“You should . . . be careful.” His words barely sounded human as he gritted them out. “Shifters . . . aren’t known for their control.”

She was already losing her own control. What did it matter? “I want to know . . .” Marna stopped. She wasn’t sure what to say. Pleasure? Sex? Was that what she wanted? Did she just want to know what it felt like?

He wasn’t a safe test for her. She should find someone else. Someone not a shifter.

Someone who wasn’t the brother of the bastard who’d hurt her so badly before.

Tanner isn’t like him.

Tanner’s hand eased down her body. She expected him to rip away her panties. Weren’t shifters supposed to be savage and uncontrolled like that?

But he didn’t rip them away. He slowly eased down the silk. Silk he’d bought. His mouth kissed its way from her belly button on down to—

Her breath caught in her throat. His fingers were between her legs, parting her to him, and his mouth—Tanner’s mouth—was on her sensitive flesh. His tongue swiped over her, and her hips jerked as if an electric shock had jolted her.

Again.

She’d whispered the word. But she realized she didn’t have to tell him. Tanner was licking her. Kissing her. Tasting her with his tongue even as his finger slid into her body. The pleasure might have been out of her reach before, but right then it was so close.

His tongue swiped over her core again. Then his mouth was on her clit and he sucked—

Marna screamed when the climax hit her. An explosion of pleasure shook her whole body. It went on and on, and the room actually seemed to dim around her.

Nothing, nothing had ever been like this. So good. So consuming.

So much . . . pleasure.

Marna realized her hands were fisted in Tanner’s dark hair. Her thighs were trembling, and her breath heaved out. She forced her fingers to unclench. Forced herself to suck in more air for her starving lungs.

Tanner’s head lifted. His eyes were shining as he stared at her—and he licked his lips.

Her sex clenched.

“I love the way you taste.” His voice was so deep, dark.

She couldn’t speak. Had she shouted before? Screamed in pleasure?

Maybe.

“I could eat you up.”

Her heart lurched.

His gaze dropped to her sex once more. He swallowed. “Want . . .”

She still wanted him. She’d come, erupted, but . . .

Marna wanted Tanner inside of her.

And he was—he was pulling away? Why? This wasn’t the way things worked, at least not for humans. “Tanner?”

He rose beside the bed and stood with his back to her. She saw the heavy marks on his skin, marks she hadn’t even noticed before. Long, twisting scars that cut deep into his flesh. Scars that curled out from his back, wrapped around his sides and—

He turned to glance back at her.

Her gaze locked on the scars that cut across his stomach. Sunlight shot through the window, so there was no hiding the scars. But then, Tanner wasn’t trying to hide the marks.

She was the one who hid her scars.

“That was . . .” His hands were clenched. “You haven’t been with a man before, have you?”

Why lie? Oh, right, she couldn’t. “You’re my first.”

A shudder worked over him, and his fists whitened. “I could tell. Your response… the way you came for me.” His breath rasped out. “Beautiful.”

Her thighs were still shaking. And her shifter—he was turning and walking away. “Why? Why are you leaving me?”

His hand lifted and his fingers curled around the door frame. She could see the edge of his claws breaking through the skin of his fingertips. He dug those claws into the wood, and Marna swallowed.

“You aren’t ready for what I’ll do to you.”

Were his words supposed to be a threat? Or a promise?

“First times aren’t meant for shifters.” He wasn’t looking at her. His claws dug deeper into the doorframe. “We’re too rough. Too wild.” His laugh was bitter. “Especially for an angel.”

Marna grabbed for the covers and pulled them around her body. She hadn’t known a need for modesty, until she fell. “So what was . . . that?” Him, kissing her, touching her, tasting her?

“It was me being f**king starving for you.” His claws had carved deep grooves into the wood. “And realizing how dangerous I can be to you.”

She rose from the bed. Marna wrapped the sheet around her and headed toward him. “I don’t think you are.” When had things changed for her? She could see his claws. His scars.