“Do you feel that, little storm?” Gods, his voice was low and rough and made her feel all sorts of things she had no business feeling.
How could she not? It wasn’t that she was a stranger to men’s erections, but this… Nikhail’s… Oh, gods. Her mouth dried, along with her thoughts, and all she could do was nod.
Nikhail rolled his hips in a way that confirmed that yes, he would be an amazing lover. As if she’d had any doubts based on the way he’d kissed her in the solarium.
His cock rubbed her clit through her jeans, and she groaned, wishing there were no layers between them at all.Who had invented clothes anyway? They were awfully inconvenient.
“This is all for you,” he admitted huskily, each word sending a bolt of heat past her navel. “I wantyou, River.”
She breathed his name, her eyes searching his.
“Do you think a storm scares me?” He leaned in, his amber eyes darkening as his breath brushed her lips. Warmed them until they were tingling, begging for more. “I fucking love your storm. Your power. I love that you aren’t weak, that you’re a gods-damned force to be reckoned with. You don’t frighten me at all.”
His fingers dug into her hips, pressing her down on his length, and his mouth fused with hers. Hot. Powerful.Urgent.
This kiss wasn’t kind or gentle or a goodbye. It wasn’t a sorrowful whisper, a last embrace before he left her life forever.
It was a claiming. A declaration. A promise that despite the curse coursing through her veins, despite the pain she felt, he wanted her.
River should’ve shoved him away and left. He was her brother’s best friend, for the gods’ sake. She should’ve insisted he leave because, in the end, it didn’t matter whether he was scared of her or not; he should be.
She should’ve done that, but she didn’t.
Instead, her hands—those treacherous hands connected to her treacherous body that didn’t seem to understand why she’d tried to build walls around her heart in the first place—rose and tangled themselves in Nikhail’s hair.
“You’re really not afraid of me?” she asked, pulling back to lose herself in his amber gaze. “Of what I can do?”
“Never,” he snarled, and gods, she wanted to believe him so damn badly.
“But what if I hurt you?” Like she’d hurt so many others.
“You won’t.” He sounded so sure of that—of her—that her fears melted away.
Maybe he was right. Maybe they could be together, and her curse wouldn’t keep them apart. If that was the case, why had she spent years pushing him away? Why had they been dancing around each other all that time, when they could’ve hadthis?
She just… she had to be sure. “You don’t want me to leave? You still want to be with me?”
Even after she’d told him everything? Even now that he knew she was a bringer of death?
“By the gods and all that is holy, yes,” he growled. “I want you, River. I want to be with you in every single way, if you’ll let me.”
Let him?
“I was waiting for you to break my heart and walk out that door, Nik,” she admitted. “Waiting for you to leave me in pieces. I want you so badly, I barely know what to do with myself.”
His eyes darkened as she spoke, and the moment she was done, his mouth crashed onto hers. Desperate. Hot. Full of need.
There were no more words between them, which was good, because River thought she might be done with words forever.
They became a tangle of lips and tongues and teeth as they explored each other.
He nipped at her lips, and she whimpered. Gods, he felt so good. Rolling her hips over his length, she delighted in his responding groan.Shedid that to him. Made him feel like that.
He spread his thighs, forcing her lower on him, and gods. Above.
Every layer of clothing felt like the most insurmountable of barriers. Why were they still dressed?
He groaned her name like it was a prayer. All husky and low and meant for her ears alone. His lips traveled from her mouth, kissing and sucking a trail down her jaw.