“I like the way you taste,” she whispered.

He lunged off the bed. Tumbled her back onto the mattress. In one move, Tanner parted her legs and drove into her in a thrust so deep they both shuddered.

Not enough.

He withdrew. Thrust again. Her legs wrapped around him, and her hips arched. Harder. Faster. Their pants filled the air. His orgasm pushed down on him. So close.

Her first. The thought that he was the first man to know her sweet flesh still staggered him. The first, the only.

He pushed into her again. Again. She was wet and hot, and he took her breast into his mouth. Licked. Sucked.

She gasped his name. Her sex clenched around him. Almost there. Almost.

He drove into her once more. Felt the climax that shook her whole body. When she opened her mouth to cry out, he caught the sound with his own lips.

Then he came. So long and hard that his body felt hollowed out and empty when he was done. Pleasure. So intense that it left him wondering . . .

How the hell did I go without her for so long?

Nothing had ever been this good. No one else ever would be.

He was so f**ked.

His claws had retracted. He lifted his hand and brushed back the hair from her cheek. Her lashes rose as she stared at him. Hell, he had to be crushing her. Tanner eased his c**k from her silken sheath, hating to take his body from hers, and it was right then that he realized—

No protection.

His heart stopped. Shifters didn’t generally have to worry about condoms. They couldn’t catch the diseases humans spread and as for pregnancy—well, most shifters wanted to be able to have kids. Only they couldn’t have a child with just anyone. Their partner had to be a perfect genetic match-up. One strong enough to carry a shifter child.

One strong enough to be a . . . mate.

Like Marna was.

“I’m sorry.” He couldn’t look at her eyes. He pulled her back up to the head of the bed. Arranged her on the pillows and made sure to tuck the covers around her.

But she laughed. “You don’t have anything to be sorry about. Trust me, Tanner, I think I was the rough one, not you.” Her little nails had dug into his back, and her legs had squeezed so perfectly.

He liked it rough.

He shook his head. She didn’t understand. “I didn’t . . . use anything.” Not any of the times he’d been with her.

Fucking blind. That’s what he’d been. Desperate. Crazy or—

His jaw clenched. Or maybe he’d been trying to hedge his bets. Had he done that? Unconsciously? Had the beast wanted a chance to take her—all of her?

“Use anything?” she repeated and Tanner forced himself to meet her stare. Her eyes widened. “You mean—”

“I mean you could be pregnant right now.” Angels could get pregnant, just like any other fertile being. Since his mother had been an angel, Brandt had certainly been proof of that.

It didn’t happen often, so maybe they’d have luck on their side, but it could happen. “I’ll get condoms,” he said. “We’ll be safe from now on.” He wouldn’t make this mistake again.

She simply stared back at him. Uh, yeah, why wasn’t she freaking out on him? He’d just told her she could have a shifter hybrid in her belly right then. And she was just . . . staring at him.

“A child?” She bit her lower lip and tilted her head to the right. “I’ve never thought about having someone of my own like that.”

Well, it wasn’t like the hypothetical kid would just be hers. He’d never walk away from his child. “I wouldn’t be like my father.” His voice came out rough, gravelly. Tanner cleared his throat and tried again. “I promise, if something . . . if we have . . .” Could he screw this up more? Probably not. He exhaled. “I would never hurt him.” She had to believe that. He would never hurt any child he had.

Voice soft, she said, “I never thought you would.”

What?

“You’ve never hurt me. Why would you hurt your baby?”

Because he was the product of one screwed-up family tree. Because he was violent inside. Dangerous. “I wouldn’t.” He’d sooner cut off his own hands than ever lay one on a child. No matter what else happened in this world, he’d never hurt an innocent.

He could still hear his own cries in his nightmares. It had taken the child he’d been a while to learn that the tears only made his father hit more. Hit harder.

He took another deep breath and just pulled in more of her scent. Marna would never hurt a kid. She’d love the child. Protect him. Always keep him safe.