I was overwhelmed and needed a bay breeze. The stars overhead. To clear my lungs of the disgusting miasma of cologne and sweat.
Tara followed me down the boardwalk, her hand in mine. So trusting. I couldn’t help picturing us like characters from some twisted fairytale. She was the lamb and I was the devouring wolf.
I needed to let her go. To send her back to the bar.
Tara didn’t give me a chance to escape. Her grip was firm, taking the lead and dragging me down the stone steps at the edge of the boardwalk that led to the beach below the pier. It was only visible during low tide, the sand thick and damp.
Tipsy and laughing, she stumbled into me as she lost her footing.
I moved instinctively, sweeping her hair behind her ear, unable to resist touching her. I could feel the stirring inside me strengthen, feel a wave of feral energy overcome me.
I should have left her in that bar. Should have vanished back into the night like the darkness I was.
“Did I deliver on that good time?”
“Itwasgood,” she sighed. “I haven’t felt so free in years.”
Her eyes danced to my lips and I purred, “The fun doesn’t have to stop there.”
Her expression turned searching and suddenly I was uncomfortable. I had this feeling like she could see behind my mask and I didn’t like it. “This is the part where we fuck until I have sand in my ass crack and then part ways forever?”
“You really are a romantic, aren’t you?”
“That’s not a no.” But there was a wicked smile on her pink lips and before I knew it I was shoved up against the concrete wall beneath the boardwalk.
Tara fiddled with my belt buckle and unzipped my pants. She didn’t even glance around to make sure we didn’t have witnesses before pulling them down to my ankles and dropping to the ground with them. No hesitation. She knew what she wanted and she was taking it.
I was losing. I never lost.
“This is such a bad idea,” she murmured to herself as she tickled her hands up my thighs. “But damn do I want to be bad tonight.”
Then her hand was fisting me and I almost finished right there.
Her mouth followed a teasing trail up and down. Everywhere she touched me blazed to life. I wanted her so badly it felt like madness.
Finally, Tara sucked the head of my cock and I collapsed. The muscles holding me in place became liquid and I had to choose between focusing on her and staying upright. Satisfaction vibrated in her throat.
I was on the very edge when she stopped. Her mouth came away and the warmth of her breasts between my thighs disappeared. She stepped back in the sand, expression unreadable. Her lips quirked as she glanced at the puddle of pants around my ankles.
Then she ran.
Why would she—
She had to know. She had to. Why else was she turning her back on me? I discarded my pants and took off after her. Ahead of me, Tara’s feet were spraying sand. Her breath was frantic and there was the tiniest hint of fear to her scent. That fear mingling with arousal was too much.
My control snapped.
When I was away from the bayou I never, never let myself out. There was a version of me that humans received and it was not the same as what my brothers saw. Now that careful mask was falling away and I was overcome.
I timed myself perfectly, letting Tara make it under the shadowed privacy of the pier before catching her around the waist. In seconds I had her back to one of the support pillars, her skirt up around her waist.
Her arms were around my neck, teeth leaving delicate marks beneath my jaw as she nipped her way to my lips. I hovered my hand at the hem of her skirt, forcing myself to wait. Silently asking for permission.
I was wild with need, and I wasn’t the only one. Tara hiked her skirt up with one hand. The other guided my wrist, showing me exactly how she wanted to be touched.
I gave in, working her up until she was breathless. Almost incoherent as she gasped, “Condom.”
She handed me a foil packet. The same one that was in my pocket earlier tonight.