Wrapping her arms around him, she gently nipped his earlobe before moving lower and licking his neck. When she scraped her teeth over his pulse point, he tripped on the top step and nearly crushed her. Somehow he managed to turn so that he took the brunt of the fall and she wound up splayed against his chest.

Pushing up and straddling him, she let out what he could only describe as a giggle as she stared down at him. Kat did not giggle. But that was what it was. “I forgot what it was like with you,” she breathed out, her voice light as her palms played over his chest.

She actually sounded relaxed. Something he hadn’t heard from her in too damn long. Not bothering to move from their position on the floor, he reached behind her back and unclasped her bra. As the straps slid down her arms, he hissed out a breath once she was bared to him.

Unable to stop himself—not that he wanted to—he cupped her breasts, needing to feel and stroke them. When he flicked his thumbs over her nipples, the pink nubs turned a darker shade to a candy apple red as they hardened.

He glanced up to find her looking at him through heavy-lidded eyes. Those normally pale blue eyes darkened to almost midnight and he knew it wasn’t the light playing tricks on him. Now that she was a shifter, her eyes literally changed with her emotions. And right now, she was turned on beyond belief.

Which was a damn good thing, because he was too. His entire body felt primed. It had been a long time since he’d had sex, and even though he wanted to let all of his pent-up energy and lust out, he knew he couldn’t. Not this time. Not their first time together again.

Though it sliced deep that she hadn’t responded when he’d told her he loved her, he shoved that thought deep inside him. So what if she didn’t return his feelings? She was here with him now. That’s what mattered.

Before he could lean forward and take what he wanted, Kat grabbed him by the back of his neck and brought his mouth to one of her breasts.

“Kiss me like you used to,” she said in a rush.

He growled softly against her breast while he brought her nipple between his teeth. Her back arched into him, giving him more of herself. Palming her back, his fingers dug into her satiny skin as he ran his tongue around her areola.

With each stroke and lick, she shuddered over him, her legs squeezing his hips. He could hardly take it anymore. The need to fill her, to feel her clenching him was about to short-circuit his brain.

Still holding her close, he used his reflexes and agility to switch their positions. She gasped as her back hit the floor. Once she was under him, her dark hair pillowing out on the runner beneath her, her eyes widened a fraction.

For a moment he worried that she was going to change her mind. When she grasped his belt and deftly unhooked it, then started on his button, he reached between them and stilled her.

“Changed your mind?” she murmured, a trace of uncertainty in her voice. She pulled her hands away from him and propped herself up on her elbows. The action pushed her breasts out farther and he almost forgot how to speak as he focused on them.

“No fucking way,” he rasped out, reaching down for one of her legs. He found the zipper to her boot and tugged on it. After quickly discarding her footwear, he found the button of her jeans and barely refrained from just ripping off her clothes. He almost asked her if she was sure, but held the question back.

If she wasn’t ready, she would tell him, but he was a selfish bastard. Right now, he needed her so bad his entire body ached and trembled. His cock strained painfully against his zipper and the only reason he hadn’t let her fully undress him was because he didn’t trust himself not to come in her hands.

He refused to fucking embarrass himself like that. He had no problem with stamina, but being denied Kat’s sweet body for so long had taken a toll. As he pulled her jeans down her legs, he bent down, kissing her inner thighs—and earned a wave of lust so potent it nearly knocked him on his ass. He continued a hot path down her knees, her inner calves, and finally he nipped at her instep.

Her feet had always been sensitive and thankfully that hadn’t changed. She let out a low groan as he followed up by raking his teeth over the delicate arch.

“Are you planning to torture me?” she demanded, her voice husky and slightly teasing.

He couldn’t even respond. He just slowly made his way back up her legs, kissing and raking his teeth over her soft skin until he settled between her open thighs. A perfectly trimmed strip of dark hair covered her mound. He wanted to bury his cock between her folds, but first he needed to taste her. Had been fantasizing about it for too long to deny himself now. The instant his tongue touched her sweetness, she jerked against him and grabbed his head.

In bed she’d always been ready to do anything, so damn giving it floored him. Right now he wanted her to feel all the pleasure she’d ever given him. The need to make her come, to make her shout his name as she did, pulsed through him with a vengeance.

Dragging his tongue along her most sensitive area, he inhaled her sweet scent and barely held back his growl of satisfaction when she whimpered his name. He looked up at her for a moment and his breath caught in his throat.

