Wild Invitation

Zach liked to take his time—he pushed her to insanity over and over. It might’ve terrified her except that he made no effort to hide his own arousal, murmuring his pleasure with every slow lick. “Sweet, pretty, Annie,” he said. “My Annie.”
    She discovered she was raising her body to his mouth, moving with a sensual bliss that was scandalous in its eroticism. He liked it. She knew, because he told her so, his voice close to a growl.
    “I am definitely going to bite,” he whispered. And then he did.
    By the time she could think again, he was getting off the bed. She exhaled in pleasure as he stripped off to reveal a body hard with arousal.
    “Look what you do to me,” he whispered, moving to kneel between her legs. He stroked his hands under her thighs. “Come here.”
    She swallowed at what he was asking, knowing it had far more to do with trust than sex. But she couldn’t refuse, had the strangest feeling that any hint of rejection from her would wound him incredibly deeply. Rising, she held on to his shoulders and let him support her bottom as her body brushed over the tip of his erection. “Zach,” she whispered, drowning in the intimacy of his eyes, “you undo me.”
    His eyes flickered from cat back to human. “Hold on to me, baby. I won’t let go.”
    Breath coming in jagged bursts, she lowered herself onto him. He stretched her to the limit. But she wanted him inside her, wanted to possess him as absolutely as he’d possessed her. She drove down and shuddered. “It’s too much.” The angle was deep, the penetration intense.
    He kissed her. “We’ll practice until you get used to it.” It was a husky promise as he laid her back down, bracing his body over hers using his hands.
    “How much practice?” She wrapped her legs around the lean beauty of his hips, no longer shy with this man who treated her as if she was a goddess.
    He groaned, pulled out a little, then thrust, as if he couldn’t help himself. “Lots.” Though sweat-damp hair hung over his forehead, and sexual need was an inferno in his eyes, he waited to give her time to adjust.
    She felt a violent tenderness grab hold of her heart. He was, quite simply,
wonderful.
Raising her arms, she pulled him down and kissed him, telling him without words that it was okay to let go.
    He groaned. And began to move.
    •   •   •
    ANNIE looked down at the male sprawled by her side the next morning and felt her body sigh. He was fast asleep and gilded dark gold by the sunlight sneaking in through the blinds. He’d kept her up half the night, loving her so thoroughly that she felt possessed. Taken. Branded.
    Refusing to surrender to panic, to give him up to protect herself, she reached out to trace the tattoo she’d discovered on his back sometime during the night.
    It linked to the one on his biceps, which was actually the stylized tail of a dragon. That dragon’s front claws rested on his left shoulder, the mythical creature’s sinuous body stretching across his back. It was a stunning design…and another example of the wildness in him.
    That wildness brought her alive, made joy sear her blood.
    It also frightened her—the depth of what she felt. Finally, she truly understood why her mother had stayed with her father all these years. Her mind filled with the echo of Kimberly’s voice from a rainy night more than fifteen years ago.
    Your father used to call me his heaven.
    That time had passed long ago, as would Zach’s interest in her. Yet even after the spark faded, Annie now knew that the temptation to stay, to hope for another moment when he might look at her as he once used to, would be overwhelming. It was that futile hope that kept her mother tied to her father, but though she understood it, it wasn’t a path Annie would ever allow herself to follow.
    It would break her heart to see Zach look at her with disinterest in his eyes. She’d leave before that, at the first insidious signs of fading passion. It was bound to happen…but not yet, she prayed.
Please not yet.
Heart tight with a mixture of joy and pain, she lay down beside him, content to trail her fingertips over his tattoo and watch him sleep.
    That was when she noticed his lips were curved.
    “Zach.” A whisper.
    Cat eyes looking into hers. “Mmm?”
    “How long have you been awake?”

Chapter 9
    “LONG ENOUGH TO enjoy you petting me.” Unrepentant mischief in his eyes. And desire. The desire was still there.
    Relief made her melt from the