crashed down over hers and she squeaked, fighting furiously to get free. But he was too strong, quelling her struggles easily as if she were nothing more than a week-old kitten. He held her against him, his lips ruthless as they explored hers. She gasped, trying to tear her face to the side, but he held her still and plundered her lips with his.
Without warning, something changed… snapped… and she went from trying to get away from him to needing to get closer. Surging upward, she pressed herself against him and kissed him back. He didn’t miss a beat, the growl spilling from his throat still vicious and feral as his hand slid up to tangle in her hair. With a yank, he pulled her head back, kissing along the soft skin of her throat.
She laughed, a small sound that was more moan than laugh, and then gasped as his teeth grasped the skin where her neck met her shoulder. He was back in a heartbeat, controlling her movements as he claimed her lips again. Ruthlessly, he pried them apart with a hard sweep of his tongue. She shivered as it thrust into her mouth.
The kiss turned hot and open-mouthed. He moved, pulling her into his body harder. His free hand slid down her back to cup her ass. Yanking her against him, he ground his groin against hers and she gasped again. Heat rolled through her at the feel of his long, hard cock trapped between them. Gods, she’d been joking about the Lathar showing a girl a good time. She had no way of knowing since she wouldn’t let most of them touch her with a bargepole, but if that was the way he was built… then fuck it, sign her up.
Her hands smoothed over his shoulders, naked to her touch. Absently she wondered where his jacket had gone but didn’t really care, not when it bared all this satin skin over steely muscles to her touch. He’d appeared lean, verging on skinny, but he was anything but. There was real power in his frame, a whipcord lean strength that made her shiver and the heat simmering through her veins rise higher.
She groaned as she slid her tongue against his, going from kissing to teasing… trying to take some of the dominance of the kiss back. He growled in warning, hand tightening in her hair again, and damn if that didn’t turn her on all the more. She stopped, and his kiss gentled a little, becoming more exploratory than conquering. Long strokes of his tongue warred with deep, drugging kisses and she felt like she was floating. She had no cares in the world other than his kiss and where he was taking them with it. She moaned, her eyes fluttering closed as she surrendered to him.
He pulled away with a soft gasp, and she opened her eyes. He was watching her, lips a bare millimeter away from hers, the expression in his eyes unreadable.
Fuck… what was wrong with her? She’d never let a guy manhandle her like that before. If anyone had told her a week ago she’d let anyone, much less a formally sardonic stick-up-his-ass Lathar, kiss her that way, control her that way… and that she’d enjoy it. More, that she was desperate for him to do it again… she’d have laughed them out the fucking door.
And she did laugh now. Or, at the very least, managed a smile.
“See?” she said in a soft voice. “Kinky. The good kind.”
His eyes shuttered a little and he eased his grip.
“I would not know,” he said, letting her go and stepping back. His chest heaved as he looked at her and she frowned. “You are the only female I have ever been that… intimate with.”
“What?” If she’d been standing, she’d have staggered back. “You mean… that was your first kiss?”
Color rose on his high cheekbones and he looked away. “First kiss. First time I have touched a female in an intimate way.”
She blinked, unable to believe what she was hearing. “An intimate way? Are you telling me? Nyek… have you ever had sex?”
He had to have. There was no way a guy who looked the way he did, kissed the way he did, could be a virgin. Surely?
He shook his head, a sharp, almost annoyed movement. “I am a paladin of the lady. I do not partake in the pleasures of the flesh. They are a distraction from her service.”
“Fuck me sideways with a bargepole,” she breathed.
He was