He lowered his mouth to hers, and she held her breath. Then sighed as his lips brushed hers and she drew him into her mouth.
She didn’t deserve this. She didn’t deserve him after all the bad shit she’d done in her life, but she wanted him. He might have thought she’d saved him from a bitter darkness, but the truth was, he’d saved her. Because without him, she’d have become a hard, empty shell of a person. She’d have become someone just like Zagreus.
“Nick…”
He tipped his head, kissed her deeper, wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into the warmth and protection of his body. And as she returned his kiss with every ounce of passion inside her, she opened the last bit of her heart to him.
Her head grew light. Her skin tingled. She felt as if his kisses were shaking the ground. And then her knees wobbled, and she drew back from his mouth and realized they weren’t standing in the field behind the ruins of her parents’ old house. They were in a bedroom. One with pale blue walls, a queen-size bed covered with a gray-and-white-checked quilt, and a small window that looked out over a dark street.
“Where…?” She glanced around and recognized the symbol hanging over the bed. The crescent moon tipped on its side with three droplets falling beneath it. The witch’s symbol for blessing. Her gaze shot back to his face. “We’re in Delia’s house. You flashed me through walls.”
A sexy, powerful grin curled his lips, pulling on the scar across his cheek. “I’m telling you, these gifts are coming in mighty handy.”
He leaned close, brushed his tempting mouth over hers again, and pushed the lightweight jacket from her shoulders, then dropped it on the floor. “But right now I don’t want to use them. I want to unwrap you like the gift that you are.”
She sucked in a breath as he drew back, as his fingers found the hem of her T-shirt and lifted it above her head. His eyes raked over the swell of her breasts, and her nipples tightened when she saw the desire in his features. He licked his lips and leaned down to kiss her again.
She pushed the jacket from his shoulder as he walked her backward toward the bed, every part of her aching for his touch. He laved his tongue over hers and flipped the clasp on her bra free, then tugged it from her arm and tossed it behind him.
The backs of her legs hit the mattress, but he caught her around the waist before she fell, then lowered her to the bed, never once breaking their kiss, never once letting her go.
She’d never wanted anyone to protect her. Never thought she’d needed it. But with Nick, she felt safe. Cherished. And even in his darkest hour, she knew in the depths of her heart that he’d never hurt her.
She reached for his shirt as he climbed over her. He eased back long enough for her to pull the soft cotton free of his body. Then his mouth was on hers once more, the muscles in his back rippling beneath her fingers as he kissed her again and again, as she opened her legs and he pressed her into the mattress.
“Mm, Cynna.” His hand slid up her side to cup her breast and brush his thumb over her nipple. “I’m lost without you.”
Her fingers found his waistband, and she reached between them, unbuttoning his jeans. “Then don’t ever be without me.”
He groaned into her mouth as she slipped her hand into his pants and closed her fingers around his length. He was hard, hot, already pulsing in her grip. And as he licked into her mouth and pressed into her hand, she stroked him, loving the way he trembled against her, loving that she did this to him, that she was the one who could make him weak.
He drew back from her before she was ready to let him go, crawled back off the bed, and stripped her of her own pants. Heart pounding, she pressed up on her elbows and watched as his gaze skipped across her naked flesh, as his features darkened, as he licked his lips again, then lowered to his knees and tugged her hips to the edge of the bed.
“This is what I want,” he whispered.
Anticipation and heat swirled inside her as he pushed her legs apart, as he leaned close. And then he licked the swollen flesh between her legs, and she was gone.
Pleasure rushed down her spine. She dropped her head back as that pleasure trickled through her body, groaned when he did it again and again, sending her spinning toward a release only he could make her reach. He knew exactly where to touch her with his tongue, with his fingers, knew just when to suckle to make her cry out and when to back off to heighten her arousal. Sweat slicked her skin. She fisted the quilt at her sides. Lifted to meet his wicked tongue as he pushed her closer toward oblivion. And when he finally let her go, the ecstasy was like nothing she’d ever known, so completely soul shattering, she knew nothing else but him.