His thumb moved over her shoulder in a stirring caress, and his gaze came back to hers. “The real kicker, though, is your easy sense of humor, your interest in other people, how much you care, and the ways you try to help. You’re genuinely nice, Cory. Everyone I know likes you.”

  Her lips parted. Did he like her? If so, then how much?

  Everywhere he touched her—heck, everywhere he looked—she tingled in an electric way. She knew she wanted Austin, had wanted him for a long time. Knowing it and experiencing it were two very different things.

  She’d watched him with other women before, and he usually seemed . . . intent? Yeah, that word fit the absorbed way he focused on her now. More often than not, when she’d seen Austin with women, he’d had an end goal in mind and had worked toward it.

  Sex. Shared pleasure.

  But he hadn’t been committed to anyone, not the way Cory wanted him committed to her.

  So did his attention now mean he wanted to have sex? Or was it more?

  Hoping for more, she considered how to react.

  Of course, she could read him, to see what he had planned . . . but no. Too many times doing that had gotten her into trouble. From now on, she wanted to be like everyone else. She wanted to figure things out the way normal people did.

  The way Austin did.

  “You’re too quiet,” he said. “Tell me you believe me.”

  “Actually . . . I don’t know.” Then she admitted, “I was concentrating.”

  “Yeah?” As his gaze traveled over her, a smile tugged at his mouth. “Me, too.”

  Now what did that mean? “Concentrating on what?”

  His grin widened. “You first.”

  Why not? She wanted him to know that she understood his reservations, and that she’d try to alleviate them. Not looking into his eyes, not seeing his expression, made it a little easier.

  Or so she thought.

  But everything about Austin fascinated her, including the tanned color of his skin, how his neck was stronger than hers, the cords leading to his collarbone.

  Not touching him proved impossible, so she let her fingertips tease just above the neckline of his shirt. “Reading people is second nature for me. More often than not, it just happens without me thinking about it.”

  As if he really got it, he asked, “Like breathing?”

  “Yes.” The base of his throat was warm and smooth, but toward his jaw, whiskers rasped against the sensitive pads of her fingers. “Since I don’t want to do that anymore—”

  “Ever?”

  Why did he sound so appalled? “It’s what you’d prefer, right?”

  As his troubled gaze met hers, he visibly searched for words.

  “You’ve made it clear before,” she insisted. “You don’t like it that I . . . know things.”

  “I didn’t, no.” He took her plate and moved it away, so that nothing was between them. “When I was younger, I admit it spooked me.”

  It’d spook him again if she jumped into his head. “It sent you running away from me.”

  “Cory.” He laced their fingers together. “We were kids. I was annoying, I know, and you teased back in return.” That crooked grin came again. “Do you remember telling me a snail would crawl into my room at night? That it’d sleep in my mouth and leave behind a lot of slime?”

  She bit her lip, but it didn’t stifle the snicker. “You deserved that.”

  “I almost smothered myself, sleeping with a pillow over my head.” Quieter, he asked, “Was it any wonder we butted heads? I was an obnoxious boy, and you had a wicked mean streak.”

  She huffed out a breath. “That wasn’t the problem, and you know it.”

  Speaking over her, he said, “Then, when I was just starting to get interested in girls—”

  “You started that really young!”

  “—there you were, heckling me again.”

  Feeling silly, she hid her grin. “I didn’t.”

  “Cory,” he chided. “I was almost fourteen, full of curiosity and testosterone, and Penny Wilkerson was willing and able to—”

  “I know what she was willing to do.” Mumbling, she added, “And I still think she was too old for you.”

  “Only by a few years.” He went back to teasing. “You told me Joe would find out, and that made me nervous.”

  “Not nervous enough, because I knew you’d still go to her.”

  He frowned. “You saw me with her?” He touched her forehead. “Up here, I mean?”

  “Part of it—then I blocked the rest.” Even as a kid, she’d been possessive of Austin, and knowing he was with someone else, experimenting, had crushed her.

