“Also for not being Kyven Windermere.”
He gave a gravelly chuckle. “Well, would you look at that. All I had to do was get angry for you to finally admit you want me.”
“Fuck you,” I spat.
He pulled back just enough to let me glimpse the heat crowding his eyes. “Thatiswhat happens next, yes.”
I studied him. He licked his lips, his eyes fanatical and gleaming, and I was lost. Utterly and completely. I had never wanted anything the way I wanted him, with every molecule. Because prince or not, he was stillhim, and I craved him like I craved my next breath.
This prick.
“Fine,” I said. “Do it. But you’re not allowed to enjoy it.”
Before my lips finished shaping the words, he was devouring me again. This time, it wasn’t a kiss, but something beyond that. A starburst, exploding me into blazing need.
“I promise to hate every second,” he said against my lips, then grabbed my ass and hoisted me, his muscles bunching as he carried me to the counter and set me down. Our mouths went to war. I clutched at him, barely able to make sense of our fevered whimpers. I didn’t know whose they were, only that I was drowning. Falling. Flying apart into a wondrous expanse of crackling heat and want, want, want.
His hands roamed the contours of my breasts and belly, and I pawed at him with equally frantic fingers. He yanked my legs apart and pressed close, grinding his desire against me. He kissed me so deeply I wondered if he could taste the hunger I’d been bottling up for weeks.
Oh, goddess. He was going to annihilate me. I could already tell. An inch, a mile, and so much more besides.
His scalding fingers skated down the outsides of my thighs. He gripped the hem of my nightgown and lifted.
“Don’t stop kissing me,” I gasped into his mouth. “Don’t you dare fucking stop.”
He answered with a hungry sound and moved his hands to my neckline, instead. Then he gripped the keyhole closure and just...
...ripped. Down the middle. Like it was easy. Like it was nothing.
His mouth never left mine as he flung the halves of my nightgown apart. Air hit my bare skin, and I forced my legs wide, opening to him, granting him every scrap of control. His tongue plunged into my mouth, and I bit down hard enough to earn a groan. My hands scrabbled at his back, fingernails etching lines into his skin.
I’d broken some invisible barrier. Strayed far beyond the point of surrender. But I might as well wreak some havoc now that I’d resolved to climb onto the pyre and set myself ablaze.
Kai’s rough hands collared my waist. He finally broke the kiss and pressed me back until my elbows hit the counter. We stared at each other, panting. The marble wicked the warmth from my skin.
He perused the length of me, his dilated eyes lingering on the swell of my breasts, then the valley between my legs.
“You’re exquisite,” he said. “Exceptional in every way.”
Before I could respond, he dropped to his knees. I barely had time to coil in anticipation before his tongue slid against my wetness. No pause. No break. Just dazzling destruction unleashed.
I cried out as my head fell back. Sweet Zephyrine, if I’d thought that thing he did with his tongue felt good on my neck, letting him do ittheremade me want to levitate off the counter. He licked and lapped and sucked. My eyes crossed behind closed lids, my entire body quaking as the void threatened to engulf me.
Then he slipped two fingers into me and I nearly rocketed free of my skin. The boundaries of myself collapsed to a shimmer.
He kept going. And going. Until I started to fold inward, a star verging on implosion.
“Oh,fuck,” I gibbered at the ceiling. “Fuckfuckfuck, you have to stop. Please. Or...”
His tongue slowed as his fingers disappeared. When I opened my eyes, he stood between my splayed legs, his face hard as he yanked his breech-laces from their eyelets. “Or what?”
“I’ll come.” I sounded as parched as a person could get.
“The problem being?”
“I want to do it with you. Around you.”
“Well.” He flashed a half-smile, this one rigid with promise. “That doesn’t soundentirelyunenjoyable.”
