Alex gave herself over to him, reveling in the warm, wet brush of his lips on her mouth, her chin, her throat. She slipped her hands under the black cotton of his long-sleeved T-shirt, running her palms up the firm, satin-smooth muscle of his back. She could feel the vague outlines of his tattoos under her fingertips, a complicated pattern of swirls and arcs that she traced with her nails but really wanted to follow with her tongue.
"Let me see your body. I want to see all of you," she murmured, tugging at his shirt. She pulled it over his head and could only stare in wonder once she'd unveiled him. "My God," she gasped. "Those are not tattoos, are they?"
"Dermaglyphs," he said, settling back to let her look at the intricate design that pulsed across his torso, shoulders, and arms as though it were alive. The markings that had been only a shade darker than the rest of his skin were now flooded with variegated hues of deepest wine, indigo, and gold. "We're born with them, the same way Breedmates are born with their mark."
"They're beautiful, Kade." His dermaglyphs were artful, lacy intertwinings, a glorious web of shifting colors. Alex leaned in to run her finger along a particularly graceful line that tracked around the flat disk of his right nipple. The deep purplish hue blushed darker under her touch. She looked up at him, amazed. "How'd you do that?"
"You did it." His mouth quirked. "The colors of the glyphs change according to a male's mood."
"Oh," she said, going warm at his dark, meaningful look. "And your mood is?" He didn't answer, just moved forward and took her in another long, slow kiss that turned her core molten. He pressed her down onto the sofa beneath him and began to undress her, prompting Luna to jump off the far end and slink into the kitchen on a disgruntled huff.
"Uh-oh. I think you may have just lost points with her," Alex murmured in between kisses. He chuckled, a low and deep rumble that vibrated against her mouth. "I'll apologize later. Right now, there's only one female whose opinion matters to me."
He took his time stripping her of her double layer of fleece and cotton shirts and loose-fitting jeans. He covered every inch of her with his mouth, kissing a long, hot trail down her neck and br**sts and abdomen, stroking her bare limbs as his glowing, fevered gaze drank her in.
By the time he had her naked, Alex was panting and aching with desire. He knelt on the sofa above her, his thick thighs wedged between the spread of hers. He was still in his jeans, which sat low on his lean hips, straining tight across the large swell of his groin.
She raised up and reached out to him, needing to feel his warm flesh under her hands. All over her body.
Deep inside her.
He said nothing as she unfastened the button of his pants and edged the zipper down. He was na**d beneath the dark denim, his rigid c**k spilling over as soon as it was freed of its confinement. He rose up as she tugged his jeans off his h*ps and pushed them down around his knees, a move that brought his gorgeous length within an inch of her mouth.
Alex couldn't resist the temptation. She cupped his shaft and balls and brought him to her, wrapping her lips around the broad head and delighting in Kade's strangled moan as she slid her mouth all the way down to the base of him.
He felt so good against her tongue, hot and earthy, as soft as velvet wrapped around a column of solid steel. Alex drew him deep again, then eased back to suckle at his crest, all the while watching as the glyphs on his abdomen and upper thighs churned in ever-deepening hues.
"Ah, Christ," he hissed as she played her mouth around the rim of his head, then took him all the way to the back of her throat. His fingers speared into her hair, clutching her skull as his body went tight as a cable. "Alex ... ah, f**k ..."
His hands were trembling as he set her away from him. His eyes threw off an intense heat, and his face was stark with passion as he hastily shucked his jeans to the floor. Gloriously naked, he moved toward her once more and gently wrapped his palm around her nape. His touch was firm with possession, yet he didn't simply take. His transformed gaze was hungry yet patient. His kiss passionate yet tender. There was nothing simple about him.
Nothing simple about the way he made her feel.
Kade was simply a mass of contradictions, each one more fascinating than the last. He made her feel safe and protected, perhaps the biggest contradiction of all. He made her feel cared for ... even loved.
And dear God, did he make her burn.
Her body arched into him as he stroked her, every inch of her hypersensitive and greedy for his touch. She couldn't get close enough, couldn't hold him tight enough, as he prowled on top of her and spread her thighs wide with his.
"I want to take this slow tonight," he said, his voice rough and dark, almost unrecognizable. "I just want to savor you ... savor us."
He watched her as he entered her, thrusting slowly, filling her with deliberate care even though his h*ps bucked and the tendons in his neck popped tight under his skin. He rocked her gently, stoking her building cl**ax with maddening restraint.
She wanted to scream for him to go faster, to take her as hard as he could if it would ease the coil of need that he'd put inside her.
But making love to him felt too good to rush. She didn't want the feeling--or this night--to end. Neither did he; she could see that in his face. She could feel it in every measured thrust of his hips. In every hot, savoring caress of his mouth as he kissed her breath away.
The hours would pass quickly enough. Tomorrow his mission with the Order would begin again. Tomorrow all the death and danger that lurked outside the haven of this moment would return. Much too soon, Alex thought.