He pulled his mouth away from hers and eased down her body, moving all of her bunched-up clothes out of his way, over her head and arms. Paul swept his tongue across her nipple. Andra’s hips bucked and she ripped the clothes from her arms and grabbed fistfuls of his hair, holding him to her.

“More,” she ordered.

Paul happily complied and covered her with his mouth, pulling on her hard.

Her fingernails bit into his scalp and she let out the most beautiful sound of pleasure he’d ever heard.

Deep inside him, something was happening—something truly wonderful—but he didn’t know what it was. He couldn’t think straight. Not with his mouth latched onto her breast and her body writhing under his. Not with the moonlight bathing her skin and the scent of her arousal heavy in the night air.

Power flowed out of him, trickling into her everywhere their bare skin touched. It was erotic feeling her soaking it up, feeling her accept what he needed to give her.

“Oh.” She breathed in and he felt her hold her breath for a moment. “That’s what you meant.”

Paul couldn’t speak. His throat was too tight with the need to shove more power into her and force her to take it all. Only his need to protect her held him back and allowed him a precious measure of control.

The ferocious need to take her welled up inside him. If she couldn’t take more power, she was damn well going to take his cock inside her as deep as it could go.

His fingers went to the waistband of her jeans, desperate to get her naked. He wanted to feel her skin against his and find out if she was as wet and ready for him as he needed her to be. He didn’t think he could be gentle anymore. Not the first time. Maybe after a few rounds, after he’d ground down the rougher edges of his need.

She stiffened and moved to stop his hand, but Paul brushed off her attempt. She tried again and he growled his frustration while he captured her hands and pinned them over her head against her discarded shirt.

“Paul.” She whispered his name as if she were frightened.

He didn’t want to stop, but he was compelled by his vow to look around and find out what had scared her. Once he killed it, he could get back to her sweet, firm body.

When he looked around, he saw nothing. “What?” he asked her in a voice thick with need.

“You’re holding me down.”

So? She’d tried to stop him. What did she expect him to do?

“Let me go.” Her eyes were wide and bright with banked fear.

Paul looked at where his hand shackled her wrists. His hold was tight enough to bruise. Tight enough to hurt her.

“Shit,” growled Paul. He let her go and shoved himself away from her. He was going too fast in his desperation. Forcing her. That hadn’t been his intention.

Had it?

His erection throbbed in time with his racing pulse and his skin was fever-hot. Inside, he was shaking with need, but he managed to lie still on the dry grass and not jump her again.

Her face came into his line of sight and she wore a tentative, worried frown. “You okay?”

Paul shut his eyes. He couldn’t even look at her without fighting the need to stake his claim. And even when he closed his eyes, he could still feel her skin under his hands and her nipple against his tongue. Those were not the kinds of things a man forgot.

She touched his face, and he gritted his teeth against the urge to throw her back down and take her hard and fast, before she had a chance to stop him.

“We don’t have to stop, but slower is good,” she said. “Can you go slower?”

“Probably not. I don’t know what you do to me, but I’m dying here. I need to be inside you.” Just saying it nearly turned him inside out with lust.

Andra pulled in a shaky breath. Her breast brushed his arm, and he could feel the silky smoothness of her skin. She was still shirtless.

Paul opened his eyes to look because there was no other choice. He had to see her bare breasts.

She watched him stare and went up to her knees. “Slower, okay?”

Paul nodded, unable to speak. He wasn’t sure if he could slow down, but he knew he’d try. He’d do just about anything to get her back under him where she belonged.

Before he could find the will to move, Andra straddled his hips. “It worked,” she told him.

“What worked?”

“Intimacy.” She took his hand and pressed it to her breast. “When you kissed me here, I felt it—felt our connection get stronger.”

“Maybe I should do it again, just to be sure.”

She gave him a sultry smile that made him want to feel her lips wrap around his cock while she sucked him off. His whole body shook with the effort to stay still and not force her to do just that.

“You’re beautiful,” she told him.

“I’m a man.”

She stroked her fingers over his lifemark, trailing down toward his jeans. “You’re still beautiful. All hard and muscular. It’s a real turn-on.”

“If you’re so turned on, then you won’t mind letting me feel. Are you wet, Andra?”

She held his stare as she unbuttoned her jeans and slid the zipper down so slowly it made his balls ache. Instead of letting him do the job, she eased her hand inside her panties. Her eyes went heavy and her head fell back as she moved her fingers over her own skin.

Paul couldn’t take any more. Not one second. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand out. Her fingers glistened with her arousal in the moonlight. He’d done that to her. He’d made her wet and now he was going to taste her.

He took her fingers into his mouth and nearly came right there. She tasted of salt and woman and unsated need. But not for long. He’d satisfy her and fill her up with his seed so there’d be no more question that she was his woman. She’d smell like his. Taste like his. Be his.

