The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance

knelt. He used the sponge to pay close attention to her belly, thighs, legs, each delicate foot. He turned her to face the spray and wash the soap from her body.
    Still on his knees, Archer nuzzled her soft mound. She fisted his hair tighter and cried out as he ran his tongue between her legs.
    “Goddess. Archer.” She pressed his face closer. Her legs trembled, her body tensed, and he knew she was close to flying towards the stars. A little more and she’d go supernova.
    He bit her lightly and she screamed. Her whole body shook and her face flushed with the power of her orgasm. When her legs gave out and she dropped into his arms he felt somehow triumphant — that he had brought her to her knees.
    He took her mouth in a fierce kiss, feeling a sense of ownership and protectiveness.
    “I don’t know if I can get up,” she whispered when he moved his mouth from hers.
    Archer smiled and kissed her lightly before drawing her up to stand. She pressed her face to his wet chest and gave a deep sigh. “I’ve never felt anything like that.” She tilted her face up. “I have few memories left, but I know that no man ever made me feel the way you do.”
    The thought of any other man with Lilin sent a stab of jealousy through his chest. Maybe it shouldn’t have, but he wanted her to think only of him, as if he was her first. His touch, his kiss, his hips between her thighs as he took her.
    And God, he needed to be inside her now.
    Even though she wanted to wash him as he had washed her, he refused and made short work of shampooing his hair and scrubbing his body with the sponge. After shutting off the water and climbing out of the shower, they dried off with a pair of towels.
    Archer picked her up and she dropped her towel before she wrapped her legs around his hips and held on to his shoulders. She kissed him as he strode across the room and they tumbled onto the bed. The need to be a part of her was so great he was in a fog of lust.
    Love.
    The word came out of nowhere, pressing against his mind. Could the feeling in his chest be love for Lilin?
    He touched her, kissed her, slid his hips between her thighs.
    “Wait,” she said, her voice husky and her eyes heavy-lidded.
    “What, baby?” he murmured as he nibbled at her ear.
    She gave one of her sexy little moans. “The protection you said you wanted to use the last time I came to you.”
    Stunned at himself and his forgetfulness, Archer rose and looked down at Lilin, the first woman he wanted to take, screw the protection. He brushed his lips over hers. “Thank you,” he murmured.
    It took him all of ten seconds to reach into his nightstand drawer and pull out a condom package.
    When he was ready, he looked down at his Lilin. She was so beautiful. And she was so very much his.
    When he drove himself deep inside her, she cried out, “Oh, Goddess!” with the sound of pain in her voice.
    Archer went completely still. “You’re a virgin?”
    She looked as surprised as he did. “My memories aren’t clear any more.”
    He didn’t move. “Are you all right?”
    “I’m fine.” She smiled. “The way you fill me is wonderful.”
    And she was so tight. Her velvet core gripped him like a fist and he couldn’t move for a moment or he’d come.
    Slowly, he drew out, then slid back in. He didn’t want to hurt her.
    She dug her fingernails into his biceps. “More, Archer.”
    He gritted his teeth as he withdrew, then drove himself back inside her. Again he drew out slowly, then thrust into her. She made small cries and he nearly growled with the feelings of possessiveness that grabbed him.
    As he took her, Lilin’s body began to tremble, her thighs shaking against his hips. Her lips were parted, her eyes glazed and her moans louder.
    While he continued to make love to her, he waited. Waited. Waited. Holding back his own orgasm.
    He drove in again. She arched her back and screamed. Her body rocked and writhed beneath him. Her core clamped so hard on him that he lost it. He shouted and pressed his hips tight against her as she continued to contract around him and his throbbing seemed to go on forever.
    Finally he collapsed, barely rolling to the side in time to keep his weight from crushing her petite frame.
    For a long time they held one another, her head against his chest, their breathing deep and ragged, him still inside her.
    When he had the strength, he started kissing her forehead, inhaling her special scent and feeling incredible warmth deep in his