Knife & Flesh (The Night Horde SoCal Book 4) by Susan Fanetti Page A

bucking sharply on him at the same time. A sound like a growl blasted from his throat, and he grabbed her face and pulled her to him so that he could claim her mouth. He kissed her savagely, funneling all of his need, all of his confused feelings, into her through that kiss.
     
    She moaned and gasped and struggled, but he didn’t let her go. Deep inside her, he felt a fluttering spasm around the head of his cock, and then she was coming, her hands clamped over his shoulders, fingernails digging deeply into his flesh. She gave up her rocking rhythm and began to buck and bounce until she ripped her mouth free of his and flailed backward. He sat up and followed her, keeping her close, flexing his hips upward as she drove down onto him, harder and harder.
     
    Trick roared, his finish clawing through his gut. In the midst of it, knowing she wasn’t done, he tried to flip them again, but he missed his aim, and they landed on the floor instead of the sofa. The impact of their fall drove him as deep as he could go—and finished her.
     
    “Now! God! Now, it’s now! It’s—” Her cries cut off and she arched up into him, her body a perfectly rigid bow. He felt his skin give under her fingernails as her hands tried to clench into fists around his shoulders.
     
    He slammed into her again and again, grunting to the beat of their bodies until the metallic rigidity of her body eased and she relaxed in his arms. Still mostly hard, he slowed his strokes but didn’t stop, moving gently now, bringing her softly back to Earth.
     
    “Stop,” she gasped, “stop. I can’t…God.” He stilled, and she hooked her arms tightly around his head and buried her face against his neck. Her hair covered his face, and he breathed deeply.
     
    When the movements of her body told him that she was calming, her breath settling, Trick pulled slowly out and rested on his hip at her side. He brushed her hair from her face and searched her eyes, trying to see what would happen next. Was she hurt? Still afraid? Would she send him away, now that the feral physical need between them had abated?
     
    Her lips trembled, and he thought she would cry, but instead she smiled and took hold of his beard. “It’s like I never had sex in my life until right now.”
     
    Not sure if she was saying that he’d hurt her, he asked, “Is that good?”
     
    “Yes. Yes, I think so.”
     
    “Think?”
     
    At his echo of their earlier argument—if that was what it was—she gave him an ironic twist of a smile—he loved that expression of hers, showing sharp good humor and insight. Then the smile left, and she grew serious. “Yes, think . Right now, with you, I feel good. It all feels so good, and I don’t mean just the sex. I like being with you. I feel…better…when I am. But Trick, this does scare me. I don’t have casual things, and this doesn’t feel casual, anyway—not to me, at least. I have a little girl. She is everything to me. Everything I want, I want for her—what she needs, what makes her life good. I don’t know how you fit with us. I don’t know if you can.”
     
    He wasn’t even fully soft yet; he did not want to confront his failings right this second. “Do you have to know right now, while I’ve still got the condom on?”
     
    “I’m sorry. But—”
     
    “Please, honey. I’m asking. Give me a minute.” He tried to sit up, so he could discard the condom and sturdy his psyche, but she grabbed his arms, resisting his movement. So he stayed where he was.
     
    “What I was going to say is that I don’t want you to go. Not tonight, at all. And I don’t know what that’ll mean, if you stay.”
     
    He sighed. Okay, it looked like they had to talk about this right now. Leaning down, he pressed his lips to her forehead. “Come on, let’s sit up and talk. Honestly, though, I need to get rid of the condom first.” Now that its purpose had been fulfilled, and his erection was gone, it was like a white flag of surrender hanging