And then he was lifting me off the sink, backing up as I clutched at his shoulders and then the soft strands of his hair. He nipped at my lips as he bumped into the wall, and I laughed into his kiss, and he growled back at me. Somehow we made it into the bedroom and then he was laying me on the bed and he was coming over me, his body large and warm as he braced himself above me.

With the light of the bedroom to guide me, I reached out and touched his face. He turned into the touch, nuzzling my palm as he shuddered. When his eyes opened, I swore they glowed.

Neither of us moved or said anything for a long moment, and I swore to God, if Peanut decided to pop up right now, I would find a way to bring him back to life just to straight up murder him.

Peanut didn’t appear but Zayne’s stillness was starting to worry me. “Zayne?”

His throat worked on a swallow. “There’s something I should tell you.”

“What?” My gaze searched his face as I drew my fingers over the curve of his cheek.

He turned his chin, kissing my fingertips. “I’ve... I’ve never done this before.”

My fingers stilled. My entire body stilled as his words sunk through. “You mean...you haven’t done this?”

“Well, I’ve done this. I’ve done...stuff, but I haven’t had sex.” His gaze found mine and a small grin appeared. “Now you look struck speechless.”

I blinked. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to, but I’m just shocked. I mean, you’re—you’re you. You’re beautiful and you’re intelligent. You’re kind and you’re funny and—”

“And annoying.”

“Yeah, that, but—”

“And overbearing.”

“And that, too, but—”

“But I still haven’t done it,” he said.

“Why?” I asked, and then immediately felt like an ass for doing so. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that.”

“It’s okay. I...I just haven’t.”

I was shocked, but I was also...relieved in a way. “I haven’t, either.”

A slow, heart-wrenching smile pulled at his lips. A real one, and it was the kind of smile that could break hearts and rebuild them.

“I don’t know where this is leading,” I said, tracing the curve of his shoulder. “I just know that I like you, Zayne. I really like you, and that has nothing to do with everything else that’s going on. I want you, but we...we don’t have to do that.”

“No, we don’t.” He lowered his head and kissed the corner of my mouth, then he spoke again. “But there is other...stuff we can do.”

And this time, when Zayne kissed me, he sipped from my lips, drank from my moans, as he ran his thumb over my cheek, tracing the bone. His touch was featherlight, but I stirred restlessly. Lust pricked my skin as he moved his fingertips down my throat, over my shoulder. A small sigh escaped me.

I hadn’t been lying when I said I liked him—that I liked him a lot, and knowing that, feeling that, scared me a little. He was the first guy I’d ever been really attracted to, but it was so much more than that. It was his strength and his kindness, his beliefs, even the ones that had shocked me in the beginning, and his quick-wittedness. It was his inherent protectiveness, and even when he doubted himself, it somehow made him...human to me.

Something else lingered at the fringes of my thoughts, a sense of familiarity with him, of many moving pieces finally clicking into place.

It just felt right.

Zayne felt right.

Slowly, he moved his hand down the center of my chest. “You have no idea how long I’ve thought about this.”

I placed my hand on his side, moving it toward his back, kneading the cords of bunched muscles. He dropped his hand to my hip and tugged me down, along the bed. Then he rose above me, using one arm to support his weight. Using one thigh, he parted mine and then lowered himself. Hard lines pressed against soft ones, and when he moved against me in a slow, undulating grind, I gasped and stiffened at the bolt of pleasure it sent through me.

“Is this okay?” he asked.

“Yeah. Yes. Totally.”

He chuckled against my mouth as he rocked his hips again. Following his lead, I tipped my mine up as he shifted his head, moving his lips across the cheek he’d caressed moments before. “Have you thought about this? Us? Wondering what it would be like?”

“Yes,” I whispered, spreading my legs, cradling his body. “I have.”

His remaining hand slid up the flare of my hip, up my stomach. He stopped just below my breasts, his thumb brushing over the swell. My breath caught as his kisses reached the corner of my mouth again. I turned my head slightly. Our lips brushed.

