Elise’s smile appeared right over him. “Open wide.”
As he complied, the cool, refreshing flavor was completely overshadowed by her scent, her beauty, his need. She ended up rinsing the toothbrush out in the water over and over, getting the paste from his mouth that way—and if the end result was a little gritty, at least he didn’t taste old blood.
And neither would she.
Elise moved the glass and the brush to the side and pulled the sleeve of her simple fleece down over the heel of her palm so she could wipe his mouth.
“How’s that?”
“Am I too banged up to kiss?”
“No,” she breathed.
She leaned back over him, but he stopped her. “Will you free your hair?”
Something about that memory of it whipping around the human male outside the steakhouse was still with him, and he wanted to own that stretch of wonder and magic that some other chump had had with her, take it away from the human, stamp it as his.
Plus he loved the smell of her shampoo.
As she pulled the band free and returned to him, soft waves framed his face … and then her lips were brushing his and he was using all his strength to rest his hands on her upper arms.
“You can lay on me,” he said into her mouth.
“Where are you hurt?”
“Just stabbed in the side, no big deal—”
She jerked up. “What—”
Axe waved his hand back and forth. “It’s not a problem.”
“Let me see.”
Hmmmmmm. If she stripped him, she’d get a really good picture of how bad it had been. On the other hand, hello. Nakey.
His conscience spoke up. “Ah, I’m not wearing anything under this. I mean, like … nothing.”
Her eyes grew hooded. “That’s all right with me.”
Axe’s hips rolled at that sexy tone of hers. “Then cut the damn thing off me. There are scissors in the kitchen. By the stove.”
The sound of her walking through the little house, just as when she’d gone upstairs, made him realize how empty it usually was—and also how quiet everything was here in the sticks: Out in this rural part of Caldwell, there was no ambient noise from late-night city traffic, no extra light from buildings or streetlights, no neighbors too close.
Funny, he had never had much of an opinion about the property before … but he liked the solitude.
Especially with her around.
“I’ll be careful,” she said as she came back in and got down on her knees next to him. “I think I’m going to have to start at the bottom.”
His breath caught and then started to pump. “Elise?”
“What?” she asked as she moved down to the hem with the blades.
“You realize I’m …”
It was funny that a male like him, who’d done just about every sexual thing that was physically possible, often in front of crowds of people, was suddenly pulling the shy-guy routine. But the difference was, he wanted Elise to like the way he looked. In the other situations, he hadn’t given a shit.
“You’re what,” she whispered. “I want to hear you say it.”
“I’m hard,” he moaned. “For you.”
Yes, it was the least sexy thing in the world to have a hospital patient say that to a female … to have some battered, bunged-up, stitched-together Frankenstein of a guy tell you that the one part of him that wasn’t bruised was ready and rearing to go.
But for whatever reason, she didn’t care about all the oh-so-uglies.
Her smile was one for the ages.
“Well, then I’m going to have to do something about that, aren’t I,” she murmured.
His cock twitched like it was doing sit-ups as she went to work, the silver scissors shiny and reflecting the firelight, the blades flashing as she started to cut. Right at the center of the gown.
The slicing sound of those two sharp halves coming together over and over again so close to his erection made him nearly orgasm. And then she was right where the action was.
She ran those scissors directly up the length of his erection.
Grabbing on to the blankets, fisting them hard, Axe kicked his head back, gritted his teeth, and groaned, “I’m coming—oh, fuck …”
The release was stronger than any he had been having down at that sex club, the sensations so crisp and clean, they were just like those blades, slicing through his body.
But he was worried what she would think of him. He didn’t want to go too far, too fast—
Nope, he shouldn’t have worried. Elise was enthralled, her white fangs biting into her lower lip as if she were holding in her own groans of pleasure, her eyes rapt on his cock and his ejaculations, her body poised to mount him.
Except when it was over, she just kept right on cutting, the head of his cock doing a desperate dance as she went up over his six-pack. Higher still to the pads of his pecs. All the way to his neck.
Axe couldn’t have moved if he’d wanted to. Especially as she finished the job, moved all the material out of the way, and sat back.
“I want to touch you,” she said with an awe that made him flush.
“Anywhere.” God, his voice was rough. “Fuck, do anything you want to me.”
She kissed him first, and holy hell, he loved being under her control, her mastery. He was naked, vulnerable from the injuries, and so fucking hot for her that she could violate him twelve different ways to Sunday and he would have begged her for more, harder, again, again, again, oh, please, Elise, take me again.…
Her hands were like water passing over his skin as her tongue licked at his mouth and penetrated him, taking him while she gave of herself. And then she was kissing down his throat.
“What are these tattoos?” she asked as her lips brushed over his jugular. His collarbone. “Only one side? Your earrings and piercings as well.”
“Two halves,” he mumbled as he arched his lower body, his erection heavy and hot as it lay on his lower abdomen.
“Of you?”
He nodded and tried to answer. “Who I am … who I wish I were.”
She paused. “Who do you wish you were?”
For a second, the mood was threatened, cracks appearing in the heat and lust. He couldn’t afford to have it shatter, though. This was too good, too rare.…
“Axe?”
“I want to be good. I really do.” Fuck, he sounded like a child. “I want to be a good son, not a broken one.”
“Well, I think you’re good.”
You don’t really know me, he thought with a sudden fear.
Shit, what if she found out he was a dirty whore … and a former drug addict who had let his father down when the male had needed him most?
And it was sad, but as misplaced as her faith was, he needed it: Her belief in him was almost a form of forgiveness, something he desperately wanted, but had never expected to find.
“I want to be good for you,” he said, meaning every word. In every way possible.
Except there was no dwelling on that—Elise proceeded to be reallllllly good to him, her mouth traveling down his torso, until it lingered at the head of his cock. Oh, fuck, her eyes were staring up his chest at him, and then she extended her tongue and tasted his tip. As he cursed out loud and jerked, she sucked him in—