There weren’t many flowers around; the grass was worn down as if many walked through here. And just ahead a small home in the shape of an acorn glowed a buttery golden color.
“That’s the March Hare’s home,” she pointed to the cheery white and red painted acorn. A white wicker table set up with tea tray and kettle sat on the patio beside it. “I don’t think Chrysalis will bother us tonight. We’ve backtracked enough and walked far enough that this should be a safe haven.”
He nodded. It looked good to him. “Fine. But I don’t want to be too close to the Hare’s home.”
She laughed. “True. He’s been known to be a touch jittery.”
They walked back a few hundred paces and then settled down inside an overgrown mossy knoll.
Aeric knew he should talk with her, should tell her not to worry. He didn’t want her to confuse his quietness as having anything to do with her, but the memories stirred up weren’t pleasant ones for him. He was raw and felt exposed. Not a feeling he’d ever been comfortable with.
They didn’t speak as they made up their beds. He above ground, her beneath it.
But an hour later, when the moon was at its highest spot in the sky, he saw her head poke up out of the hole.
“Aeric?” she whispered. “Are you awake?”
“Yes.” He twiddled his thumbs that he’d placed on his stomach.
Walking quickly toward him, she didn’t ask for permission, but simply crawled onto his lap, same way as she had last night. And though a side of him wanted to push her off and demand she walk back to her hole, that side was growing smaller and smaller by the day.
Dipping his nose into her hair, he closed his eyes, feeling the buzzing of his mind instantly begin to quiet.
“I’m sorry that happened to you. But I’m not very sorry either.” She blinked her feline eyes back at him and again they were a deep and startling blue. Maybe it was the shadow of the night playing tricks with his mind, but he didn’t think so. She was changing.
He rubbed her hair. “Why aren’t you that sorry?”
“Because,” her hands slid up his chest, coming to rest against his heart, “then I wouldn’t be able to do this.”
And this time when she kissed him, it was sweet, and passionate, and perfect. There was no knocking of teeth, or biting and clawing. The night was long, and dark. A perfect time to shed worries and inhibitions. Because the night would keep secrets and he was so tired of being alone.
Growling, he grabbed her bottom and rolled them over, so that he was now the one on top.
“Take my shirt off,” he commanded of her.
Nibbling her bee-stung lips, pale skin rosy and almost glowing in the moonlight, she helped him to shove the shirt off his chest. Leaning back, he jerked his trousers down his legs, and then kicked them off, tossing them aside.
This time when he lay back on top of her, it was to feel all the silkiness of her rub against the coarseness of him.
“Lissa,” he grunted, grabbing the plump, pale globe of her breast and bringing her nipple to his mouth.
She moaned long and low with his first suckling pull. Her nails drove into his scalp like little claws, but it only spurred his desire.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” he whispered in between licks and kisses, “you weren’t supposed to happen.”
“Oh, Aeric,” she murmured, running her fingers through his hair and he heard the hurt, but he also heard her passion.
“Lissa,” he said her name like a prayer and a benediction.
Wrapping her long legs around his waist, so that the hot center of her was pressed against the hard length of him, she arched her back like a cat.
“Are you sure, kitten?” he asked through clenched teeth, because if she said to stop now, he would, but it would surely be a deathblow.
She laughed, pecked his lips, and she looked so beautiful. Vivacious. It knocked the breath out of him. “Kitten? Am I your kitty cat?”
“Do you want to be?”
Her lashes fluttered and rather than answer she nudged him with her hips, eliciting a hiss from him as his cock brushed her wet, swollen center.
Blue eyes enthralled him, ensnared him. Aeric was lost. There’d never really been a chance of him surviving her. At the barest hint of a nod, he slid in and encountered a thin barrier.
“Lissa?” he asked again, he’d suspected her to be a virgin, but now he had proof. And he wanted to know absolutely that this was what she wanted.
She proved it, by shoving herself down roughly. Moaning and shuddering when he entered her fully.
She was so tight, clenching him so hard, that it made him dizzy. Her scent of spring rain was everywhere.
“Lissa, I’m sorry, this is your first time, I wish I could go slower, but I have to have you now.” He thrust, and each movement was like being kissed by lightening.
Her heat zapped through him, made his bones ache and his flesh shiver.
She trembled and squeezed her legs harder, meeting him wild thrust for thrust. Mating with him like a cat in heat. Tiny mewling sounds spilled from her throat, spurring his frenzy, his need for her to even greater heights.