I pull her into my lap in one smooth motion. She gasps, hands landing on my shoulders for balance. Her thighs bracket my hips. The t-shirt bunches between us. Through the thin cotton of my sweats, I can feel her heat against my arousal.
“I’ve been thinking,” I say against her throat.
“Dangerous,” she comments.
“Very.” I kiss the spot where her pulse flutters. “I’ve been thinking about how you taste. How you sound when you cum. How you look with your hair spread across the bed while I’m buried inside you.”
Her fingers tighten on my shoulders. “Those are very specific thoughts.”
“I’m a very specific person.” I pull back to look at her face. “But tonight I want to try something different.”
Confusion momentarily flashes across her features. “Different how?”
“Slower.” I brush hair back from her face. “Just you and me and all the time in the world.”
Her expression softens. The wariness that’s always there eases slightly.
“Okay,” she whispers.
I stand, lifting her with me. Her legs wrap around my waist like they usually do. The muscle memory of us together is already building. Synaptic pathways firing, connections strengthening each time we touch.
Soon it’ll be instinct.
Soon I won’t remember how to exist without her body.
I’m probably already well past that point.
My bedroom is through the library, up a short flight of stairs to the upper level. I carry her the whole way.
The king-sized bed dominates the space with those expensive sheets that Thessaly insisted on. I’ve never shared this bed with anyone. Never wanted to.
The idea of someone else in my most private space always felt like an intrusion.
But Bree isn’t.
She’s a renovation.
Tearing down walls I didn’t evenknow I had.
I set her on the edge of the bed and step back. She watches me with those amber eyes that see everything.
“Stay right there,” I tell her.
She stays.
I kneel in front of her. Look up at her face. From this angle, with the city lights filtering through the windows, she looks like something out of a dream.
The kind of dream I stopped letting myself have years ago.
“Good view?” she murmurs.
“Getting a good baseline.” I run my hands up her bare calves. “Before I take you apart.”
Her breath catches. “Nico.”
“Hands and mouth only.” I push the t-shirt up slightly, exposing more of her thighs. “For now. I want to explore every inch of you. Want to learn you like a technical manual. Every specification. Every optimal operating parameter.”
“You haven’t learned that yet?” she breathes. “Also, did you just compare me to a medical device?”
