Brady’s hands curled around her waist, his grip sure—confident—before he skimmed them under her hoodie and up her ribcage. He hissed out a breath, his gaze darting to hers when he discovered what she wore beneath it.
“Fuck. No bra.” His palms cupped and squeezed, fingers caressed and tweaked. “I need to see you.”
He didn’t have to ask twice. With a wiggle, she pulled the sweater up and bared her breasts.
“Jesus. Take it off.” Slipping his hands behind her back, he lifted her up. “Take it all the way off.”
Gripping the hem, Kat tugged the hoodie over her head and tossed it across the room where it landed in a heap on the floor.
“These too.” Brady let her fall back to the bed and yanked on the waistband of her sweats, their fit so loose they were at her knees in one tug. “Jesus fucking Christ. No underwear at all? You’ve been walking around all day without anything under my clothes?”
“I didn’t want to put my dirty—”
“Don’t care.” He slid the pants the rest of the way off and threw them in the direction of the hoodie. “New rule. No underwear at home.”
His fingers came back to her waist, trailed over her skin as he explored the area, the slightly abrasive pads delivering a sensation between tickle and caress. She shivered beneath his touch as his strokes swept lower down her torso.
Grinning, he said, “Yeah, I really like that rule.”
“Goes both ways.” Her breathing hitched, her insides clenched, as he concentrated on a particularly sensitive spot on her belly right above her mound. “If I don’t get to wear them, neither do you.”
“Agreed. No underwear for either of us from now on.”
Smiling, Kat reached for the button on Brady’s jeans. “Let’s get yours off then.”
His hands covered hers. “No. Not yet. I want this to last and if I get naked now, it’s not going to.”
Her gaze caught his. She could see his coyote just beneath the surface, felt his fingers tremble on hers. “You’re close to shifting.”
“I know.”
“Should we mate in coyote—”
“Fuck no! The first time I have you, I want my hands on you. Your hands on me.”
“Then…” She didn’t know. Had no clue how to navigate the need visibly coursing through Brady. Her own coyote was happy to be on her back, offering herself to her mate. “Tell me what to do.”
“Lie back and enjoy.”
“But—”
“Shh…” One finger covered her lips as he leaned over her. “Let me make this good for you.”
“I want to touch you too.” Kat ran her hands up his sides, over his chest, and around his neck. Locking her fingers together, she pulled his mouth to hers. “Kiss me, Brady.”
Their lips met. A soft brush, back and forth. A little pressure. A lick of tongue.
They took their time, pressing, brushing, closed mouths learning the shape and feel of each other.
Kat had kissed boys. She’d kissed men. None of them kissed her the way Brady did. Like she was a treasure to be explored with a thoroughness that left her breathless.
His tongue stroked across her lips making them tremble, her breath sigh. He nipped at her top lip, bit into the bottom one with more force, and tugged before soothing the sting with the hot swipe of his tongue. He spent what felt like forever exploring her lips before pulling back enough to lock eyes with her.
“Open for me,” he breathed against her mouth. “Let me taste you.”
Parting her lips for him came as naturally as breathing. She wanted to let him in, wanted him to take whatever he wanted from her. To give him everything she was without fear or prejudice. It was just the two of them. No one else had a right to come between mates, and Kat vowed to make sure no one and nothing—past or future—did.
As his fated mate, her coyote had already bonded to his, but as a human she had the choice to give him her heart or guard it against any pain he could inflict. Except loving someone meant they could and would hurt you. That’s what loving did.
It opened you up, bared you to the one you loved, and gave you the power to hurt and heal.
Kat intended to heal Brady.
“Take your clothes off.”
Jerking away, he frowned at her. “I can’t if I want to stay in control.”
“I don’t want you in control. I want all of you.”
“You’ll get me but I want to make it good for you first.”
“Is this a macho-alpha coyote thing where you have to prove you can please your mate because I don’t need that shit. Not between you and me.”
“No. I don’t want to hurt you, I want to make sure you’re ready.”
“I couldn’t be any more ready, Brady. My thighs are slick with how ready I am. It’s a wonder you can’t feel how wet I am through your jeans.”
“Ren. Please. I need to do it this way. Let me make you feel good then—”
“No. We do this together. I don’t care if you get off quick because I can guarantee you I’ll be right there with you.” She cupped his face in both hands. “Brady, I need you inside me. And I don’t mean your tongue in my mouth, although I’ll take that too.”
Air burst from his mouth and his eyes closed tight. “I’m afraid I’ll go off the second I get inside you. That I’ll be too quick for you to come.”
“Then we won’t stop. We’ll keep going and from everything I know about a mating bond you’ll stay hard. I’m not in heat, so I can’t get pregnant, but I want to feel your cum inside me. I want to feel your warmth fill me up—”
“Fuck!” He dropped his chin, his breaths rushing in and out of his lungs in harsh explosions.
Before Kat could argue more, Brady levered up on his hands and sprang from the bed. At first she thought he would run like he had the night before but then he did what she’d asked and stripped.
And holy hell was she glad it was daylight and she could see every glorious inch of Brady Connelly in all his nakedness, because damn was he a sight to behold.
And hold.
She planned to do plenty of holding.
“Get back here,” she demanded, spreading her legs wide in invitation.
A growl rumbled from his throat and his eyes lightened, his coyote showing through with the need to claim. “I don’t want to mount you from behind in spite of everything in me demanding it. I want to see your face when I sink inside you.”
“We can do the mounting thing next time.”
Brady closed his eyes and shuddered. Pre-cum dripped from the tip of his engorged cock and Kat licked her lips.
What would he taste like? Would he let her lick him like an ice cream?
