If that was all that was holding her back, it was easily remedied. “Eat, finish your coffee. I’ll set a fresh toothbrush out on the counter and…” I sighed, “try to relieve the pressure.”
I doubted any amount of my own hand was going to do any good, not when I was about to crawl into bed with my mate, but I wasn’t going to fuck this up.
Her eyes dropped down to the front of my jeans. “If I told you not to? To wait until I’d brushed my teeth, and we could see where things take us?”
I groaned. She was a temptress, and I was a weak man when it came to Izobelle Denison. “I don’t want to rush things?”
I hadn’t meant it as a question, but that was how it came out. What was worse was that if anything, I was questioning it. Questioning my own sanity on it, because what dragon in his right man would deny his mate?
She bit her lip again, this time more coyly, less nervousness in her eyes, as she shrugged. “You’ve got me held captive here, Levi. All yours, all alone. You’re telling me you don’t want to take advantage of that?”
When her hand brushed against the front of my jeans, I practically whimpered. “Fuck, Izobelle, I’m trying to be a good mate to you. To make sure I do this right, for you.”
“I almost died. A vampire nearly killed me, long before I ever got the chance to meet you. Even though there’s still a ton of stuff to figure out, there’s no denying the way my body reacts to yours.” She pulled her hand back, but the heat in her eyes didn’t fade. “There’s something about you, Levi. Something about the way you kiss me, something in the way my body heats up just because you’re close by, that I’ve never experienced before. And even though I don’t know what tomorrow holds, or what we’re going to do about the national press coverage of you jumping off a building, shifting into a dragon, and kidnapping me, I know that at least for today, I want to know what it would be like to do more than kiss with the hottest guy I’ve ever seen.”
Gods, I wanted that too.
But I still couldn’t shake the feeling that she could wake up tomorrow full of regret, her fear back in full force.
We had too much to work through, too much to figure out, before I felt like I could just be with her.
With a sigh, I kissed the tip of her nose, even though I really didn’t care if she brushed her teeth or not and sat on the bed next to her again. “Eat. Finish your coffee. It’s not like I’m at any risk of not being rock hard with you around.”
Her cheeks flared with pink again, and she reached for her mug like it could hide her embarrassment.
When I was satisfied that she was going to finish up her breakfast, I got up and rifled through my bathroom drawers until I found a toothbrush still in its package and set it on the counter. I had no idea what kind of toiletries she liked, what she preferred to keep stocked on hand, but we’d have plenty of time to figure it all out.
Just as soon as we took care of the vampire problems.
By the time I got back into the bedroom, she was laying down, her sweatshirt in a pile on the floor, with the covers pulled up almost to her chin.
“You’re going to get comfortable, right?” She glanced at the fly of my jeans.
If I had found any relief at all in the bathroom, it would’ve gone right out the window with that single look.
With a smirk, I shoved the denim off over my hips, and let the jeans fall to the floor before I tugged my t-shirt off too. As tempting as it was to drop my boxer briefs, I was already straining against the cotton, and if I pulled those off too, there was no chance that I wouldn’t find my way into her warm, wet heat.
Still, her eyes homed in on my hard-on, and her lips parted into a wide “o”.
Rather than say anything, I slipped into bed next to her. “There’s a fresh toothbrush on the counter. We’ll have to make a list of toiletries and things you need. I’m not great at knowing what a woman needs in the bathroom yet, but if you tell me, I swear you’ll never want for anything.”
She rolled onto her side, looking at me with an intense curiosity in her seafoam green eyes. “Why do you care? I mean, it’s just shampoo and toothpaste and stuff. It’s not like I’d ask you to buy me tampons.”
I didn’t know what those were, but if she wanted them, I’d buy her every kind I could find. “I want you to be comfortable here. I want you to feel at home, like you have a place in my house, not just because I brought you here without planning.” I reached up and cupped her cheek, so tempted to kiss her. “If that means buying your favorite shampoo and tampons, then you should always have a stockpile of them.”
She laughed, throwing her head back like I’d just told some sort of hilarious joke. “You’re not buying me tampons. You can take me to the store, and I’ll get them, if I’m still here when that time of the month rolls around.”
Snarling, I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her in tight against my body. “Whatever you need, I’ll get it for you.”
Even if no one would recognize her in town, I couldn’t risk taking her out of this house, not until I knew all the damage the vampires did. She could’ve been thralled to hurt herself or try to hurt others. She could’ve been commanded to walk into traffic as soon as I wasn’t around.
Izobelle shivered, her whole body trembling against mine. But the scent of her arousal perfuming the air proved it wasn’t a scared tremble, and the way she opened her legs, rocking a little closer to me, left no doubt in my mind that she wasn’t afraid of me here.
As if knowing she wasn’t wearing a sweatshirt wasn’t bad enough, it felt like she was near bare on her lower half too.
Fuck waiting for her to brush her teeth. I crushed my lips against hers in a hungry, needy kiss, knotting my fingers in her hair as I shifted her head to where I wanted it, where I could taste the most of her.
Izobelle moaned, her hips rocking against my cock like she wanted me inside her as badly as I wanted to fill her. Her fingernails scraped over my lower back, holding onto me as she flicked her tongue against mine.