Page 52 of Darkest Kiss

"I am." My voice cracks. She wraps her hand around me. I make a sound that should embarrass me, but doesn't, because I'm past the point of caring. Low and wrecked and needy. I don't even recognize it as coming from my own throat.

"Show me." She strokes once, watching my face. "Show me what feels good."

I close my hand over hers and guide her, adjusting the grip, setting the pace. She watches me with careful attention that drives me crazy. She tightens her grip experimentally and my hips snap forward.

I groan, "If you keep touching me, this’ll be over before it starts." I grab her wrist gently. "Take off your panties and lie back."

She wriggles her body to get her panties off like a cat freeing itself from a collar. I grin. She lies back on the pillow, her dark hair spilling everywhere, her body flushed and beautiful. I strip off the rest of my clothes and settle between her thighs, bracing my weight on my forearms. My cock slides against her slit and we both groan.

"I'll go slow," I tell her. "If it hurts too much, tell me and I'll stop."

"It won’t hurt too much." She puts her hands on my shoulders. "I trust you, Rian."

Don't ruin this, Beast warns. She is the only good thing you’ve ever had.

Gripping my cock, I press inside her, just the tip. She's so tight and so wet and the heat of her is staggering, like sinking into something I was built for. Her fingernails dig into my shoulders and she sucks in a sharp breath.

“You have a huge cock. Has anybody ever told you that?”

She says it teasingly and it makes me feel lighter. “No. Does it feel good?”

“It feels like you’re going to split me in half, but romance novels have told me that it gets better,” she reassures me. “Keep going.”

I push the rest of the way in and her whole body tightens around me. She gasps and her eyes go wide. “Oh.”

I stay still, buried in her to the hilt, my arms shaking. "Breathe, pretty girl. Just breathe."

She breathes, nodding. I feel her relax around me, degree by slow degree. When the tension leaves her face, I pull back an inch and push forward again. The wince fades. Her lips part. Her hands slide from my shoulders to my back.

"Oh," she says softly. "Oh, that's..."

I thrust again and her legs wrap around my waist. The sound she makes this time is hungry, not pained. It lights up something primal in my brain. I start a rhythm, slow and deep, and she meets me thrust for thrust.

"You feel so good." I press the words against her throat. "So fucking good, pretty girl. You're perfect."

She rolls her hips up to meet mine and I groan into her neck. My pace quickens. The bed creaks beneath us and she moans, loud and uninhibited, her head tipping back. Fuck. Fuck yes.

"Harder," she says.

I thrust harder. She digs her nails into my back and the sharp sting of it grounds me, pulls me further into my body. I bite the curve of her neck and she clenches around me so tight that I see white.

Yes, Beast snarls. Harder. Make her feel you for days.

She shifts to touch my waist and I freeze. It’s not a memory, exactly. It’s a feeling.

Hands on my waist. Weight that I couldn't push off. The suffocating helplessness of being pinned down by someone who doesn't care if you're screaming.

My whole body locks up. I stop moving, buried inside her, my breath sawing in and out.

"Rian?" Noemi's voice cuts through the static. She doesn't move other than to run her hands up my back. Her thumb strokes the back of my neck, slow and rhythmic. “Are you okay?”

Come back, Beast says, and his voice is steady for once. She's here. You're safe. Come back to her.

I open my eyes. She's looking up at me with those dark brown eyes ringed with dark lashes. So fucking pretty.

"Hi," she says.

"Hi." I sound like I've been gargling glass. "I'm sorry."