He smiled and bit her wrist gently. Emma gasped and rolled her hips in an embarrassing reaction. Dustin didn't seem to mind, though. His eyes turned wicked, and he sucked hard right where his teeth had been.
"Remember when my arm got dislocated at the stables?"
She dipped her chin once. His hand was tracing her body, curve by curve, and it was harder to focus now.
"I was going to bite Winter. I couldn't help it. I was hurting and she was snarling, riled up, calling my animal out to battle, and then you came running over. I couldn't stop watching you as you instructed her how to put my shoulder back in its socket. My wolf, at the peak of wanting to attack, just … stopped … to watch you."
"Has this happened to you before?" she asked, risking it all. Risking this moment for an answer she wished for more than anything.
Dustin shook his head slowly. "Never. You're terrifying. You're a hellion. You're fragile and outspoken and flawless."
"Even hearing impaired?" she whispered.
Dustin leaned down and kissed her again, then rested his cheek on hers and said against her ear, "I'll hear for the both of us. You're perfect to me, Emma. Human or vampire, I'll still be your friend."
And that right there-that was exactly what she needed after their fight. He was accepting her no matter what. She didn't know how he'd done it, but Dustin had seduced her mind, body, and soul. He'd bound them in ways he probably didn't understand. He'd changed the way she thought about werewolves, about the crew, about people, about men, about everything.
Emma reached down and unbuttoned her jeans. Dustin frowned and looked down at where he was pressed between her legs.
"Emma," he said in a tone that said he was denying her.
"I'm on birth control," she whispered, pushing her pants down her hips.
He shook his head back and forth, back and forth, as his breath deepened and his eyes turned bright like blue and green flames. "That's … " He swallowed hard. "That's not like kissing in the woods, Emma. Sex will change things."
"For the better?"
"I don't know. There are things I haven't told you about me. About why I'm here … "
Emma pressed one hand over the angel wing on his chest. "But you will, right?"
His nostrils flared as she brushed her fingers down to his erection. "Yes. Eventually."
Good enough. She wasn't surprised at all that Dustin was slow at exposing secrets. He'd hidden how affected he was by her this entire time. She'd had no idea, and now she was fine with being patient because some deep instinct told her Dustin is worth it. "That's good enough for me now."
There was a loaded moment where they locked eyes, and the air sparked between them with something just above her senses. Some animal magnetism or … something.
Dustin slid his hands between her legs and dragged his fingers up her wet folds as he kissed her again. She let off a helpless noise and rolled her hips against his hand. Dustin smiled against her lips, then nipped her with a growl.
Needing to explore his body, she ran her fingertips over the swell of muscle on his shoulders, his biceps, and forearms, then back up to his chest. Down, down his chiseled abs and lower. As she gripped his shaft, the growl in his throat got loud enough for her to hear, not just feel. He bucked into the hold she made with her hand, and his kisses suddenly got harder, more urgent.
His lips drifted to her neck, and he sucked hard enough to sting, then grazed his teeth against her sensitive skin. Tease. He wouldn't bite her, surely, but just in case …
"Don't bite me, okay?"
"Someday you'll beg me for it," he said in a low voice she almost didn't recognize. "I'll wait for you to ask." The promises of a werewolf. I'll only bleed you when you beg. Dustin didn't understand humans. Pain wasn't sexy, and she was nobody's prey.
Dustin rocked forward in her hands. He was so close to her entrance, brushing into her shallowly. Emma released him, and when he slid deep inside her, she gasped, arched back. So big. Almost too big. Relax. So good anyway, but she hadn't been ready for him to stretch her like that. Dustin eased out of her slowly, then bucked into her again. She was ready this time.
Cradling her head, he buried his face against her neck and pushed into her again, bumping her clit just right at the peak of each thrust. God, he was good. Perfect pace, perfect biting kisses on her throat, perfect body against hers. So strong, so snarly, so sexy. His lips were back on hers again, and as he pushed into her, he groaned a soft sound into her mouth. Well, fuck it all, she was gone now, clawing at him desperately while he built the pressure between her legs to blinding.
She bit his lip hard and then arched back against the blanket when he worked his lips over her collar bone. So close. The stars were so bright. His lips were urgent on her breast now, and she dug her nails into his back desperately. Stars, stars, blinding. Stars in the woods. In the woods? She was looking at the trees upside down. Four stars. Eyes? No …
"Aah," Dustin groaned out, bucking into her faster. He was close, too, and that was a good thing because she couldn't hold her release back any longer.
Orgasm blasted through her, and she curled around the sensation, clung to his strong shoulders. Dustin slammed into her and hesitated. Warmth shot into her, and when he pulled back and rammed into her again, she could feel him emptying himself deep within her. So. Damn. Sexy.
They crashed against each other like two storms colliding. She couldn't believe how good this felt, how deeply satisfying every drive of his dick was. Sex had never been like this, not with anyone.
Dustin gritted his teeth. His chest wasn't rattling anymore with his growl, and he settled against her, laid his full weight on top. He was much bigger than her, but it wasn't uncomfortable.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
What a strange question. Of course, she was okay. "You make me feel safe," she said, too loud in the dark. She winced, but Dustin eased up and smiled down at her. "Say that again."
Pleasure heated her cheeks, and she ducked her gaze. In a softer voice, she said, "You make me feel safe, Dustin."
He exhaled a long breath, and when she looked back up at him, he had his eyes closed and a sweet smile curving his lips. "No one's ever said that about me before." His grin stretched wider. "You owe the compliment jar."
Emma laughed and rolled her eyes upward. The stars in the woods were gone. Maybe they'd been lightning bugs.
"What?" he asked, stroking her hair away from her face.
"Nothing. Everything is perfect."
Dustin traced her lips with the tip of his finger. "I like this smile on you. It's my new favorite."
"What was your old favorite?"
"The one you get when you think I'm funny. The one you give when everyone else is annoyed at me."
"Well, you're horribly annoying."
"Fucking tell me about it. I think Beast has choked me a dozen times."
She cracked up because that was actually a really accurate number. "Yeah, you never learn your lesson with him and Logan. They're going to lose their minds and kill you someday."
"Nah, I'm safe enough with them."
The smile slipped from her face, and she played with the ends of his sandy-blond hair. "What makes you so confident? They feel like monsters to me, and I'm human."
"It's the one advantage to being submissive. Dominants think twice before killing you. It's instinct. Their animals tell them to protect shifters like me."
Slowly, Emma moved his hair back and traced the scars on his neck. "Your brother doesn't have that instinct, and he's dominant."
Dustin's smile faded in an instant, and he rolled off her. Not away though, just beside her, where he rested his hands on his stomach and sighed up at the night sky. "It's complicated with him. He's sick right now, but he'll get better, and this stuff won't happen as much anymore. He'll be able to stop himself."
"What's wrong with him?"
Dustin rolled his head back and forth on the blanket denying her an answer.
"There's a vampire in my coven, Lorren. He's very old, even though he looks like he is my age. He's losing his mind, getting dangerous. The coven calls it The Sickening. Is it like that?"
Dustin rolled toward her and traced a line from between her breasts down her stomach to her belly-button. He wouldn't meet her eyes. "My brother's sickness is caused by the need for vengeance. Vengeance is poison for werewolves. It rots them from the inside out. People think we are just bad. Genetics, or bad wolves breeding bad wolves. The truth is the animals are to blame. Too many dominants, not enough submissives. It's like a mob. One or two people get riled up about something, and that energy breeds more violent energy. Werewolves get caught in the energy, and their animals make it impossible to escape."