“Out of duty to the Cauldron and your kingdom.”
My reminder spirited away his wickedness, replacing it with stanch solemnity. “Amara Wood, I am not settling for you out of necessity or obligation. And I am ahundredpercent sure I want you and will keep wanting you until you turn wrinkly and gray.”
I grimaced. “Let’s not talk about graying.”
His eyes delved into mine. “Are you having second thoughts about us?”
“No.”
“Areyoua hundred percent certain?”
“I’m a thousand percent certain.”
He grunted.
To prove my point, I shifted my hands to the only piece of clothing between us—his pants. I undid the button, then lowered the zipper, my pulse blasting from my boldness. After killing a man, undressing one surely shouldn’t have been so terrifying, but damn if I wasn’t one giant jumble of nerves. In timid increments, I swept my gaze over the buffed expanse of golden skin that tapered into an abdomen so ridged and trim it seemed soldered from sheets of metal. My fingers shook, which was all it took to nudge the waistband off the sharp indents at Remo’s waist.
As the wet jeans tumbled, my fingertips jolted off his skin, and I blinked, first at his bared flesh, then at his hooded eyes. “Why did you—why did you assault Kingston when he . . .?”
His forehead furrowed in confusion.
A blush crawled up my neck. “When he said you were . . . um . . . not—”
His frown smoothed, and his lips quirked. “Well-endowed?”
“Yes.” I was tempted to fan myself. “That.”
The small cave filled with his intoxicating laughter. I didn’t know how long it lasted, but actual tears formed on his lash line by the time he sobered up.
Grin still intact, he said, “I punched him because he was an ass, and because, like you said yourself, I’m prideful. Not because my manhood felt threatened.” His teeth flashed. “Were you worried?”
“No.”Hot.Skies, I was so damn hot.
He caught my chin between thumb and forefinger and levered my face. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For still wanting to be with me in spite of thinking I would be . . . underwhelming.”
My nerves loosened, and my blush tempered. “It’s your heart and mind I’m after.”
“Good thing you’ll get both, and so”—his hand fell from my face but didn’t leave my body—“sosomuch more.”
I tried to roll my eyes at his overwhelming confidence, but he stepped into me, his edges denting my curves, and my brain broke, ceasing all commands, reducing me to a single, highly receptive but uselessly static, nerve ending. His fingers began a slow voyage down the frame of my body, drawing tantalizing arabesques over my skin, coaxing whorls of goose bumps to the surface.
He lowered his face to mine, his tousled hair fluttering over his brow, and breathed my name against the tip of my nose and then again against my parted lips. I could still only stare, only feel, only gasp when his mouth dropped over mine, taking great care in not angering the tender skin. He licked and caressed, his tongue dancing into my mouth, lunging before withdrawing.
When his fingers stopped roaming my body, frustration welded onto my anticipation. I must’ve sounded my displeasure, because he released a low chuckle that vibrated against my teeth.
“You really are an impatient woman,” he murmured, before pressing my lips apart and sheathing his tongue inside at the very same time he slipped a finger across my slippery folds.
I gasped, and he groaned, his kiss hardening along with the rest of his body. My limbs finally stirred, and my palms skated up the taut sinews of his arms to perch on his shoulders.
He stroked me slowly, and although I craved a faster pace, it was such exquisite torture that I let my head roll back against the wall and closed my eyes. In the back of my mind, it occurred to me that perhaps I should tell him I’d never been with anyone before, but his fingers magicked away my ability to speak. Besides, it didn’t matter to me and shouldn’t matter to him.
He nosed the side of my neck, peppering it with kisses that turned sloppier as he worked me harder, slickening me further. Seeking my pleasure turned him feral, the noises he made against my flushed skin more animal than man, fanning the gathering heat until my release sparked and set my entire body aflame. It wasn’t my first orgasm, but it put all the ones I’d given myself to shame.
Before I’d even started to come down, he gripped my thighs and lifted me clear off the ground. My lids flipped open. I hooked my feet behind his back and my arms behind his neck.
