He nodded, looking as though he would turn, but Nyssa wasn’t finished.
“Not just for listening to me,” she continued, and he stopped to face her again. “Thank you for loving her the way she deserves.”
Feeling better about everything and a little more relaxed, Nyssa joined the mingling inside after a few more minutes—wrapping her arm into her brother’s and squeezing him. Hugging Aydra and smirking at Draven as he winked at her behind his new cup of whiskey.
And even catching Nadir’s eye again, making sure to keep that gaze as she stretched around the room and spoke with a few people she knew. Ending at the door and giving him another look over her shoulder that she knew would make him follow.
She’d only just made it around the corner and up one hall before she heard quiet footsteps almost running up behind her. Her heart picked up after skipping in her chest, and a hand grabbed her wrist.
She was whirled and pulled flush against a stern chest and wrapped into arms that surrounded her like a blanket. She smelled the salt of his skin, breath catching in her throat as Nadir hovered there, their foreheads touching and lips nearly brushing as she tilted up to him.
“Hi,” she managed in a heaving breath, cursing her heart for its erratic behavior.
One hand wrapped beneath her chin, though the other only tightened around her waist, and Nadir’s lip curled upwards. “Are you trying to kill me, Princess?” he asked.
Nyssa couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “Wouldn’t that be a devious plan?” she teased.
His grip on her relaxed, and he stepped back with a crooked smile, sighing and catching her fingertips to swing them lightly. “You know, I have bruises,” he told her.
“Why?” she asked innocently, trying to stifle her grin. “What did you do?”
“What did I—you seduced me,” he argued. “Got me in trouble. I’m lucky your sister didn’t murder me this morning.”
Nyssa chuckled under her breath, and her head tilted sideways at him. “And yet, you’re here.”
His tongue darted out over his lips as he scratched his neck, head dipping just slightly as he answered, “I am,” in a soft breath. He let go of her hand then and pulled something from his pocket—a small white flower pressed between the layers of a handkerchief.
"A flower? Really?" she jested, taking the stem between her fingers.
Nadir shrugged nonchalantly at her. "Thought of you when I saw it."
"A small white flower made you think of me?" she repeated, brows raised. "I must be doing anabysmaljob."
He scoffed, and she admired the way the midday sun glowed against his skin and seemed to linger in his cerulean eyes.
Architects, he was gorgeous.
"I couldn't very well parade around the lingerie I was keen on buying you earlier," he bantered. "What would the people have done if they found out it was for the gentle innocent Princess?"
"I might have paid to see the looks on their faces."
A quiet moment settled between them as she continued to inhale the scent of the flower, her arms hugged around her, swaying slightly in the comfortable silence. When her eyes opened, she met his softened gaze.
“I thought after the meeting you’d be steering clear of me,” she said.
A comical, heavy sigh emitted from his lips, and he reached for her. He took the flower from her hand and pushed it behind her ear, his knuckles settling against her cheek.
“I’m not sure that’s possible.”
For a short time, she simply stared at him. A soft smile rose on his lips, and her knees weakened when both his hands wrapped beneath her jaw, and then he kissed her tenderly.
"Hello, Princess," he whispered upon parting.
She pressed her lips to his again, and then whispered, "Hello, Commander," back to him before kissing him once more. Delicate at first, but the longer they stood together, the more she forgot about the rest of the world, and soon she was holding him flush against her, his tongue sweeping hers, hands threading all around her body; both desperately clinging to the want of one another.
Her back hit the wall, and she grasped tightly at his shirt as he leaned over her. Hands pressed into the wall over her, his hips pushed against her own. The shivers down her spine caused her to groan at every movement he made. The firmness of his taut torso pressed into her breasts, the grasp of the wall at her back. She wanted him then, wanted him to take her right against that wall for every person in the castle to see. The Princess and the Commander, doing everything they weren't supposed to be doing, and wholly consumed by one another.
Someone cleared their throat.