Andra watched him with heavy-lidded eyes and he could feel her jeans rasping against his stomach as her hips shifted like they had a mind of their own.

“Take them off,” ordered Paul. “I want you naked.”

Andra lifted a brow in challenge. “You, too.”

Whatever got her naked worked for him. Paul unfastened his sword belt and set it within easy reach. As soon as it left his body, the weapon became visible, displaying the intricate carvings of vines on the scabbard. He shoved his jeans and boots off just in time to watch her do the same.

She was still wearing her panties, but she tossed the rest of her clothes aside and her eyes fixed on his heavy erection. It bobbed in answer to her eager stare. “If you keep looking, I’m going to disgrace myself.”

A smile of pure womanly greed curved her mouth. “Oh, yeah?” She reached out and wrapped her fingers around him, making him suck in a hard breath. “I think I’d like to see that.”

“Maybe later,” he told her, and pushed her back down in the soft, thick grass. “Right now, I have other plans.”

She stroked him with her fist. Her fingers were just long enough to do the job right, and they felt like heaven. Paul had to clench his teeth to stop himself from coming all over her hand.

He pulled her hand away and his dick gave a throb of resentment, which he ignored.

“You’re still wearing your panties,” he said.

“I’m shy.”

Paul let out a bark of laughter he couldn’t contain. There wasn’t a shy bone in her body. She was teasing him and that was fine. Two could play that game.

He kissed her mouth until she was breathless, and then moved down her neck and over her collarbone. He loved each breast with his mouth and tongue, pulling sweet moans of pleasure from her until he couldn’t take any more. He trailed kisses down her ribs and over her taut belly, sliding her panties off as he descended.

Her legs were long and muscular, like the rest of her. But even with all those feminine muscles, she was still woman-soft, woman-smooth. He had to touch her and soak up the feel of her skin beneath his. He wasn’t sure he was ever going to get enough of her, but he was damn well going to try.

He went back up her body, spreading her legs as he caressed them. Every inch higher he went drew a new shiver from her, another soft moan. Restraint nearly killed him. It would have been so easy to just slide right inside her. But she’d asked him to go slower, so he would.

When his finger slid over her sex, opening her slick folds, she jumped at the contact.

“Oh,” she breathed on a long sigh as her body went limp.

Paul wasn’t waiting for an invitation. He parted her legs wide enough to make room for his shoulders and settled between them. The grass tickled his body, but it was soft enough that he didn’t worry about Andra’s back. He could ride her as hard as he wanted and not fear hurting her. Which was good. He didn’t trust his restraint to hold once he felt her body close around his dick.

The scent of her heated body made his head spin and his mouth water. He parted her flesh, and Andra’s body tensed. He didn’t know if it was because she was eager or anxious, but he pressed soft, soothing kisses along the insides of her thighs to quiet her so she’d let him do as he pleased with her.

It didn’t work. She was strung tight, vibrating with tension.

His mind wanted to relax her and ease her anxiety, but his body had other ideas. He needed to taste her again, to make her come. After an orgasm or two, she’d be plenty relaxed.

The idea was too potent to resist, so he didn’t. He pushed her legs high and wide and held them there while he took her with his mouth.

Andra grabbed his hair in her fists and let out a sharp cry of need. Her hips bucked beneath him and he gripped her tight to hold her still while he flicked his tongue over her sensitive little nub.

Then he felt it. She was poking at his mind frantically, trying to find her way inside.

Kate had never wanted that closeness with him. She’d always kept her distance. Cold and aloof. She’d never so much as let him kiss her.

But not Andra. She was trying to get closer to him, trying to become a part of him. Paul’s soul swelled with satisfaction and he let her in, feeling a dark grin stretch his mouth. He had nothing to hide from her—not anymore—but he guided her toward what he wanted her to see most. She was going to see all of him, feel his desire for her, and it would magnify her own.

In her innocence, she didn’t realize he was funneling her through his thoughts, steering her toward his vibrant, consuming need to have her and keep her forever. She went along easily and he let her feel it, let go of his control and let her feel how much he wanted her.

A raw moan escaped her lips, and she arched into him, holding his head tight against her. As if he needed any encouragement. He could feel how close she was, how much she wanted it. Needed it. Her body was trembling on the brink, and all it would take was the slightest push to send her over.

Paul’s dick throbbed as he slid a finger inside her tight, hot body. She let out an almost pained whimper, so he suckled her hard, giving her what she needed. That was all it took.

He felt her orgasm sweep over her, felt her muscles tighten as it crashed against her. She let out a loud cry of release that made Paul’s world shift beneath him. The echo hadn’t even died down yet and already he wanted to make her do it again. And again.