He could feel that fear pouring from her. The aching knowledge that she was bound to him, that for the first time in her life she couldn't run. She couldn't protect herself, or him, from the changes rapidly taking over her life. Megan had built her life around protecting others. And doing it alone.

"I like your need for me." He caressed her waist, pushing beneath the T shirt to touch warm, soft skin.

"Feeling it wrap around me, binding me. You are a miracle, Megan," he told her softly. "My miracle."

The zipper lowered slowly, easing over the erection throbbing painfully beneath the material. God help him, he wouldn't last long at this rate. Lust already burned inside him, prickling over his flesh, demanding that he touch her, taste her_ possess her.

His.

A low, tortured growl left his throat as she slowly freed him from his jeans.

Uncertainty and fear were rapidly losing way beneath her hunger. He felt it pouring from her, sinking into him, heightening the sensations ripping through his body.

Control.

He slammed the barriers down within his mind instinctively. He couldn't lose control at this point. The desires rising between them were too fragile, and would be too easily damaged if he pushed at the wrong time. He needed to let her feel instead. To let her sense his needs, his passion, his pleasure.

He leaned back against the counter, giving her the opportunity to do as she pleased. To touch him, to guide the passion rising so rapidly between

them. To investigate her own hungers. That was important, he knew, to allow her the freedom to touch, to accept him.

"I've never touched another man like this." Her nervous admission broke his heart. She was a woman of strength, of passion; to have denied herself to the point that she rarely touched, or allowed herself to be touched, must have been agonizing for her.

'That's okay, baby." He groaned. "You are doing exceptionally well."

Her fingers traveled the length of him, stroking from balls to tip as she tortured him with her touch. Leaning forward, her lips touched his chest, her tongue peeking out to lick at his flesh tentatively.

Sweet merciful God_ His thighs bunched as pleasure slammed through him, rocking him as her fingers smoothed just beneath the head of his cock, where the barb had emerged and locked his cock into the tight depths of her vagina the night before.

"You can feel it." Her voice was reverent, filled with pleasure, a pleasure that was killing him as she probed at the ultrasensitive flesh where the barb would emerge later. "Just beneath the skin. It throbs."

His whole body throbbed. Ached. Screamed out for her touch as her breath caressed his skin. Her lips moved over the hard muscle, her tongue licking, spreading fire across the flesh as her head dipped, her

teeth raking the hard, flat nipple that rose to her touch. And all the while her fingers stole his breath as they stroked his cock.

"Baby, this is a very dangerous game you're playing." He fought to hold back, to allow her the freedom she needed.

Yet she also needed to understand that a very thin edge of control separated the man from the animal.

"I like living dangerously. Remember?’ He felt her smile a second before she began to move lower, lips and tongue raking across his skin as she moved closer to the straining length of his cock.

That fickle flesh jerked in rising anticipation, eager for her kiss, the liquid warmth of her mouth. His mouth filled with the taste of the hormone spilling from the glands beneath his tongue. He swallowed slowly, his teeth gritting as his lust rose higher, hotter. Sweet God, he was burning alive.

"This is insane." He growled as her tongue painted a trail of electric sensation down his abdomen. His hands moved from her waist, reaching for her head, for the soft weight of her hair as she drew steadily closer to the trembling, eager flesh throbbing in her hand.

He prayed for patience, for control. She needed this, perhaps even more

than he did. Needed to touch and taste where before she had never been able to, never dared to. And God knew he wanted it more than he wanted his next breath.

"Hmm, it's hot." She was going to kill him with pleasure. "Hot and sexy. You make me feel sexy, Braden."

Wonder filled her voice, pierced the savage haze spreading through his mind.

"God help us both, Megan. You are so fucking sexy you burn me alive." Her tongue licked teasingly at his navel as his hips jerked in reaction, driving his cock closer to her hot little mouth. "But so help me, if you tease me much further you may have little choice in this game you're playing."

Chapter Thirteen

She could feel his desire, his hunger. It raged around her, inside her,

whipping through her mind, her body, until the lust that filled her overwhelmed her caution, her reserve. She knew what he wanted, what he ached to feel.

Her fingers gripped the width of his straining erection as her mouth watered to taste his flesh. The desire was like a beast raging inside her until she lowered her head to the silken crest.

She licked the desperate flesh rather than consuming it as she knew he wanted. Her tongue slid over the damp head, licking at the small drop of pre-come that beaded from the slit. He jerked in her grip.

The taste of heated male, salty and wild, filled her with an addictive hunger that she knew had little to do with the arousal she could feel pouring from him. Her hunger, her need, tore through her unlike anything she had known before.

There were none of the conflicting emotions she had felt years before when she had attempted any intimacy with a man. None of the selfishness or sense of triumph. It was pure, undiluted need, pleasure, the desire to give as well as receive.

"Megan, teasing can be a bad thing at this point." Amusement lay beneath the rough need in his voice as his hips jerked against her flirty licks. "I would advise caution in your play, sweetheart." His control was

tenuous; she could feel his struggle to hold back.

"Hmm, you don't like it?" she murmured against the straining flesh. The brief thought that they were in the kitchen, still mostly dressed, and playing such erotic games sent a thrill of excitement racing through her.

