Free Predator's Serenade by Rosanna Leo Page B

realized her hands were bunched up in his shirt, and she wasn’t showing any sign of letting go.
    “Did I scare you?” he asked, worried.
    “No. You just surprised me,” she replied in a breathless voice.
    He removed her glasses and placed them on a nearby bench. “And where do you stand on surprises?”
    “I’m…I’m good with them.”
    He crushed his body against hers, letting her feel his arousal on her belly. “Good.” Entangling his hand in her soft hair, he held her head still and smashed his lips against hers. As delirium consumed him, he traced her lips with his tongue, coaxing her to open to him. She did and he slid inside, savoring her warmth and her taste, needing to absorb her into his every pore. She met him, glide for luxurious glide, and Soren sucked at the tongue she’d poked out at him earlier. And the whole time, he wasn’t sure which of them was moaning harder.
    Crashing, frenzied sensation took root in his body, shaking his soul.
    My mate .
    Gioia was his. No more questions.
    It seemed ages before they were able to separate their rampaging mouths. He leaned his forehead against hers, and she panted softly, nestled against him. He watched her gorgeous chest rise and fall and smoothed his hand up her torso, desperate to cup her breast. “Gioia.”
    She stopped him, her voice catching, her hand upon his. “No. Too soon.”
    No two words had ever sliced into him with such savagery. Too soon . No. After a life spent floundering, seeking comfort in the wrong women’s arms, it wasn’t too soon. It wasn’t soon enough. He needed to hold his mate. Soren forced a breath into his lungs and tried to silence his roaring bear. He pulled away from her, just an inch or so, and immediately felt the need to yank her back into a tight embrace. “I won’t apologize for kissing you. An apology would imply it was wrong, and it wasn’t.”
    Gioia stared at him, her eyes squinting in wonderment. Or was it because she was missing her glasses? He handed them back to her.
    She slid them on over her reddened face. “Thanks. I’m blind without them. I can only see outlines and colors.” She slowly met his gaze once more. Her erratic heartbeat was made obvious by the tiny, pulsating vein in her neck. A delicate flush trailed over her cheeks and down into her cleavage. And her lips turned up in a heartbreaking half-smile.
    Hot damn, she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. And he’d travelled the world on his music tours. The Taj Mahal, the Louvre, the Hermitage. None of those places contained works of art to rival Gioia Clementine’s shy smile. “I need to kiss you again.”
    “Soren,” she began, shaking her head. “I haven’t done this in a long time. Gunnar and I are only here for two weeks…and I won’t be a notch on your belt.”
    “A notch? You think I see you as a notch?” He had to refrain from gasping like a heroine in a melodramatic black and white movie. Bile crept up into his throat.
    “I don’t know. Don’t you?”
    He’d never been more ashamed of who he was. He got the strange sensation his sanity was wrapped up in her words, like the scarf she’d been knitting, slowly unraveling. His mate thought she was a notch .
    And he couldn’t blame her. What should he say to make her stay? “Gioia, I…”
    “I should get back to Gunnar.” Once again, the bashful curl of her lips made his heart race. She turned from him and followed the path back to the lodge.
    And as Soren watched her swift retreat, her high arches clicking on the wooden boardwalk, foul vomit and shame flooded his mouth. He turned and hurled his upper half over the railing and spewed his self-loathing into the pristine lake.
    As his violent spasms slowly turned into dry heaves, he stood and wiped his mouth with his arm. A new determination took hold of him as he listened to Gioia’s now-distant footsteps.
    He had no idea how to go about it, having no experience, but he would become the sort of man to make