DANTE HUNG UP his cell after taking a call from Hunter. He and the shifter, Quentin, had run into a couple of college kids where the male was trying to take advantage of the female. Hunter had wanted to give Dante a heads-up in case anything came of it, but Dante doubted that would happen. The kid would probably wake up the next morning, hungover and thankful that someone had stopped him. At least, that was what Dante hoped would happen.
“Everything okay?” Phoenix asked.
Dante was lying on his bed with Phoenix, watching the next episode of Game of Thrones. To say they were both fans was an understatement. The highlight of his night was watching TV with Phoenix.
“Yeah, at least, now, it is,” he told her. He hit play again since he’d paused it to take the phone call.
So far, all they’d done the last few nights was snuggle. When he’d said he was going to take it slow, he meant it.
Phoenix probably didn’t even realize how stiff she’d been in his arms the first night. Now, she willingly came to him, sometimes lying down before him and telling him to hurry up and get on the bed. She was learning to trust him more and more, and Dante was very pleased.
He would know she really trusted him when she told him about her past, but they weren’t there yet. However, Dante did think it was time to up the stakes. Tonight was perfect because he was off duty, so they had plenty of time. He just needed to figure out how he was going to do it without frightening her.
After the last episode of season one, Phoenix sat up and exclaimed, “That was fucking badass. Daenerys is my new hero. Or, more accurately, my heroine. The things I could do if I could walk through fire with dragons.”
Dante sat up and grinned at her. He couldn’t remember if he’d ever seen her happy with excitement.
“Can we start season two?” she asked.
“No.”
She frowned. “No? But don’t you want to find out what happens next?”
“Yes, but I’d rather kiss you first.”
Phoenix visibly swallowed, but her eyes also lit up for a second. That was a good sign.
“Is this because you saw Daenerys’s boobs?”
Dante laughed. “No, Red, this is because you are absolutely beautiful when you smile. You should do it more often.”
Phoenix looked down, and if he wasn’t mistaken, her face was now the same color as her hair.
Dante put his finger under her chin and tilted it up. “You know I won’t hurt you, right?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Good. I want you to remember that. Always.”
Phoenix was staring at his mouth. “I will,” she said, still whispering.
Since they were both sitting awkwardly, Dante moved to the edge of the bed and stood up. He held out his hand. “Come here, Red.”
Phoenix scooted closer and took his hand to let him help her off the bed. Dante thought it would be easier for her to have control if they were standing up.
He pulled her closer until they were less than a foot away from one another, and he placed her hands on his chest. “I know you aren’t comfortable with being close to others, so anytime you don’t like what we’re doing, you just push, okay?”
She nodded. “Where are you going to put your hands?”
“That depends. I can put them behind my back. Or I can rest them on your hips. It’s up to you.”
Phoenix bit her lip, and he saw her protruding incisor. It wasn’t as prominent as a vampire’s, but it was longer than a human’s, thanks to her cat-shifter genetics. For some reason, it really turned him on.
She released her lip. “You can put your hands on me.”
She shrugged, like it was no big deal, but he could tell by the rest of her body language that it actually was a big deal. She was stiff again even though she was trying to relax.
He was glad that she’d chosen to have his hands on her hips because Dante was already hard. Maybe Phoenix wouldn’t even react to his kiss, but if she did and tried to get closer, he would be able to keep her groin away from his ever-growing erection.
Dante rested his hands on Phoenix’s sides and brought his mouth down to lightly brush his lips over hers. When she didn’t move away, he pressed his lips against hers.
For a few minutes, he continued to give her closed-mouthed kisses. He wanted her to be good and used to him.
It was strange to think that he’d drunk her blood and given her orgasms and received them in return, yet they’d never kissed. They were long overdue for this.
When Phoenix dug her nails into his chest a bit and her scent flared ever-so lightly, Dante knew it was time to take the kiss to the next level. He licked the seam of her lips, and she hesitantly opened her mouth.
He slowly licked the inside of her lips and then moved on to the rest of her mouth. She let him do all the work, which he was fine with, but he wanted her to kiss him back.
Dante searched for her tongue, and when he got it where he wanted it, he sucked it into his mouth to let her know what he wanted. Then, he waited.
Phoenix slowly, tentatively pushed her tongue in his mouth, and when she did, he groaned.
She dug her claws in deeper and tried to step closer. He almost let her because he was so lost in what they were doing above the neck. But, at the last minute, he remembered that his hard-on would probably scare her and would ruin all the steps forward they’d taken.
Phoenix released her fingernails and moved her hands up and over his shoulders and then down his arms. When she reached his hands, she trailed back the opposite way. Up his arms, over his shoulders, down his chest, and then to his waist.
Dante almost didn’t realize where she was headed until it was too late, but he quickly grabbed her hands and moved them away from his crotch area.
She broke their kiss and took a step back.
He opened his eyes and looked to see her frowning.
“Why won’t you let me touch you? Do you not like it?”
She tried to pull her hands out of his, but he held on, something telling him that it was important to not let go.
“No, that’s not it at all. The thing is, I like it…too much.”
