I sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh. My. God.”
Lollipops. My absolute all-time favorite candy and he’d made them into a bouquet. When my face began to hurt, I realized it was because I was smiling so hard the corners of my mouth were getting introduced to my ears. Austin didn’t lift his eyes but had a defeated look on his face as he turned the candy in his hand and stared at it.
“I wanted to surprise you and… it was obviously a dumb idea. You’re not twelve anymore and I should have gotten you something better. Perfume, or real flowers.”
“Are you kidding me, Austin Cole?” I snatched the bouquet and dipped my nose in, smelling the sweet bliss of sugar. “This is the most beautiful thing I think I’ve ever seen.”
Then my lip quivered and I felt like a fool. “Wes used to give these to me whenever he wanted to shut me up about something.”
“I know,” he admitted. “He told me about your addiction years ago. No need to make a big thing of it. I’ll get you something better.”
Austin wanted to get me something better? Impossible. Just the fact he wanted to do something for me made my knees shake a little bit and my heart flap around like a nervous hummingbird. There wasn’t a chance in hell he was going to walk away thinking he didn’t just blow my mind.
I threw my arms around his neck and squeezed him tight. “I love that you know me so well,” I said. “This is better than roses by a mile.” Then I smelled him and he wasn’t wearing cologne. What’s more, I noticed he was smelling me when I felt his nose tickle against the crook of my neck.
When I stepped back, I plucked one of the candies from the cluster and ripped away the wrapper with my teeth. Immediately, I sucked on it and then held out my tongue, spinning the candy in circles.
Austin’s eyes were following every movement as he watched the whole affair. His lips parted as he eyed my mouth. “Keep doing that,” he said in a hoarse whisper.
Then he shocked the hell out of me when he leaned down and licked the other side. I felt his tongue slide against mine and I froze. Then he did it again, only this time more slowly until he pulled the candy away and began sucking on my candy-coated tongue as he cupped my face in his warm hands.
The tingles were roaring.
Suckers fell to the floor with a whack! My right leg wrapped around his waist as he lifted me up by my thighs.
The kiss was deep, wet, and salacious. My chin burned from how rough he was with his whiskers as we angled our heads to the left, then the right, and nibbled each other’s lips while discovering our groove. That comfortable groove you get into once you learn someone through their kiss—their moves, their rhythm, the intensity of how they use their tongue, even where on your mouth they linger during the kiss. Upper lip, lower lip, left side kisser, or all over the place.
Our kiss became so expert it was as if we had been lovers in another lifetime. His hand turned the knob and he stumbled forward, almost falling before he regained his balance and walked into the dark house. The wood creaked beneath his feet as he kicked the door shut behind him—my legs still wrapped around his waist and my fingers disappearing in his dark hair.
The kiss never stopped.
It echoed in the empty house as every sound we made was amplified. Sucking and licking—the wet sounds of our lips greedily giving in to the raw nature of passion.
Decades in the making.
At least on my end.
I moaned into his mouth and a growl rose from his chest—the deep, throaty kind that made me squeeze my legs a little tighter. He was walking me somewhere, and that somewhere was a room with a mattress and sheets.
Austin lowered me onto my back and the aroused look in his eyes caused me to fist the sheets. Moonlight trickled through the tall window when it wasn’t hiding behind the clouds, and I could make out the contours of his body through shadows and light.
Then an ache like I’d never felt before struck me so hard I curled my knees up and cried out. Austin moved on top of me like it was affecting him in the same way—clawing at my shorts as he kissed my legs hungrily, coveting me with every stroke of his tongue. Austin had a beautiful mouth—the kind of lips a woman wanted all over her body.
“We can’t do this,” he panted.
Confused, I swallowed hard and looked down at him. “Why not?”
I shivered when he lifted his eyes to mine. “You want a baby?”
That killed a little of the fire. I wasn’t exactly ready for kids, at least, not that very second. Kids were the kind of thing you discussed and decided on. Well, most of the time.
“You’re extremely fertile when you’re in heat; that’s how it works with Shifters. It comes around once a year, maybe less, and it can last hours or days,” he said, his breath warming my skin. While he was talking, his nose pushed up the hem of my shirt so he could taste my stomach. “If I take you, then you’ll get pregnant.”