  “I’m sorry.” He added, “Boys that age have sex on the brain.”

  “So do girls.”

  His mouth opened . . . but then closed. “Right. Of course.” He frowned. “You’re saying you—”

  “Not as young as you, no.” But she wasn’t about to go into details with him. Nothing she’d done with anyone else had been satisfying, because she was meant to be with Austin. “All that experimenting and curiosity of yours . . .” She flapped a hand. “It’s one reason I told you we’d marry.”

  “So you didn’t know it for sure back then?” Tilting his head, he considered that. “You just said it to get even—like the story about the snail?”

  Well, she’d talked herself into that corner, hadn’t she? Evading him, she looked over at Sully. His lips moved as he snored. She couldn’t help smiling over that.

  “Don’t want to talk about it, huh?”

  No, not really. But again, trying to figure out the right thing to say—

  “Don’t do that.” He tugged her closer, then bent to press his mouth to hers in a long, hot kiss. “You don’t have to hold back, not with me, okay? And if you decide to read me, well, just know that I have a one-track mind right now, but it’s because this feels right. With you, I mean.”

  She so badly wanted to believe that. “You realize I’m not a mind reader, right? I can’t know your every thought. I just see things that have happened—”

  “Or will happen.”

  No use in denying it. The problem was that she didn’t always see things clearly enough to completely understand them. “I’m blocking all that, remember?”

  “Just with me, or with everyone?”

  “Everyone.” She hesitated.

  “Ah, now it makes sense. If you weren’t blocking those guys who flirted with you—”

  Rolling her eyes, she corrected, “They teased.”

  “—then you’d have understood what they really want is a chance with you.”

  Could Austin be right? Had she been so focused on him that she’d missed other things, other guys? Her dad always said that emotion clouded his perception.

  “When you go quiet, it worries me.”

  Her gaze skipped up to his. A slight smile showed he wasn’t worried at all, and that particular look in his eyes sent a warm thrill spiraling through her.

  To get him back on track, she gave a verbal nudge. “You said you were concentrating, too?”

  “Yeah.” Catching her upper arms, he drew her across his lap, but didn’t stop there. Still turning with her, he lowered her to her back on the quilt and came down over her. Balanced on his forearms, he let his gaze caress her face and settle on her mouth. “I was trying not to do this—but I think I just lost that battle.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Cory didn’t protest their more intimate position, but still, he tried to hold back. Rushing her wasn’t fair, especially when they had so much to discuss.

  She wanted to be someone else with him.

  Denying her abilities wouldn’t remove them. Asking her not to use her talents would be like asking her to pretend, all the time. There had to be another answer.

  For the first time, he wondered how her parents worked it out. Did Jamie temper his talent around Faith, or had Faith learned to deal with it?

  He knew that Joe and Luna had gone through many adjustments. When Luna had first come to Visitation to care for him and Willow, she’d brought Joe strictly as backup. She’d tried to deny, especially to herself, that she and Joe had a future. Being older and wiser now, Austin understood her reservations back then.

  And yet, they’d turned out to be the perfect couple, supportive of each other, attentive, and dedicated.

  Awesome parents.

  Luna had accepted Joe as an overprotective alpha, and he’d accepted that Luna viewed the world in a different way.

  Cory’s soft, cool palm touched his face. “Got to admit, you’ve confused me again. I was all set for you to kiss me, and instead, you’re just staring at me.”

  “Because you’re so pretty.”

  Her doubtful smile proved she didn’t believe him. How could she not know her own appeal? Was that his fault, too?

  “Austin? What are we doing?”

  “Getting comfortable together?” Yeah, that sounded reasonable. “You don’t like it?”

  “I like it,” she whispered. “Being this close to you, feeling you.” Her hands moved over his shoulders, down his spine, to the small of his back. “You’re so hard.”

  Ducking his face to her neck kept her from seeing his grin. Hard? Yeah, he was getting there fast.