“Kathren,” Brady growled, his voice rough and deep. “Eyes up here.”
Dragging her gaze away from his groin, she found his hands clenched at his sides, the muscles and veins in his arms bulging. Further up, his chest heaved with each breath and his nipples pebbled within the light dusting of hair. The sharp angle of his jaw jutted forward, muscles clenching on both sides of his chin; his nostrils flared wide with each inhalation and his eyes blazed with a feral light that singed, caught fire beneath her skin.
Her coyote whined, whimpered in submission, and Kat had to fight the need to turn over, to offer him her back, turn her head, and offer her throat.
She could satisfy both her coyote and his if she gave him the latter so she twisted her head to the side, arched her neck to show him the tender sweep of her throat.
“Fuck. I’m done waiting.” He lunged, caging her beneath him in one leap. “Open for me. Spread your legs and wrap them around my waist.”
She was already lifting her feet, bending her knees, and curling her legs around him. Crossing her ankles, Kat locked her limbs around Brady’s waist and raised her hips. “Don’t wait. If there’s any pain, get it over with quickly.”
“No.” He lowered his pelvis, pressed the length of his erection against her sensitive folds. “I won’t hurt you.”
“You might not be able to help it, Brady.” She grabbed his face, made sure her gaze held his. “It won’t last long and I doubt it’ll be that bad. I’ve used a vibrator”—his eyes closed on a groan—“so it’s not like I haven’t had anything inside me before.”
“Ren.” His eyes snapped open, the fire in them scorching her from skin to bone. “Shut up. Stop talking. Let me think.”
Rocking her hips up, she dragged her clit along his cock, over the tip, until the plump head rested at her opening. “Now. Brady.”
“Ren.”
His protest came too late. Using her thighs, Kat rose up and took him deep. A spike of pain shot through her, a fiery flash that was there and gone in less time than it took to suck in a breath.
“Ren?” Brady cradled her head, laid his forehead on hers, and pressed his lips to hers. “Shit. Ren,” he breathed against her mouth. “I didn’t want to hurt you.”
Drawing in a deep breath, Kat concentrated on the sensations rolling through her. “I’m okay.”
“I hurt you.”
“We hurt me.” She needed him to understand that the pain had been worth it. To be joined with him like this, to feel him inside her, stretching her with his heat, to know neither of them had done this before, that they’d only ever do this together. “Brady, I promise you, it’s already gone and it was minor. I’ve survived worse.”
“What?” His head jerked up. “What worse? How worse?”
“Relax.” She stroked a hand down his back. “The last time I sliced a finger at the Den hurt ten times as much.”
He frowned. “I don’t like the idea of you being hurt.”
“We have that in common.”
“No, really. I don’t think you should use knives anymore.”
Kat rolled her eyes. How he could focus on something other than their current position was beyond her. “Brady. You need to move.”
His gaze met hers, gold sparking as his body’s impulses began to take over once more. With a short jerk he pulled back, the drag of flesh on flesh drawing a moan from each of them. “Promise me,” he demanded.
“What?”
“Promise you’ll tell me to stop if it hurts.”
God, how could she ever think this man would hurt her—physically or emotionally? He wouldn’t. It wasn’t in him to do it. He’d sooner inflict pain on himself than her. “You won’t hurt me.”
“Promise me.”
“I promise.” She gave him what he needed. “I’ll never lie to you. And no matter what happens we’re in this together.”
“I couldn’t live if I hurt you again.”
Kat slapped her hands on either side of his face. “Stop. It wasn’t your fault. You’d never intentionally hurt me, Brady, I know that to the depths of my soul.”
He lowered his brow to hers. “It would kill me,” he breathed against her mouth.
“I know.”
His breath rushed out. “I can’t believe we’re here.” His hips flexed, pumping his cock in and out in a quick, short thrust.
She couldn’t hold in the moan, not when pleasure snapped through her, pulsing and sparking and making her insides clench around his hard length. “Again.”
“That didn’t hurt?”
“God, no.”
The pain had been nothing. There and gone and all that was left in its wake was a different kind of pain. The kind that drove you mad until the man you loved drove himself inside you.
“I need…” She rocked her hips, squeezed internal muscles, and had them both moaning.
The movement had Brady bucking, flexing, thrusting. Had him lowering over her further, had his breath hot in her ear as he nuzzled into her neck. “Fuck. It’s too good.”
Kat took that as a compliment; she didn’t worry about the fact he had no reference to compare it to. This was them, would always be them. No one and nothing would come between them ever again.
She curled her back, tilted her pelvis so her pussy was in perfect alignment for Brady’s cock. He drove into her, over and over and as his breathing became more shallow, faster, so did his thrusts. His body ground against hers, the pressure on her clit with each plunge quickly taking her up toward the peak she’d only ever reached on her own.
Sure, she’d used Brady to get there yesterday but she’d been the one touching her body, pressing deep and plying her clit until the inevitable happened.
Now it was Brady. Her mate. The man she’d loved when he was no more than a boy. They might not know each other as well as they had but it didn’t stop her heart from spreading wider than her legs and drawing him inside.
“I’m going to…” Brady panted.
Kat smiled. “Don’t stop.” She reached between them, slipped her fingers around one taut nipple and pinched.
Light burst, sensation exploded, and Kat went over the edge with a cry.
She wasn’t aware of her teeth dropping, of leaning forward to suction her mouth to Brady’s neck and sink them deep. Caught in the maelstrom of pleasure, she screamed around the flesh between her teeth when Brady reciprocated.
Warmth spread inside her core, muscles clenching and flexing and gripping. Spasm after spasm had them rocking together, Brady driving deep, deep, deeper, until a final wave of ecstasy took them under.