The tingles were roaring.

Suckers fell to the floor with a whack! My right leg wrapped around his waist as he lifted me up by my thighs.

The kiss was deep, wet, and salacious. My chin burned from how rough he was with his whiskers as we angled our heads to the left, then the right, and nibbled each other’s lips while discovering our groove. That comfortable groove you get into once you learn someone through their kiss—their moves, their rhythm, the intensity of how they use their tongue, even where on your mouth they linger during the kiss. Upper lip, lower lip, left side kisser, or all over the place.

Our kiss became so expert it was as if we had been lovers in another lifetime. His hand turned the knob and he stumbled forward, almost falling before he regained his balance and walked into the dark house. The wood creaked beneath his feet as he kicked the door shut behind him—my legs still wrapped around his waist and my fingers disappearing in his dark hair.

The kiss never stopped.

It echoed in the empty house as every sound we made was amplified. Sucking and licking—the wet sounds of our lips greedily giving in to the raw nature of passion.

Decades in the making.

At least on my end.

I moaned into his mouth and a growl rose from his chest—the deep, throaty kind that made me squeeze my legs a little tighter. He was walking me somewhere, and that somewhere was a room with a mattress and sheets.

Austin lowered me onto my back and the aroused look in his eyes caused me to fist the sheets. Moonlight trickled through the tall window when it wasn’t hiding behind the clouds, and I could make out the contours of his body through shadows and light.

Then an ache like I’d never felt before struck me so hard I curled my knees up and cried out. Austin moved on top of me like it was affecting him in the same way—clawing at my shorts as he kissed my legs hungrily, coveting me with every stroke of his tongue. Austin had a beautiful mouth—the kind of lips a woman wanted all over her body.

“We can’t do this,” he panted.

Confused, I swallowed hard and looked down at him. “Why not?”

I shivered when he lifted his eyes to mine. “You want a baby?”

That killed a little of the fire. I wasn’t exactly ready for kids, at least, not that very second. Kids were the kind of thing you discussed and decided on. Well, most of the time.

“You’re extremely fertile when you’re in heat; that’s how it works with Shifters. It comes around once a year, maybe less, and it can last hours or days,” he said, his breath warming my skin. While he was talking, his nose pushed up the hem of my shirt so he could taste my stomach. “If I take you, then you’ll get pregnant.”

“Condoms?”

Austin chuckled. “Wouldn’t work with Shifter sperm. We don’t just have an army; we have a legion of—”

I touched his lips with my fingers. “Austin, please don’t kill the moment talking about your sperm.”

Then he sucked on my finger and the tingles roared through my core and melted down my thighs. Oh God, I wanted this.

“Complain all you want,” he murmured against my stomach. “But you’re going to learn tonight the only way…” He pressed his face against my belly and I felt how enflamed his cheeks were.

I grabbed a fistful of his hair. “Finish what you were about to say.”

His bristly jaw scratched my skin as he looked up. “The only way to taper it down and get you out of heat is to give you orgasms.”

Plural.

A smirk turned up the corner of my mouth. “No complaints here.”

“No sex.”

“Okay, I have a complaint,” I said, propping up on my elbows. “Exactly what are we doing here?”

An intense, dark look swirled in his eyes that I couldn’t read—one with hidden secrets and meanings that drove me nuts. “Do you really want to ruin our friendship with sex? I don’t want our first time to be because of raging hormones,” he said, curling his fingertips inside the hem of my shorts and sliding them away from my hips, down to my knees, and finally my ankles. I felt every second of their slow journey and it drove me wild. “It’s going to be without all the biology bullshit. Just me and you and no regrets.”

I knew he was talking, but my ears were starting to hear that wah-wah sound Charlie Brown’s teacher always makes in the cartoons. Maybe it was the fact that the only thing between Austin and me was a pair of black bikini bottoms.

His thumb hooked beneath one of the strings, inching closer to the center. My heart could have gotten a speeding ticket, as it refused to slow down no matter how much I concentrated.

“What are you going to do then?”

His eyes answered me before his mouth did. They were hooded and dripping with heat. “I’m going to make you come.”

