When it was breathe or pass out, I wrenched my mouth from his. Our bodies remained locked together, all of his hardness pressed against my softness.
“That was certainly a nice response to my suggestion of staying here on Overworld.”
He grinned, cupping my face with both hands. I loved how much he touched me; it was like he couldn’t help himself. And I was a sucker for all of it.
“While I would love to stay with Qenita,” he told me, “there’s no way you’re going back to Astoria without me. I have no idea what Laous is up to. I have no idea what the future holds for the treaty, but the one thing I know for certain is that I can’t be away from you.”
I groaned. “Tell me again why we’re taking it slow.” I rocked into him, because my body ached. He did things to me that I didn’t even know were things. And I was not exactly innocent. Well, I had thought I wasn’t innocent, but I was starting to see my lame introduction to sex was nothing compared to what Lexen would bring to my world.
And I wanted to experience it all with him.
“We have all the time in the world,melerde.”
The unfamiliar word, in his sexy-ass accent, was enough to have my pulse racing. Except it wasn’t completely unfamiliar. I was pretty sure I’d heard it before, but I couldn’t remember.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
He pressed another kiss to my lips, his hands falling from my face to wrap across my back, pulling me even more firmly into him. “My love,” he replied, between the touches of our lips.
I jerked back from him, sucking in a shot of air through my nose. “You love me?”
Way to go, Emma … so smooth.
Laughter burst from Lexen. “Despite the fact that you look horrified right now, I’m confident enough to confirm your suspicions. I do, in fact, love you. Everything about you. You’ve constantly surprised me, from the first moment you broke the rules and followed us on Daelight Crescent.”
I managed to smooth my expression, sucking in another fortifying breath. “You’re wrong, Lexen Darken. There’s nothing horrifying about what you just said. More like overwhelming, unbelievable, absolutely amazing.” I breathed deeply again, finding the next words easy to say: “And while I’m not exactly an expert on love, I’m almost certain I’ve loved you since you kidnapped me.”
“I felt it from that first moment, too,” he said, his eyes holding me with their intensity. “I’m sorry about the kidnapping. I just needed you to be safe, and I used whatever excuse I could to make that happen.”
“Are you still worried about me being in your world?”
He brushed a hand across my cheek, caressing it gently. “I still worry that you’re going to get hurt from being in my world, but it’s clear that you were always meant to be here. I won’t fight fate. I will take my gifts.”
I smirked. “So I’m a gift now?”
He flipped me over, so now he was the one pressing into me. Smooth rock lined my spine, and I held my breath, waiting for him to make his move.
“Always tempting me,” he murmured, running his hands up and down my legs.
Holy shit.
21
One Month Later
The bell rang and I hauled my books up, almost smacking myself in the face. I was so ready to get out of my last class.
“What’s the rush, sprout?”
I glared at Jero, shaking my head. “Sprout? Really? I think you’ve officially run out of nicknames.”
He waited for me to finish stacking my textbooks. He, of course, had no books to retrieve. The Daelighters were still rocking their bookless genius status. Meanwhile, I was studying my ass off because I had missed so much school and I was not keen on falling behind. No way was I repeating my senior year.
Thank God for Lexen and his superior intellect. I didn’t even care anymore that he was smarter and more athletic than me, because I reaped the benefits of those skills secondhand.
Jero took the heavy pile of books from me, slinging an arm across my shoulders and pulling me into him. Despite the fact that all of the Darkens were quite handsy with me, and had been for the past month at school, multiple gasps and hooded looks still shot in our direction.
“Girlfriend! The gossips love you,” Ben trilled as he walked by us.