  He nuzzled the sensitive skin where her neck met her shoulder. “You’re so soft.” Thanks to the skimpy halter, she had a lot of skin exposed.

  “I’ve wanted to touch you for a long time.”

  Damn, much more of that and he’d forget this was their first official date. Still, he heard himself say, “Touch me however and wherever you want.” Before she could question that, he put his mouth to hers in a gentle press, back and forth, a little deeper, a better fit . . . a lick.

  Her lips parted in invitation, and as he explored her teeth, her tongue, she gave a small sound of need—and the kiss went wild.

  As if they’d suffered years of abstinence, they both ignited.

  It felt . . . absolutely perfect.

  Because it was Cory.

  As if in sync, each adjustment brought them closer until her small body cushioned his, and he surrounded her, and they moved together in an ever-increasing intimacy.

  Change? Hell no, he didn’t want her to change.

  The Cory he knew, this Cory, was incredibly exciting. He’d always had fun sparring with her. Resisting her.

  Now kissing her—–this was the best of all.

  She surprised him by hooking one leg around his, her fingertips digging into his shoulders, her own tongue busy in a fevered exploration.

  He never knew for sure what Cory would do or say, but her boldness surprised and pleased him.

  If she wasn’t herself, would their relationship even be real?

  Then again, if she was herself, she’d already know where this was going. Since he didn’t yet know, they wouldn’t be on equal ground.

  Easing up from her mouth, Austin studied each of her features. The long lashes on her closed eyes. The fullness of her parted lips. The dusky color of her flushed cheeks.

  He’d been falling in love with her over the years, but somehow, he hadn’t known. Sneaky, that’s what she was, coming in to steal his heart—and then trying to give it back.

  It was hers; had been hers for a very long time.

  As he smiled down at her, her eyes slowly opened. She licked her already damp lips, and he felt it everywhere.

  “What?” she whispered.

  “You are just so sweet.”

  “How so?”

  He kissed her again, a slow, devouring kiss that went on longer than he meant it to before he summoned the control to pull back. “Your scent, your taste, but mostly who you are.”

  Confusion tweaked her brows together. “I think I’d rather be exciting than sweet.”

  “You’re that, too.” Austin couldn’t stop touching her, grazing his fingers over her downy cheek, toying with a few wild curls that came free. “I don’t want you to change, Cory.”

  “You don’t?”

  He shook his head. “Definitely not. Who you are, what you can do, is special.”

  Her expression softened. “That’s what Mom said.”

  “Your mother is a very smart person.” Shifting to lie at her side, he rested his hand on her midriff, beneath the halter, above the low waistband of her shorts. She was so slight, he could span her waist by opening his fingers.

  His gaze lifted to her breasts. She’d be a handful. And those hips . . . but he’d known other women built just as nicely, and they didn’t level him with this odd mix of possessiveness, tenderness, and scorching lust.

  Aware of her holding her breath, he let his fingers drift—but not too much. “No changing, okay? But there’s something to be said for spontaneity. Like this.” He bent to kiss a path from her stomach to one hipbone.

  Her fingers threaded lightly into his hair.

  This close to her, he breathed in the scent of her skin, warmed from the sunshine and humidity of the day. Near her hipbone, he opened his mouth for a gentle love bite, followed by a soothing stroke of his tongue.

  “Austin?” she breathed.

  Damp, nibbling kisses carried him up her midriff and lifted her halter along the way.

  “We’re going to have sex?”

  Yup, there was that boldness. Sliding a hand up her side, he said, “How about we wait and see?”

  “You don’t know?”

  Impossible to suppress his chuckle. “Well, I wasn’t expecting to so soon, but now I’m hopeful.” When she didn’t grin, his humor faded. “What about you?”

  All too seriously, she whispered, “I vote yes.”

  That did it for him. Closing in for another kiss, Austin stopped holding back. Now he kissed her with absorbed determination, needing her there with him, every bit as hot, just as anxious. While he feasted on her mouth, he let his hands learn the dips and hollows of her body, the firm curves, the soft swells.

