by Celia Kyle
This was it. It was time. She wanted him, wanted to love and be loved by him, yet she wondered if he’d be disgusted by what he saw.
He gripped the cotton and slid it higher, soft fabric skimming her skin, and a hint of his claws teased her flesh. The cat had come out to play.
In slow increments, more of her body was exposed to the cool air of the room, and goose bumps coated her skin. When the T-shirt got to her chest, she unwound her arms and held them above her while Harding eased from their kiss. In a blink, the top was removed and tossed aside, leaving her in nothing but her lace panties. Her large breasts were bared to his gaze, the slight dip of her waist and curve of her stomach no longer hidden. This was her, Tess Boyd, in all her near-naked glory.
“You’re so beautiful.” He growled, the planes of his face sharpening and a hint of his fangs peering out from beneath his lips. “And mine.”
Tess opened her mouth to say…something. Except all she got out was a high-pitched squeak when she suddenly went air born and flopped onto the bed in a bouncing heap. Immediately, he followed her down, sliding into place beside her and tugging her close.
There was something wicked about being nearly nude while he was fully clothed. The rough texture of his jeans scratched against her bare thighs, the worn fabric of his T-shirt skimming her nipples.
Her hardened nipples.
She shuddered when the soft cotton brushed against the nubs, the incidental stimulation sending her arousal even higher. She wanted him. She had no idea what to actually do with him, but she wanted him nonetheless.
“I’m going to love you.” The words were roughened by his beast.
“I know.” Tess cupped his cheek, enjoying the silken feel of his fur against her skin.
“You have to tell me if I scare you.”
“I will.” She nodded to assure him and pulled his face toward her. She wanted another kiss, another connection. And she got it.
This time the kiss was gentle, coaxing and sweet, yet no less passionate. Their tongues stroked while he petted her arms, traced her body with gentle hands and explored her. The touch was sweet, soothing and arousing at the same time. He squeezed her hip, fingers curling around to tease the edge of her panties, and she shivered. His hand was so close to there and she wanted him to touch her there.
Tess eased closer, trying to reposition her body so that his fingers ventured a little further along the curve of her ass. Only…only that move pressed her hips to his, Harding’s hardened thickness easily evident behind the confines of his jeans. Her mate moaned and rocked his hips and she couldn’t help but mimic the movement.
He wanted her. Her. Tess Boyd, kinda-daughter of Alistair McCain, and maybe homicidal psycho.
She sucked on his tongue and eased even closer, tossing her thigh over his leg as she fought to press as much of her skin against him as she could. Then his length was nudging her there, hard, long, and thick, and the heat of his hard-on seared her through the cloth separating them. She imagined holding him in her hand, stroking him, kissing and licking him and…
“Gods, Tess.” Harding moaned and rocked his hips, sliding along her needy pussy. She knew of arousal, of need and the necessity of slaking her desire. Sometimes it took a few flicks of her fingers against her clit and that was the end of that. But what she felt for this man, this lion, was so far beyond her past need that it was laughable.
Tess nipped his lower lip and enjoyed the fact that she was the one to make the massive lion growl, snarl, and shudder with need.
She repeated her earlier motions, shifting and sliding her wet, panty-clad pussy along his cock. “Harding.”
“Damn it.” He pressed their foreheads together, keeping his lips just out of reach. “I need to calm down or I’ll fuck this up.” He took a deep breath and his scent surrounded her when he exhaled. Harding opened his nearly white eyes, and his voice was closer to normal when he spoke. “Let me make you feel good. Need my mate to come on my tongue. Need to make you scream my name.”
She had one answer, her worry floating away with every shift of their bodies against one another: “Yes.”
Harding went into action, urging her to her back as he hovered above her. She lifted her head toward him, anxious for another meeting of their mouths, but he evaded her. Instead of smoldering kisses to her lips, he rained them on her body. First one to her jaw, then another to the bone-melting spot beneath her ear. Yet another dropped on her collarbone, and then they became even more overwhelming.
