Avenging Angel (The Fallen #4)(62)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Then she put her mouth on him, and Tanner couldn’t think about anything else.

Hot. Wet.

She kissed him. Sucked his flesh. Took him deep into her mouth.

Too damn good.

His flesh stretched even more. His balls tightened. Her mouth and tongue were hesitant at first, as if she was unsure, but she was so sensual and her mouth felt f**king great.

His hips arched toward her. He wanted to bury his hands in her hair and push her to a faster, harder rhythm. Instead, his claws sank into the mattress on either side of him. He wouldn’t push her.

Pleasure.

He’d take what she gave him—and they’d both burn with pleasure.

His claws dug deeper. Her tongue licked over him.

Tanner’s eyes squeezed closed. Her mouth . . . Marna was one fast learner. But he didn’t want this to be just about him. “Stop,” he growled out, “before I come.”

Another lick. Another silken caress of lips and tongue, but then she pulled back. His eyes opened.

“I like the way you taste,” she whispered.

He lunged off the bed. Tumbled her back onto the mattress. In one move, Tanner parted her legs and drove into her in a thrust so deep they both shuddered.

Not enough.

He withdrew. Thrust again. Her legs wrapped around him, and her hips arched. Harder. Faster. Their pants filled the air. His orgasm pushed down on him. So close.

Her first. The thought that he was the first man to know her sweet flesh still staggered him. The first, the only.

He pushed into her again. Again. She was wet and hot, and he took her breast into his mouth. Licked. Sucked.

She gasped his name. Her sex clenched around him. Almost there. Almost.

He drove into her once more. Felt the climax that shook her whole body. When she opened her mouth to cry out, he caught the sound with his own lips.

Then he came. So long and hard that his body felt hollowed out and empty when he was done. Pleasure. So intense that it left him wondering . . .

How the hell did I go without her for so long?

Nothing had ever been this good. No one else ever would be.

He was so f**ked.

His claws had retracted. He lifted his hand and brushed back the hair from her cheek. Her lashes rose as she stared at him. Hell, he had to be crushing her. Tanner eased his c**k from her silken sheath, hating to take his body from hers, and it was right then that he realized—

No protection.

His heart stopped. Shifters didn’t generally have to worry about condoms. They couldn’t catch the diseases humans spread and as for pregnancy—well, most shifters wanted to be able to have kids. Only they couldn’t have a child with just anyone. Their partner had to be a perfect genetic match-up. One strong enough to carry a shifter child.

One strong enough to be a . . . mate.

Like Marna was.

“I’m sorry.” He couldn’t look at her eyes. He pulled her back up to the head of the bed. Arranged her on the pillows and made sure to tuck the covers around her.

But she laughed. “You don’t have anything to be sorry about. Trust me, Tanner, I think I was the rough one, not you.” Her little nails had dug into his back, and her legs had squeezed so perfectly.

He liked it rough.

He shook his head. She didn’t understand. “I didn’t . . . use anything.” Not any of the times he’d been with her.

Fucking blind. That’s what he’d been. Desperate. Crazy or—

His jaw clenched. Or maybe he’d been trying to hedge his bets. Had he done that? Unconsciously? Had the beast wanted a chance to take her—all of her?

“Use anything?” she repeated and Tanner forced himself to meet her stare. Her eyes widened. “You mean—”

“I mean you could be pregnant right now.” Angels could get pregnant, just like any other fertile being. Since his mother had been an angel, Brandt had certainly been proof of that.

It didn’t happen often, so maybe they’d have luck on their side, but it could happen. “I’ll get condoms,” he said. “We’ll be safe from now on.” He wouldn’t make this mistake again.

She simply stared back at him. Uh, yeah, why wasn’t she freaking out on him? He’d just told her she could have a shifter hybrid in her belly right then. And she was just . . . staring at him.

“A child?” She bit her lower lip and tilted her head to the right. “I’ve never thought about having someone of my own like that.”

Well, it wasn’t like the hypothetical kid would just be hers. He’d never walk away from his child. “I wouldn’t be like my father.” His voice came out rough, gravelly. Tanner cleared his throat and tried again. “I promise, if something . . . if we have . . .” Could he screw this up more? Probably not. He exhaled. “I would never hurt him.” She had to believe that. He would never hurt any child he had.

Voice soft, she said, “I never thought you would.”

What?

“You’ve never hurt me. Why would you hurt your baby?”

Because he was the product of one screwed-up family tree. Because he was violent inside. Dangerous. “I wouldn’t.” He’d sooner cut off his own hands than ever lay one on a child. No matter what else happened in this world, he’d never hurt an innocent.

He could still hear his own cries in his nightmares. It had taken the child he’d been a while to learn that the tears only made his father hit more. Hit harder.

He took another deep breath and just pulled in more of her scent. Marna would never hurt a kid. She’d love the child. Protect him. Always keep him safe.

What the hell? Was he starting to picture her carrying his kid now? “It might not happen.” He rolled away from her. Headed to the desk of drawers near the wall and found an extra pair of jeans inside. Kali, that doctor with the dark brown eyes and sad smile, had told him that she kept extra clothes upstairs for her patients.

He’d count himself as a patient then.

He glanced back at Marna. “I’ll be careful from here on out.” Shouldn’t she be yelling at him? Telling him how he’d messed things up for her? It wasn’t like she could actually want to be saddled with his kid.

Hybrids weren’t exactly the easiest of the supernaturals to raise. They both knew how the last shifter and angel mix had turned out. Brandt had been more devil than savior. “You can yell if you want,” he offered cautiously.

Her brows rose. “Why?”

Because I f**ked up. Because I didn’t take good enough care of you. “Because I put you at risk! I could have gotten you pregnant.”