Of course, I know it’s selfish, but I know there’s no way I’ll ever be able to let her be with another man. It would destroy me if she let another man touch her.
Not that I touch her. I’ve been careful not to touch her because I’m afraid that with my growing obsession if I do I’ll lose control and won’t be able to stop.
I content myself with drinking in every bright smile she throws my way, every ripple of her hair, how she chews on her bottom lip when she’s in deep thought, the sexy little moans she makes when she’s eating something she really likes.
I’d do anything for her.
That why when I suddenly hear screams coming from her bedroom, I’m up in a flash, my heart pounding in my chest and rushing to her room.
“Hadley!” I burst into her room, my eyes flicking all around the dim area checking for any threat or danger before I see her small form thrashing in the bed. Her eyes are closed. She’s in the throes of a nightmare.
She screams again, and I hurry to her side, sitting on the edge of her bed and leaning over her to grip her shoulders and pull her up, gently shaking her to try to awaken her from whatever hell she’s reliving.
Her panicked eyes flutter open. Her breathing is ragged as she stares up at me unseeingly. “It’s just a nightmare,” I pet the side of her hair soothingly and my god, her raven tresses are just as silky as I imagined.
"Damon?” she speaks my name, and the wobbly, choked way she says it is like a punch to my gut.
Tears form in her eyes, and in the next instant, she launches herself at me, her arms clinging tight around me, burrowing her head in the crook of my neck.
I allow her to crawl onto my lap where I settle her sitting sideways, loving the ways she clings to me, looking for protection and solace.
“Ssh,” I murmur against her hair, stroking my hands gently up and down her back like I’d pet a frightened kitten, “I’ve got you, sweetheart.”
Her tears wet my chest as she cries against me, but eventually she quiets and stops trembling.
I’m hyperaware of the curve of her ass sitting in my lap, and I don’t see how she can’t feel my hard-on. I feel like an ass for getting hard right now when I’m just supposed to be comforting her, but I’m a man goddammit, and she feels so soft and warm in my arms.
I feel the featherlight pressure of petal-soft lips against my neck and jump like I’ve been electrocuted. Christ, she kissed me.
I pull roughly back from her and look down into her blue eyes that are still watery from her tears, and I begin drowning. “Hadley,” my voice comes out strangled.
She moves her hand up to cup my face, and I see her hand shake as she lifts it. When her palm meets my cheek, I turn into it like an affection-starved dog, closing my eyes and reveling in her touch.
“Damon,” she says my name all breathy, and my arms tighten around her, my control waning thin. It’s taking everything within me not to lay her back on the bed and fucking ravish her.
I start to pull back from her, but she clambers to sit upright on me, straddling me with her sweet thighs draped around me, her pussy sitting right on the bulge I know she has to feel, nothing separating our sexes but my sweatpants and her short pajama shorts.
God, what I want to do to her. But she just had a nightmare, and I can’t take advantage of her like this. I can’t.
I start to move her off me, but her arms tighten around my neck and she whimpers, “Don’t you want me?” She wiggles innocently on my bulge, and I groan.
“You don’t know what you’re asking me, Hadley,” my voice is dark and strained with the effort it takes me not to crush her to me.
She hesitates a moment, looking unsure of herself, before she leans forward and presses her lips to mine.
It’s a soft, chaste kiss, just the barest brush of her puffy lips against mine. Shit, I don’t think the girl has ever even been kissed before, and the thought that she might want me to be her first kiss detonates something off inside me.
I grasp the back of her neck, anchoring her to me as I crush my lips against her. I suck at her bottom lip, eliciting a gasp from her, and I take advantage of the opportunity to slide my tongue into her mouth, seeking out her own tongue. She tastes sweet, like berries, tearing a moan from deep within my soul.
She mewls into my mouth and melts against me, sending fire licking through my veins. My suspicion that she’s never been kissed before is confirmed when her tongue tentatively moves against mine in an unpracticed rhythm, but that’s okay because I’m more than happy to teach her and lead her in the dance.
I can’t fucking think. All I can do is taste. I’m running off primal energy. With one hand still behind her head, I move the other to her waist and hold her as I lift my hips, pressing my hardness up against her softness.
She whimpers, and I somehow manage to tear my lips from her, leaning back to put some distance between our chests.
Fuck, I can see her hard little nipples through her tank top and the thin sports bra. Her lips are wet and swollen, her hair falling around her shoulders in dark, messy waves. Her eyes are sinfully lidded at half mast until they go wide as she looks up at me with such a look of stunned, curious innocence that I don’t know whether to laugh or weep.
“Did I do something wrong?” she asks.