Harding captured her nipple with his lips, sucking on the nub and flicking it with his tongue. Oh, God, she’d never felt anything so good. She arched into him, searching out more of the pleasure he created. While his mouth was busy with one breast, his hand was quickly becoming acquainted with the other. He kneaded and squeezed the sensitive mound, each caress stoking her arousal.
She needed. Damn, but she needed.
Her pussy was soaked and desperate, clenching and tightening with every pull on her nipple. Pleasure raced through her, bouncing between her breast and her pussy and back again. She trembled and moaned, shifting and squirming with his every move until she didn’t think she could stand any more.
“Harding!”
Harding released her nipple with a chuckle and blew on the moistened nub. “Yes, sweet?”
“I… I don’t…”
His hand left her breast and skimmed down her body, sliding over the gentle roundness of her stomach and finally stopping at the juncture of her thighs. He cupped her pussy, hand pressing against the wet fabric. “Do you need something here, sweet?” He ground the heel of his hand against her mound, the increased pressure sending frissons of pleasure dancing through her. “Tell me what you need, mate.”
She didn’t have the words. Or rather she did, but she didn’t know how to force them past her lips. “Harding…”
Harding’s weight left her, his massive body no longer touching hers. Opening her eyes, she watched him rise to his knees and move down the bed to settle between her thighs.
Good Lord, how had she been so lucky to catch this man? He was a study in hard planes, bulging muscles, and alluring wickedness and now he was going to…
He reached for her, hooking his fingers beneath the waist of her panties, and tugged them down an inch. He looked to her with a single brow raised. “Okay?”
“Yes. Please.” He’d touch her or stroke her or something… She had no doubt that he’d be a giving lover, and she couldn’t wait to come beneath his hands.
The bit of lace slid past her hips and over her thighs, caressing her sensitized skin during its journey until it was finally drawn past her toes.
“Oh, sweet mate.” The words were a growl from his lion rather than his man.
Tess blushed, heat filling her cheeks, and she brought her knees together while placing her forearm across her breasts. It’d been different when caught up in their passion, but now he was staring.
“Oh, no, Tess. Don’t ever hide from me.” His brow and cheeks were covered in cream-colored fur. He snared her wrist and tugged her arm from her chest, forcing her to expose herself once again. He moved his attention to her thighs, sliding them apart, and now nothing was hidden from his gaze.
“Oh, sweet.” He licked his lips. “Just a taste, sweet. Just a taste of my mate.”
And that’s what he did.
Harding repositioned himself between her spread thighs, shifting and lying on his stomach, his mouth hovering over her aching mound. It’d take one touch, one lick, hell, one breath, to send her flying over the edge.
He nuzzled her inner thigh, rubbing his silken fur along her sensitive skin. “You smell s’good. Want.” He growled and flicked the seam of her pussy lips with his tongue.
Tess gasped and then moaned when he repeated the caress.
“Mmm…” Harding hummed, and again he tasted her, tongue dancing over her cream-slick labia. “S’good.”
Her clit thumped in time with her heartbeat, throbbing and silently begg
ing to be touched. “Please, Harding. L-L-Lick me.”
There, she’d pushed the words past her lips.
He growled and pounced on her heat. He separated her sex lips with his fingers and delved into her pussy. He went from teasing caresses to all-out war, his tongue and teeth assaulting her with immeasurable pleasure. She spread her thighs further apart, opening and welcoming him. She wanted everything he could give her and then some.
Harding sucked on her clit, tongue dancing over the nub as he tormented her.
Pleasure grew inside her, sliding through her muscles, forcing them to tighten and release with each suckle. Shudders morphed into great undulating waves of sensation. There was no beginning or end when it came to his attentions.
He teased her hole, her clenching opening where he’d soon invade her with his cock. Nothing had slipped past that barrier, not even her fingers, and she tensed when he played there.
“Easy, sweet. I won’t hurt you.” He spoke the words against her clit, the vibrations demanding that pleasure overcome her reticence.
