“I’m making things awkward.” He didn’t move away though. He simply kept stroking her. “I want to kiss you but I also want to be honest. I don’t have a lot to give right now.”
“Then maybe you should find someone who doesn’t need to take from you. Why don’t you kiss me and we’ll go from there?” She wanted so badly to take some of his pain, to give him some peace.
“I knew from the minute I saw you something good might happen to me.” He stared down at her. “Is that silly? You walked out of the locker room and you smiled at me that first day of the training class and I thought maybe I could have one good thing.”
Sometimes one good thing was all a person needed to survive. She felt herself tearing up, the moment turning into something important. “I could use something good, too.”
He lowered his lips down to hers and she leaned into him. When he kissed her, she felt like melting in his arms. He was gentle, those sensual lips soft on her own. His hands held her face, framing it as he explored her mouth. He was so slow. So patient.
“Touch me, Mia.” He whispered the words on her lips. “Put your hands on me.”
The words were said in a soft tone, but she couldn’t mistake them for anything but a command. That soft place she’d found inside herself at Sanctum responded with glee. She let her hands find his chest and move down to his lean waist. So much warm skin, so masculine. Touching him made her feel alive.
She relaxed against him, letting his heat flow into her. Their bodies nestled together like they’d been made to fit. His hands moved down so he could wrap them around her.
All that mattered was being with him. Nothing in her life had ever felt as right as kissing Case Taggart in the moonlight.
When she thought he would deepen the kiss, he broke it off with a shake of his head.
Disappointment sparked through her and all her insecurities rose to the surface. “Is something wrong?”
He groaned softly and put his forehead to hers. “Nope. It’s all way too right, darlin’. I don’t want to start this the wrong way. And I have to have you downstairs in fifteen minutes. I’m too emotional right now. I’m sorry.”
He missed his brother. They had fifteen minutes. If he thought she would pout or complain that he wasn’t going to get more physical, he was in for a surprise.
“Come here, Sir.” She’d called him Case all night, but something had changed between them. She took his hand and led him back to the big, comfy-looking couch. “Why don’t you sit for a few minutes?”
He sat down, but he stared at her suspiciously. “Mia, I told you this isn’t a good time.”
But she thought it was. She’d seen how the subs soothed their Doms. She dropped to her knees and put her head in his lap, turned away from that part of him she really was interested in. It was just she was more interested in easing his pain tonight. In building something with him.
“What was Theo like, Sir?”
He was quiet for a moment and then his hand found her hair and he stroked her. She could feel him relax.
“He was a little insane,” he said with a shaky laugh. “I miss him.”
He started to talk and Mia listened.
Case stepped into the locker room, hoping he didn’t have a goofy grin on his face.
He passed by one of the mirrors and realized his hope was dashed. He looked like a dumbass teenaged kid who’d just kissed his first girl.
Damn, but he kind of didn’t care. Mia was hot and sweet and so gorgeous his dick hurt.
The real trouble was something else kind of reacted to her, too. Like everything else. His whole soul kind of softened the minute she walked in the room the first time.
God, he wanted to talk to his brother about Mia. Theo would know what to do. Ian would talk to him, but only after he gagged a couple of times first. He could go to Sean. Sean would give him sage advice and shit, but it had always been Theo who knew what to say to him.
Mia had known what to do. He’d thought for a second that she was going to offer him sex. When she’d dropped to her knees in front of him, his cock had jumped in his pants, but the rest of him had been so disappointed because he’d wanted more from her. Then she’d laid her head on his lap and asked about his brother and for fifteen minutes he’d found some peace.
“Dude, that girl is hot,” a masculine voice said.
He turned and saw Michael Malone standing next to him. He hadn’t seen much of Michael all night. He’d been off with Bear and Boomer and a couple of the pretty new subs, but it was obvious they’d been watching him.