His tone was factual, as if he were reciting his height or weight.
"I don't think of you as lower-class, Butch."
"Like I said, you don't really know me."
"When I lie this close to you, when I smell your scent, when I hear your voice, I know everything that matters." She looked down the length of him. "You are the male I want to mate with. That's who you are."
A dark, spicy scent came out of his skin in a rush, the kind of thing that were he a vampire she would have said was his bonding mark. As she drew it in through her nose, she took strength in the response.
With fingers that shook, she went to the first of the little buttons on her bodice.
He captured both her hands in one of his. "Don't force yourself, Marissa. There are things I want from you, but I'm in no hurry."
"But I want to. I want to be with you." She pushed him away and started working at the buttons, except she didn't get far because she was trembling so badly. "I think you're going to have to do it."
His breath went in on an erotic hiss. "You sure?"
"Yes." When he hesitated, she nodded at the bodice. "Please. Get this off me."
In slow succession, he freed each of the pearl buttons, his battered fingers sure, the dress opening little by little as he went. Without her corset on, her naked skin was revealed in the shallow V that formed.
As he got to the last one, her whole body started to quake.
"Marissa, you're not okay with this."
"It's just... No male has ever seen me before."
Butch went motionless. "You are still..."
"Untouched," she said, hating the word.
Now his body trembled and that dark scent flowed from him even more strongly. "It wouldn't have mattered if you weren't. I need you to know that."
She smiled a little. "I do. Now will you..." As his hands came up, she whispered, "Just be kind, all right?"
Butch frowned. "I'm going to love what I see because it's you." When she didn't meet his eyes, he leaned forward. "Marissa, you're beautiful to me."
Impatient with herself, she gripped the bodice and bared her br**sts. Closing her eyes, she found she couldn't breathe.
"Marissa. You're beautiful."
She lifted her lids, bracing herself. Except he wasn't staring at what she'd revealed.
"But you haven't looked at me yet, have you?"
"I don't need to."
Tears speared into the corners of her eyes. "Please... just look."
His eyes drifted downward and he inhaled sharply through his teeth, the hiss cutting through the room. Ah, hell, she knew there was something wrong -
"Jesus, you're perfect." With a quick pass, his tongue licked over his lower lip. "May I touch you?"
Overwhelmed, she nodded with a jerk of the chin and his hand slipped under the bodice, smoothed up her rib cage and caressed the side of her breast, soft as a breath. She surged at the contact and then settled down. At least until he brushed her nipple with his thumb.
Then she arched involuntarily.
"You're... very perfect," he said in his hoarse voice. "You blind me."
Butch's head went down, his lips finding the skin at her sternum, then kissing the way up her breast. Her nipple gathered up on itself, straining for... yes, his mouth. Oh... God, yes... his mouth.
His eyes stared into hers as he latched on to the tip of her breast, pulling her between his lips. He sucked on her for a heartbeat before releasing and blowing across the glistening tip. Between her legs, she felt a warm rush.
"You okay?" he said. "This okay?"
"I didn't know... they could feel like that."
"No?" He brushed his lips over her nipple again. "Surely you've touched this beautiful place? No? Not ever?"
She couldn't think straight. "Females in my class... we're taught that we shouldn't... do such things. Unless we are with a mate and even then..." God, what were they talking about?
"Ah... well, I'm here now, aren't I?" His tongue came out and licked over her nipple. "Yeah, I'm here now. So give me your hand, Marissa." When she did, he kissed her palm. "Let me show you what perfection feels like."
He took her forefinger into his mouth and sucked on it, then popped it free and brought it to her distended nipple. He ran circles around the tip, touching her through her own hand.
She let her head fall back, but kept her eyes on his. "It's so..."
"Soft and tight at the same time, isn't it." He lowered his mouth, covering her nipple and her fingertip, a smooth, licking warmth. "Feels good?"
"Yes... dear Virgin in the Fade, yes."
His hand went to her other breast and rolled her nipple, then he massaged the swell beneath. He was so big looming over her, the hospital gown slipping from his bunched-up shoulders, his heavy arms clenched from holding himself above her body. As he switched sides and went to work on her other nipple, his dark hair brushed against her pale skin, soft and silky.
Lost in the heat and a growing restlessness, she didn't notice as her skirts started moving... until they were up around her thighs.
As she stiffened, he asked against her breast, "Will you let me keep going a little farther? If I swear I'll stop anytime you want?"
"Um... yes."
His palm slid onto her bare knee, and she jerked, but when he went back to work on her breast, she forgot the fear. With slow, lazy circles, his hand went higher and higher until it slipped between her thighs -
Abruptly, she felt something spill out of her. In a panic, she clamped her legs together and pushed at him.
"What, baby?"
Blushing fiercely, she muttered, "I feel something... different..."
"Where? Down here?" He stroked her inner thigh.
As she nodded, his smile was slow, sexy. "Oh, really?" He kissed her, lingering with their mouths together. "Want to tell me what it is?" As she flushed even more, his hand kept up the caressing. "What kind of different?"
"I'm..." She couldn't say it.
His mouth shifted so it was next to her ear. "Are you wet?" When she nodded, he growled deep in his throat. "Wet is good... wet's right where I want you to be."
"It is? Why - "
With a smooth, quick move, he touched her panties between her legs, and they both jumped at the contact.
"Oh... God," he groaned, his head dropping on her shoulder. "You're so with me right now. You're so right here with me."
Butch's erection pounded as he kept his hand on the warm, damp satin over Marissa's core. He knew if he pushed the panties aside, he was going to dive into a whole lot of honey, but he didn't want to shock her out of the moment.
Curling his fingers around her, he rubbed the heel of his palm against the top of her slit, right where it would feel best. As she gasped, her hips pushed forward, then followed his slow rhythm. Which naturally put him through the roof. To maintain control, he rolled his hips so his stomach was sitting on that arousal of his, trapping it against the mattress.
"Butch, I need... something... I..."
"Baby, have you ever - " Ah, hell, no way she'd ever pleasured herself. She'd been surprised at what her nipple felt like.
"What?"
"Never mind." He eased off her core and stroked her panties, just running his fingertips over her. "I'm going to take care of you. Trust me, Marissa."
He kissed her mouth, sucking at her lips, getting her lost. Then he slipped his hand under the lip of satin at her core -
"Oh ... f**k," he breathed, hoping she was too dazed to hear the curse.
She tried to pull back. "What's wrong with me?"
"Easy, easy." He held her in place by putting his thigh over her legs. And then worried that he might have orgasmed... given the rocket launch sensation that had just ridden up his shaft. "Baby, there's nothing wrong. It's just you're... oh, God, you're bare here." He moved his hand, his fingers sliding into her folds... holy heaven, she was so smooth. So honeyed. So hot.
He was getting lost in all that slick flesh when her confusion registered through the haze. "You have no hair," he said.
"Is that bad?"
He laughed. "It's beautiful. It's exciting to me."
Exciting? Try explosive. All he wanted to do was crawl up under her skirt and lick at her and swallow and suck her off, but all that was definitely too far.