Need a raw ache in his throat, Clay looked at Nate. "If we push the pack meeting to six, I can leave with Talin around eight."
"I'll make the calls." Nate stood. "Tammy, how about a hand?" His tone held an intimacy that was so deep and true, it needed no words to communicate itself.
Talin swallowed the lump in her throat and waited until the other couple had gone upstairs before turning. "Clay, you heard Dev say I should come alone."
He nodded, changing their handclasp so he could stroke his thumb along her palm.
Her cheeks colored. "Then, can I borrow your truck?"
"No." Soft, she was so soft.
Lines formed on her forehead. "Why not?" She tugged at her hand.
He refused to let go. "Dev knows very well I'm going to be with you."
"And you know this because you're a foreseer, too?" She smirked.
He wanted to kiss that smirk right off her lips. So he did. She gave a startled little whimper and then a curious stillness stole over her. He didn't push, didn't force, but neither did he back off. She could've done so by making a single move to the side but she didn't. So he kissed her, nibbled at that deliciously tempting lower lip, then licked his tongue over the small injury.
"I said no licking," she whispered into his mouth, her free hand closing over his shoulder.
He squeezed the one he held. "Don't you like it?"
"That's never really been a consideration with me," she said, sounding far too practical for a woman with kiss-wet lips. "To like, I'd have to be involved."
He wanted to bite at her for daring to tell him he might be nothing more than a faceless f**k, the urge so primitive, so animal, it stripped his emotions bare. "We already are involved." He waited for her to disagree - he'd kiss the lie right out of her.
"Yes." She returned his stare, unflinching. "You make my body respond."
He almost smiled. He knew Talin, understood the depth of her scars. Her body would've stayed dead to him if she hadn't already bonded with him on an emotional level - as a smart, independent adult female. Their past bond had survived everything, but it was based on the memories of the children they had been. But this, this was something that required the cooperation of the woman she'd become. And it required patience on his part. Exquisite, gut-wrenching patience.
Releasing his hold on her hand, he reached out to rub a thumb over her mouth. It was one of his favorite parts of her body. "You didn't answer my question."
"W-what?"
He liked that little hitch in her voice, that fracture in her composure. His Tally was tough, but she was beginning to trust him again. It was a trust he'd damn well earn this time. Memories of how he'd let her down the first time threatened to darken his mood but he fought them off. This moment was about a sweet, sexy, simple kiss. He let his eyes brush over the plump curves of her mouth again. "I asked if you didn't like the licking."
She sucked in a shaky breath, her br**sts rising in silent invitation. "Does it matter?"
"Hell, yeah." He moved one arm to grip the back of her chair, while closing his other over the seduction of her hip. "Because if you don't like it, I'll have to learn some new tricks. I like doing it, have plans to lick my way across every freckle on your body."
Her skin flushed hot, her eyes brightening with a startled flash of touch hunger. "When did you get so verbal?"
He smiled, slow, pleased. "I talk when I have something to say. Stop avoiding the question."
"Fine." Jerking forward, she flicked her tongue along his lower lip.
One hot, wet, stroke and his c**k so was damn hard it felt like it was made out of granite. "You like it." Body heavy with need, he began to lean toward her.
"On the mouth," she said, just before their lips touched.
He blinked. "The body?"
"Well, most parts of the body would probably be okay," she answered, her mouth brushing his. "But not there."
Surprised by her shyness with him - no matter their years apart, they had never been strangers - he ran his lips along her jaw and nuzzled gently into her neck. Her hand rose from his shoulder to push into his hair. It was tempting to take his other hand off the back of her chair and stroke it down to her br**sts, but he kept it where it was, his grip white-knuckled. Slow. This had to be a seduction not of the body alone but of the mind, too. He'd lost Tally once. Damn if she was ever leaving him again.
"Why not?" he whispered against her neck, flicking out his tongue to taste the lush femininity of her skin.
She jerked but then, to his shock, nipped at his ear with sharp little human teeth. He'd never before had to worry about spilling in his jeans. "I haven't forgotten the question." But he had realized that Tally was going to drive him insane in bed. God, he couldn't wait.
"It's just so...well, the whole thing seems very embarrassing and undignified."
It was the last thing he'd expected to hear. The leopard wasn't quite sure how to react. "Well, now," he said after getting his voice back, "that's a challenge if ever I heard one."
Her hand clenched in his hair. "I didn't mean it to be." She sounded very young and very honest.
Unexpectedly, he felt the same way. "How about you let me? Once?" Right then, he could've been a teenager trying to talk his date into the backseat. But only if that date had been Tally - he'd never flirted this way with any other. Neither had she. He knew that in his gut.
"Clay." Her face was hot against his cheek, the tendons of her neck stretched taut. "We aren't going there. I told you."