Nyssa nodded, unsure of where he was going.
A grin broke out on his face. "So I was definitely right."
Her smile widened, and she sat down on the chaise lounge as Nadir picked up another trinket from her dresser. His eyes rolled up to meet hers, and he looked as though he would burst with laughter.
"What the fuck is this?" he asked, holding it up.
Nyssa snorted, remembering the one that had brought her that one on her sixteenth birth moons' day. "It's the moons," she said simply. "If you look in the rock, it will show you the cycle over our heads."
Nadir's brows raised as though he were impressed. "Okay, that one is somewhat interesting. Keep it. What about... This—what in the name of Duarb—“
Nadir picked up every trinket around her room, including all the books she had stashed in various places. He culled a few in his hands, laying down opposite of her on the chaise lounge, legs tangled with hers as he read a few of the poems from inside. She laughed and munched on the pastries he'd brought, feeling the wine sobering in her body, leaving only the vibrance of having him in the room with her being what kept her head spinning and smile unfading.
For however long it was that they snacked on the food and laughed, she wasn’t entirely sure. She couldn’t help herself from falling over at his banter and smarting back at him when he would call her out on any of the things she tried to hide. Chills rose on her flesh every time he would stroke her shin, or grasp her ankle as though he were massaging it. Her heart ached with the smile on her face. The comfort she felt around him was unlike any comfort she'd ever felt with another man.
"Princess, these poems are filthy," he mocked.
She reached up and snatched the book from his hands. "Don't ruin my poems with your mockery," she argued.
He grinned. "You're a romantic, aren't you?"
“Oh,I’ma romantic?” she vexed. She fought the twist of her lips and the blush on her cheeks as her head tilted in his direction. "Says the one reading such filthy poems aloud to the woman he's not even supposed to be in the same room with."
Her brow raised slyly at the softened smile that spread over his features then, and she stood from the chair, intent on placing some of the books back. She'd just reached to put the one on the top shelf in the opposite corner when she turned, only to find Nadir sitting on the edge of the chair, elbows pressed into his knees, fingers steepled beneath his chin. He was staring at her, heel tapping the ground, and she knew he was battling with himself again.
"I really shouldn't be here," she heard him breathe. “I—“
Whatever his words were, she didn't hear. He stood. Fast. Then, he started muttering words she didn’t understand under his breath and looking around for his shoulder pad. She realized that he was finally deciding to leave before things went too far. Nyssa's heart fell at the embarrassment of thinking someone like him would ever be genuinely interested in her.
She went over to the bottle of nyghtfire she’d stashed in her dresser and pulled it out. She poured two glasses and then crossed the space back to him. Nadir's throat bobbed when she pushed the cup in his hands.
“To wanting what we can’t have,” she cheers’d him.
He let his shoulder pad slowly fall back onto the mattress as he watched her take a small sip. She couldn’t help biting her lip when she pulled back, embarrassment flooding her.
Just as she looked down and started to turn away, she saw him snap back the nyghtfire and heard the glass shatter on the floor when he threw it over his shoulder.
“Fuck it.”
He grasped her arm and hauled her back to him, lips slamming against hers, and she had to grip his waist to stay upright. The cinnamon taste of nyghtfire on his tongue and the salt of his skin made her knees weak. His lips were frantic against hers, arms hugging and hands grasping her back and the bottom of her tulle dress.
She’d never felt so wanted in her life.
Her heart fled at the desperate way he kissed her, as though if he let her go that she would disappear from before him. Every sweep of his tongue against hers had her nearly moaning in his mouth. He bent low, getting a better grip on her, almost picking her up off the ground as he stretched and clenched that tulle. She pushed her hands beneath his shirt, separating from him a moment to pull it off.
Fuck, he was perfect.
He went to kiss her again, but she pushed slightly on his chest.
“What?” he asked breathlessly.
She allowed her gaze to wander over him, memorizing every flex and ripple of his sculpted body. The broad shoulders and narrow waist. His muted olive-colored skin against her own pale hand. The way his body would have held around her perfectly. She reached out and traced the lines between his heaving abs, and he flinched with her touch, visible goosebumps rising on his flesh. She wanted to memorize all of him. Know every scar and line of his perfect body.
“I… Did the ocean carve you from a rock?” she heard herself mocking as she ran her fingers over the veins in his forearm and eyed the one at the vee of his hips. “How are you this… how—”
Nadir scoffed and bent again, his lips pressing to her throat and making her ramble cease with a soft gasp. That mouth… He was sucking on her skin, and with every brush of his tongue, she limped further into his abyss. She felt his hands traveling down her sides, and then the tightness of the strings on the back of her dress loosened. It fell to the floor, leaving only the corset and tiny creme lace undergarments covering her torso.
Nadir paused and gawked down at her, mouth agape. “You’ve been wearing that all night and I’ve been telling you jokes?” he managed, voice cracking.
