Page 110 of Embrace

He hugs me tighter. “This is pretty good.”

I laugh and pull him back onto his bed, both of us falling on it, still caught in an embrace.

“How was your game?” I ask, looking up only to find his eyes closed.

“Good. But I missed my girlfriend.”

There’s a brief pause like he didn’t mean to say that out loud. He opens his eyes and smiles when he sees me looking at him.

“Girlfriend? Am I your girlfriend?”

He raises a brow. “I don’t think we can classify the things we do under a tutor relationship.”

I smack his arm, snuggling into him. “But we’re still friends, right?”

Kian chuckles. “Of course. But I know this is new for you, so if you don’t want labels—”

He offers it so easily, it’s almost convincing. As if he’s ever done no labels. “I do. Of course I do. But don’t get annoyed with me if I’m not good at it.”

“You’re good at everything, Scarlett. You’re the smartest girl I know. And I’ll happily tutor you on whatever you need.”

I laugh when he kisses me softly.

“I’m here for you. It doesn’t need to be complicated. It’s just us.”

“Okay, I like that. Kian Ishida, my boyfriend.”

His brown eyes glow like sunlight. “Say it again.”

“My boyfriend, Kian.”

Kian’s mouth finds mine, unhurried, his hand sliding down until his fingers press into the curve of my hips. He squeezes lightly, like he’s making sure it’s me. I sink deeper into him, threading my fingers through his hair, tugging until he presses more of his weight into me.

My necklace is warm against my skin, and it makes me pause. With him still on top of me, breathing heavily, I loosen my arms from around his neck. The black orbs slowly return to his usual soft brown when he looks at me like this. Kian doesn’t move. He stays right there above me, his chest warm against mine, every slow breath from him a contrast to the shallow ones I’m still chasing.

“Can I give you something?” I ask.

His lips brush the tip of my nose. “Yeah, baby. You can give me anything.”

A grin stretches across my cheeks before I can stop it. I reach for the clasp of my necklace, my fingers shaking as I go to unhook it.

Before I can even try, inked fingers gently take over, wordlesslyunhooking it and slipping the chain from around my neck. Then, when I reach for his chain, he’s confused but unhooks it without hesitation and drops it in my hand. I slide one tiny heart from the chain and onto the other. Kian’s gaze never wavers. It’s like he’s memorizing every motion and each breath between us.

“Hold this,” I whisper, and he does.

When I reach up to fasten the chain back around his neck, he swallows as my fingers brush his warm skin. The tiny heart dangles in the space between us, glinting in the low light, swinging gently with every rise and fall of his chest.

When I look at him, his eyes are bright. Slowly, his hands move, finding my necklace, now with just one silver heart. He fastens it at the base of my throat, his fingers brushing the curve of my neck, lingering there for a moment.

“You’re giving me your heart?”

It’s always been yours.“Guess I got a little tired of carrying both.”

Kian dips his head and takes the dangling heart from his chain into his mouth, his lips closing around the cool metal. A beat later, he closes the space between us, kissing me slowly, making us both taste the silver on our tongues.

He pulls back, and I feel so lost in the kiss that I don’t realize how I’m squirming beneath his palm on my navel. He works his fingers between us, watching me pant from beneath him as he teases my clit. Kian fists his cock once, then presses it right to my clit, making me squirm until he gets his hands on my waist to steady me.

“Be still, Scarlett.”