Read Online The Protective Dominant by Jan Irving - Free Book Online

face, soothing long fingers. Gentleness. He was big, yes, but he was so surprisingly gentle with her. She thought it was a first for him, just like his invitation to come here.
    “Why are you scared?”
    “Because I’m a virgin,” the words just popped out, flowed with his touch. Then she immediately said, “No, I’m not—”
    He was shaking his head slowly. “You are. In every way that counts, you are , Jenny.”
    Tears pricked her eyes. “You think?”
    “Yep. Not that I, uh, have any experience with, ah, virgins.”
    She quirked a brow. “Really?”
    “I think that innocence can’t be taken. It can be crushed. It can be wounded.”
    She sucked in a breath. “I wanted it to be you.”
    Taz brushed his lips against hers. “Don’t you see that’s what I’m trying to say, Jenny? It can be me. I mean, if you still want me.”
    “Oh, Taz.” She buried her face against his shoulder. He cupped the back of her neck. Safe, he made her feel safe, as if anyone who tried to hurt her would have to get through him to do it.
    “Come here.” He offered her his hand and she took it, shifting to sit with him in the weathered recliner. He settled behind her. She could feel his bare body pressed against her, feel his cock against her backside. His hands tightened on her hips then gentled. “I don’t want this to be about me. Does that help?”
    She nodded.
    “Good. Because it seems to me that every virgin deserves to be wooed. Deserves to be pleasured and to laugh and to feel wonder.”
    He made it sound so good.
    She looked at him over her shoulder and saw the black hair that had fallen over his forehead, his brilliant green eyes set off like jewels by his tanned, healthy skin. He was so effortlessly sexy. He knew all the secrets to making her cry out and lose herself and surrender to him.
    Just the thought of it made her pulse throb in her throat and wrists and between her legs.
    “Probably we should let you get used to me and then I’ll get used to you. All right?”
    It sounded so down home practical. So entirely sane.
    Throat tight, she nodded.
    As if he couldn’t resist, he pressed his lips ardently against her neck, the side of her face. “Brave. You are so fucking brave.”
    She was trembling, a scared little girl, and he thought she was brave?
    But then he kissed her again, just the edges of his lips brushing hers. It lured her, promising heat. His tongue warm velvet as he licked her upper lip then her bottom one.
    She shuddered, never having felt such pleasure, and he laughed, triumphant, husky male laughter. “I can make you want me.”
    “Well, duh,” she grumbled. “I’ve only been watching you for months.”
    “Me too.”
    Her eyes widened. “But you were so mean to me!”
    He dropped his gaze. “You scared me.”
    “Me? I scared—”
    “Let’s not dwell on the past.” He licked her bottom lip again and she gasped. How did he do that, light her up with a touch? “Oh, Christ, touching you.”
    She felt the same melting into him. His hands cupped her face as he kissed her, taking over. And they were both hungry, so hungry. To merge, to be a part of the other, as if something had fallen away a very long time ago and only now was it found again.
    His tongue was deep in her mouth. The throbbing had become an ache. She squirmed to get closer, but he held her still, forcing her to comply with his slow, tortured pace.
    She clung to his shoulders and didn’t understand for a moment that he had pulled back, why he had pulled back.
    He watched her, careful, considering, and she knew that, for him, control still existed. It was a thin, fragile thread, but he kept it.
    For her. Because this was her first time.
    Emotion was huge, overpowering her like a roller smashing her on the beach. She reached out and touched his body, sleek and made for swimming, made for running, scarred some places—from his work? She longed to ask him, but now it would have to wait because she was lost, drugged by his