Making love to her openly, without fear or concealment of his true nature, had been amazing. Mind-blowingly good. They had exhausted each other last night, sleeping for a short while in each other's arms before waking more than once to kiss and caress and make love all over again.
Gideon knew he should have broken away at some point to report in to the compound, but he hadn't been able to find the will to leave the bed he'd shared with Savannah. The way things were going this morning, he might never make it back. Savannah rocked on him, their eyes locked, her face aglow with the amber light of his pleasured gaze.
He stroked her face and throat as she moved on him in a deeper, faster rhythm. The bathwater lapped around them noisily, the sound of their lovemaking wet and erotic. She started to come then, soft moans slipping through her parted lips.
Gideon gripped her ass in a firmer hold and moved his pelvis in time with her undulations. His cock felt like hot steel inside the tight clutch of her body, pressure building to a fever pitch at the base of his spine. His fangs filled his mouth. His gums throbbed with the urge to taste the graceful column of Savannah's neck as she threw her head back and cried out with her climax.
Gideon followed her over the edge a moment later, his orgasm racking him in a full-body heave and a coarse shout of release. He shuddered inside her, wave after wave of scalding heat shooting out of him. He swore her name, prayer or curse, he didn't know.
She smiled as he filled her, her dark eyes drinking him in, even though he knew he must look savage and unearthly. She didn't shrink away. Not his Savannah, not now.
She slumped against him, limp and satiated. Gideon held her close, smoothing his hands along her back. Her breath was warm against the side of his neck, her lips soft and moist on the pulse point where she rested, making his carotid jump and pound in response.
"I can't get enough of you," she murmured. "Are you working some kind of Breed mojo on me that makes me want you so bad?"
He chuckled. "If only I had that kind of power. I'd never let you out of my bed. Or my bathtub."
"Or off the chair in the other room," she added, a reminder of yet another location they'd made use of in the past few blissful hours.
Gideon's arousal woke anew at the thought, and he wondered how intense their lovemaking would be if they were mated, sharing a blood bond. One little bite and she would be his forever. Dangerous thinking. Something he wasn't prepared to consider, no matter how much his body seemed to feel otherwise.
"I can't get enough of you, either," he told her, pressing a kiss to her temple. "It's been a long time since I've been with someone. I've had to remember all over again how it's done. Although I can't think of anything better than studying your body and learning all the ways to please you."
He felt her smile against him. "Well, you're doing everything right."
"I'm a fast study."
Savannah laughed and nestled in closer, mostly on top of him in the cramped, Victorian-era tub. Her long leg was draped over him, her arms wrapped around his chest. Gideon stroked her arm. "For a long time, I've been putting all of my energy and focus into the Order's missions. I'm definitely slacking there now. I'll likely have hell to pay--and rightly so--when I report back about where I've been."
Savannah lifted her head, studying his face. "How long?"
"How long since I've wanted anyone the way I want you?"
She nodded.
"Never," he said. "You're a first in that regard. I've had my share of liaisons. Thoughtless dalliances that meant nothing to me."
"How long since you've made love?" she pressed.
"The last time?" He shrugged. "Eighteen or nineteen years, if I had to guess." The span of her whole lifetime, which seemed somehow fitting to him now. "It wasn't memorable, Savannah. None of them were, compared to this. Compared to you."
She grew quiet, tracing a glyph on his chest. "I've only been with one guy before--Danny Meeks, a boy from my hometown. High school jock, varsity quarterback, homecoming king...the boy every girl in school dreamed of being with."
Gideon grunted, feeling a surge of bald possessiveness. He wanted to make a smartass comment about steakhead athletes with IQs smaller than his boot size, but he could sense Savannah holding back as she spoke.
"What did he do to you?" he asked, his possessiveness darkening toward fury with his suspicion that the stupid boy-man had wounded her somehow.
"I thought he really liked me. He had his pick of anyone he wanted in school, and he'd just broken up with the prettiest, most popular girl in my class. But there he was, pursuing me." She sighed softly, still moving her finger along the curve of Gideon's dermaglyphs, whose color was rising not in desire again, but anger for her pain. "We went on a few dates, and after several weeks, he started pressuring me to take things further with him. I was a virgin. I wanted to wait until I met the right one, you know?"
Gideon caressed her arm, letting her talk, while inside he knew where this was heading and he didn't like it.
"Finally, I gave in," she said. "We had sex, and it was awful. It hurt. He was clumsy and rough."
Gideon growled. He didn't want to imagine her with another man, let alone one who would be so careless with her.
"We dated for a couple of months afterward," she went on. "Danny never treated me any better. He just took what he wanted from me. After a while, I started hearing rumors that he had been calling his old girlfriend again. That he was only with me to make her jealous. They got back together, and I didn't even know about it until I saw them making out at one of his games. He never cared about me at all. He pretended to be one thing with me, but the whole time we were together, he was only using me to get something he really wanted."
"Bastard," Gideon snarled. He was pulsing with fury, wanting nothing better than to teach the little asshole a lesson. Throttle the human son of a bitch for hurting her. "Savannah, I'm sorry."