A slight sound of irritation came from Jade’s throat. “So why didn’t you let me know you were there? We could have worked together.”
“I told you, I was just there to make sure you didn’t get in over your head,” he said, his voice lined with something akin to a growl. It returned to normal when he spoke again. “I didn’t want to interfere with your work. This mission wasn’t anything you discussed with me—or your commander, considering you had no backup—and I didn’t want my presence to inject any bias or alteration to your plans.”
Jade blinked a few times, a sudden clouding of her mind making it difficult to think straight. It didn’t matter why he hadn’t revealed himself. He had been there with all intentions of keeping her safe, and it turned out she had desperately needed it.
Neededhim.
He finished his work, tying the thread and cutting it off. Jade winced as he tugged at the tender skin, but she rolled her lips and bit her tongue to keep from making a sound.
Nicolas ran his thumb delicately over his completed stitches. “How does it feel?”
Jade swallowed past her dry throat as she raised her arm to examine his handiwork. A row of neat black stitches held together the puffy red portion of her brown skin. “It’s throbbing like hell.” She lowered her arm and met his eyes. Herinsides somersaulted at the tenderness on his upturned face. “But thank you. I know it’ll heal well now.”
Nicolas’s hand trailed down the length of her arm, coming to rest on her fingers before he reached up to touch the spot on her neck where Reynauld’s blade had pierced. “This one has stopped bleeding, and it’s not as deep.” He dipped another cloth in the water and washed off the crusted blood under her chin and down her neck. Setting the cloth to the side, he returned his thumb to the wound, wrapping his fingers around the back of her neck as he ran his thumb under the cut. “It will heal on its own.”
Nicolas didn’t move his hand while his thumb traveled up Jade’s neck and along her jawline. He had to have felt her hammering pulse.
Jade released a held-in breath, starkly aware of their closeness. Nicolas’s lips parted, drawing her gaze. She wanted to feel them against hers. A warmth swirled in her middle at the thought.
When she found Nicolas’s eyes again, she found a hunger that hadn’t been present there before. A deep yearning. Jade’s chest heaved as the space between them became charged and potent, intoxicating her. She was closer to him, realizing she had inclined her head toward him, but Nicolas was the one who closed the distance.
His lips crashed into hers, taking Jade by surprise, but she quickly settled into his kiss. Time stilled, noises ceased, and Jade couldn’t form a thought outside of him.
He seemed to wait to see what she would do, pulling back only enough to break the kiss, their noses almost touching and their breath mingling.
Jade grabbed at the front of his shirt and brought him back, craving the pressure of his kiss again. Nicolas responded eagerly, placing a hand on her waist and rising from his knees in front of the sofa to join her on it. He tugged her closer, and Jade twined her arms around his neck. Her fingers found their way to his hair—that luscious, thick hair that she had so longed to touch—and Nicolas made a low sound in his throat. He gripped her waist harder, each pressure point sending waves of fire through her abdomen and banishing all rationality from Jade’s mind.
She hadn’t realized how much she wanted this. Nicolas was more than her informant; he was her guide, her protector. His scent overwhelmed her senses as his touch set her aflame.
He’d saved her life tonight. He’d been there when she needed him most. Jade’s heart stirred with gratitude, and she felt safe in his arms. Guarded. She believed in his promises to take care of her, to not let anything happen to her. Jade trusted this man with her life.
The tease of a tongue swiped across Jade’s bottom lip. The swirling in Jade’s lower belly sent a jolt straight to her heart, sending it into a frenzy. She answered Nicolas’s request. A new intensity came with it as his mouth met hers over and over, exploring her mouth with his tongue and tugging her lip with his teeth. Jade shivered, a fresh wave of goosebumps rushing over her skin.
Nicolas had ignited something within her, and she didn’t know how to stop. She didn’twantto stop.
Something shifted under her arms where they wrapped around his neck, and it took until the bare skin of her arms met his uncovered shoulders for her to realize his shirt was gone.
She ran her fingers along his broad shoulders and down his toned arms, tracing the ridges of his muscles. Nicolas released a shuddering exhale as she brought her hands back up to either side of his jaw and around the back of his head. He pressed his chest against hers, and Jade’s breath caught in her throat. His hands trailed the curves of her hips and waist before climbing up her back. The unfettered wildness of his heartbeat crashed against her own ribcage as he brought his hands behind her and leaned her back onto the sofa.
Nicolas hovered over her, their lips never disconnecting. Jade had thoroughly lost herself. No thoughts of Reynauld, of Nicolas following her, or of the conflict entered her mind. Nothing even stood the chance of taking her attention. In this moment, all her focus—all ofher—belonged to him.
His rough thumb brushed over the length of her collarbone, slipping the strap of the shirt to her shoulder, as his mouth broke from hers. Nicolas pressed delicate lips to the hollowabove her collarbone, then continued up her neck, murmuring her name in between his tender kisses.
His kiss, his touch evoked such powerful emotions from her. How had sheeverdoubted this man? How had they not ended up here sooner? Jade wanted nothing more than to live in this moment forever, entwined with Nicolas, hearing her name on his lips.
His own name was on the tip of her tongue as his mouth met hers again, drowning her in another kiss. Jade barely registered the pain of her wounds anymore, and it was impossible to determine whether her lightheadedness was a result of her head injury or the euphoria of the moment.
Nicolas ran his hand down the curves of her torso again, stopping at her rear end and hiking her leg up around his waist. Jade lifted the other leg automatically, and her boots smacked together behind his back. She would have to take them off, which was more work than she cared for in the midst of what was happening. She’d been tying the laces extra securely ever since she lost one in a training mission as a cadet with Theo.
Theo.
Ohblazing plague, what was she doing?
Jade’s hands flew to Nicolas’s bare chest, and she pushed against his firm muscles with a sharp inhale as their mouths separated.
“What’s wrong?” Nicolas’s dark eyes, only a hand’s breadth away, fervently searched hers. “Did I touch your wound?”
“Uh...” Jade used the excuse as she scrambled out from underneath him, sitting upright once more. Her hand flew to the back of her head, where her braid had started coming undone. “No. A sharp pain in my head. I don’t think it’s quite all right yet.”
