I cupped his face, halting him in his tracks. “No! Please, I want this so much. We just have to approach it differently than you have with other girls.”

Austin stared at me in conflicted contemplation for several bated seconds but eventually closed his eyes and exhaled through his nose. “Okay,” he said, and his eyes snapped open.

Austin balanced on one hand and began his exploration of my br**sts, lowering his head to suck and pull on the skin below my dress.

My hands held his head in a vise, and I couldn’t stop the moans of pleasure ripping from my mouth.

“I wanna taste you,” Austin murmured and lifted his hand to hook his fingers under my dress straps. Looking up at me through his black lashes, he raised his eyebrow, asking for permission.

My pulse was thundering, but uncovering my br**sts didn’t fill me with dread, as I feared. They were an average B-cup and had never been an area of concern. I wanted to show at least that much of myself to him.

“Please…” I moaned. “Take it down slowly. But let me stay on my back… I can’t let you see my back…”

Austin groaned and, doing as I asked, slowly pulled down my straps until my black T-shirt bra came into view. Austin’s almond-shaped eyes flared and he proceeded to undo the front clasp of the small, wired cups, until my pale br**sts slid into view, my ni**les erect as if reaching for the touch of his mouth.

“Fuckin’ perfect,” Austin whispered and, leaving my dress and bra wrapped around my waist, hovered above my chest and began nipping teasingly at the previously unkissed skin. My hands slammed to the nape of Austin’s neck, and my legs instinctively wrapped around his waist as I rubbed myself against the rigid material of his jeans.

My breath echoed in my ears as a raging fire ignited between my legs, and when Austin kissed my left nipple, licking the nib with the tip of his wet tongue, I felt like screaming out in frustration over the sensations assaulting my inexperienced body.

“Fuck, Pix, you taste so good,” Austin said around my breast, and when he sucked my nipple in his mouth and simultaneously rocked between my legs, a light burst behind my eyes, and all I could see were stars. A great feeling of euphoria sent me soaring high in uncontainable pleasure.

“Austin!” I shrilled as I reached my peak, and I panted breathlessly into his hair, feeling wet between my legs.

With one last swipe of his tongue, Austin lifted his mouth from my br**sts, and I beamed red with excited embarrassment. But Austin didn’t make a comment as his nostrils flared at the sight; he just stared at me with deep want, skirted down my legs, and silently lifted the bottom of my long dress. As he kneeled before me, I could see the extent of his need tented in his jeans, the zipper undone and exposing the strained material of his black boxer briefs.

Austin watched me like a hawk watches his prey. I knew it was for any sign of panic his actions toward me might trigger, but I kept our stare and nodded my head, encouraging him to go farther.

As my skirt reached my knees, exposing my calves, a slither of discomfort settled in my stomach, but I nodded my head once more for him to keep going. Austin pushed the light black material slowly up my thighs, and only then did the strength of my fears become too much to bear.

“Wait!” I said frantically, and Austin paused, his eyes narrowing slightly in concern. Tipping my head back to gaze out the skylight at the moon, I tried to focus on calming down and not on the bad thoughts whirling in my mind… of what Austin might think of my thighs.

Will he see cellulite? Will he think they’re large? Will he—

Austin’s face suddenly appeared before me, his lips lowering to gently kiss mine. “We don’t have to go no further, Pix. Just say the word.”

Running my finger down the roughness of his stubbled cheek, I then traced it around the shell of his ear and to the small black gauges plugging his lobes.

“You’re so beautiful, Pix. You’re f**kin’ robbing me of air every time I glance down at you like this.”

This time when my heart came fast, it was in lust and adoration, not fear. Reaching up to take Austin’s hand, I placed mine on top of his and guided it down my br**sts, down my stomach, and to the tops of my thighs.

Austin groaned. “Pix—”

“Keep going, Austin. I want you to keep going… Feel me… Show me how it feels…”

Austin’s forehead dropped to my shoulder, and his head began to shake. “I’m not so sure this is a good idea, Pix. I don’t wanna lose control and scare you off.”

Water filled my eyes, and I turned my head until my lips were brushing his cheek, breathing the same small space of air. “I know I’m difficult to be with. But I want you to make love to me… Please don’t make me beg.”

Austin fixed his gaze on mine and he rolled above me, his arms boxing in my head on the pillow. “Pix, what I feel for you is f**kin’ scary. I thought you were gorgeous from the first time I saw you standing in the empty stadium like some dark pixie lost in a weird dream. But then what I felt for you quickly went to shit. I worried for weeks that you would destroy me, my family, the way my brothers made money.”

He took a deep breath, and the flames from the fire mirrored in his eyes. “And you have destroyed me, Pix, but never how I thought. You destroyed the fence I’d built up to keep people out. You destroyed the hard-ass persona I wore like a shield. But even more than that, you destroyed any reluctance I had to find comfort in someone else. You f**kin’ bulldozed me, Pix. You, my tiny dark pixie, made all my defenses crumble to dust.”