AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I missed her. And you.” Xavier shrugged under my gaze. “Some nights it got too much, so I called Gav, my artist. He did my other work too, except for the one I got in Japan.”
I frowned, trying to imagine what, exactly, was too much for Xavier to bear, that he would rather be stuck with needles for hours at a time than lie alone in his bed.
“No kanji?” I wondered. I’d seen plenty of people with Japanese tattoos who weren’t actually Japanese. “Other than your name, I mean.”
Xavier just snorted. “Think I should get the characters for ‘peace’ on my arse?”
I chuckled. “Definitely not.” My fingers touched a serpentine tail that writhed below his belt. “Just how far does it go?”
“Why don’t you find out?”
When I looked up at him, those deep eyes flickered with a familiar blue fire. The hottest part of a flame.
Without breaking our gaze, I reached down and unfastened his belt, then his pants. Xavier hissed as I slid my hands over the curve of his backside, pushing his pants and boxer briefs over the smooth muscle and then down his legs, where he helpfully kicked off the rest, along with his shoes and socks.
When I stood back up, it wasn’t a man before me. It was a god.
“Oh, Xavi,” I murmured again, at a loss for words. “You’re beautiful.”
Something in those hard features softened at my admission. He wasn’t used to being called that. Most men weren’t. But there was no other word for this carved perfection. He was strong, yes, scarred here and there either from the hazards of his profession or from remnants of his past. But every nick and imperfection created something so perfect, it nearly broke my heart.
“Your turn.”
I reached behind me again, looking for the zipper, but instead, Xavier turned me gently to face the pool, away from him.
“Let me do that.”
Obediently, I waited while he unzipped my dress and dragged the thin straps over my shoulders, then allowed the silk to drop to the decking like a fallen parachute. He slipped off my underwear, then knelt to unfasten the straps of my shoes, allowing me to step out of one, then the other, until I was just as naked as he was. Gentle hands drifted over my shoulders and slowly rotated me around so I was facing him again.
“Shouldn’t we—what if your neighbors see?” I asked, fighting the urge to cover myself under his heated gaze.
Yes, I’d been staring at him, but he’d shown no modesty out here on the deck. Xavier never slumped, as proud and tall as a warrior. And, um, as hard as one too.
Unable to look away from the very distinct part of him that wasn’t exactly small either, I blushed.
But hadn’t he said my kisses were only for him? And what about the very sizable rest of him?
“We’re the tallest building for miles,” he said, gesturing toward the open air around us. “There’s privacy at the top of the world, Ces. I intend to make use of it.”
I relaxed again. Of course.
“And what would the queen say?” I teased, stepping backward toward the onsen. “If she knew a duke of the realm was doing such naughty things on his rooftop?”
That smile turned dark. “The queen can kiss my arse.”
“I doubt very much she would mind that,” I said as he pulled me close.
Xavier’s smile moved against my forehead. “Dirty, dirty.”
I shuddered as his large hands drifted over my skin, feeling every bend and sweep of my shape.
“God,” he breathed, chin in my hair. “This body. These curves. Delicious, you know that? Like a croissant.”
I looked up. “Did you just compare me to puff pastry?”
“Might have.”
“I’m not sure what I think about that.”
