With a smirk he laughed out, "You're the one that cut me."

I giggled again, feeling my embarrassment slide off of me with the laughter. "You're the one that liked it."

He kissed my chin gently before pulling back with a raised eyebrow. "You didn't enjoy doing that?"

I bit my lip and looked away from the cocky look of self assurance on his face. Of course I'd like it. It had done as many amazing things to my body as it had done to his. A tiny bit of guilt washed through me. I did feel bad for hurting him, for drawing blood. That was a little more than was called for.

Surprising him, I shoved back his shoulders. He grunted and said, "Hey," as he tried to crawl back over to me. Laughing, I kept him away with one hand while I squirmed out from where I was partially entangled in his legs. Before he could complain, or manhandle me back into position, I straddled his hips.

As he was facing sideways, he started to flip onto his back, a huge grin lighting his face at my forcefulness in taking the top. I laughed harder as I shoved his shoulder down, keeping his chest on the mattress.

Once I was firmly seated on his lower spine, he twisted his neck to look back at me. "What are you doing?"

My hands played over the expanse of pristine flesh before me while I answered him, a little huskily. "Well, I do feel guilty about hurting you..."

He twisted around more as his lips smirked at me. "I did mention that you made me come, right?"

I felt that flush return at hearing him say that word again-come. It wasn't even a dirty word, really, but hearing it pass his lips reminded me of toe-curling, blood-boiling, life-altering moments of ecstasy. Just hearing him say the word made me want him even more. Smiling, I pushed back that feeling...for now.

"I want to make sure you're not...damaged."

I ran my hands up his back, leaning over him so my hair brushed his skin. I delighted when I noticed him shiver when my long locks touched him. His eyes flicked over my face and his voice dropped. "I only have one scar that can be attributed to you."

His eyes rested on mine and my breath caught at the love I saw in that gaze. I didn't think I'd ever get used to seeing how much he adored me. It made all the flirting I'd witnessed earlier irrelevant. None of those fan girls got that look from him. None of those fan girls got to have this level of intimacy with him. Not anymore. Evan was right, he played with them but his heart was mine.

I nodded, surprised at how my eyes were misting. My thoughts tumbled over to the memory he was referring to and I bit my lip. It was a long time ago that he'd taken a knife wound while trying to defend my honor. It was one of the most amazing and horrible things that anyone had ever done for me. Amazing that he'd stood up for me, and horrible that he'd been hurt. My fingers traveled down his ribs, touching the mattress as I curled them around his body. I leaned over and kissed the edge of the scar where I felt the roughness cutting into that once smooth skin. He sucked in a breath, his stomach clenching as my lips moved over the old wound.

I smiled and kissed across his back as I thought of one other major wound he'd gotten because of me. True, this one didn't have an external scar, the fracture having been reset without surgery, but I knew it was damaged, under the surface. My hands ran up his arms, squeezing the left one, where he'd broken it while getting into a fight with Denny so many months ago.

I leaned forward and kissed that arm and his eyes softened as he watched me. I knew he understood my gesture. "I adore you for all your scars," I whispered as I leaned over and gave him a soft kiss on the lips.

His hand came up to grip my head, keeping me trapped in the loving softness of his kiss. He deepened it and the fire of anticipation coursed through me when his tongue brushed over mine. My breath sped up and I leaned into the kiss for a moment before I stopped myself.

Skillfully, I pulled away from his hand trapping me to his mouth. With a playful scowl I smacked his shoulder. "You stop that. I'm not done with my inspection."

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Well, can you hurry up? So I can make love to you and not this awful mattress?" He pressed his h*ps against the bed beneath him for emphasis and I laughed. Laughing himself he muttered, "We could switch positions when you're done?"

Ignoring that, I sat back on my seat at the base of his spine and turned all of my attention to his glorious back. He seemed fine, definitely no thin trails of puckered flesh from me tearing into him. I leaned forward to kiss his skin and then I noticed it. I paused as I looked more closely. It was faint, so faint you wouldn't notice unless you were literally an inch from his skin, like I currently was, but it was there. Thin, white streaks down his back, right where I'd raked him. I smiled inwardly that a part of our crazy, intense night was still with him, maybe forever. As much as I hated that I'd caused him pain, I was a little happy that a reminder would be with him, wherever he went.

"Ah, found 'em," I muttered.

He started to ask me, "What?" when I playfully drug the very tip of my tongue over the vague white line. He cut off what he'd been about to say and a shudder went through him. Emboldened, I let my tongue make a trail up between his shoulder blades and up the back of his neck. Kellan squirmed and dropped his forehead to the pillow, his breath definitely faster. Another old memory seizing me, I very gently bit the back of his neck. He groaned.

Before I could really process it, and definitely before I could stop it, he twisted underneath me, bringing up his arms to pull me down to the bed. All of the air whooshed from my lungs with the force he used to get me off of him. I giggled when he crawled on top of me. His lips attacked mine, his tongue practically searching for my tonsils.

