I licked my lips, the sound of that roughness waking up all the pent-up sexual energy from the night, which the ride home had only sent into a doze. The memory of watching him shift his head and bite a woman in the garden while his hips moved with such alluring strength popped into my mind for the millionth time, and my fingers twitched from the phantom sensation of having his thigh in my grasp. "Your bites come so highly recommended," I replied, trying for playful and coming off desperate. "Maybe I'd like it."

"Do you want to find out?" Dain asked in a low voice, his eyes fixed on my neck.

"Why not?" I said, trying to play off the way my entire body wanted his mouth on me. The thought made me salivate, and I couldn't ignore the feeling of my pulse between my legs. I knew Dain could smell that desire as he leaned towards me, breathing hard, his pupils dilated. "I've never been bitten by a wolf before. Seems fun. Scratch it off my bucket list."

Babbling. I was babbling.

"As you desire," he said, his voice catching. Dain stepped closer to me, then very deliberately wrapped one wing-arm around me, his strong fingers stroking down my ribs as he shuddered. He leaned down, breathing hard, and panted against my neck as he laced the fingers of one hand into my loose hair. His other hand settled onto my hip. "So you can have the full experience," Dain said in a thick voice, as if he could barely speak, and planted an open-mouthed kiss on my neck.

I moaned. There wasn't really another option for me. I moaned, and I grabbed his shirt and dragged him closer as he ran his forked tongue against my skin.

Dain's fingers tightened on me, his hand slipping up under the edge of my silk blouse to press against my bare skin, the tips of his blunt claws whispering across the sensitive skin of my side.

Then, holy fuck, he bit me.

He didn't like pain, and he wasn't trying to hurt me. Dain knew exactly how much pressure to use—knew my body intuitively, the way I knew his. His teeth sank into my skin enough that it hit only the edge of pain, dancing on the precipice, sharp and sudden, and pleasure flared through my entire body from that contact.

I gasped some sort of shuddering cry, clinging to him.

Dain moaned against me, shaking, and started kissing my neck again, nipping and kissing and licking, and then he shifted his position and sank his teeth into the muscle of my shoulder.

"Oh, God, Dain," I whimpered, my legs not really capable of holding my weight.

He lifted his mouth off of me only enough that he could speak, his ragged breath hot against my damp skin. "How am I doing?" he asked, his voice rough.