Dawn's Innocence

"You can tell me. Look, if you really don't want to, we don't have to. I'll live." Tristen's voice held a pleading edge to it. He'd say anything to wipe the scowl of worry off her pretty face. He'd take the vows of a monk, right here and now, if that were what she wanted.

Kacie took a deep sigh. Tristen and she had always been painfully honest with each other. "What if...I haven't had a lot of experience at this. What if I let you down and it's not what you expected?" She bit her lip with her front teeth and stared up at him. Shrinking down into the pillows as she verbalized her thoughts.

"Huh?" Tristen drew back in confusion. Not any good? He'd never imagined in his wildest dreams that a woman would ever have a worry about that. He thought performance issues were reserved solely for the guy. "Are you kidding? I've never done IT before, at least not with a partner." He grinned, hoping his joke eased her doubts. "I was... I am... worried about the same thing. Pleasing you is all that matters to me. I'm happy as hell just being with you. Holding you is more than enough for me."

"You seem so sure of yourself." Kacie eased her torso up off the bed and felt his arm slip around her shoulders. His free hand fingered the edges of the robe. Gently prying her fingers free from the thick cloth. His kiss was soft and questioning. A light peck, a subtle brush of lip against lip.

"It's all an act. Actually, I'm nervous as hell. I kind of figure that what I don't know, I'll learn. Practice makes perfect, you know. And I'm all about perfection. Luckily, I'm a quick study." Tristen gently eased the rough terry of the robe out of Kacie's fingers and spread the collar open. Revealing the creamy flesh of her throat and breasts. He pressed his nose against the pulse point bounding in her neck and inhaled deeply. Her scent was musky and thickly layered with desire. "We may have to do it more than once or twice to get it to the point where it's perfect. It may take more tries than that, who knows? I'm willing to practice as many times as it takes." He kissed his way across her collarbone, to one slender shoulder and down to take a ripe, berry nipple in between his teeth.

"Like that?" he rasped. Pausing for a second to ask before he switched to the other swollen peak. He nuzzled the sensitive pink flesh with his chin as he gauged her reaction. The robe was closed tightly at her waist. If she wanted to stop, he had to keep the edges of the cloth pulled together. Before his body took the signal of an open robe as an open invitation.

He was going slow and taking his time. Giving her one last chance to back out and change her mind before they were both too far gone and regretted it. His lips were warm on her flesh. Breath hot as it skated across her swollen peaks, teasing the flesh with hints of pleasure. Her mouth struggled to form words. The only word she could muster was "Yes." Her fingers worked on their own accord, trailing down his chest, and wrapping around his hard, straining length stroking in steady, even strokes. "Like that?" she whispered. Back out? Hell, there was no going back, despite what either one of them said.

"I think we're both naturals at this." Tristen gritted his teeth to stifle the heady moan of pleasure that rumbled in his throat. He reached across her to fumble in the drawer. He wanted the condom ready and within a hurried, easy, grasp. At the last minute, was not the time to think about the inconveniences of modern living.

"You don't need that." Kacie rested her hand on his arm.

"I'm not ready to become a dad." Tristen pinched the slick wrapper between his fingers and pulled it out of the nightstand.

"I'm on the pill. I'm not ready to become a mom either."

"Are you sure?" Tristen heaved. The thought of feeling Kacie, all of her, flesh to hot, slick flesh, without the barrier of latex between them fueled a new surge of raw desire.

"Positive. I want to feel you, all of you, inside of me. When you come, I want to feel it inside of me. Tonight is for us, not just me, and not just for you, but for the both of us. I don't want anything between us." Kacie slid the condom wrapper out of his hesitant fingers and tossed it on the nightstand. She had the pregnancy issue totally covered and wolves weren't susceptible to human diseases. There was no need for the barrier. She wanted to feel him, hard and hot, searing her walls with his heat and want.

"God Kacie. I might not last very long. I'm almost there now. Just thinking about being inside of you has me feeling like I could explode." Tristen shot a doubtful glance at the condom. At least with the barrier of latex, the dulled sensation might have him lasting more than a few pumps. Without it, he couldn't guarantee he'd last beyond the moment he slid in. Hell, he couldn't be absolutely sure he wouldn't explode trying to get inside of her with the condom on.