I pushed him away from me. With desire evident in his smoky bedroom eyes, he growled, "I said don't tease me."

I smirked and ran a finger across his parted lips. "Payback." I raised an eyebrow at him. "At least I didn't do that in a crowded club."

His face startled. It was almost like he'd forgotten about that very intense moment when he'd licked me in the middle of a packed dance floor. Denny and Anna had both been somewhere in that club at the time. His brow scrunched together as his eyes turned recalcitrant. "That wasn't very nice of me, was it?"

I slung my arms around his neck and shook my head. "No, it wasn't...but I liked it."

His guilty eyes turned playful again as he thought about that night. "I couldn't resist." His fingers trailed up my arms, raising them over my head and causing delightful shivers to course down my body. "You had your arms up here." He cocked one over my head and brought the other one above it. Holding both wrists in one hand, he trailed his finger down my nose to my mouth. "You were biting your lip as you danced." I bit my lip again as I watched his hungry eyes recreate the sight of me that had pushed him over the edge. His finger floated over my lip and down between my br**sts. I closed my eyes but he kept going, dragging the finger over my still exposed belly button to my shorts. He played with the waistband before bringing a hand to my hip bone. "And these...these hips..." He leaned over me to lightly breathe on my face, our lips brushing. "These h*ps drove me straight to madness."

He brought his lips down to mine and released my hands. I wrapped my arms over his head, firmly holding him to me. When we paused for air, I muttered, "You were watching me?"

He ran his nose along my jaw, flicking his tongue for an occasional taste. "Ceaselessly." His lips traveled back and forth along my jaw. "I have many things to atone for, and I hate what happened between us later, but I'll never feel sorry for tasting your skin that night." I gasped and arched against him, lifting my head so his lips could revisit my neck.

He obliged and feather-light touches made their way down my skin. His mouth still on my neck, his fingers tore at the knotted section of my shirt. In one smooth move he lifted the dark material up and brought it over my head. His eyes lingered over my body for a second before he harshly unhooked my bra and ripped it off of me. My body pulsed with need as his burning eyes visually caressed me.

With a sigh, he dropped his head to my stomach. "I need this flesh," he muttered as his tongue ran up me.

Fire shot through me at the contact and I writhed under his touch. "I need you too, Kellan."

He dragged his tongue between my br**sts. "I need to see your face when I do this." He flicked his tongue all the way up to my neck and I closed my eyes and groaned in response.

"I need to hear you when I do this." He brought his lips, and that miraculous tongue, to my breast, swirling it around the nipple.

I arched my back and dug my hands into his hair. "God, yes..."

His breath heavy, he brought his lips to my ear. "I need to be inside of you...as deep as I can go." My body ached with his words, my light shorts suddenly horribly uncomfortable as the pleasant tingling between my thighs shifted to a full-on throbbing ache. I moaned loudly and tried to kiss him but he pulled away.

He hovered above me and I opened my eyes to gaze at the god-like man before me. His expression burning with desire for me, he swallowed heavily. "And I need to hear you beg for it." His expression asking so much more than his words, he added, "Do you want me?"

The throbbing that I didn't think could get any worse, intensified, and my mouth found his. "God, Kellan...please, yes, God...please. I want you...I want you so much." I also meant more than just the words. He was asking me if he was the one I really wanted to be with. I was telling him, as plainly as I could, that he was.

I mumbled more pleas for him while our mouths enacted what we both wanted. With heavy breaths and frantic fingers we pulled off the remainder of our clothes and he did exactly what he'd said he needed to do.

Smiling as I woke up the next morning, I yawned and stretched. My arms and legs didn't collide with another warm body in my chilly bed, but I wasn't too surprised. Kellan was almost always up before me. I wasn't sure why, but the boy was an early riser; he got up at the crack of dawn nearly every day. He also was a night owl, usually staying up just as late as I did, even on nights I closed at the bar. The man was sort of miraculous when it came to sleep. It did eventually catch up with him, but he could go for days on very little of it. Then it would hit him like a brick wall and he'd sleep for twelve hours straight.

Shaking my head at him, I inhaled deep, my smile widening. My favorite smell in the world, aside from Kellan's natural scent, was wafting through the house-coffee. Kellan was brewing a pot in the kitchen. That was definitely one of the perks of waking up with him.

Peeking an eye open, I saw that he'd left my bedroom door cracked a bit. From the other room I could hear the pot peculating and the sound of Kellan getting cups ready. He was also humming a song. Relaxing back on my pillow, I just enjoyed the sound for a minute. I pictured him out there, singing away in just his boxers. It was a delightful image.

The sound of a key entering a lock broke the stillness of the morning. It was immediately followed by the front door cracking open. Sitting up on my elbows, I frowned. Was Anna just now getting home? I knew she'd worked late last night and then mentioned she was going out with some of the girls from work, but this was late, even for her. Unless, of course, she'd already been asleep...somewhere.