Dodge kissed the corner of my mouth and I nuzzled toward him, wanting more. He evaded and kissed my cheek, but by the time I moved to intercept his lips, he’d turned his attention to my throat. My arms linked around his neck, wanting to hold him close, and he chuckled. Dodge bumped his nose against mine and said, “Gotta open your eyes, baby.”
“Don’t want to,” I said, sighing.
His body moved next to me, and I realized his leg had been thrown over my thighs while I struggled with the nightmare. His elbows pressed into the mattress on either side of my chest; I could feel the weight of his chest against mine, though it was comforting more than overwhelming.
Dodge made a grumbly growly noise that ignited heat low in my stomach, and he nuzzled behind my ear, nipping at my earlobe and all down my throat. “Gotta. I want to see your eyes.”
It seemed a small price to pay, even though my stomach squirmed with nerves. If I opened my eyes, it meant I was really awake and really in bed and canoodling with the most handsome and intimidating man I’d ever met in my life. What if he ran away again?
Granted, the weight of his hips against mine made it clear he was interested in staying. But I’d thought the same thing the night before and been dead wrong.
So I cracked one eye open and caught his gaze reflecting back at me from very close. The only light in the room came from a dim lamp across the room, leaving everything in deep shadows; the window let in only darkness around the curtains. Apparently I’d slept the rest of the afternoon and into the night.
“Halfway there,” Dodge murmured, and kissed my bottom lip.
I arched against him, stretching and relaxing under his weight, and his hips shifted until his knee pressed into the mattress between mine. I tilted my head back so he could reach more of my throat and down to my shoulder. “You sure you’re going to stay?”
He hesitated long enough that I opened both eyes and gazed at him in the near-dark. He didn’t move away but he didn’t give me the enthusiastic confirmation I’d wanted to hear. I studied his face and ran my nails through his beard.
Dodge exhaled and his hand slid into my hair, cradling my head so he could tilt me how he wanted to kiss more of me. I surrendered as he ignited a fire in my blood and low in my stomach. He grumbled and his other hand slid down to grab my hip, squeezing my ass. I was suddenly cognizant that I only wore panties.
He pulled back and trailed kisses down my throat to where my shirt gapped at the throat. “Here’s the thing.”
My chest tightened and I braced for more rejection, the admission that he was only distracting me so I’d go along with whatever plan they came up with. I swallowed the knot in my throat and let my arms fall to the mattress.
The corner of his mouth turned up and he reached down to pick up my hand and place it on his back. “I’m a cynical old dude, Persephone. I spent most of my life avoiding any kind of emotional attachment, any kind of real relationship. I don’t know if I’m even able to have a relationship with a woman that doesn’t end... badly.”
Thatwasn’t what a girl wanted to hear from a guy on top of her.
Before I could tell him to go jump in a lake, Dodge leaned down and kissed the line of my jaw. “But you’re the first woman who made me want to try.”
I froze, my heart in my throat. Did he mean...?
Dodge kissed behind my other ear and then down my throat, moving down my body until he toyed with the hem of my shirt. “I thought I could get you out of my system or at least hold out until you moved on to something else. I thought it might have been the adrenaline, the danger, that got me fixated on you. The wolf likes you – a lot.”
That was a sentence I’d never heard before. I held my breath, unwilling to hope that this conversation ended anywhere near where I’d hoped.
He pulled up the hem of the shirt so he could plant a long, slow kiss on my bare skin between it and the waist of my panties. Dodge grumbled more and dragged his teeth across my stomach, down to my side. His hands worked their way up under my shirt until he could palm my breasts. “And I didn’t want to start anything with you, to let myself... imagine, when you don’t want to be involved in the supernatural community. It wouldn’t be fair to expect you to give up everything you’ve worked for just to fuck around with me for a while.”
“That’s not what –“ I started, but I lost the rest of the thought when his beard tickled against my ribs and he unhooked my bra. My fingers slid into his hair and I closed my eyes. I had no idea what he meant by me giving up everything, since they’d all been clear that I could try to walk away if I wanted to.
“So here’s the deal, Persephone Lawson.” He pushed up on his elbows to fix me with a golden look, and my breath caught. I’d always thought him handsome, but the intensity in his gaze, the focus of his expression... He was more gorgeous than anything I’d ever seen in my life. “I’m yours as long as you want me. You can walk away whenever you want. I’ll take whatever you’ll give me, however many minutes or hours that might be. I’ll protect you from whatever danger we face, whether you want to fool around or not. And I’ll make sure no shifters or witches or fae bother you when you walk away from the community completely. All right?”
I blinked. “That’s... a lot to take in.”
“That’s what she said,” he said, then blew a raspberry on my stomach that made me jump.
I laughed. “I have a lot of questions.”
Dodge lay on his side next to me, tracing shapes on my stomach where my shirt had rucked up. His hand rested on my bare thigh, his fingers drifting down to just inside my knee. “I’ve got all the time in the world, babe. Ask away.”
“They can wait,” I said. My head tilted back as his callused fingers coasted along my inner thigh, creeping up toward where my panties still kept us apart.
“You sure?” The tip of his finger teased along the gusset of the panties, stroking so lightly I almost came out of my skin in anticipation.
“V-very.” My thighs parted to give him more room, and Dodge’s chuckle made me flush. “Just...”
Dodge arched his eyebrows as he lifted his head and waited for me to go on. But he kept caressing the insides of my thighs, the sweep of fabric over my lady business, around the leg of my panties. Heat kindled low in my stomach until my hips wanted to lift to meet him, to encourage a firmer touch. But when I remained silent, his hand stilled. Those gold eyes studied me with sudden seriousness.