Her frown turned into a scowl. “Then, why did you stop me? And what do you mean, too much?”
Please don’t make me say it, Red.
He squeezed her hands. “I like you touching me a lot.” He used his eyes to pointedly glance down toward his groin, making sure she saw the movement. “But I don’t want to scare you.”
She was already going to be scared enough as it was with having sex; she did not need to know how big he was yet.
She sighed, but at least she stopped glaring at him. “I’m not a virgin, you know.”
Dante quickly hid his surprise. He never really thought about whether she was a virgin or not, but now that she’d said it out loud, it was clear he had assumed that.
“No, I didn’t know that. You don’t really tell me much, Phoenix. I’m going at this blind, you know.”
Phoenix sighed again. “You’re right. I’m the one who asked you to help me, so I should be a little more forthcoming.”
This time, he hid his anticipation. Play it cool, man. Do not let her know how interested you are.
“That would be nice,” he managed to say with a perfectly straight face.
“Can we sit back down?”
“Of course.”
They both sat on the side of his bed.
“I’m not going to tell you everything,” she said. “I can’t tell you everything. It’s just too hard.”
Dante tried not to feel disappointed. He should be happy that she was opening up about anything. “Okay,” he agreed with a nod.
“So, some unfortunate stuff happened to me when I was younger.”
Dante doubted unfortunate was the word to describe what had happened to Phoenix. Unfortunate was a young girl’s first boyfriend moving away. She did not have these issues because of something unfortunate happening.
“Because of that,” she continued, “I’ve never felt comfortable with having people close to me and touching me, but I wanted to have as normal a life as possible. I was young and started dating this guy. He pushed me to have sex with him. He was young, too, and probably had no idea what he was doing, but neither did I. It was over in less than five minutes. There was no leading up to the moment or anything. He just stuck his dick in me and pretty much came. Then, he rolled off me and acted like he’d rocked my world. I hated the whole thing. What a way to lose your virginity, huh? Anyway, I thought it was because it was the first time for both of us, but it was always the same. It was awful.”
Dante was getting upset. Anyone could see that Phoenix had issues. He wanted to find the little shit who’d taken Phoenix’s virginity and shake him until he apologized to this woman. He realized that young guys didn’t know what they were doing, but Phoenix was the wrong person for that.
“So, after that, I decided that maybe it was the guy, and I needed to find someone older who knew what they were doing. I dated this guy who was five years my senior, and things were”—she rolled her eyes—“okay, I guess. Better than my first boyfriend. But I still never really enjoyed it and only did it to make him happy. He ended up cheating on me because I was too boring in bed. It turned out that I’d put myself through it all those times for nothing because he was getting it better from someone else.”
Dante closed his eyes. Oh, Phoenix.
No wonder she didn’t like sex. With two selfish lovers for someone who needed to be taken care of, of course her experiences had ended up being terrible.
“So, now, you see why I think you’re just wasting your time with all this,” she told him, squaring her shoulders. “I don’t like sex, and I’m not good at it.”
“Thank you for trusting me with all that. I know it wasn’t easy.”
She lifted a shoulder.
“But I have a couple of questions for you.”
“Okay.”
“I need you to be honest.”
She nodded cautiously. “Okay.”
“I’m not even going to ask if either of those…guys got you off.” There was no way he would refer to those lousy males as men. “But did they ever try?”
“I don’t…think so?”
Dante wanted to roll his eyes, but his reaction was toward the fumbling idiots and not at Phoenix. “Was that a question or a statement?”
“Well, they just had sex with me and expected me to like it. So, I always assumed they knew what they were doing, and there was something wrong with me.”
“Did you know that something like eighty percent of women can’t have an orgasm from vaginal intercourse alone? The study was done on humans, but obviously, there are shifters and vampires who can’t either.”
Phoenix furrowed her brows. “I think I saw a headline with that or something in one of Tegan’s magazines, but I never really paid it attention.”
“So, my next question is, when you have an orgasm while I’m feeding from you, are those the only ones you’ve ever had?”
Her face flushed. “Yes.”
Dante nodded, but he was mentally giving himself a pat on the back. Now was not the time to brag or feel overconfident. “And do you like them?”
He would have thought it was impossible, but her face got redder.
“Yes. It’s…” She cleared her throat. “It’s part of the reason I like feeding you and why I keep coming back. As weird as it is, it’s the most normal sexual relationship I’ve ever had.”
Dante wanted to pump his fist in the air, but he played it cool. “There you have it, Phoenix. There’s nothing wrong with you. There was something wrong with those jackasses who thought they knew what they were doing.”
She skeptically looked at him. “I don’t know, Dante.”
Dante touched her hair and breathed in her sunshine scent. “I do. And, thankfully, I’m confident enough about that for both of us.”
She cocked her head and raised her brow. “Does this mean, we’re having sex now?”
Dante laughed. Oh, no.
Phoenix still had a past, so they were going to take it slow. But knowing that he might be able to fix some of the damage that had been caused made him want to celebrate.
“No, Red, it just means that it’s time for us to start season two.”