over his hip, bringing them into even more intimate contact. “I need you, too.”
How he wished the towel and her pants didn’t separate them so he could plunge his hard cock into her slick warmth right now.
Abandoning her breast, he slipped a hand up her pajama-clad thigh to press her knee against his side and hold it in place. “I don’t have condoms.” Because he had no money. When Cliff had surrendered to the Immortal Guardians, Reordon had faked his death to explain his absence to the outside world. So his bank accounts had long since been closed.
She drew back just enough to look him in the eye while their quick breaths mingled. “It’s okay. It isn’t my fertile time.”
Hell yes. But his love for her outshone the lust that begged him to instantly ditch the towel and rip off her clothes. “We should talk first.” Before their relationship became physical. Or more physical than it was now. It would be much harder to walk away from her once he’d—
“Later.” She pressed a kiss to his neck.
A shiver rippled through him when she followed it with a lick. “Emma…”
She touched a finger to his lips. “Please, Cliff. I need you. If Bastien finds out you came here, we may only have tonight.”
His hold tightened instinctively in protest at the thought.
She delivered another slow, sensual kiss. “We can talk later.”
We may only have tonight.
He nodded.
Releasing his dreadlocks, she slid her hands down over his shoulders to his chest, slipped her knee from his grasp, and stepped back. “Let me clear off the bed.”
Cliff shot into motion, clearing the lockbox, duffel bag, and gun off the bed in a blink. “Done.”
Her eyes widened. Then she grinned big. “That is so cool.”
Smiling, he took her in his arms. “Now where were we?”
“I believe we were right about here,” she murmured and tilted her face up for another kiss.
Even that—just the pressure of her lips on his, the teasing stroke of her tongue—ratcheted up his need.
Cliff fingered the hem of her tank top, then drew it up over her head.
Her beautiful brown skin looked as soft as silk beneath the overhead light and was, he discovered as he slid one hand up her side to palm a breast and toy with a taut, dark peak.
Her breath shortened as desire flooded her features.
Cliff stroked her other breast as well as his heated gaze roamed her. “You’re so beautiful,” he murmured reverently. Her shoulders were much narrower than his, lending her an air of fragility the light muscle definition in her arms and abs belied. Those muscles twitched and jumped as he teased the tips of her breasts with strokes and flicks and pinches.
“Cliff,” she breathed, swaying toward him.
“Lose the pajama bottoms,” he ordered, voice hoarse.
They were down around her ankles within seconds, exposing nicely rounded hips, shapely legs, and a dark thatch of curls at their juncture.
Cliff’s control began to fray.
Emma dropped her gaze to his waist. “Lose the towel.”
Gladly. As soon as it hit the floor, he lifted Emma into his arms. “Wrap your legs around me,” he murmured.
“Hell yes,” she breathed, locking her ankles behind his back and trapping his hard length between them.
He groaned when she ground against him. He wanted their first time together… perhaps their only time together… to be perfect. He wanted to take his time and worship every inch of her. But he’d been celibate ever since he’d transformed roughly four years ago, and he needed her now with a desperation that made him tremble.
Turning around, he knelt on the bed and leaned down to gently lay her against the pillows.
“Finally,” she moaned, urging him to rest more of his weight on her. “Take me.”
Cliff shook his head. “Not yet.”
When he started to move away, she tightened her legs around him and made a sound of protest.
Amusement sifted through him, just enough to take the edge off. Smiling down at her, he patted one thigh. “Let me go.”
“Never,” she breathed.
And oh, what that declaration did to him. “If you don’t, I can’t taste you.” He cast a heated look down over her breasts and farther, to the point at which their bodies strained together, then met her gaze once more. “All of you.”
Her heartbeat picked up as she unwound her legs and dropped her feet to the mattress on either side of him.
Cliff ducked his head and ravaged her lips one more time, then trailed a path of hot kisses down her neck.