"Shh," Kacie took Tristen's hand in hers and guided his fingers to the robe, opening it with their intertwined hands. His hand slid free from hers and traveled down the arch of her breast. His mouth was hot on skin as he claimed the flesh. Tongue searching her out to taste, tickle, tease, and suckle. Her fingers gripped the short strands of his hair. Holding on to him for an anchor while the storm pure sensation and pleasure ripped at her body.

Tristen could stay right where he was all day. Worshiping one breast and then the other with his mouth, teeth, and tongue. Kacie's back arched, lifting the peaks closer to his lips, demanding his attention. Her hips rocked into him. The soft skin of her thigh brushed against his hard length as he spread them with the palm of his free hand. He had played this moment between them at least a thousand times in his head. What he'd do, when he'd do it, and how she'd react. The real thing wasn't anything like he had practiced in his mind. Her muscles clenched in eager anticipation. Her fingers dug into his shoulders, guiding him closer. The soft sighs of want were like a symphony in his ears. He took his time, exploring the planes and curves of her stomach before he dipped his hand between her parted thighs and found the spot that made her shiver in hot desire.

His hand clutched the back of her neck. Tilting her head up to meet his mouth, his lips claimed her with the hot want of his desire. Nothing would quench the ache that spread out from the center of his soul to each and every burning nerve fiber. He drank her in hungrily. Savoring the taste of her mouth with the tip of his tongue. His fingers stroked the blossoming nub at the top of her sex until it bloomed into an erect, throbbing mass beneath his touch. Her whole body bucked and quivered against his hand. Kacie's thigh muscles clamping his arm tightly between them as he dipped a finger into the sleek wetness of her walls.

She was so close. No way was he going to let her off the hook that easily. The beginnings of her orgasm made her body shudder. She needed him to keep doing exactly what he was doing. Her walls gripped onto him like she was drowning in an ocean of pure sensation. And he intended to keep her, right there, moaning and whispering in the language of lovers, until he was good and ready to send her over the edge. He eased over her. The friction of her softness was hell on his thick, heavy erection. He was going to have to wait and pace himself. Take his time and tease her to the brink, bring her back, and then tease her some more before he let her drift gently over the edge. He wanted to be there, right with her, inside of her, floating on that cloud of fulfillment, at the same time that she did.

He tongued and suckled one ripe nipple and then the other. Damn, she wasn't making this easy. Her thighs clamped down on his hips. Her heels pressed against his ass, coaxing him to sink into all that warm, wet, luscious softness. He could. He was right there at the opening to the gates of heaven. One push, and he'd be inside. Her fingernails scraped along his spine, hooking into his back to pull him closer. Gently, he freed his body from her grip and kissed a path to the thick triangle of down at the apex of her thighs.

Drunk as hell from the heady, musky scent of her, Tristen rubbed his cheek against the soft, wetness of her sex, marking his skin with her scent. He rested his weight on his elbows as his fingers gently parted her flesh. The pink folds were damp with moisture, sleek and smooth against his tongue. Her hips lifted off the bed as he lapped a particularly sensitive spot and nipped at the nub with his teeth. Her taste was pure manna against his taste buds. Indulgent? Decadent? Hell yes. He laved his tongue over her flushed, wet opening, savoring every sweet suckle he took from her.

Kacie alternated between fisting the sheets, clutching at his shoulders and hair, and lifting her hips in eager anticipation of the next pass of his tongue. The orgasm hovered on the fringes of her consciousness. She wasn't above begging for him to finish her off. Torture, he was torturing her in the sweetest of ways and she could endure only so much. "Please Tristen."

Her voice was as sweet as spun sugar. The softness and urgency caressed him like a lover's hand. The wolf in him clawed at the surface of his brain. Mark her. Claim her. Take her. He growled, a low echoing growl that was pure male and purely possessive. He wanted the taste of her orgasm against his tongue. His need was burning like a fire out of control, searing along his limbs. He spread her wide with his fingers and swirled the tip of his tongue along her opening. His thumb gently stroked the nub at the top of her sex with soft, quick motions as she writhed against him. Pressing her sex against his face as she shattered to pieces from his persuasion.

