“You okay now?” he asked, and at my words coming back to me like that, my stomach dipped.

“Better,” I said snippily, but that was all for show and he knew it, since it was also breathy.

He gave me another grin.

Then he gave me another kiss.

While doing it, he rolled so I was on top.

That was when I started kissing him.

And I felt better.

Then I broke the kiss and looked down into his wild and beautiful eyes, more so right then because I could see they were lazy but turned on, the blue had partially seeped back, but the brown was again suffusing it.

And I went about making him feel better.

“I want this, whatever it is you’re about to do to me, and I’ve spent twenty-nine years getting to know me, so I know I wouldn’t give what I gave earlier and what I’m about to give to a monster. Monsters don’t inspire loyalty like you’ve inspired in your family. And monsters don’t think twice about giving into whatever urges they’re feeling, even if it hurts somebody.”

The look in his eyes changed, went gentle but intense, the blue totally gone.

However I wasn’t done.

I curled my fingers around the side of his neck. “And it breaks my heart you’ve spent two hundred years getting to know yourself and all you’ve come up with is that you’re a monster. You aren’t, Abel. I’ve known you less than two days and I know that for certain. It might take twenty-nine more years of my life to convince you of it, but if this is what I think it is, I’ll have that time and you have my vow I’ll bust my ass to try.”

When I was done with my speech, he lifted his hand to my neck, curled his fingers around and up into my hair, and he rolled me again. His eyes were no longer gentle but totally intense.

He didn’t say anything.

He kissed me, not gentle or slow, all rough and consuming.

He continued to say nothing as he took my mouth, his hands moving on me, and it began again. Not the same as before. He was slow and gentle, taking his time, building it, his hands eventually getting the addition of his lips and tongue gliding on my neck, tracing a path to my nipple, then the other, down to my belly, only for his tongue to slide across the top of the triangle of hair between my legs and head back north.

All the time his hands still moved on me, heightening the sensations, so by the time he made it back to my mouth, I was ready for his cock.

This was good because he gave it to me, sliding in slowly, his eyes to mine, his face close, his breaths coming fast, mingling with my own.