It was amazing, that kiss. She was drunk on it instantly. He tasted wonderful, dark and male. She had never been kissed like this before—she’d barely been kissed at all, in fact, and none of those amateur kisses had been anything like Brody’s. It wasn’t that he was practiced or wickedly skilled. It was that he was hers.

He kissed her hard at first, and then he slowed down, exploring her. Tasting her as she tasted him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, feeling like she’d never get close enough, like it wasn’t possible. She dug her fingers into his hair, which was soft as silk, and touched her tongue to his.

He responded by picking her up, an arm behind her shoulders and the other beneath her knees, and carrying her down the hall and up the stairs without another word.

She gasped and tried to hold on, but he had her firm. Her heart flipped as she watched the stair railing go by. “I’m still wearing my coat and shoes,” she pointed out.

“They’re coming off,” was Brody’s reply.

She shivered. She’d never been naked in front of anyone before. After all this time, he was going to see everything—it was a little terrifying. Then they were in his bedroom—she’d never seen his bedroom, though she’d imagined it plenty of times—and he tossed her gently on his big, wide bed like she weighed nothing. Then he came on top of her and kissed her again, and he was everywhere. Above her, around her, his scent in the bedsheets. Brody Donovan was her drug, and for a second she was so high on him she could barely breathe. Then she hooked her legs around his and moaned into his mouth.

He unzipped her jacket and undid the buttons on the front of her dress, letting the sides fall open, exposing her bra. It was simple cotton, because she hadn’t thought she’d lose her virginity tonight, but he didn’t seem to care. He cupped her small breast in one big hand as he kissed her again and her body started to light up, her blood pounding under his touch.

This is actually happening, she thought crazily.

Brody pulled away and moved down the bed. He pulled her sneakers off her feet and tossed them away as she struggled out of her coat and pushed it on the floor. He slid a hand up her bare leg, to the inside of her thigh, and her knees tried to close by reflex, making him pause.

Damn. She may as well tell him. “I haven’t done this before,” she said.

He didn’t flinch, didn’t even blink. He just sat back, pulled his black t-shirt off over his head, and dropped it. She stared at his beautiful torso in a lust-filled stupor as he propped himself over her again. “Then we’ll go slow,” he said.

“I—” She was honestly speechless. All those muscles, that smooth, tawny skin, his flat stomach disappearing into the waist of his jeans—she couldn’t even think.

He inhaled softly, and she knew he could smell how aroused she was. Part of her was horribly embarrassed—could she possibly be more obvious?—and part of her was turned on even more. She wanted him, and he knew it, and he liked it. It was time to stop pretending it wasn’t true.

His hand was on her bare leg again, moving up her inner thigh. He bent his head and kissed the skin beneath her ear. “I need to touch you,” he said. “Just touch you, that’s all.”

Her body tried to tense again, but this time she fought it. Still, he felt her flinch. “Sorry,” she said.

“It’s all right,” he said, kissing her again. And then he said, “It’s me.”

Her heart flipped. Turned over in her chest. It’s me. Her knees opened, letting him in. This was Brody. No one else. Just him.

“You don’t mind?” she asked him.

His finger slid between her legs, past her panties, through her soft wetness, and she bit back a moan of pure pleasure.

“I care that you’re mine,” Brody said, his fingertips moving gently over her, exploring. “That’s all I give a fuck about right now, Alison. We can wait days, weeks, months. As long as you’re mine.”

He was driving her crazy. It felt so good when he touched her. It wasn’t embarrassing at all—it was incredible. He was firm, gentle, attentive. Paying attention to her every reaction to his touch. She still had her dress on, her bra. He hadn’t even taken his jeans off yet, and she was still a virgin, and already she was about to climax, go off like a rocket. “I don’t want to wait weeks or months,” she managed to tell him. “I want to lose my virginity right now, Brody. To you.”

He kissed her softly, sweetly on the mouth, even as he touched her, and she knew he was telling her he knew what that meant. He honored it. “You will,” he promised against her skin. “We’ll do it right. Now take your dress off.”

She did, and her bra too, while he stood and dropped his jeans and boxer briefs. Then he got back on the bed with her while she had a heart attack again. I’m naked in an alpha wolf’s bed, she told herself. I’m not sure I can handle this. But it turned out she could. When he lay against her, skin to skin, and kissed her slowly—yes, she could handle it. She wanted more.

He made her wait a while, stroking his hands over her body, letting everything relax against him. He waited until she was moving against him, pressing up, ready. “Yes?” he asked her.

“Yes,” she panted.

He slid against her entrance, pressing gently. The head inside her, then out again. “Bare?” he asked her, letting her decide. Her bossy alpha wolf, doing her bidding.

“Yes,” she said. “Yes.” She wanted that. Just him. Shifters couldn’t get diseases, or give them. There was only the question of whether she was on the pill, but he didn’t even ask. He just did as he was told and slid inside her, slow and confident, letting her adjust.

“Good?” he asked against her temple when he was fully inside.

It was hard. A little painful. Incredible. “Yes,” she told him.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“It’s good.” She squirmed beneath him, feeling every sensation. How had she ever lived without this? “It’s so good.”

He kissed her mouth softly, a mate’s kiss. “Alison,” he said, her name on his lips. And then he slowly started to move.

No, she didn’t know how she’d lived without this. She never wanted to live without it again.

She officially wanted this all the time, forever. The feel of his body on hers, the tensing of his muscles as he moved. She could die like this. She never wanted it to stop.

And when she went over the edge a minute later, the sparks flying behind her closed eyelids as she gripped him, she thought that for the first time in forever, she might actually get what she wanted.