She was soft beneath him. Warm, and soft, her legs slid around the width of his hips as he hovered over her. Her cheeks were reddened with a searing blush from her orgasm. The tips of her nipples brushed against his chest as she breathed in deeply. His erection pulsed and hammered. His groin was tight and aching from the urgency of his need. The tip of him was buried in her wet, slick opening. Claiming her lips, gently cupping her hot cheeks in his palms, he slowly entered her.

A burst of sensation engulfed him. Her walls were tight, clamped around the girth of his length. He gripped the sheets in his fists to keep from giving in to the squeezing pressure building in his groin. Kacie's lips were parted and her eyes tightly closed. Her body wrapped around him like a tight, wet cocoon of sheer sensation and ultimate pleasure. He worked her thighs apart with his hips and gently pumped inside of her. Moaning words of his own as her hips lifted to meet each stroke and increase the pace with urgent rocking motions.

He felt so good inside of her. Hard and hot, strong and masculine, pumping with sure, long, slow strokes that delivered waves of pleasure. Kacie held on. Gripping his body with her thighs and arms. Tristen's width and length stretched her as he merged into her body, fusing them as one. Tristen moaned in thick, heavy, growls of pleasure, speaking words that required no translation. She answered back, with her voice and with her body. The orgasm they were going to share built to a fevered pitch.

Tristen was lost inside of Kacie. Each thrust delivered new waves of sensation and pleasure. Their bodies slapped together in an ancient rhythm, hip pounding against hip, flesh rising to meet flesh. Her walls clamped around him tightly as he increased the pace and depth of his pulses and brought her to the brink of ultimate joy. He let go, floating on a cloud of release. The man in him roared in triumph and in possession as he filled her and the orgasm pounded through him into her sweet channel.

Tristen stared down at Kacie, covering her face in a trail of light kisses. They were still joined as one. Hip pressed to hip. To think, she was worried about disappointing him. And he'd been worried unnecessarily about disappointing her. She had the look of a well-satisfied woman and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was grinning down at her like a fool. There were no words that could convey the thoughts rolling around in his head with any accuracy. Belong to her? He was wrapped tightly around her little finger. Hers forever to do with whatever she pleased. Love her? Love didn't begin to describe the depths of what he felt for her.

Kacie stared up at Tristen. The sexy, sly grin that she so loved was back, beaming on his face. She reached up to trace the curve of his lips. She was way, way too far gone. In love? Not even close. What she felt at that moment went so far beyond love. She was lost, reveling in something that she barely understood. His lips were warm against her fingertips. His brown eyes glimmered down at her, warm and liquid amber, lit with the fire of love. She felt the first stirrings of his length beginning to spring back to life within her. Her hips slid along the forming hardness, encouraging it along.

"Insatiable vixen," Tristen rasped. Her walls were sleek, creating a wonderful friction that surged a new wave of want down his spine. A few creative twists of her hips had him panting, hard, and eager for more. He found himself lost in a world of desire and pleasure, a world where nothing and no one existed but the two of them and he was damn happy to be there. He drove his length into her, plunging with deep even pulses into her sleek, lush depths. Her body wrapped around his. They fit together tightly as fingers in a glove.

Kacie eagerly rose up to meet each thrust, driving him deeper into her womb. His chest created the most wonderful sensation of heat as it brushed against her sensitive nipples, spreading tingling jolts of pleasure along her limbs. Tristen's erection surged and pounded against her, filling her with its hot bulk. She opened up for him, grasping at his powerful shoulder muscles, feeling their power beneath her fingertips.

His hot breath fanned across her face, gently rustling the ends of her hair across her forehead. He'd dip down to kiss her lips like a parched man at an oasis and then rise back up on his forearms. Slamming his hips into hers with eager needful thrusts. She shuddered and griped his powerful biceps with her nails. The orgasm surged through her body, leaving her a mass of writhing flesh in its wake.

Tristen smiled down at Kacie. Loving the sound of his name on her pink, pursed lips. Her walls gripped him so tightly. So sleek and hot in the erotic friction she created with the wriggling of her hips. So damned good, so damned right, his fingers tightened around her shoulders as he guided her body against his. Her sweat slicked skin glistened in the firelight, illuminating her body with an ethereal light. He pounded harder and harder into her. Losing himself in the sensation of her wet heat, he surged into her, pumping his orgasm into her body until it filled her and seeped out onto the sheets beneath them.

