Page 24 of Hellhounds Never Lie

I trailed my hand down his back, loving the way he arched into my touch. He hummed quietly and turned his face toward my neck. The warmth of his breath whispered across my skin as his lips brushed against me.

Every part of me was awake now. Including my dick.

“I thought you wanted to get ready.” I angled my head to give him better access to my neck. Fuck, his lips felt good on me.

“Later,” he murmured.

ChapterTen

ASH

I had been thinking about being naked with Dillon all night long. Every single minute I was awake, anyway. Even the minutes that were interrupted by vengeful thoughts about the wolves ended with me imagining how I could reward this sexy man who’d saved me or how I wanted to go out, hunt down the wolf who got away, and drag him back here to present him to Dillon as a gift.

And what kind of fucked up thought was that? I wasn’t a shifter. I was a mage. Mages weren’t supposed to want to kill and maim for our mates.

Mates. That word also kept repeating in my head.

“I want you,” I whispered against his throat. His pulse quickened under my mouth at my words, and I smiled.

“Are you sure? We don’t have to…”

Last night’s seduction hadn’t gone to plan. I’d panicked. But, at some point during everything that had happened after that, something had changed for me. Letting him see my scars didn’t seem as scary anymore.

And that felt big.

Important.

Monumental.

And absolutely, perfectly right.

If I still met with my therapist, this would definitely be a talking point.

No one had seen my scars in years, and I preferred it that way. The few times I’d had sex in the last few years had been the kind of sex where everyone stayed mostly dressed, dropped their pants to expose the necessary parts, and didn’t ask for names. I hadn’t loved doing it, but I hadn’t been ready to make myself any more vulnerable than that either. As much as I’d always craved having more with someone in all the years leading up to the attack, I’d found dozens of ways to talk myself out of pursuing anything more serious since then. Finally, I’d just given up. Celibacy wasn’t so bad. Really.

And now Dillon had somehow gotten past all my defenses, almost from the moment I’d seen him on the night-cloaked road. Maybe fate really had brought us together.

I swallowed hard and sat up so I could see his face. He was gorgeous. A sense of rightness filled me at seeing him lying rumpled in my bed. I wanted to crawl all over his big body like flames on kindling. He didn’t move, he just lay still watching me, like he understood I needed a bit of space to take this step.

My fingers fumbled at the hem of my shirt.

“So…” I looked away from him to stare at the weave of the sheets. “I… um… I…”

“Hey,” he said softly. “Whatever it is, I’m going to be okay with it. Okay? Trust me. Nothing you can show me will put me off.”

I nodded. He could say that now, but he hadn’t seen them yet. My scars were ugly. Hideous. And if seeing them made him pity me like everyone else who’d seen them, I wasn’t sure what I’d do.

“I have…” My voice broke. I cleared my throat. “I have some scars.”

“Okay,” he said slowly.

I needed to know what he was thinking, and his one-word response didn’t help. I forced myself to look up and meet his eyes, which were blazing with his hellhound’s fires. They seemed to do that when he was emotional.

“I thought I should warn you. They’re kind of…” I swallowed hard. “Well, not nice to look at.”

“Your scars won’t change how much I want you.” He spoke with such sincerity, I ached to believe him.

I curled my fingers around the bottom of my shirt. Before I could lift it, he reached out to stop me.