He wobbled, I wobbled and theknifewobbled.
Savla reflexively wrapped his arms around me from behind to steady me, his chest flush against my back, his breath catching in my ear. Everything inside memelted. And I was certain that he couldsmellhow wet I was for him.
For a moment, neither of us moved. His arms stayed around me and I leaned back into him instinctively.
“Hanna,” he breathed, voice low enough to shiver along my spine. “You’re… distracting.”
“Me?” I squeaked. “I’m distracting? Ribbon’s been trying to eat your tools for twenty minutes.”
He huffed a laugh against my neck, sending a shiver across my skin and Ribbon croaked smugly. The knife slipped from my fingers and clattered onto the table. Savla gently took the wood block from my hands and set it aside.
Then he tugged me—soft and irresistible—until I was turned sideways on the stool, facing him. His hands settled on my hips and my knees brushed his thighs.
“We can carve later,” he murmured.
My breath hitched. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” he said, dipping his forehead to mine. “Much later.”
Ribbon made a long, dramatic exhale and hopped off the bench, offended we’d abandoned the lesson. Savla nudged his nose against mine—just barely. I melted against him.
He grunted, the sound low and painful as he leaned back, taking me in. It was as though a thousand tiny aches gnawed at my body. Everything all together—comfort, lust, love and inevitability, all swirling around inside of me.
Tonight was going to be different from everything else, I could already tell, and the anticipation was soaring inside of me.I’d been hoping for this for so long—hoping that he’d give in—that I hadn’t even allowed myself to imagine what would happen if he finally did.
My heart thumped slowly and loudly. My body was feverish. He was staring at me, taking me in while I was already pressed against him, urgency rushing through me. Then he reached forward, cupping my head and tugging me against him, harder. I didn’t offer any resistance, coming freely into his arms. He used his thumb to tilt my jaw upward, his lips brushing against mine.
I felt himeverywhere. His scent was making me delirious. The steady warmth of his skin, his finger, travelling to curve around my back.
And then our mouths were touching again. I felt as though we were made of the same body for one insane moment. As if he and I were only separated to exist in different bodies by something bigger than ourselves. Something mystical.
And maybe I was right, maybe that was what fated mateswere.But then his fangs were scraping at the corner of my mouth with the delicious drag of his rough stubble, our air and breath shared between us, and I forgot about all of that. With our height difference, I could barely stretch to meet him, so my upper lip slid against his lower one.
He didn’t kiss me back at first, but there was a low groan in his chest, only loud enough for me to hear. A sound of pained longing, of wanting and of finally having.
“Hanna,” he sighed, and then he was there, his lips against mine. He flipped us so that I was on the worktable, and he was standing between my legs.
The rough swipe of his tongue against my lips, the loud breaths shared between us, and the heat of our mouths as we tasted each other, was everything I’d ever asked for. His fingers tugged at my scalp, tilting me so that we were kissing at new angles, our tongues stroking across each other.
He tasted as delicious as he smelled. I laughed against the seam of his mouth, giddy,ridiculouslyhappy and he grunted.
“What?” before deepening the kiss, not allowing me to answer.
As if he couldn’t stand not kissing me now that he could. As if this was all that we needed in the world, and maybe it was.
But when he slid his hand under my top, the sear of pleasure, the rush ofhim touching my bare skintook us to another level, and I didn’t think I was ever going to recover from what we were doing. I wasn’t certain I’devercome back from SavlaEverlock touching me like I belonged to him.
I gripped his forearms and he sucked at my jaw, then my beck. I released a rough exhale before gasping.“Savla.”
I was so wet, I refused to think about it, and we hadn’t evendoneanything yet. He’d barely kissed me. That couldn’t be normal, and I prayed that he wouldn’t know how pathetically desperate I was for him, but by the way his breath was chuffing out of him, how he took long, pulling, lungfuls of air through his nose, I figured hedefinitelyknew.
I couldn’t bring myself to be embarrassed, though. Not when I was withhim.
“More,” I gasped. And it came out slurred, like a crash of vowels and consonants that no one should be able to understand, but he did.
“Are you sure?” His voice rolled over my skin, made the thing pulsating inside me purr like it was being tamed by him.
I nodded, but I was also blurting.“Only if you want to. I—”
