The Amber Shift

Twenty-Two

Asher

I pictured myself doing a thousand different things tonight, but none of them came close to the perfect scene lying beneath me. The full moon is tomorrow night, and my libido is out of control. I'm aching to kiss, lick, and fuck. From the moment I felt the pending shift pulling at my wolf, I wanted to find Noelle and bury myself deep inside her. But she had been so quiet on the plane, and I didn't want to risk the rejection when I needed the release like the desert thirsts for the rain.

Now she is mine. Her legs tangled with mine and the sweetest moans leaving her perfect lips. I want them on me, leaving trails of kisses and sucking on my skin. My body is aching to know what it would feel like to have her devour me.

I pull her shirt over her head and throw it across the room. Her breasts overflow from my palms as I knead them and bring her nipples to hard peaks. Taking one in my mouth, Noelle arches from the bed, pressing the warm apex of her legs against me. She is so soft and inviting and I want to lose myself in her.

Her sweet scent fills the room, assaulting my senses with its notes of cinnamon. Tangling her fingers in my hair, she pulls until I lift my eyes to hers in question. "Are you all right?" I ask, pulling my mouth from her breast.

"God, yes, I—" She takes a deep breath and sits up against the headboard, pulling me close between her spread legs, her tiny pajama shorts nearly showing me the treasure they hide underneath.

"What is it, love?"

"I'm scared," she admits, her dual-toned eyes flashing with embarrassment. "I know that probably sounds insane considering everything that's happened in the last couple of days, but I—I just want to know for sure that I'm safe with you."

Her words scrape at my soul. Why would she think she's not safe with me? Every step I've taken since she walked into my life has taken her into consideration. All I want is for her to find happiness with me. I grab her cheeks and say, "You are always safe with me, Noelle. If this isn't what you want, just say the word and I'll stop."

She shakes her head and grips the front of my shirt, her eyes desperately searching mine for something I can't quite place. Solace, perhaps. Or certainty. I don't know, but the sincerity radiating from them makes my heart ache.

"Asher, it is what I want. I want you. It's just that a lot has changed for me in the past twenty-four hours, and I have to admit I'm feeling vulnerable. I just need to feel protected right now. Truly wanted."

I place a kiss on her sternum. "Trust me, you are truly wanted by me." I trail my lips down to the soft spot above her navel. "Desperately wanted." Hooking my fingers in the waistband of her shorts, I lower them and kiss just above the place where I know the nagging ache resides in her body. "Completely wanted."

She lifts her hips at my kiss, and I smile against her skin as I drop her shorts to the floor. "Good," she whispers, sliding her hands back into my hair and gripping it at the roots. "Because I want you to make me forget everything that's happened this week that's turned my life upside down. I want to feel you inside me, claiming me, showing me how good it can feel." Her voice is gravelly, wracked with emotion, and the sound of it sends an electric jolt straight to my cock.

"You will think of nothing but me and my mouth...for now," I say with a wink and slide my tongue through the sweet wetness that has gathered between her legs.

The taste of her is heady, and the more I take, the higher I get. My self-control frays until every stroke of my tongue is long and my lips wrap around her and suck. I want every drop, every moan, every shudder of pleasure to belong to me. When she leaves my room, every delicious ache will remind her of how I made her feel.