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He caressed the satiny lengths of her tattooed arms, committing every colorful inch to memory as both his fingers and his admiring gaze traveled her skin. He studied the Gothic-looking design on her left forearm--the one he’d initially dismissed as a tombstone. On closer look now, he realized he’d seen the image somewhere in the city. Had walked by it a thousand times on his regular patrols of Southwark, in fact.
“It’s the rose window on the remains of the old Winchester Palace, down by Southwark Cathedral,” Nova said, when he stroked the tattoo in silent contemplation. “That’s where I met Ozzy, after I first came to London. The Cathedral only gives homeless people shelter for the night, so I hung out at the ruins during the day, sketching to pass time. Oz was there one afternoon and saw my work. He offered to let me apprentice at the shop.” She exhaled a soft laugh. “Since no one else was going to hire a homeless fourteen-year-old, I decided taking a chance on Oz was better than panhandling tourists.”
Mathias listened, moved that she had opened up this small bit of her past to him. He still didn’t know where she’d been before arriving in London at such a tender age, nor did he know the circumstances behind why she’d run...or from whom. He didn’t know her full name. Hell, he wasn’t at all convinced that Nova was even her true first name.
All things he was patient to wait for, answers he realized he didn’t need to have at all, in order to care for her the way he did already.
He kissed her again, then reached for the hem of her black tank top and slowly drew it up, over her head.
Below the phoenix tattoo with its spread wings and scarlet Breedmate mark at its heart, Nova’s torso was a clear canvas of milky, unblemished skin. Her small breasts were perfect little globes, capped with sweet pink nipples just begging to be tasted. He could hardly wait, but he had to--at least, until he was sure Nova was ready for all he craved of her.
“You’re beautiful, with and without the ink,” he murmured, his voice rasping, thick with want. He took her right hand in his, looked down at the modified tattoo that was no doubt a constant reminder of her past, of all she fought so fiercely to leave behind. “You’re safe with me. I promise you that.”
She nodded, but it was a faint acknowledgment. Although Nova had proven herself unbreakable in escaping whatever horrors she’d endured, there was a fragility in her eyes as she watched him explore her body with his gaze and his touch.
“You can trust me,” he said, then bent down and kissed her, slowly, deeply.
It was too much--that fresh meeting of their mouths after he was already taut with desire for her. Mathias growled low in the back of his throat as his tongue tangled with hers, their lips wet and hot, their slow kiss turning fevered and unstoppable.
He needed to feel her against him.
He needed to be inside her, his impatience held back on the thinnest of tethers.
But her pleasure meant more to him in that moment.
He pulled his mouth away from hers on a snarl. “Lie back.”
She did as he asked, and when she was settled flat on the bed, he prowled onto the mattress with her, straddling her knees. He soaked her in with his gaze, the coal-bright glow of his Breed irises bathing her skin in soft amber.
Slowly, he tugged down her loose black sweat pants, baring the tops of her hip bones and the subtle dip of her slender abdomen. Mathias’s mouth watered as he glimpsed the lace edges of her panties--bright pink, silky, surprisingly girly.
“Always the unexpected with you,” he remarked, grinning through his teeth and fangs.
She smiled up at him. “I’d hate to be boring.”
“I don’t think you ever have to worry about that.”
He drew her pants all the way off and dropped them to the floor. Nova’s lean legs were as clear as her torso, just smooth skin that tempted Mathias’s hands. He stroked the length of her limbs, slowing as he reached the apex of her thighs. Heat met his fingers as he toyed with the lacy scrap of fabric that covered her sex.
He could smell the sweetness of her arousal, could feel the wet warmth of her bloom even more as he caressed her mound. Unable to resist, he followed his touch with his mouth, bending over her and nuzzling his face against the triangle of pink satin.
Nova gasped, shuddering at the contact. She reached for his head, but instead of pulling him away from her, she held on, her fingers spearing into his hair. Mathias groaned, knowing he was lost now.
He caught her panties between his teeth and drew them down, away from the trimmed patch of tight curls. Then he chuckled, having just discovered something else he hadn’t been expecting about his raven-haired beauty. He arched a brow at her. “Blonde?”
She shrugged, shot him a playful smirk. “You never asked.”
He grinned back at her, but he wasn’t about to let her have the last laugh. As payback, he dived into that tempting little thatch with his lips and tongue, wringing a startled cry out of her as he sought--and found--the bundle of nerves nestled between her folds.
He suckled her, kissing her as passionately and deeply here as he’d kissed her mouth a few moments ago. He didn’t let up until she was writhing under him, her hands twisting in the sheets as her body arched against his lips and tongue.
“Oh, God,” she gasped, panting as he took her even higher. “Oh, fuck...Mathias...”
He glanced up as her orgasm rolled through her. She watched him too, her eyes locked on his as her pleasure crested, overflowed.
Mathias held her gaze, giving her a silent promise that this was only the beginning of what he intended to show her.
He wanted to make up for all of the abuses she had suffered at the hands of another, even if it took the rest of his life to help her forget.
