Page 40 of Seeing Harper

Clay lifted himself up on one elbow and slowly leaned toward her. He moved agonizingly slowly, giving her every opportunity to pull away, but she didn’t.

She wasn’t even aware that she was holding her breath as she watched him move toward her.

When he was less than an inch away from her, he slid his hand behind her head to hold her still, then pressed his lips to hers. And he kissed her. Slowly, tenderly, erotically, exactly the way he’d dreamed of touching her for years. He rolled her to her back and leaned over her, his upper body pressing against hers as he lost himself in kissing her.

And she let him. She’d never been kissed, and his touch awoke every nerve ending in her body. The longer he kissed her, the more sure she was that she didn’t want him to stop.

Eventually, he tried to pull gently away from her, not wanting to start something he wouldn’t be able to stop if she wasn’t ready.

But her hands came up and locked on his shoulders. “Please, Clay. Please don’t stop.”

“Harper, I don’t want to do this this way.”

“It’s okay,” she said, starting to sit up.

And he smelled the pain that suddenly filled the air.

“You know what this will lead to,” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder to keep her lying down.

“I do. And I’m tired of waiting to know when it’s going to happen to me. I want this. I want you to show me, Clay.”

“You sure?”

Harper nodded.

“Once I get to a certain point, I don’t know if I can stop,” he said honestly. “Anybody else, probably, but not with you.”

“Good. I don’t want you to stop.”

Clay closed his eyes took several breaths to steady himself. When he opened them again, they were the gold of his Panther. “I’ll try not to hurt you.”

“I don’t care if it hurts. I’m tired of waiting.”

Clay lowered his lips to her again, and kissed her, but this time it was harder, more insistent. More demanding. And when he’d kissed her so long that her lips were beginning to swell a bit, he began to kiss down her jaw line to the edge of her tank top. When he realized it was in his way, he sat up on his knees and grasped the bottom of it, pulling it up toward her head, trying to get it off of her, but she took over, taking it off and dropping it beside where they lay. Then she reached behind herself and unclasped her bra, dropping it on top of her shirt.

“Jesus, Harper,” he breathed, looking down at her laying out before him in the moonlight.

“Wait,” she said, reaching down and unzipping her jeans before shoving them down past her hips along with her panties down her thighs.

Clay released a growl, rumbling his chest as he watched. Then he gripped her jeans and yanked them off her legs, tossing them to the side before he leaned forward again, smashing his nose against her body, inhaling deeply as he dragged it down from just below her breasts to the hollow between her hip bones, licking every few inches as he went.

Harper threw her hands out to the sides, fisting the blanket they lay on, her body writhing and lifting up toward him as he explored her, scenting, tasting, nipping.

When he reached the soft curls crowning that special place between her legs, he buried his nose there and plunged his tongue downward, searching for the opening he knew he’d find there.

“Clay!” she exclaimed, her hands gripping his hair.

A snarl was all she got in reply. He sat up and gripped her calves as he met her hooded gaze. “Yes, or no, Harper,” he said, his voice growly.

She didn’t answer.

“Now. Now is when you say no, Harper,” he forced out past his enlarged incisors as he pushed himself backwards, trying to leave her before he couldn’t.

“No!” she shouted, grabbing him and pulling him back. “Tomorrow doesn’t matter. I want this, I want it to be you.”

“Tell me you know what you’re doing.”

“Clay, I’m twenty years old. I know exactly what we’re doing. Just don’t bite me and we’ll be just fine.”