Listen more, talk less. –Russian Proverb
“BEEN DREAMING ABOUT ME, ZVEZDA MOYA?”
Warmth filled my chest. “My mother used to call me her little star.” It was one of my favorite memories of being a child, one of the rare things I actually did remember before my sixteenth birthday. Memories from before then had been… locked away, or so it seemed. I remembered fragments, my father said it was because of the car accident, apparently the trauma had been too much, and my concussion had caused long term effects.
“Maya,” Nikolai whispered my name between our mouths, linking me to him, making me want nothing more than to kiss him, it wasn’t just familiar, it was right, like he said, it was… as if we fit, we were meant to be.
The fear was still there.
But it wasn’t from him.
It was for us.
And I had no idea why.
“Why are you frowning?” He asked, one hand caressing my face while the other cupped the back of my head, pulling me closer to him.
“You said never to ask questions,” I teased.
His lips twitched. “I deserved that.”
“I don’t know why…” I worried my lower lip as tears pooled in my eyes. “I have no idea why my dad sent me to your offices, or why he would sign my life away… why you would take it. I’m confused more than ever about what we’re really doing with the Italians and why they would swear to protect a hated enemy. There are so many questions that my head is spinning, but I know the answer to one. And if I know the answer to one, then I’m doing okay, right?”
“Absolutely.” He tensed slightly, as if holding his breath. “And what is your answer?”
“You,” I said simply. “It all leads to you. Everything. And I think, for now…” I leaned up, brushing my lips across his. “That’s all that matters.”
“And if I’m the key to both your survival and your destruction, what then?”
“You mean what if your water is poison?” I asked.
He didn’t answer.
“Then I want to drink.”
There were two seconds.
Two brief moments in time.
When I felt my heart race and wondered if it matched his as Nikolai took a steadying breath… then swallowed hard.
One beat against my chest, and his lips were touching mine.
Two beats as my heart picked up speed, and I could feel the heat of his mouth as he slid his tongue across my lower lip.
I moaned in response, reaching around his neck, grasping fistfuls of his hair and tugging as his body moved against mine. Without breaking the kiss, Nikolai found the hem of my cotton T-shirt, lifted it and pulled it over my head, our mouths parting for seconds before, with a sizzle of heat, they met again, and again. Each time our lips grazed it felt new, and yet familiar, like we’d shared hundreds of kisses, thousands of embraces.
He leaned back and helped me to a sitting position, his muscles flexing from holding his own weight. Moonlight shone across the planes of his firm chest. Something about Nikolai’s masculine beauty was lethal, so dangerous that my heart raced even harder. He frowned, pressing his palm to my chest as if trying to calm me down.
I wasn’t safe.
Not in his arms.
But I was where I belonged.
I was complete.
The sensation washed over me with such a rightness that I wanted to cry, like I’d been waiting my entire life for that very moment. Images of us kissing flashed in my mind.
I touched the sides of his face, my hands soaking in the warmth of his cheeks.
“I’ll never be free of you,” Nikolai turned his head, whispering against my open palm, then his head descended as he kissed slowly down my neck, each breath tickled against my skin as his tongue left wet possessive trails down to my collarbone, his lips sucked as his hands moved down to my hips and pulled my shorts free.
He was right about one thing, as his smooth hands trailed down the sensitive skin of my thighs, neither of us would be free of this moment, it was going to bind us together forever.
Nikolai’s breathing increased as his hands cupped my ass, and he pulled my body farther down the bed then braced a hand on either side of me. Holding his weight off me, he continued kissing down my arm, stopping at my fingertips, then sucking each finger, like he wanted to taste every single part of me and wouldn’t be satisfied with just my mouth.
I nearly bucked off the bed when he moved to my hips.
“Sensitive,” he mused, I could feel his smile against my skin as he kept kissing. “I could drink you like this…” His mouth moved to my core. “And like this.” I let out a pitiful moan as tingling sensations spiraled outward from where his mouth caressed me. “Every damn day.”
“Nik—“
With a growl he splayed his hands across my hips forcing my body down when it wanted to go up, to move against him. It was the sweetest torture, and an ache built within me. I squeezed my eyes shut as a warm explosion washed over me.
It felt the same way it had in my dreams.
Only better.
I wanted more of those feelings, more of Nikolai. No, not more. All. I needed all of him.