Zane stroked over her nipple, turning it hard. Portia gasped into his mouth, and in the same moment, he felt the sharp tips of her fangs.

“Yes!” he groaned and stroked his tongue over one fang, licking it carefully and thoroughly.

Portia ripped her mouth from his. “Oh, God!” Her eyes were wide with shock.

Had nobody ever licked her fangs?

“Let me lick them,” he growled and lowered his mouth back to hers.

Fangs were a vampire’s primary erogenous zone, and to lick another vampire's fangs gave the most erotic sensations short of full-blown sex. Did Portia not know that? He severed his mouth from hers.

“Has nobody ever licked your fangs?”

Portia shook her head and lowered her lashes, seeming embarrassed. “I’ve never kissed another vampire.”

He understood. With a human she wouldn’t be able to let herself go and allow her fangs to emerge. But with him …

Zane took her lips once more, and this time, he very slowly and very deliberately swiped his tongue over her fangs, caressing and stroking. She moaned, and it was the purest sound he’d ever heard. So beautiful, so innocent. And he wanted to hear it again, so he continued his sensual assault.

Meanwhile, Portia’s fingers caressed the back of his neck before one hand trailed upwards to stroke over his bald head. He shivered at her touch. The women he slept with rarely caressed him, and if they did they steered clear of this bald head and concentrated on areas lower down. But for some reason, being touched there by Portia felt intimate.

When she lowered her hand to his shoulder, he reached for it and led it back to his head. She obliged him and brushed her soft fingers over his scalp once more. He moaned out his pleasure, interrupting his kiss.

“Make love to me,” she whispered. “Please. I want you to take my virginity.”

Her words catapulted him backwards. He regarded her with suspicion. “You don’t kiss like a virgin, so why don’t you drop the act.”

“It’s not an act!” she yelled, fury darkening her lust-drenched eyes. “I’m a virgin.”

Her rapid heartbeat echoed in his ears, and he could fairly smell the blood that rushed through her veins to color her cheeks in a delightful blush—an almost virginal blush. Zane watched as her eyes darted past him as if she were ashamed of something. He let his training as a bodyguard guide him, looking for physical tells that would expose the lie, but found none.

Slowly he shook his head. She couldn’t possibly be telling the truth. Everything about her screamed passion, desire, and lust. Could a virgin really conjure up those feelings?

“... and I have to lose my virginity before I’m twenty-one or …” She blinked her eyes shut as her breath stuttered and forced back a sob. When she opened her eyes and raised her head, her gaze was one of ... resignation.

That’s when it hit him. He’d sensed her innocence, her purity, and her hesitation in responding to his kiss. Could it really be true that she was a virgin? Could he have been so wrong simply because all he saw was the woman who tempted him beyond all comprehension? Was that why he couldn’t see her as a virgin? But what if she was right, what if her claim was true? She was only a short while away from her body setting into its final form. So, if she spoke the truth and was really a virgin …

“You’ll always be a virgin,” he finished her sentence.

Her solemn nod was too serious to dismiss.

Shit! Portia was telling the truth. He saw it in the stubborn curve of her brow and the hard outline of the lips she now pressed together as if she were trying not to cry.

Shit! Shit! Shit! He wasn’t in the business of deflowering virgins, and he wouldn’t start now.

“So, please. We only need to do it once, I promise,” she begged.

Who was she kidding? If he buried his aching cock in her once, he’d want to do it again, and again, and again. Didn’t she realize that? He shook his head. “No.”

Her body jolted at his harsh rejection. Quickly her arms wrapped around her waist. “You owe me. You just destroyed my chances with Michael.”

Fury burst from his lungs. “You were going to sleep with that kid? You can do better than him!” His cock agreed wholeheartedly, but he wasn’t going to listen to that lecherous appendage.

“Then why don’t you do it? You sure didn’t mind kissing me!” she accused and lowered her gaze to his groin.

Great! Of course she’d know he was turned on, and now she was using it against him.

“Trust me, you don’t want me to be your first. No woman in her right mind would want that.” He wasn’t gentle, he wasn’t kind. He wasn’t the right man to initiate a virgin.