He pushed in, just an inch, then rested his forearms beside her face. She reached up and grabbed onto his biceps as he stared down into her eyes and entered her with one forceful thrust.
“Ahh,” she whimpered as he stretched her body beyond its limit.
There was a sting, a burn. Before she was adjusted to him, he pulled out and drove into her again, this time sinking just a little bit further. Another sting that melted to pleasure. Then a third time he pulled out and sank into her, going even deeper.
He watched her face as he fucked her, eyes never leaving hers, as though searching for something he wasn’t sure he’d find. The intensity of his gaze undid her, she felt naked in a way that had nothing to do with her lack of clothing.
Nothing could have prepared her for the sensation of having him inside of her, it was overwhelming. He filled her completely, and her body responded by sending out signals of pleasure from the top of her head to her toes. Tingles and bliss radiated through her.
Niko must have read what she was feeling on her face because he bent down and captured her lips, kissing her hungrily as he thrust into her, faster, harder. His tongue tangled with hers, claiming her. She met every movement, her own hips rolling up to meet his, desperate for more. She whimpered as he pulled out and drove into her again. When his hand moved to her thigh and shifted it up, he sank into her so deep she gasped, and her head pushed back into the mattress.
“Fuck, you’re so tight,” he gritted through clenched teeth as he began to kiss her neck and move one hand down to her hip.
His lips and tongue trailed down her neck, then to her chest, then to her nipples. He licked and sucked and bit them as hecontinued to drive into her, and it made her body relax and open up to him. Soon he was going even deeper, even harder.
“Yes, yes, yes,” she breathed, the words tumbling out of her in a breathless chant. She wanted more as his head lifted and his mouth found her again as he kissed her like his life depended on it with a desperation that brought her right to the edge as his thrusts grew faster and faster. Her arms wrapped around his neck as his kiss deepened and her thighs began to shake.
She was floating, burning alive, reduced to nothing but sensation. Her body tensed, then bucked beneath him, jaw slack as she cried out. She could feel herself clamp down on him, muscles convulsing as her orgasm tore through her, sudden and violent. Niko was right there with her, hips slamming forward as his body froze, then shuddered and collapsed atop her in a loose, trembling sprawl. His cock twitched inside her, reminding her of his pleasure with each tapered pulse.
The world went quiet, except for the frantic pounding of her heart and the rasp of their breathing as it echoed in the dark. It was several long seconds before either of them could move, and when they finally did, it was with the lazy, fluid movements of people who had no intention of going anywhere fast.
Niko propped himself up on his elbows, his hair a wild, sweat-dampened mess. He looked at her with a smile that was equal parts astonished and tender, as if he couldn’t quite believe what had just happened between them. Her own lips curled in response.
“That was…” he said, but didn’t finish, dropping his forehead to her shoulder as if the words had failed him entirely.
“Yeah,” Tiana agreed.
A lazy, glowing silence blanketed the room until Niko spoke again, his voice low and thick with satisfaction. “I’ll go get you a cloth,” he said.
But Tiana didn’t want to let go, not yet. She tightened her arms around him. “Just a minute more, is that okay?”
He tipped her chin up to meet his gaze, his eyes soft and a little vulnerable. “It’s more than okay.”
She traced the line of his jaw with her fingertips, memorizing the texture of his stubble, and the way the moonlight shining in through the gap in the blackout curtains caught the edge of his cheekbone. He was beautiful, inside and out, and somewhere in the tangled mess of her thoughts, she realized she was in actual danger of catching real feelings for him. Her heart did a funny little skip, part terror, part exhilaration. She’d never felt so exposed, so raw, and yet so utterly at peace.
Tiana smiled as Niko laid his head back down. She knew this wasn’t real, but she’d had something “real,” and look how well that went. For once in her life, she just wanted to enjoy the moment. She’d deal with consequences later.
Consequences, she thought to herself. Like telling Niko she wasn’t his girlfriend, so he’d kiss her... That’s what had gotten her into this mess.
17
Tiana driftedup from sleep as if fighting her way through silk, a sluggish tangled undertow of warmth and muscle ache cocooning her in the sheets. At first, she only registered the soreness, the kind of heavy exhaustion that followed a night spent rediscovering every inch of herself, the kind that buzzed in her spine and left her skin hypersensitive to the delicate brush of another’s exhale across the back of her neck. She kept her eyes shut a moment longer, savoring the infinitesimal movements of the man beside her, the shift of a shoulder blade, the gentle flexing of toes. The slow, contented rhythm of his breathing.
When she finally opened her eyes, the ceiling came into focus, softly lit by the late-winter haze breaking through the tiny gap in the blackout curtains. The scent of Niko’s scent lingered on her pillow. It smelled of cedarwood, detergent and rainwater over sunbaked stone. When she dared to turn her head, she saw the real thing.
It was an unfamiliar luxury waking up before her alarm. Usually she was ripped out of sleep by a blaring sound. But after checking her phone, she saw that today, for the first time in years, she’d awoken naturally and still had five minutes beforeshe had to be awake. She decided to spend that precious time allowing herself the luxury of studying Niko unashamedly. She never got the pleasure of just staring at him, and he was a beautiful man. His face was perfectly, magnetically balanced. His high cheekbones complemented the dark lines of his eyebrows, his well-defined jaw, his thick dark lashes, and then there were his lips. His lips were perfect. They fit on her mouth perfectly.
She’d never thought of kissing like a jigsaw before, but when Niko kissed her in front of Brewed Awakenings, that’s what popped into her mind. It felt like he was the missing puzzle piece. It was like their mouths belonged together.
Tiana spent her five minutes trying to memorize the details, because this had to be a one-time anomaly. She couldn’t continue hooking up with Niko. Her heart wouldn’t be in one piece if she did. So, despite having a night of debauchery where she threw reason and sound decisions out the window, she had to go back to reality and do the responsible thing. This was not real, and the more she acted like it was, the worse it would be for her later.
A realization dawned on her as she started to roll over to get out of bed. Every morning when she’d woken up beside Brock, she’d always felt stressed, not wanting to wake him up. She didn’t feel that way with Niko. She actually wanted him to wake up. Not that she’d wake him up. She was going to quietly sneak out of bed and get ready for work.
As she began to sit up, she suddenly felt herself being pulled back down, and then Niko was on top of her, wide awake, lookingwaytoo sexy. It really was unfair how sexy that man could look. His hair disheveled. His stubble extra grown out. He was like catnip to her.
“What are you—” she gasped.
“You owe me a kiss,” he told her.