Tess forced herself to relax. He wouldn’t hurt her, she knew that, but old fears died hard.
In slow increments, a single finger slid into her depths, the penetration odd but not uncomfortable. He pulled out and then pushed in again, slipping through her abundant cream with ease.
Harding returned his mouth to her clit, lapping at the bundle of nerves while continuing his decadent penetration. He replaced one finger with two, adding a slight burn to the pleasurable torment. But then… But then it got better. He did something with his fingers and his tongue, flicking and sucking while pressing against her inner walls, and Tess arched off the bed with a shout.
“Harding. God. Good. There.” She babbled and didn’t give a damn.
“That’s my pretty mate.” With those words, he returned to his dedicated ministrations.
And drove her batshit crazy in the process.
Each touch, shift of muscle and stroke of her skin sent her nerves flying. Pleasure gathered and swam in her blood, pumping through her body with every heartbeat. The tormenting fingers pressed, twisted, and thrust into her sheath with an increasing pace, driving her wild.
That tongue… That tongue should be cast in bronze and commemorated for eternity. He licked and flicked and circled…
All of it together made her crazy.
Another burn surrounded her pussy, but she didn’t care, not when he was rubbing that sweet spot while teasing her clit.
Tess cupped her breasts, kneading them as he’d done. She stroked, squeezed, and pinched her aroused flesh, her touches adding to her fiery pleasure. And it was growing with each passing second. She ached to come on his tongue, his fingers, and she prayed it’d be soon.
She rocked her hips, searching for deeper penetration. It was there… So close… The ecstasy burned her, set her alight in desire-painted flames, and she relaxed into the feelings. Her body was living and breathing the sensations, and she didn’t want it to end.
“Harding. Close. Gonna. Good.” She could barely speak, the pleasure overriding every other thought in her mind.
Harding’s answer was a vibrating growl, a sound that only spurred her desire.
She raced toward the precipice, completion and fulfillment nearing with every flex of his tongue against her. Her movements became jerky, her body’s instincts overriding her control. She writhed, screamed and babbled through the pleasure.
The edge was right there, so very, very close. Another hint of burn, another finger spreading her wide for his penetration. That was what she needed: a hint of pain to dance along with her pleasure, and then she was roaring and growling and snarling.
Tess was thrown off the edge of release, the ecstasy enveloping her in a massive hug as the bliss flowed like molten lava through her veins. Her pussy milked his digits, sliding and caressing them as she was overcome with the joy of her climax.
Muscles clenched and twitched, toes truly curling with the elation he caused within her. This was heaven personified.
And still Harding continued. He rubbed that elusive spot inside her sheath while nipping her clit, his ministrations slowing, but not ceasing. Her body screamed for him, that bit of animal inside her demanding that she accept his possession, his mating.
Tess was in total, one hundred percent agreement.
In small increments, her pleasure eased, the ebb and flow slowing until it was like low waves lapping at her consciousness. Before long, he slipped his fingers free of her pussy and sat up. He brought his glistening, cream-coated digits to his mouth and lapped at them, tongue tracing each one.
“Now, this is delicious. So sweet like honey. My sweet, sweet mate.”
Love shined in his gaze, fierce attraction in every carved line of his expression, and pure need pulsed behind the fabric of his jeans.
Without hesitation, Tess reached for him, holding out her arms as she begged for what they both craved. “Mate with me. Make me yours.”
*
The lion rushed forward with Tess’s words, and it took everything in Harding to keep the beast at bay. It wanted to sink its fangs into her now. Right now. No more waiting.
He reasoned with the cat, reminding it that their mate was human and not as strong as them. It needed to recall that she deserved tender care after what she’d been through, and that pleasure had to come before any hint of pain.
Grumbling, the cat eased back, granting him more control of his body.
“You’re sure? Last chance to say—”
Tess reared up and poked him in the chest. “No more second guessing. I said yes. Ask me again and someone is getting kicked out of bed, and it ain’t gonna be me.”
Her snarling brought a wide grin to his lips. “Yes ma’am.”
