It changed the energy, electrified it. Made this suddenly so much more serious.
Kyan’s head tilted, eyes focused on her mouth with the kind of primal hunger that set an incandescent desire burning in her core.
He closed the gap, the knuckles of one hand brushing her jaw, then stroking down her neck, feather light and soslowlydespite his eyes not leaving hers. Every single part of her felt that soft touch; relished the fact that he clearly savoured it too.
Then he reached the base of her throat. His thumb brushed it before pushing back the cardigan at her shoulders. It fell gradually, stroking down her arms in a way that made her shiver and set her breasts to aching.
He paused, his eyes asking her one heated question:is this okay?
Nicole nodded slightly and his knuckles continued downwards.
Her breath held as he skimmed the tops of her breasts, his mouth so much closer, his steady sigh teasing her parted lips. The drugging scent of him and overwhelming affection became the only things she could feel. The only thing that existed in the world.
Then his mouth brushed hers with the same soft stroke he was using on her body.
Once, one way.
Twice, back the other.
So soft, so delicious.
He was holding himself back. She could feel the sheer force of all that desire like a tidal wave. And she wantedit to crash over her.
Sheneededit.
So when he tilted his head for another teasing pass, she parted her lips over his in an almost kiss. Then her teeth bit down slowly on his lower lip.
A growl snarled at the back of his throat.
Kyan’s left hand dragged her closer as his right skimmed up her neck, fingers spreading over her jaw to tilt it back.
‘We shouldn’t,’ Kyan said against her mouth.
Her eyes nearly fluttered closed. She couldn’t form a single word over the blinding, searing temptation. Frustration and disappointment burned hot behind her eyes.
But it was one look into his and one soft touch to his face, that seemed to change his mind. From it, she knew all of that yearning, all of that almost-broken-hearted feeling she’d been carrying around since the Wake had given him this hunt, had turned her eyes into a gallery of longing.
With it, his eyes softened, hardened.
Then he snarled two words. ‘Fuck it.’
His kiss claimed her with a deep stroke of tongue. Scorching heat doused her spine, flooding her chest and between her thighs as he pressed his hips between her spread legs, and set her eyes rolling back in her head.
She almost sobbed at the rush of pleasure, at the full-body craving, because she wanted more and she hated that they were being forced to resist. That this felt so natural, sogood, and she couldn’t have it without danger hovering nearby.
Nicole gripped his shirt. Some wild part of her didn’t want to stop, even when she heard the strain of the fabric and felt it tear beneath her grip, even though she could feel how it only made him want more, the entire immortal bulk of him leaning closer as if unseen hands were holding him back; his face a mask of restrained desire.
Then his thumb found the frustrated tear she hadn’t realised had spilled down her cheek, and he cupped her face to brush it away with his lips.
‘Mo ghrá,’ he murmured against her temple.
She blinked to try to reel in the emotions. There was that phrase again.
‘I won’t let them take you.’
He dipped his head to capture her gaze, his own burning with a vow and blown out with hunger, his body primed, even now, in case of danger.
But that wasn’t what she was afraid of.
