Longing wafted like smoke through my heart.
His mouth was on the top of my breast, going lower. With the bustier loosened at the top, he folded the bra cup to the side and breathed on the peak, humid and warm, and then he was tonguing and sucking it into his mouth.
Heat shot through me, and my back bowed off the bed as the tension in my stomach and between my legs clenched into an ache.“Oh.”
My arms twined around him, and my bare heels slipped on the velvet comforter as I pushed, trying to feel more.
Slipping my fingers and palm through his hair was another exploration, the silken strands curling loosely around my fingers as Ithreaded them through.
It wasn’t enough, though. His lips and the skin on his cheeks touched my chest, butmore,more,rushed in my blood.
I plucked at the soft fabric of his shirt. My voice was breathless and a squeak. “Take this off?”
Nicolai lifted his head. His eyes were liquid, and his breathing ragged. He watched me, deciding. “Okay.”
He stood on his knees, yanking his shirt out of his belted pants. With one arm, he reached down his back, biceps and triceps bulging as his arm folded, and dragged his dress shirt and undershirt over his head with one smooth motion.
As his shirt swept up, his whole body flexed, abs crunching into cobblestones, obliques twisting, shoulders hunching, biceps bulging with the contraction of his arms, the rising white fabric revealing his pale-tanned skin and that swirling black tattoo vining his left side. He flung the shirts behind him, and they tumbled over the side of the bed.
He tilted his head as he crawled over me. “You like the visual, too. Don’t you?”
“You’re amazing.” I ran my hands up his torso, caressing where his tattoo covered his ribs and pec. My palms felt super-sensitized because I was touching this guy, thisman,the hard edges and rounds of his muscular torso. “You’re so amazing.”
He dropped his head and mouthed my shoulder, my chest, and then shoved my other bustier cup aside to suck my breast with the wet heat of his mouth.
For a second, my whole body went limp, giving up and giving myself in surrender.
Then I was arching, my head spinning, and he slipped one strong arm under my back to lift me to him. I was bowed over his arm, my head and hips dangling as he laved each peak until my eyes were creased closed and I could only gasp for air and groan it out.
With a few more deft squeezes of the hooks, he releasedthe bustier off me and shoved it away. It slithered off the side of the bed to join my dress on the floor.
And I was naked except for the black satin panties.
He lifted his head and rolled to lie by my side, bracing his head on one hand as he stretched out beside me, his torso wrapped with muscle and arms bulked, and splayed his hand on my stomach as he ran his gaze down my body.
A stupid old instinct ran through me, that I was shamefully naked, and I slammed my legs shut and tried to cross my arms over my breasts.
“No, my angel.” He caught my wrist and kissed my palm. “Don’t. You’re beautiful, and I likelookingat you.”
Dropping my hands was difficult and layered weirdness upon shame. Laying my arms straight-down by my sides seemed like I was crowding Nicolai or poking my elbow into his stomach. My other arm felt loose over there with nothing to do.
Nicolai smiled at my flopping arms and lifted my hand near his side to his cheek. “Here.”
Yes, his jaw in my palm felt right, and I looked up, stretching my neck as his eyes met mine.
“Good,” he said. His bright eyes were steady, watching, his gaze flicking from one of my eyes to the other. “Don’t look away. Eyes on me.”
Nicolai spread his fingers on my stomach again, his eyes never wavering, and then slipped downward past my navel, his fingertips infiltrating the top of my panties and stroking that delicate skin.
His sharp gaze watching me was a question.
“Yes,” even though my throat clamped shut around the word.
His hand delved lower, gently stroking, caressing me.
The experience in the dark back seat of the SUV had been impulsive, my head spinning from champagne and lust, hishand under my dress and layers of clothes between us. It almost could have been an accident.
But now?—
