Page 34 of Dragon Kissed

“Do you want me?”

Heat flooded his eyes. “Yes.” The word was barely human.

“Then why do you keep walking away?”

“Because wanting you does not grant me the right to take.”

“I’m not asking you to take.” His breathing changed. She placed her hand on his bare chest, his heart striking her palm hard and fast. “I’m asking you to stay.”

Demetri closed his eyes, and pain crossed his face — not physical. “Nica, I cannot give you something casual.”

“I didn’t ask for casual.”

“You do not know enough about me to promise more.”

“I’m not promising anything.” His eyes opened. “That is the problem.” She almost laughed — of course even seduction had to become a negotiation with this man. “I want you,” she said. “Tonight. Right now. I’m choosing that.”

“And tomorrow?”

“I’ll still be me.”

“That is not what I asked.” His hand lifted to her face and stopped just short. “Nica, if I touch you, it will matter.”

Her throat tightened. “It already matters.”

The restraint in him broke.

Demetri kissed her — no careful beginning, no suspended question, none of the terrible patience he’d shown her for four days. His mouth took hers with a starving precision, and she felt every one of those days in it, every hour he’d stepped out of doorways and drawn his hand back and held himself still. Gone now. One hand slid into her hair and fisted. The other pulled her flush against his bare body, and she felt the fever-heat of his skin and the hard ridge of him against her belly, and a sound broke out of her that he swallowed whole.

He lifted her. Effortless. Her legs wrapped around his waist on instinct, and he carried her across the room without breaking the kiss, his mouth slanting over hers, his tongue sweeping in to taste her. The bed caught her back. He followed her down,braced above her, his body hard and enormous between her thighs, blotting out the light.

Too many clothes.She dragged at his belt.

His hand closed over hers. “Look at me.”

She did. His eyes had gone red — fully, openly red now, no hiding it, twin coals in the dark. “Tell me to stop,” he said, his voice a rasp, “and I stop. This instant. No matter how far we’ve gone.”

“I know.”

“Say it.”

“If I tell you to stop, you stop. Immediately.” She dragged in a breath. “Even if you object.”

A breath of laughter escaped her. “I’m sure you’ll object very politely.”

His mouth moved against hers, almost a smile — and then his hand slid beneath her sweater, and every thought in her head went dark.

His palm dragged up her stomach, hot enough to make her own skin feel cool by comparison, and she arched into it. It found the lower edge of her bra and stopped. Waiting. Asking, without asking. Nica arched harder, pushing into his hand.

Permission.

His fingers closed around her breast, and pleasure struck fast and sharp, and she gasped. Demetri watched her face as his thumb dragged over her nipple through the lace. Again. Slower. Watching what it did to her.

“You are so beautiful,” he said, low and reverent, and Nica turned her face away on instinct.

His hand left her breast and caught her jaw and brought her back. “No.”

Heat rushed to her cheeks. “This is a strange time for an argument.”