her finger explore the skin. His five o’clock shadow was rough against the pad of her thumb, but it made it all the more erotic.
Especially when Bennett took the finger into his mouth and nipped at it.
“Kiss me, Dakota.”
She wouldn’t be asked twice. She leaned in and placed her lips softly against his. She forced herself to make it as soft as possible, as she would have done as an unsure teenager. Bennett wouldn’t let it be just a simple peck. His tongue was at the ready, and he stroke out against her lips, demanding entry. She let him in because she desperately wanted him to kiss her until her eyes crossed, until her breath ran out.
His hand traced the column of her neck, and she leaned into his touch. His other hand traveled to her waist, and he moved them until she was straddling him. No easy feat, seeing as they were sitting on the hardwood floor.
“What would happen next at one of these parties?” he asked with a lust-filled voice.
“We would find an empty room and have sex.”
“Oh?” he prompted for more detail.
“Yeah. But we got one of those back at the house. And I’d rather not be caught in some gross dude’s bed where the sheets haven’t been washed in days.”
Bennett laughed. “You ruined the moment, love.”
“Sorry,” she laughed, but she didn’t mean it. “I’m just trying to make this as authentic an experience as possible.”
“What would happen after the tryst in an empty room?”
“We would exchange numbers, and you would promise to call. But you wouldn’t call.”
“I would have called you,” he insisted. “How could I not? Have you spent any sort of time with yourself? You an amazing woman, Dakota Alcott. Any man who walked away from you was a damn fool. Though I will admit that I’m happy that my gender is inept at spotting a gem. That means you were all free for me to snatch up.”
“You make it sound like I didn’t choose you right back.”
“It was never about choice, Dakota. Even before I had turned, even before I knew you were my mate, I was already hooked on you.”
“Do you want to get out of here?” The words flew out of her mouth in a rush of excited air.
“Not in a shitty college room?”
“No, I’m thinking back at the house.” She tried very hard not to cross her fingers behind her back.
“Lead the way, love,” he purred with all of the raw animal magnetism he now possessed.
Chapter Twenty
Bennett
Bennett drove. Even before they got to the car, he knew he had to focus on something that wasn’t Dakota. What she had done tonight was quite possibly the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for him. She had tried to pack a full life worth of experience in one night.
All to give him what he had never had.
All to get to know him.
He hadn’t ever been faced with that kind of pure attention before, and he loved it. It was all the more intense for coming from the woman who made his heart stop and his dick hard with just one look, one laugh.
The drive back to the house seemed to take three times longer than it had been to get to the damn party. He could only guess that was because he was now rock hard and very much intent on making love to his mate.
Dakota was his mate.
And he was going to wholly lean into that concept. He was a shifter now, and that’s what shifters did. They hadn’t eaten any dinner, but he didn’t care. There was another appetite clawing at his insides, and he knew from the look in Dakota’s eyes that she felt the same.
When he parked the car back at the house, he rushed around to grab her door. Taking her by the hand, they made their way to her bedroom after locking the door and resetting the security alarm.
Once they were in the room, alone and smelling each other’s scents like animals in heat, time slowed. Dakota walked right up to him and closed her arms around his neck. She placed a searing kiss on his mouth, exploring him with her tongue. He pulled away, letting his hands roam all over the curves of her hips.
“We can take it slow.” He nipped her earlobe between words.
Dakota giggled and pushed against his chest. “I don’t know if it’s possible for two shifters to take it slow, Ben. We can sure try to if you want.”
A low growl