he put his hands on my shoulders. His breath brushed the bare skin of my neck, and I shivered again for an entirely different reason.
What the hell? I thought. I couldn't go back to my room. I might as well stay here. In the past I'd tried drinking and drugs to make me forget the damned white wolf. They hadn't worked. There was one vice I'd neglected.
I bet Damien could make me forget... everything.
I turned and offered my mouth to his.
Chapter 17
Damien went still. "This is a bad idea, Leigh."
I went on tiptoe, brushed my lips back and forth across his chin, then reached up and licked his bottom lip.
"Fuck me," I whispered. "You know you want to."
He reared back, staring at me as if I'd lost my mind. But I already knew that I had.
"No," he said.
I reached down and cupped him. He was hard and heavy against my palm. "No?" I drew a fingertip up his length.
He caught his breath, closed his eyes. I slipped my hand into his pants, closed my fingers around him, and pumped.
Cursing, he grabbed my wrist. I managed to rub my thumb over his tip; moisture beaded between our skin. I wanted to taste him.
"Leigh," he ground out.
Maybe later.
"Stop talking."
I kissed him the way he'd kissed me earlier. Nothing gentle about it. No giving, only taking. If he kept yapping, I'd lose my nerve, and I didn't want that. I wanted him.
He gave in with a furious rumble from deep in his chest. Suddenly his hands were everywhere, touching everything. His mouth was right behind them.
I fumbled with his shirt. Why now, of all times, had he buttoned the damn thing? I lost my patience and yanked. Buttons pinged against the floor. At last I could kiss the chest I'd been fantasizing about.
He tasted as good as he smelled, an enticing combination of sunshine and shadow. Salt and sweet, clean skin. I licked his soft, flat nipple. It beaded and I rolled it with my tongue, tested the tip with my teeth.
His fingers tightened in my hair, pressing against my skull to a point just short of pain. I suckled him and his hand fell to my waist, but he didn't pull me near. Instead, he seemed to be holding me away. I didn't like it.
I reached for him, stroked gently. He leaped, grew, heated, and at last he drew me closer. It felt so good to be held. No one had touched me since Jimmy and...
My mind shied away from the past, clung to the present.
Think of nothing but this, no one but him.
My hand increased the pressure, the speed. My name erupted like a curse from his lips as he tugged at my clothes. He didn't have much luck. They were too tight to get rid of easily.
I was afraid he'd call a stop again, and if he did, I'd listen to the voice I'd stifled, the one that kept screaming, Are you insane?
Maybe. Oh well, nothing I hadn't been before.
To stifle the voice, I yanked my tank top over my head, lost the boots, the socks, the knife, then shimmied out of my jeans. By undressing myself, I could control the situation, control what he saw, what I hid.
I straightened, standing naked and exposed. Suddenly the room wasn't so hot; it was downright chilly.
The gray light of dawn cast a shadow over his face, making his eyes darker than I remembered, closer to brown than hazel. His hair was mussed, the lack of sun hiding the streaks of red amid the chestnut strands. His jaw was dark with stubble. I wanted to feel the scrape against my thighs, my belly, my breasts.
His shirt hung loose, the black accenting his pale, smooth skin. His trousers rode low on his hips. He was slim but toned, every inch honed to perfection. I wanted to see all of him, touch him, too.
I eased the shirt from his shoulders. He shrugged and it fluttered to the ground. He seemed unaffected by my nearness, my nakedness. Standing completely still, he didn't reach out. Did he find me unappealing?
The thought made me frown. I hadn't looked at a man with any interest in over two years, but not because no one had looked at me.
Small, petite, blond - almost. I was flat chested, true, but there were plenty of men who didn't mind, who, in fact, preferred a boyish shape to a voluptuous one. However, Damien might not be one of them.
I stepped forward and