  When she reached up, fumbling with something, he was so focused on teasing the frayed hem of her shorts that he barely noticed what she was doing—that is, until she pressed him back. Breathing hard, he levered up to his forearms again—and she lowered her halter.

  Breasts exposed, her gaze holding his, she tugged, shifted, and removed the halter completely. Dropping it off to the side, lying there bathed in spring sunshine, she smiled at him.

  His mouth went dry. Hard? Hell yeah, he was hard. Painfully so.

  Her breasts were pale, round, with dark rose nipples already pebbled tight. Unable to resist, he curved a hand around her, then released a breath at the feel of her like this, bare, warm.

  For him.

  “Kiss me again.”

  He thrummed her nipple. “Here?”

  “Not yet.” She pulled him down to her and took his mouth in a kiss meant to devastate.

  Totally worked.

  Long minutes later, when he knew he couldn’t take much more, he kissed her cheek, her throat, and asked, “Want to lose the shorts, too?”

  “Your shirt first.”

  No problem with that at all. In a rush, he moved to the side and stripped it away. He had the forethought to glance at Sully.

  And found the dog looking back.

  Breath held, Austin waited, but with a snuffle and a wiggle to get comfortable again, Sully closed his eyes. Whew.

  He turned back to Cory. If someone had painted a personal fantasy for him, Cory, like this, would be it.

  In a barely-there whisper, she asked, “He’s sleeping again?”

  “For now.” Resting on one elbow, he freed his other hand to stroke all over her. “We’ll have to be quiet.”

  Her mouth twitched. “I didn’t plan to be loud.”

  “No? Well, damn.” As he traced a fingertip around one nipple, he murmured, “Maybe next time.”

  She said, “Or the time after?”

  Austin nodded. “And probably the one after that.”

  It was sexy as hell the way she watched him, the way her eyes got heavy and her breathing deepened. “Sounds like we’ll be doing this a lot.”

  “God, I hope so.”

  With a contented sigh, she said, “Me, too.”

  After that, there were no more words between them, because none were needed. Instead, as he touched her in all the ways he’d thought about, she gave him low sounds of pleasure, high gasps of excitement, and the occasional soft moan.

  Her breasts were extremely sensitive, her nipples more so, especially when he drew her in for a soft, wet suckle.

  She tricked him again, shimmying around until she’d opened her shorts and unzipped them. Primed, he helped her to take them down her legs, and removed her panties at the same time. Sunshine kissed her everywhere, adding a golden glow to her fair skin.

  All mine, he thought.

  That was, if he could convince her. No, he pushed the uncertainty away. Cory cared for him. He’d build on that to fulfill her prophecy of their marriage. Whatever it took, he was up for the challenge. In more ways than one.

  Rolling to his back, he shoved down his shorts and boxers, and kicked off his worn, unlaced sneakers. In rapid order, he pulled a wallet from his pocket, found the single condom he carried, and rolled it on.

  When he turned back to Cory, he found her riveted on his cock. Had she expected him to skip the condom?

  Yes, they’d have kids. He believed that, because he believed her.

  But marriage first.

  They’d do things right, and they’d have those kids when she was ready, not before.

  “Okay?” he asked in a whisper.

  When she got her attention back to his face, he found a wealth of emotion in her eyes. “Thank you. I hadn’t thought . . . didn’t even consider . . .”

  “I’ll take care of you.”

  Her smile bloomed. “And I’ll take care of you.”

  A man couldn’t ask for more than that.

  She ran her fingertips over his erection, making him go still.

  “You’re not tanned down here.”

  He almost choked. “Did you expect me to work my job naked?”

  One shoulder lifted . . . and she clasped him in her small hand. “I know you’ve sunbathed before.”

  “In trunks,” he strangled out. Damn, much more of that, and it’d be over for him. For whatever reason, she fired his blood like no one ever had.