Page 6 of Until Forever Comes
“But I… I,” I stammered. “I thought you were going to… thought we were fixin’ to….” I could feel my neck and face heating even more. I didn’t have the words to finish that sentence. I just knew I wanted something, needed something, felt as if I’d die if I didn’t get… something.
Miguel wrapped his arms around me and pulled me right up against him. “So shy,” he whispered and gazed at me. “I’d forgotten what that was like.”
“What do you mean?” I asked as I burrowed closer to him, moving my hands up his sides and clinging to his shirt.
“I haven’t been with someone so new in years.” He rubbed my lower back as he skated his lips over my jaw. “Decades.” He reached my mouth, and my entire body shook with need, my heart slammed against my ribs, and my breath came out in short, desperate gasps. He paused, and then he looked into my eyes. “Have you ever been kissed?”
I shook my head.
“Centuries,” he said so quietly that I felt more than heard the words. Then he cupped my cheeks between his hands, cocked my head up, dipped his face, and touched his lips to mine.
Chapter 4
IWASstanding in Kfarkattan, not wearing any clothing, being held by a vampire. That should sound like a nightmare of the most terrifying variety. But I wasn’t scared. Not with Miguel caressing my face, tracing his thumbs over my jaw, opening and closing his lips over mine in barely there, gentle tugs, darting his tongue out and lapping at mine every so often.
Necking with a soulless killer wasn’t what I would have expected. He was tender and gentle, his gaze warm and full of desire, his body hard and muscular and nothing short of perfect. I melted against him and he moaned, increasing the pressure of his lips against mine and sucking on my tongue.
“Ungh, ungh,” I groaned and pushed my groin against him, looking for friction.
“So young,” he said quietly and caressed my cheek as he gazed at me. “So innocent.”
I saw something cross his expression then, something other than lust and desire, something closer to disappointment or sadness. But I couldn’t think too long on it because suddenly he was kissing me again as he pressed his knee between my thighs, giving me something to rub on. Instinct took over and I frantically rutted against him, grasping at his shirt, pouring my moans and whimpers into his mouth. And then I was shaking and coming and crying out his name.
When I came back to earth, I was still in Miguel’s arms, snug as a bug, surrounded by his strength as he kissed and sucked on my neck. “You said my name,” I heard him whisper. Then he pulled back and put his hands on my shoulders, holding me in place. His gaze bore into me. “How did you know my name?”
“I heard your, uh, friend say it. Is that… is that okay?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “I like hearing my name from your lips. But I don’t know what you’re called.”
“Ethan,” I answered. “Ethan Abbatt.”
“Ethan Abbatt.” He repeated my name, sounding almost wistful as he said it. “I think it’s time we got you home, Ethan Abbatt.”
“What if I don’t want to go?” I asked, hoping I didn’t sound like a petulant child fixin’ to pitch a fit.
He sighed and caressed my cheek, his gentleness once again surprising me. “You don’t belong here, wolf. It isn’t safe.”
“But you’re here,” I responded.
He graced me with another of those crooked grins, the kind that made me feel like he thought I was amusing. I had a sense that Miguel wasn’t amused very often, so I felt a sense of pride that I could put that expression on his face, no matter the reason.
“Yes, I’m here for now. But I’m not a little wolf who can’t seem to stay out of trouble.”
He had managed to say the one thing that was sure to tear me up right quick. I frowned and dropped my gaze. “I know I’m a runt, but I can’t help my size,” I said quietly.
“Hey.” He tipped my chin up and forced me to meet his gaze. “It wasn’t an insult. In case you hadn’t noticed, I like how you look.”
“Yeah?” I croaked, my voice breaking on the word.
“Oh, yeah.” He dragged a heated gaze over every inch of my body and brought his hand along for the ride.
When he ended at my cheek, I turned my face and nuzzled his hand. “Good,” I said.
“Yes, it is good. So good, in fact, that I want to make sure you keep on looking like this, except maybe without all those scrapes and cuts.” He furrowed his brow and stared at my legs and arms. “Those aren’t wounds from my kind, so they’re not from last night.” Suddenly all the humor left his face and he looked just as deadly as he had during the battle the night before. “Who hurt you?”
I looked down at my body and saw that while the abrasions from crawling on the ground had stopped bleeding and started healing when I shifted, they were still readily apparent.
“Nobody. It happened when I crawled to you.”