He was utterly and absolutely spent. Relaxed and loose, now he knew what all of the fuss was about. And sex was definitely worth fussing over. Well, he didn't know if sex was worth all the fuss for everyone. But, what he and Kacie shared, if it was half as good for anyone else as it had been for them, it was definitely worth all the fuss. He gathered her up into his arms and threw a leg protectively across her thighs. Playfully, he nuzzled the tender spot behind her ear. Her body was lax in his arms. A contented sigh escaped her lips. He smiled at the sound, soft as butterfly wings fluttering in the summer sky.

He loved her. No doubts, no going back, he was bonded to her heart, soul, and body. She completed him like no other woman ever would. Patience was going to win the race for him. So far, sitting tight and waiting her out had served him well. Someday, she would say the 'yes' he so desperately needed to hear.

Kacie snuggled in the warmth of Tristen's arms. Drifting in utter contentment. She had, for the first time, made love. Before, she'd never truly realized the difference between having sex and making love, now she did. She could never go back. She'd been so terrified of the imaginary fences she thought meant to trap her that she'd never considered the possibility that she'd been trapped in one all along. Tristen and his love weren't the trap she'd feared. For the first time in her life, she was finally at long last free.

She was certain of where she wanted to be and who she wanted to be with. Perhaps, the bonding wasn't a myth after all. She felt his emotions warming and filling every corner of her mind. She wasn't scared. Tristen's thoughts were comforting, bringing her fears out into the light and ridding her of them until they were banished. Their hearts beat as one. They were extensions of the same being. She couldn't go back, because she didn't want to. "Tristen."

"Hmm?" He shifted onto one elbow, staring down at Kacie as he gently traced circles over her collarbone with his index finger. He heard the whisper of her uncertainty in his mind. The bonding was as real as the woman beside him. Their union connected them on a level that went beyond the physical and into the deeper realm of the spirit. Their souls were linked as one. He kissed away the lingering doubts with soft gentle presses of his lips against hers.

"Yes."

Her voice was but a whisper as she said the word. But, to him she might as well have been shouting directly into his heart. Yes. He beamed down at her. A cocky possessive smile spread across his lips. He pulled Kacie up into a sit against the litter of pillows and blankets. He should do this differently. Get dressed and beg at her feet. Drop to one knee and slip the ring on her finger. He tucked the sheet around his waist and draped the soft knit of a hand made afghan across her naked body. Dressed enough. The ring was a cool circle between his fingers. The dainty ring trembled in his fingers as he nervously gripped it and slid it onto her hand. Words wouldn't do the moment justice. He brought her hand to his lips and pressed a gentle kiss to the ring.

Kacie settled into the cradle of his arms. Her ear pressed against the beating of his heart. Each loud thump-thump paced in perfect time to the rhythm of hers. Her lids grew heavy and her limbs limp as sleep crept in to claim her for another night. She sighed as Tristen drew the blanket around her shoulders and brushed a kiss across her forehead. He'd always be there for her. He'd always be the perfect partner. Always ready and waiting to catch her before she fell. And always, always, watching her back.

Chapter 74

A jolting spear of pain in the center of her pelvis ripped Jan out of a fitful sleep. She took a deep shaky breath and gripped the wooden bedpost to keep from crying out and waking Thomas. When the pain eased up and faded she exhaled a grateful sigh. She was not in labor. She wasn't. Her mom was getting married in less than twelve hours and she was not going to ruin the day. She'd spent the last couple of minutes self-talking her worried mind into believing that the pain hadn't been the onset of contractions. Nothing more than a random twinge until the next burning onslaught tore through her pelvis.

This couldn't be happening. Not tonight, rather today, she corrected, glancing at the clock, timing the contraction. The next wave hit at exactly two minutes after the last. The pains weren't random. There was an order to the painful chaos that held her body under siege. She was in labor. "Thomas." Her voice was a frightened squeak as another contraction started. This one was stronger than the last.

"Huh?" Thomas's voice was thick with sleep. Jan jostled him awake persistently. "What's the matter?" He flipped on the bedside lamp and took one look at her face. Her lips were contorted with agony. "Time?" Thomas threw back the covers and scrabbled for his jeans.