Shards of Hope (Page 96)
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Lowering his head on the roar of need, one hand under her back to arch her up toward him, he sucked at her nipple. Zaira twisted under him, her legs sliding over his body, but she didn’t push him away. Continuing to lick and suck at her, he drank in the small sounds she made and suddenly understood that he had a deeply primitive core that gloried in his ability to give his lover what she needed.
“What—” Zaira sucked in a breath as he switched to her neglected breast. “What should I do?” A gasp. “For you?”
Drunk on her, Aden didn’t reply.
Shuddering as he grazed his teeth over her breast, she said, “Do you want me to take off my top?”
Aden had to stop, tense every one of his muscles, his penis ready to explode. “Yes,” he finally gritted out.
Reaching down, she tugged off the soft fabric. He didn’t see what she did with it, his eyes on her naked upper body. She appeared even more delicate this way, the skin of her breasts pale and already marked by his caresses. Closing his hand over the flushed flesh of one breast, he bent his head to the other, not yet done with his self-imposed task.
The sound that came from her was a shocked combination of pleasure and sweet need, her arousal damp and hot in the air.
It turned Aden into a creature of pure want. He took Zaira’s mouth in harsh demand. Arms and legs locking around him again, she met him kiss for kiss, their bodies rocking instinctively against one another and their breathing choppy. He drank her up and demanded more, his greed for her voracious.
• • •
ZAIRA didn’t know how to process this much pleasure, this much sensation, but neither did she want to stop. Especially when Aden was so totally out of control. She’d always thought he was beautiful, but seeing him like this, his cheekbones flushed and his hair falling around his face as he gorged on her, she had no words to describe the way he affected her.
“Yes,” she said.
Eyes jet black and glittering with need, he shook his head, as if to clear it for thought. “Yes?”
“Full sexual contact,” she whispered, running her fingers over his kiss-swollen lips. “I want it.” Even in the midst of such unadulterated pleasure, part of her knew this was a moment out of time. If she was lucky, the madness might not live in her blood, but that didn’t alter her nature, didn’t alter her feral possessiveness where Aden was concerned.
A possessiveness that in itself was like insanity.
“Zaira.” His body trembled from the vicious control he’d managed to assert over himself. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” She wanted every part of him she could hold, at least for these hours where she was sane and rational and not a monster—because she wasn’t sure she could hang on to her reason as she spiraled further and further into emotion. Further and further into the extraordinary, deadly, powerful man who was her lover. “I want you.” Drawing him closer, she pressed her mouth to his.
Kissing was a wonderful, wonderful thing. She loved being able to taste him, loved being able to feel his breath as the perspiration-damp heat of his body rubbed against hers. It was so intimate, more intimate than anything but his mind open to her own. She slid hers open just enough for him and he swept inside to deepen the already intense intimacy of the contact.
Afraid time was running out, that she wouldn’t get to experience the entirety of this sexual inferno with him, she moved her hands to his waistband and undid the button, lowered the zip. He cooperated, kicking off his pants, but one of his hands still cradled her jaw and neck, the other on her breast as he continued to kiss her as if he couldn’t get enough.
Zaira. Zaira. Zaira.
Something fell dully to the floor as his mind burned with her name, and she realized it must be the organizer with the manuals. She should’ve probably read those so she’d know what she was doing, but all she wanted to do was touch Aden. Rubbing against him, she made a frustrated sound. Aden.
He didn’t ask her what she wanted, just lifted off her, hooked his fingers into the sides of her pants and panties and pulled. His breath caught as she was exposed and he paused with her clothing halfway down her thighs, but she twisted to remind him she wanted to be naked.
Jaw clenched, he got the items off. When he would’ve come back down, she touched her toes to his briefs, her leg bent. Getting the hint, he got off the bed and stripped off the briefs before returning to his position over her. She barely glimpsed him. I wanted to admire you.
• • •
ZAIRA’S words almost ripped away what infinitesimal control Aden had managed to claw back so he could be certain she was ready. Later, he said, one of his hands on the side of her face as he held her in place for another kiss. This one was raw, deep, almost rough, but she didn’t push him away. Wrapping her legs around him instead, she arched into him.
Wet heat slid over his cock, her arousal unhidden.
His heart slammed against his ribs.
Then she began to kiss his shoulders, his neck, and he knew he was one more caress away from losing it. Running his hand down her side, he insinuated it between their bodies in an effort to distract her—and pleasure her. “I have to make sure you’re ready.” That part of the manual he’d memorized; if Zaira was giving him the gift of her trust, he would do nothing to abuse it.
She moaned at the first brush of his rough-skinned fingertips. “I am ready.” Nails digging into his shoulders, she writhed under him. “But . . . Aden . . . what . . .”
Sweat broke out over his body at the now wordless gasps that spilled from her mouth as he stroked his fingers through her liquid-soft folds to find her clitoris and rub. His fingers were wet with her, the lubrication both easing his way and driving him crazy. When he moved his hand lower, to nudge at the entrance to her body, she bit him on the arm.
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