her skin.
“You’re doing a pretty good job of showing me.”
He chuckled, the sound a deep, melodious rumble from his chest. “You are intriguing.” He kissed her right inner thigh. “Intelligent.” He nipped at the left. “And irresistible.” He blew a breath across her center.
“That’s a lot of I’s.” She barely had any breath left in her lungs.
“I’m infatuated.” He slipped out his tongue, bathing her sensitive nub in moist heat, making her cry out with pleasure.
He moaned, the vibration of sound intensifying the sensation as he licked her, circling her clit until she arched her back, begging him for more. He slipped one finger inside her, and then a second, twisting his hand to reach her sweet spot and grazing it with the tips of his fingers over and over.
The orgasm coiled in her core, releasing like an explosion, consuming her from the inside out before putting her back together again. “Donovan, I need you,” she panted.
He crawled on top of her, nuzzling into her neck. “Are you on birth control?”
“Yes.” She tangled her fingers in his air. “And shifters are immune to disease.”
With one swift thrust, he filled her, a pleasurable aching sensation expanding in her core as he pulled out and then filled her again. Rising onto his hands, he looked at her with hooded eyes as he rocked his hips, holding her gaze and making love to her with his entire being.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and clutched his biceps, matching his thrusts beat for beat until another climax consumed her. Clinging to him, she rode the wave of her orgasm, and he moaned, lowering his body to hers and wrapping his arms around her tightly as he pressed into her, finding his own release.
Her head spun for a moment, and as her breathing slowed, she traced her fingers along his sweat-slickened skin. She bit her lip, fighting her smile as he held her.
Donovan might not have been the answer to the town’s prayers, but he was the answer to hers.
Alice was everything Donovan never knew he needed. As he lay on his back, with Alice snuggled into his side, he couldn’t recall a time when he’d been more content. Now more than ever, he needed to unlock his magic so he could be the man she thought he was.
A sense of shame soured in his stomach. Though he’d never specifically said he had powers, the fact he had a familiar alluded to formidable magic. She undoubtedly assumed he was powerful, thanks to his masked aura. What a disappointment he would be when she learned otherwise.
She pressed her velvet-soft lips to his chest, drawing him from his thoughts, and then propped her head on her hand. “You’re quiet. I hope it’s because the sex was so good it left you speechless.”
He smiled. “It was marvelous. So good, in fact, my legs have turned to rubber, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to walk you to the door. Stay the night?”
“I can do that.” She glided her fingers along his jaw. “But I have to be at the shop by ten.”
“I’m not sure I’ll be willing to let you go by then.”
She arched a brow. “You’ll have no choice. I’ll fly away if you try to cage me.”
“Noted.” He ran his fingers through her silky black hair, tucking it behind her ear. “You’re a free spirit. I would never try to hold you down.”
“Good.”
“Tell me more about Marcus Rainecourt’s departure from this small slice of heaven. He never spoke of the town or the creek when he was alive.”
Alice blew a breath through her nose, pursing her lips as she shook her head. “He left before I was born, so everything I know is second-hand. He was not a well-liked man in this town.”
“Nor was he in New York.”
“He considered the shifters here second-class citizens, thought he was better than everyone else.”
“That sounds about right.” As she rested her hand on his chest, he covered it with his own.
“But he married a mundy. That’s what we call humans here. Apparently, he thought having no magic at all was better than being a shifter… a small-town shifter, anyway. But his wife was from a small town too, so he had no right to look down his nose at us.” She bristled as she spoke.
“You’re passionate about equality.”
“Well, yeah. People are people, no matter what kind of magic they have. It irks me to no end the way some think they’re better than others just because their