He rolled from the bed and quickly threw off his clothes, more and more of his skin bared to his mate by the second. His enhanced hearing picked up the steady increase of her heartbeat, and part of him was buoyed by the idea that his mate was as excited about what was to come as him. The other half prayed the rapid pulse wasn’t because she was afraid. The minute his shirt flew free of his head, he looked to her and was relieved to find pure desire on every inch of her features.
There was no revulsion at the pale, puckered lines of scars that crisscrossed his body. His family had done a number on him all those years ago, but rage at their presence no longer lingered. Not with his mate at his side, healing him by merely existing.
Harding’s heart stuttered. Damn, she was his mate. This lush, curvaceous, beautiful creature would be beside him until the end of time.
Without hesitation, he rejoined her, sliding between her widened thighs. Her glistening, pink pussy beckoned him, called to him and urged him to slide deep inside her. Yes, his cat purred, inside. Claim. Mine.
He definitely agreed with the beast.
His cock settled along her cleft, sliding through her heated juices. He flexed his hips, gliding over her pussy as he kept his gaze on his mate. Expressions of pleasure, want, and need flitted over her features. She gasped when the head of his dick nudged her clit and whined when he retreated.
“Harding,” she whimpered and wiggled beneath him.
“I’ll give you what you need, sweet.” He shifted his hips again, reveling in her mewling sounds. “You know it’ll hurt a little the first time.”
She nodded. “Want it, though.” Tess brought her knees up and wrapped her legs around his waist, squeezing him with her thighs. “You’ll be my first and last.”
He purred at the thought, his cat pushing forward and forcing the rumbling vibrations to travel through his body. Which caused his mate to tremble and whine. Her nipples hardened to tiny, pebbled nubs, and the scent of her juices increased. More of her cream coated his cock. He decided right then that he’d purr as often as possible.
Balancing his weight on one hand, he reached between them and grasped his cock. An easy shift gave him room and he placed the head of his dick at her slick opening as h
e got to the business of tormenting her. Or rather, tormenting them both.
He teased her heat, sliding in a mere inch and then out again. Barely-there thrust and retreat. Her pussy stretched around him, her flesh taut as it encircled his cock. Part of him demanded he retreat. She was too tiny, her sheath too tight, and he worried he’d hurt her. But then she moaned and arched into him, canting her hips to take him a hint deeper with his next thrust.
“Quit teasing.” She repeated the move, and three inches slid into her instead of one, yanking a growl-tinged groan from Harding’s chest.
Choosing to give her what she demanded, he pressed forward, sliding his thick cock into her waiting heat, eased into her with an agonizing slowness that drove him wild. He wanted to shove into her, slam their hips together and roar as he claimed her.
Soon.
Harding slid deeper, watching his mate’s face with every flex and tightening of his muscles. Silken velvet heat surrounded him, squeezing him like a vice, but he held his urges back. They would only ever complete their mating once. It had to be perfect.
He fed her more of his dick, wincing at the hint of pain that caressed her features, the lessening of desire in her eyes.
“We should stop.” It pained him to say the words, but he couldn’t ever give anything but pleasure to Tess. Her answer was to lock her legs around his waist. “Damn it, I’m hurting you.”
“It’d hurt more if you didn’t mate me, Harding.” She tilted her head to the side, exposing the line of her neck and slope of her shoulder. “Take me, mate. Make me yours.”
Snarling, Harding’s beast snatched control from him. He pressed deeper, sliding past the thin barrier of her virginity. Then he was fully wrapped by her moist pussy, her walls rippling around him. Tess winced at the pain he was sure he caused, and he rocked his hips to rub his pubic bone against her clit in an effort to bring back the need he’d seen moments ago.
That shift brought desire flaring back into her eyes. “Do that again.”
Harding was only too happy to comply. This time, he eased his cock from her pussy and then slid back in, making sure he pressed against that bundle of nerves. Her cunt tightened around him, telling him without words that she enjoyed what he’d done.
