She goes utterly still against me. “I can’t have kids,” she says raggedly.
“No problem. If you want them, there’s always adoption—”
“That’s not what I mean.” There’s so much pain in her voice it’s making my chest hurt. “I could. Physically. But…how could I even risk it?”
“You worried about them being cursed? Because they wouldn’t be. They’d be born, like me.”
“But I am cursed. What if I hurt them? What if the beast takes over and…” She trails off as if she can’t even say it aloud, just shakes her head in denial of whatever she’s imagining.
“You won’t. And after your beast is tamed—”
“What if it never is?”
“It will be.” Because I’m going to fight every doubt she has until she’s sure of me. Until she’s sure of us. “But even if not, it won’t matter. You don’t go around hurting people—and you’d sure as hell never hurt anyone you love. Your beast would protect them, instead.”
Violently she shakes her head. “No—”
“Yes. You’d never hurt our children—or any other child. Just like you’d never hurt me.”
“But I did hurt you!” she cries out. “I attacked you and bit you! Your blood was all over the place!”
“Is that what’s worrying you?” It was hardly any blood. But to her, maybe it seemed like a lot. And the real issue is that she doesn’t remember what happened at all. “You didn’t attack me, baby.”
“I bit you.”
“You did. But it was more like…a love bite.”
She stiffens. “A what?”
Is that jealousy I’m hearing? Grinning, I catch her hair in my hand and gently tilt her head, exposing the side of her neck. Bending my mouth to her ear, I tell her in a low voice, “You made sure I knew who I belong to. You sank your fangs into me like I sank my cock into you.”
She shivers when I kiss the tender skin just below her jawline, her arousal perfuming the air. “But it must have hurt.”
“It did.” Not going to lie to her. “Though I was feeling too good to notice. Kind of like this.”
I set my teeth against the side of her throat, letting her feel my fangs. Not piercing skin, just teasing.
The sexiest little sound escapes her and she squirms back against me, breathlessly saying my name. “Ranger.”
“Yeah, baby?”
“Let me see.”
Me. With fangs and claws. I ease up on my hold and she turns within the circle of my arm, my hard cock pressing into her belly. Her eyes are alight—not glowing, just bright—with curiosity as she touches the corner of my mouth.
Her full lips curve with amusement. “Like a vampire.”
Hell no. “Don’t even start.”
She giggles, then her gaze rises to mine. “Your eyes have sparks in them.”
“Sometimes, yeah. When I’m on the edge.” On the edge of transforming—or simply at the edge of my control.
“When you let your beast come through?”
I shake my head. “I don’t have a beast. I’m just me, no matter what form I’m wearing. But I’m not human, either. More like something in between.”
Her eyebrows knit into a frown. “I don’t really know what that means.”
And I don’t know how to explain it. “You’ll understand soon enough.”
A sad smile tilts her mouth. “When my beast is tamed?”
“Yeah.”
Her gaze searches mine for another moment, then her fingertips slide down over my beard to the side of my neck—the spot where she bit me. “You heal quickly, at least. I can’t even see a mark now.”
“It’s still there. Because you put your mark on me a long time ago, Alicia Simmons. Long before you got your teeth into me.”
A pleased blush tinges her cheeks. “And it really felt good?”
“Yeah, baby. It did.”
Arousal and curiosity return to her gaze, and her eyes are brighter now, truly glowing green as she focuses on my neck. “Lift me up,” she says huskily.
Oh fuck. I’ve got a damn good idea of what this is—she’s still thinking that she and her beast are separate, and Alicia wants her mark there, instead. And it’s about the hottest goddamn thing I’ve ever seen.
But Alicia doesn’t need me to raise her up. And I don’t think she understands yet how strong she is. “You want to claim me, you lift yourself up here.”
Her brow furrows slightly. Then determination lights her eyes and she smooths her hands up over my chest and shoulders, before linking her fingers behind my neck.
Ah, shit. The look on her face when she realizes how easy it is to pull herself up. Sheer wonder. Sheer delight. And I love her so damn much.
When we’re face to face, she seems to forget all about biting me. Laughing with her lips against mine, she kisses me, her happiness bubbling through every taste of my mouth that she takes. Now that she’s up here, I keep her close, bracing my arm under her ass and filling myself with the flavor of her, the scent of her.