaze so she said, “I like you.”
He smiled then, so pleased, the smile wider than she’d observed before, like she was seeing a new Dev.
“I like everything you do. You make me feel so warm. Inside.”
His slightly bemused expression made her add, “Is that wrong to say?”
“No,” he said immediately. “Nothing is wrong to say.” He sat back and she feared he was retreating, giving up on them making love. Perhaps because he thought she didn’t like to touch him? That wasn’t it, wasn’t it at all. She was just so unsure, but she began to rise, to follow him.
He came back, pushing her down, lying atop her, that full-body contact she craved, though he took some of the weight with his elbows. He kissed her deeply, a kind of reassurance, then broke away and held her shoulders. “Stay here.”
Again he sat up. Instead of backing away, he pulled up both her legs, ran palms over her thighs, front and back. Then calves were caressed before he wrapped his hands around her ankles to place her feet down near her butt, knees pointed up. She frowned at him and he smiled, resting hands on her knees. He pushed them apart, making her legs drop open.
She felt completely exposed and very, very wet.
“You, Callie, are going to tell me if at any time you feel uncomfortable, okay?”
Her chest rose and fell as he placed the heel of his palm on her pubis and rubbed lightly. Surprised, realizing she was completely ready, she arched up to push against his hand. “Dev, I want you inside me.”
Tooth and Claw
Annmarie McKenna
Vampire: (noun) Bloodsucker, murderer, bedpost-notcher, God’s gift to women, fiend.
Seth Gramble is a prince among his people. Half vampire, half jaguar, he is one of a rare few who can shift into an animal form. Both his halves have found their mate in a female detective determined to lump all vampires in with the rogue who killed her former lover. He’s given her six months to see him differently. He’s done waiting.
Paxton Tenor wants nothing to do with a blood-sucking fiend, no matter how much he makes her body sing. Nothing good can come of a vampire. A case she’s working on partners her with Seth, and she’s forced to reconsider her hatred. He doesn’t seem at all like the rogue who sucked the life from her boyfriend in cold blood.
When Seth’s kitty comes out to play, Paxton realizes she’s been stupid to deny herself this man. And when he puts his life on the line to protect hers? All bets are off.
Warning: Let’s be realistic here people; there’s sex. Who doesn’t want to be coerced into bed by a sexy, God’s-gift-to-women vampire? And when they can be undressed and on you before you can blink—hello. Even if said vampire faints at the sight of his own blood…
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
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Tooth and Claw
Copyright © 2009 by Annmarie McKenna
ISBN: 978-1-60504-506-1
Edited by Sasha Knight
Cover by Angela Waters
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First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: April 2009
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