Which almost did. Just the words rolling off his tongue and the way he was looking at me made every muscle in my body tense.

“As many times as it takes until you’re over this, because that’s how an alpha looks after his women. But over my dead body are we going back home so I can sit and watch my brothers look at you the way they were doing at dinner.” A palpable flicker of jealousy sparked in his eyes. “I don’t run the kind of pack where we share.”

Which implied packs existed that did. Austin had promised me independence with no strings attached. Most women went into a pack mated because sometimes the men would get possessive and fights would break out. That’s why he was adamant about his brothers treating Ivy as a sister and had planted the suggestion in their head so they would be more inclined to protect her than mount her.

Then he got right back to business and put his mouth on my sex, moving his lips over my panties as if he were making out with me. I moaned unabashedly and abruptly pushed his head away.

“What’s wrong?”

I blushed. Hard. Then my knees pulled up and I flipped over to my side, staring at an outlet on the wall.

“Lexi?” His hand brushed over my hip and Austin laid behind me, propped up on his elbow so he could stare at my shadowy profile. “Did I do something to upset you? Don’t lie to me.”

I couldn’t. The simple fact was no man had ever gone down on me. Even Beckett was more of a receiver than a giver when it came to sex. How embarrassing was that?

“I’m sleepy,” I lied.

“Bullshit. Turn over and look at me before I tickle the crap out of you, and don’t think I won’t do it.”

He totally would. I once stole his car keys and stuffed them into my bra when I was nineteen and the designated driver. Austin had chased me to the car, which made me run even harder. I dove into the front seat knowing Austin would never dig in my bra. Instead, he pulled off my shoes and tickled my feet until I screamed bloody murder. That was the only time I’d ever seen Wes turn on Austin. He yanked him out by the collar and coldcocked him. I guess from a distance, it looked kind of bad with me on my back in the front seat screaming while Austin was holding my legs.

“Since when did you get all shy on me?” he asked, thunder rumbling in the distance.

Austin’s fingers tickled my skin as they slid down to my hips. I elbowed him away. “Don’t.”

“Then tell me what’s wrong, because you’re not going anywhere, and I sure as hell ain’t going anywhere. Whatever it is won’t leave this room. You can trust me.”

A few taps of rain touched the windows and flashes of lightning illuminated the room. “I’ve never had a man do that to me.”

The air was so quiet I actually heard the high-pitched whine of a mosquito buzzing around my ear. I waved my hand around to shoo the insect away and ended up smacking Austin in the mouth. “Oh, shit. I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to do that,” I said, rolling onto my back.

He was grinning, but not because I slapped him.

Then I blushed again, and I wasn’t a big blusher, but I’d just revealed something very personal and his first reaction was to laugh? I was about to run out of the room in T-minus 3… 2…

“I’m not going to even ask why, because it doesn’t matter. I’m only going to guess the men you’ve dated didn’t know a damn thing about the most erotic thing you can experience with a woman. To run your tongue over that secret place, to slide it in and taste her as you suck and stroke her until she screams out your name.”

His fingers had wandered down between my legs while he spoke, expertly caressing me.

“I’m not one of those boys,” he said softly in my ear. “I’m a man who knows how to take a woman and give her what her body needs.” His fingers slid between my folds and by then, he knew with absolute certainty I wanted him.

“I can’t do it,” I admitted. “It’s too… I don’t know. Personal.”

“You need to let go of all your inhibitions and just feel it. Can you feel it?” He worked his fingers into my panties and made me suck in a sharp breath and hold it. “Feel it, Lexi. Before the night is over, I’m going to have your legs wrapped around my shoulders as you beg for more.” Then his moist lips touched my cheek and he whispered one hot word. “Beg.”

“Please.”

He knew what game we were playing.

Except I was the one who didn’t. Austin abruptly stopped and grabbed my wrist, guiding my hand down. “Finish.”

“What?”

His lips met mine with a warm press and he spoke against my mouth. “I need to know how you like it so I can make this experience easier for you. If this goes on for days, then I’m not going to tease you. I’m going to make you come. Now show me how you like to be touched. Don’t be afraid to take what your body needs. Do it once and I’ll take care of you from here on out.”