I pull him down into another kiss rather than examine why that honesty is more attractive than any pretty lie could be. His weight settles over me, solid and real, and for the first time since the alley I feel safe. Protected. Like nothing can reach me here.
His hands are more confident now, less asking permission and more claiming what I’ve offered. When he finds the clasp of my bra, I arch into him, needing the contact, needing the distraction from everything spinning in my head.
“Nikola—”
“I’ve got you,” he murmurs against my throat, and somehow I believe him. This man who’s destroyed my life and saved it in equal measure—I believe that right now, in this moment, he’s got me.
The rest of our clothes disappear in urgent movements, neither of us patient enough for slow seduction. This isn’t about romance or tenderness. No, it’s about need, about claiming,about two people who’ve been circling each other in anger and fear finally giving in to the inevitable pull between them.
When he settles between my thighs, he pauses, searching my face one more time. His cock throbs against my skin.
“Tell me you want this.”
“I want this.” The words come out steady despite the trembling in my limbs. “I want you.”
He enters me slowly, carefully, watching my face for any sign of discomfort.
God, the feeling of him filling me, stretching me, claiming me in the most primal way possible, it’s overwhelming. Too much and not enough all at once.
“Breathe,” he instructs, voice strained with the effort of control.
I do, and his cock slides deeper, and suddenly we’re completely joined. Connected in a way that makes everything else fade into background noise. The fear, the anger, the complicated mess of our situation—none of it matters right now. Right now there’s only this: his body over mine, inside mine, becoming part of mine.
He starts to move and I move with him, finding a rhythm that’s equal parts battle and surrender. Every thrust is punctuated by harsh breaths, and my walls clench with the pleasure.
“Look at me,” he demands when my eyes start to drift closed.
I do, and the intensity in his gaze nearly undoes me. This isn’t just sex for him—it’s something more complicated, more consuming. I can see it written across every line of his face, feel it in every controlled movement of his body.
He’s claiming me, yes. He’s also giving himself to me in return, offering up pieces of himself I don’t think he’s shown anyone else.
The realization makes something crack open inside me.
“Harder,” I demand, digging my nails into his shoulders.
He complies immediately, hips snapping forward with more force, more urgency. The headboard hits the wall with rhythmic thuds that would be embarrassing if I could bring myself to care about anything beyond the building pressure inside me.
“That’s it,” he encourages, one hand sliding between us to where we’re joined. “Take what you need from me. Take everything.”
The combination of his words, his touch, the relentless drive of his body into mine—it all becomes too much. I shatter around him with a cry that echoes off the stark walls, waves of pleasure rolling through me so intensely I forget how to breathe.
He follows moments later, my name a harsh prayer on his lips as he buries himself deep and goes still, trembling with the force of his release.
For several long moments we just stay like that, tangled together, breathing hard, neither of us quite ready to face what we’ve just done. What line we’ve just crossed.
Finally, he shifts, carefully withdrawing and rolling to the side. I expect him to put distance between us immediately, maybe to retreat into that controlled composure he wears like armor.
Instead, he pulls me against his chest, one arm wrapped around my waist, holding me close.
“Tomorrow—” he starts.
“Tomorrow I’ll probably regret this,” I interrupt. “Tomorrow I’ll remember all the reasons I hate you. Tomorrow this will be complicated again.”
“Tonight?”
I press my face against his shoulder, breathing in the scent of him—gunpowder and expensive cologne and something uniquely Nikola. “Tonight I’m choosing not to think about it.”
His arm tightens around me, and I feel him press a kiss to the top of my head. Such a gentle gesture from such a dangerous man.
