“You don’t have to worry about me.” I took another step closer. He didn’t move. “I don’t have feelings for you. It’s safe.”You’re safe.Reaching out, I skimmed my fingers along his cheek. Even if he was telling the truth, I couldn’t keep my desire in check. This was the most vulnerable I’d ever seen him. The mostreal. I wanted to wrap him in my arms and hold him close. Be with him entirely and lighten his burden, if only for a night.
Wary eyes tore me apart. “Leena, I don’t know.” He stood and escaped my touch, pacing along the foot of the bed. “You make it impossible to think.”
I gripped his wrist and stopped him. “I’m telling you, Noc, there’s no danger. I’m exiled—I don’t make it a habit to form lasting relationships. With anyone. That includes you.” It hurt to say it, but there was truth to that statement. No matter that I didn’t want to picture a world without him. Without any of my newfound friends. But I’d pack up and leave if I had to.
He gave an inch and leaned toward me, as if the action was somehow beyond him. As if we were both incapable of walking away. Gently, he ran his fingers over my shoulder. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t. I promise.” He wouldn’t hurt me because Icouldn’tlove him. I couldn’t be like Kost, offering affection and devotion only to be met with a cold shoulder.
I couldn’t.
He dipped his head to mine, and his lips barely skated over my mouth. We stayed like that for what felt like an eternity, each of us giving the other a chance to back out, and then we were against the wall. Hunger and longing taking over and tossing caution to the wind. Nothing else mattered except the feel of him against me. The languid brush of his hands as they dropped first to my waist and then under the hemline of my dress. His fingers toyed with my lace undergarments, and I ground into his hand. Reminded him that it was okay. That I wanted this.Neededthis.
He didn’t pull away. Instead, he slipped one finger beneath the lace and teased my crease. Let out a heady groan. “You’re already wet.” Torturously slow, he drove one finger inside me. My breath caught, and I rocked my hips, begging him to move. All he did was hold steady. As if still deciding. As if still contemplating retreat.
“Please, Noc…” I needed him to stay. To be with me.
A strangled, broken sound came from deep in his chest. Slowly, he pulled out, slipped his thumb over my clit. “Please what?”
Gods, I wanted him to let go. “I need you.”
With deliberate hands, he stripped me of clothing. Each garment was like a shackle falling away, and the reservation in his gaze gave way to something heated and desirable. He trailed his fingers down the length of my spine, lingered on the curve of my hips and shape of my ass. His intent stare set my heart racing. Never had someone looked at me like that before. He studied every inch of my body as if committing it to memory.
I ran my fingers over his shoulders to do the same. “Are you always this meticulous?”
“Would you rather I be quick?” His knees hit the floor, and he trailed kisses along my inner thighs.
My lip quirked. “Not particularly.”
“Good. Because I’m going to get my fill—no matter how long that takes.” Noc looked up at me, dark eyes burning every inch of my skin, and longing flowed through my veins. I wanted him.Neededhim. And his promise—gods, that promise—made my knees bend and my chest heave. With a wicked grin, he placed a kiss at the apex of my thighs. His right hand left my ass and worked toward my folds, fingers toying on the edge without going any farther. They came away wet, and the tease in his gaze transformed to something darker. Something heady and dangerous and hungry. It was the most desirable expression I’d ever seen.
A low, pleased snarl worked its way out of his gravelly throat. “What am I going to do with you?”
I didn’t know, but if it didn’t involve his tongue and fingers, then it didn’t matter. Reading my mind, he brushed his thumb against my clit. My world rocked, and I couldn’t suppress the cry. Smirking, he stroked me again, and the room was set on fire.
“Noc.” My voice barely registered to my own ears. It was all I could do to keep a grip on reality. I’d been fantasizing about his fingers from the moment I first saw them work their way through his hair. Callused from years of hard work, their rough scratch against my skin sent wave after wave of sparking electricity through me.
Noc growled, “When you say my name like that…” He drove two fingers into my crease at the same moment his tongue danced over my clit. I rocked into him, moaning as he worked magic with his mouth. Swearing against me, he gripped my hip with his free hand to anchor himself. He filled me with his fingers, and my mind reeled with the possibility of taking all of him.
My head hit the wall, and I wrapped my fingers in his hair. Every sensation centered around him. He demanded all my attention, every heightened nerve ending, every raspy breath. He had it all—and I willingly gave it to him.
He worked faster. Harder. “You have no idea—”
He stopped midsentence, burying whatever unspoken truth he was about to spill in the taste of me.
A ribbon of pleasure snaked through my stomach. “Tell me.”
Barreling his fingers into me, he kept his lips poised over my crease. “You have no idea how badly I’ve wanted this.” He plunged farther and crooked his fingers, callused pads rubbing against my inner wall. I cried out and tightened my grip in his hair.
“Leena.” His voice was gritty and deep and so full of emotion, and it was the very thing that did me in. The sound of my name from his lips, the feel of him speaking against me while losing his fingers inside me, shattered my vision. Release crashed around me, pulsating through to my limbs and roaring in my ears. He stayed there while I shuddered around him, holding his head in place so I could ride out every current of ecstasy.
When it was over, shudders softened to light tremors, he pulled his fingers from me and slowly worked his lips up the expanse of my stomach as he stood. I should have been satiated. Pleased. And I was—but I wanted more. How could I not? In the low lighting of his room, his ink-black eyes glistened with such heavy desire that my whole body trembled. His jaw ticked as he studied my curves, and his hands traveled across my breasts before dropping to my hips.
I didn’t want to waste another moment in this stupid game of cat-and-mouse we’d been playing. Everything was on the table now. I knew of his curse, my feelings weren’t strong enough to trigger it, and all he had do to was keep his emotions in line. We could do this. Launching from the wall, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled his lips to mine. He tasted of honey and of me. Of my release. I never wanted to forget that flavor. His fingers dug into my sides, and his mouth parted to let me in.In. I needed him inside me.
Tearing at his clothes, I pushed him toward the bed. He lifted his arms to the ceiling and I yanked his tunic from his body, pausing at the sight of a small black scythe on the inside of his wrist. There was something so delicate and yet so brutal about those sharp lines. I ran my fingers over it, feeling the grooves of his veins masked beneath the ink. I wanted to unearth all his stories. He touched my spirit without even trying.
I placed a soft kiss on the tattoo. Then my gaze flickered to Noc’s unending eyes.
