“Endlessly,” she confirmed. “I don’t care about them.”
I care about you,she added silently, and even thinking it felt like throwing herself at the mercy of some pitiless god.
“When I first saw you, you had leaves in your hair.” He whispered kissed up her neck, pressed one to the same pulse she’d kissed before, and lifted his head. “And dirt on your knees. And you looked like a queen. The same way you do now.”
One cold green glance that burned hotter than the sun, and he cupped her breast in one hand. “May I?”
Fuck.“Yes.”
He kissed all the way down her breast. Her nipple was peaked and hard, as desperate for his touch as the rest of her. He swirled his tongue over it, and Francine bit back another curse.
He opened his mouth over her breast, and she moaned. Her hips bucked. “Please tell me one of the things you want to explore isbeing touched,” she growled. Because if she didn’t touch him soon, she was going to die.
“Not yet.” His eyes held an apology—and a gleam that was not apologetic at all. “I’m afraid I’ll lose myself in anything you do to me. I want to enjoy you first.”
Most men would call driving their dick into her over and overenjoying her, but he said it likethiswas what he enjoyed—touching her. Learning her body. Discovering how she reacted to each new sensation.
“We could have been doing this on the ship,” she reminded him.
“No. Not like this.” He moved to her other breast, licking around the edge of her areola with the very tip of his tongue. “Not as ourselves.”
He was right. It would have been different, knowing they might be under surveillance. Not knowing whether they were doing it to make their disguise more believable, to keep them safe from Eloise’s violence—oh, god, Elly, what had she gotten herself involved with—not knowing if it wasreal…
She knew this was real. The lust between her and Julian. The desire. The knowledge that their souls were fated to intertwine; that here was someone who was her perfect match. The other half of her heart.
But for the first time she let herselffeelit, not just know it.
Julian wanted her. Bitter and violent and brokenher.
She knew she was beautiful. But nobody had ever said everything else about her was desirable, too.
“Do you like this?” he asked, his breath another touch making her blood sing.
*Yes.*
His hands moved down, caressing her stomach, her hips, and dipping down between her thighs. Her hips twitched again. She wanted to grab his hand and ride it until she came, then grabhimand—
But Julian wanted her to bepatient.
“You’re trying very hard not to grind your teeth,” he noted with his usual dryness. She almost bit back at him.
Then she saw how black his eyes were, lust filling him to overflowing.
“Touch me, and I won’t have to,” she told him.
His hand slipped between her legs.
He cupped her, holding all of her in his palm. Then he moved, a slow rolling touch like the swell of the ocean. She was slick against his hand, a million pinpricks of sensation twisting into something that threatened to burn her from the inside out.
“Do you like this?” he asked.
She almost swore at him. “Do you?” she countered, her breath hitching.
“More than I would have believed possible.” He pressed the heel of his hand against her, and she gasped. “You’re so close already.”
“Disappointed?” She grabbed his hand, holding him against her. Something shocked between them. He’d wanted to explore, yes, butthis—he wanted this, too.
As he was only just discovering.