"Maybe I like it too much." He seemed to be speaking through gritted teeth as her tongue moved lower, probing beneath the flared cap at the pulsing point where she knew the barb lay hidden.

"Teasing can be fun." She licked the straining head a second before she let her lips cover the point, suckling at it timidly as her tongue raked over it once again.

His hips jerked as his cock seemed to swell in her grip. Lust, rich and hot, swirled around her, in her, meeting her own, driving the heat tormenting her higher. Every cell in her body seemed sensitized, ready to explode in climax.

"Teasing can be dangerous." His voice was rougher now, more primal.

She licked at him again before lifting her lips, raking over the hard flesh before her mouth opened and slowly, so slowly she could feel the savage hunger growing, deepening, pouring over her-she consumed the hard crest.

"Sweet Jesus_" Braden felt his control slipping. He could feel the point where the barb emerged growing hotter, a pinpoint of pleasure that tortured and tormented as her lips began to rake over it, just as the sensitive area on the other side pounded with the need for release.

Her lips tightened around his cock, drawing out the pleasure as she learned the shape of him, her curiosity and her pleasure wrapping around him. Feminine hunger slammed into his senses as her suckling mouth began to move with more confidence, with greater intensity.

Son of a bitch, it was killing him. Never, even when trying, when attempting to feel the hunger that drove his partner, had he been able to feel this. Sweet, pure female need wrapping around him, driving his lust higher.

He gripped her hair, holding her to him as her mouth tightened on him, sucking him with a voracious hunger that consumed him.

"Sweet mercy." He growled, his fingers tightening in her silken strands.

"That's it, baby, suck it harder. Your mouth is so fucking hot you're burning me alive."

Her tongue flickered beneath the crest, a hum of pleasure vibrating against the already violently sensitized flesh.

His hands cupped the back of her head as he began thrusting, unable to

halt the movement of his hips, pushing into her mouth, retreating. His teeth gritted at the ecstasy consuming him. He was going to have to stop her soon.

Saints alive, he didn't know if he could hold on to his control to keep from hurting her, to keep the beast raging inside him from taking her with a force he knew could destroy them both.

She hummed against him again, sweet moans of rising desire that tore at his determination to hold back. Her fingers caressed him, stroked the throbbing shaft, curled around the taut spheres below and sent his senses spinning.

"Good girl," he crooned almost mindlessly now. "Sweet baby, there you go. Suck my cock, Megan" He gritted his teeth as his head fell back. His hips moved in short, digging strokes, filling her mouth as the vibrations of her moans, the scent of her arousal, stole his sanity.

"Enough" The barb was throbbing beneath the head, pressing out as he felt his balls tighten with the need to come. "Enough, Megan" He pulled at her hair, desperate to tear her away from him before he lost all semblance of control.

Her nails nipped at his thighs as her teeth raked his flesh warningly, the small bite of pain sending his senses exploding with heat.

"Fuck Megan." His hands dug into her scalp as he tried to hold her still, fought the climax that surged through his body. Electric trails of sensation raced up his spine, tightened his scrotum. His sanity and control receded beneath her suckling mouth.

He felt the barb press outward, extending as her tongue began to flicker desperately over it. Her mouth drew tighter around him as rapture erupted through his body. His seed filled her mouth, explosive jets of semen shooting inside the moist depths as her tongue fought to lick at the hard extension, extending his climax, sending bolt after bolt of sensation racing through his cock.

Megan was lost in the primitive taste and response filling her. Braden did nothing to hide either his mental or physical pleasure. Both filled her, empowered her, and stripped away any caution, any reserve she could have mustered from him.

She drew back from the still-hard, pulsing erection, staring in dazed fascination at the thumbtip-sized extension pulsing beneath the head of his cock. Its position would allow it to be anchored in the most sensitive portion of a woman's vagina. High, behind the hard clutch of muscles that would have gripped him had he been buried in her pussy.

As she watched it slowly receded, sinking back into the flesh as though it had never been there.

"It's amazing." She smoothed her fingers over the area, a smile tugging at her lips as his hips jerked in response and his hands pulled at her hair.

"It's damned strange." He growled, pulling her up, forcing her to straighten against him as he stared down at her with his dark gold eyes, his long honey-and earth-streaked hair falling around his face. "But right now, it's the least of my concerns."

The primal throb of power and lust in his voice sent chills racing through her body, followed by a wave of heat that nearly buckled her knees. His eyes glittered with his lust, the planes of his face savage, intent on possession.

"What does concern you then?’ She meant to sound teasing, flirtatious. The words came out as a plea instead.

The smile that shaped his lips stole her breath. Arrogant, assured, a confident male animal.

"This concerns me." His hand moved from her hair to her thighs, his palm sliding between them as he cupped the saturated curves of her sex, grinding against her clit and sending fire racing through her nerve endings.

She arched in his hold, aware of his arm tightening around her back as her knees weakened with the extreme pleasure. She ground herself against him, a gasping cry escaping her throat as liquid fire seemed to

consume her.

"I can't" She lost the strength to finish the cry as she felt him tear at the material of her shorts, dragging the soft cotton out of the way as she trembled against him.