With her legs bent, her thighs spread, and her body so deliciously naked, she looked like an offering. And she was all his. At least for this moment.

Continuing his teasing, he focused his tongue directly on her clit. He’d been with her enough times that he knew exactly the pressure and teasing she needed to find release. He could tease her for as long as he wanted, but right now he didn’t want to drag it out. Not when the urge to feel her clenching around him was so great.

As he continued stroking her with his tongue, he inserted one finger, then two, inside her in quick succession. The abrupt action had her hips lifting off the floor and he could just barely hear the sound of her heartbeat increasing above the pounding in his own ears.

Drawing his fingers along her inner walls, he shuddered in satisfaction as she clenched tighter and tighter around him. It wouldn’t take her long. He just had to find that perfect rhythm.

“You’re killing me, Jayce,” she hissed.

The sound of his name on her lips brought his inner wolf right to the surface. It made him want to claim her and dominate her. It scared the hell out of him.

Increasing the pressure with his tongue and his stroking fingers, he tensed as he waited for her to climax. Moments later, her body pulled bowstring tight right before her orgasm.

Her hips jerked and her inner walls clenched around his fingers as the first wave hit. Light moans filled the air as the pleasure surged through her. After her back arched one final time before she collapsed against the floor, he stripped off his boots and pants with supernatural speed. The need to feel her tight body around him was the only thing that mattered.

As he positioned himself between her legs, she stared up at him with dazed, pleasure-filled eyes. Instead of kissing her, he kept his gaze on hers as he thrust into her.

Her mouth parted but she didn’t break the gaze either as he buried himself deep inside her.

“Fuck.” The word tore from him as she tightened around him, and then he immediately cringed at his crassness.

A small smile pulled at the corners of her lips as she cupped his face with her long, elegant fingers. Stretching up, she pressed her lips to his and invaded his mouth with her tongue in erotic, toe-numbing strokes.

He pulled his hips back and slid into her tight sheath over and over. When he felt her heels dig into his ass, urging him on, he let himself go. He couldn’t stand it any longer, feeling her silken sheath wrapped around his cock.

Afraid of holding on to her and bruising her soft skin, he slammed his palms down on either side of her head as he found release. It felt like an eternity passed as his orgasm rocked through him until finally he propped himself up above her. Staring down into the pale blue eyes of the woman who owned him, an ache settled in his chest. She hadn’t returned the words he’d spoken to her. Words he’d never said to another woman. And never would.

She blinked once and it was as if a haze cleared from her vision as she watched him. A fist tightened around his heart as he waited for her to speak. To say anything.

When she did, the tenseness in his shoulders loosened. “That was just as good as I remember.”

“Better,” he rasped out immediately. It was fucking better.

She smiled and wiggled slightly underneath him, then froze, her eyes widening in horror. “I’m not on the pill anymore. I went off—”

“You’re fine. If you’d been in heat I would have sensed it—and you’ll know when you’re in heat.” She would be consumed with the need to mate, to have sex, and he’d be damned if she’d go to anyone else but him when that time came. He couldn’t admit what he wanted from her out loud, not yet, but in his gut he knew things had irrevocably changed between them tonight.

Her pretty lips pulled into a thin line. “Heat?”

“Twice a year you’ll . . . uh, your body will prepare to mate in every sense of the word. In human terms, it means you’ll be ovulating, but it’s a hundred times more potent than ovulation in human females. It’s the only time you can get pregnant.”

“Oh . . . Aiden only told me about the no-diseases thing.”

He knew what she meant. Shifters and vampires couldn’t get or transmit sexual diseases. Since it was also difficult for both species to procreate, condoms weren’t commonly used. But he didn’t care about any of that now. Instead of responding, he slowly pulled out of her, then scooped her up from the floor. She instantly curled her body into his and wrapped her arm around his neck as her face nestled against his shoulder. The feel of her against him like this warmed him from the inside out.

Their first time since their breakup shouldn’t have been on the floor at the top of the stairs, but he couldn’t pretend to be sorry. Not when Kat had finally let him back into her life. It might be a small start, but it was a start nonetheless.

After laying her on her bed, he grabbed a washcloth from the bathroom and wet it. When he began gently wiping between her legs and saw tears pooling in her eyes, surprise slammed into him.