And it’s as if the world stops turning.
At first, his mouth touches mine carefully, as though he’s testing whether this is real. Then our lips meet again, and I part mine without thinking, letting him in. The moment our tongues touch, something inside him gives.
The kiss deepens, becomes more demanding.
Alexander breathes as if he’s been holding his breath his whole life, only remembering how to breathe now that our lips have finally met. When he pulls me impossibly closer, my body fits against his without resistance, like it was made for this exact shape.
The hand that cups my cheek slides lower, his fingers settling at my nape, his thumb brushing the sensitive skin at my throat... a touch that sends my stomach dropping somewhere near my feet.
I let out a small gasp into his mouth. And that tiny sound is what undoes him. I feel it as he guides me back, until my spine meets one of the pillars. The chill of ancient stone on my thighs clashes with the fevered heat of his body pressed into mine.
Alexander breaks the kiss for only a beat, our foreheads touching, our breaths tangled.
His eyes... Dark. Burning on mine. It all feels too much for me to endure intact.
“Cecilia...” he murmurs, a warning and a confession in the same breath.
I don’t have time to answer. He kisses me again.
This time, without restraint. His mouth claims mine with a hunger he can no longer hide. He holds me to the stone, and I can feel him,all of him, his hand tightening at my waist, pulling me closer.
My heart races, and my hand on his chest finds the frantic beat beneath my palm, the heat bleeding through his shirt. I lift my other hand, threading my fingers into his dark hair.
He smiles and bites my lower lip when I pull him by the collar, as if it confirms everything he already knows.
Edinburgh continues to glow below us. But to me… it disappears. There’s nothing in this moment besides the heat of his mouth, how he brushes his nose along mine, and the weight of his body holding me up. Shivers run through me at the faint scrape of his beard on my skin.
He captures my mouth again and deepens the kiss one last time, before he eases back... Brushing his lips over mine with something close to reverence.
Before either of us can say a word, laughter drifts up the hill, and we turn to see a group of young people making their way toward us.
“We should go,” Alexander says, and I can hear the reluctance in his hoarse tone. “We’re leaving early tomorrow.”
I nod, my hand tight in the fabric of his shirt.
He leans in once more. Nuzzles his face into my hair, breathing me in. Presses a kiss to my forehead... then the tip of my nose. He hesitates for a heartbeat before brushing one last kiss over my lips.
Then, with his fingers laced through mine, he leads me down the hill.
His firm grip on my hand keeps me upright... even as my mind spins, and my entire body is still tingling long after a single kiss.
Alexander
I left Cecilia at her inn and came straight back to mine.
My skin hasn’t stopped buzzing. I keep feeling her lips on mine, the sounds she made replaying in my mind. And I only kissed her.
Who am I trying to fool?
It wasn’tjusta kiss. It was the kind of kiss that once sent men to war. That made them lose their minds... and their fortunes. It can never be just a kiss when you’re ready to let it ruin you.
She surrendered completely. Melted into my arms, molding to me like second nature.
“Cazzo.”
I run a hand through my hair and move to the window. I just hope I didn’t push too much, too fast. I saw it in her eyes... she wanted me just as much.
But I went from a kiss to pinning her to a historic monument in the span of a heartbeat. All my control evaporated the second I had her body pressed to mine, her scent wrapping around me...