“You don’t have to worry about this going too far,” he said.

My fingers curled against the skin. “I’m not. Are you?”

“Always,” he murmured, and before I could question what he meant by that, he brought his head to the space between my neck and shoulder. Lowering his hands to my hips, he nuzzled my neck. He let his hand stray higher, nearly reaching the peak of my breast.

I didn’t move, didn’t say anything. Just waiting...waiting to see what he’d do.

“You tell me when to stop and I will.”

“I know.” My voice was thick, raw. “I...I trust you.”

Zayne stilled and then he pulled away. For a moment, I worried that I’d somehow said the wrong thing, but then his hands reached for the hem of my shirt. “I would like to see you, touch you...taste you.”

His words sent a dark shudder through me. “Yes.”

He lifted up my shirt and I rose on shaky elbows as he pulled it off over my head and then my shorts went next. His sharp intake of breath was lost in the pounding of my heart. I lay back down, left only in thin undies, knowing that with his Warden eyes, he could see everything, and I fought the urge to cover my chest.

“You’re beautiful, Trinity.”

Then he lowered his head, flicking his tongue over a particularly sensitive part, causing me to moan and clutch his shoulders. He laughed against the skin of my breast, but it quickly turned to a groan as my hands ventured farther south, flattening over his lower stomach. He felt like satin stretched over rock, and I was enthralled by the way his muscles bunched under my touch.

I lifted my gaze as my fingers trailed over each hard ripple. “You’re perfect.”

“Mmm?” He pressed down, moving his hand and then his tongue to my other breast. “Do you want me to stop?”

“No. Not at all. Not even remotely.”

“The best thing I’ve heard all year.”

My laugh ended in a gasp as Zayne rolled me over him and sat up, my knees sliding on either side of his hips as he pulled me onto his lap. I gasped as the softest part of me pressed down on the hardest part of him. He still had his pajama bottoms on and I was still in my undies, but I could feel every inch of him.

His fingers sifted through my hair as his hand curved around the back of my head. He tugged my mouth to his and kissed me as I clenched his shoulders, allowing myself to settle into him. His answering groan sent shock waves through me.

“This seems very un-Warden-like,” I whispered.

The hand at my hip tightened. “You’d be shocked by all the un-Warden-like things going through my head right now.”

I shuddered, feeling dizzy and warm and alive. “Then show me.”

And he did.

My head fell back as my breath came out in short gasps. His hands and mouth were greedy, and I loved it. My lower body started moving in tiny circles, and good God, I thought I could feel his pulse through the cotton of his pants.

I couldn’t remember ever feeling like this, definitely not with Clay and not when I touched myself. This was... God, this was so much more; it felt like molten lava was running through my veins. Desire swirled inside me, leaving me feeling out of control and dazed.

My body arched into his, aching for him in such a way that it almost frightened me, but I did trust him. I trusted him with everything.

And when his mouth tugged on my breast and his tongue rasped over my skin, I stopped thinking. It was all about feeling and the raw, exquisite sensations shooting down to my core, warming and dampening me.

My hands slipped over abs that dipped and rippled. My hips rocked against him, and when he whispered in my ear, his voice was thick, smoky. I was panting against his mouth, my fingers trembling as they slipped over his skin and wrapped around the band of his bottoms. He was grabbing them, too, shoving the fabric down as he rose just enough to get the material to his thighs, and then there was nothing between us.

“God,” he growled against my mouth.

His hand clasped my hip, urging me to move, to take what I wanted, but I didn’t need urging. My body moved against his and he moved against me. The heat of his body, the friction and the dampness, and the way he nipped at my mouth—it was all too much and not enough. Tension between my legs built quickly, stealing my breath, shocking me. The coil tightened deep inside me, and our movements became almost frantic. His growl of approval seared my skin, igniting the fire, and I came in a blinding rush, muscles tightening and loosening all at once. Never, ever had I felt something so powerful, so deliciously obliterating.

Zayne’s quickly followed, the hoarse, soul-deep shout smothering my cries as the release shook us, and then his mouth was on mine and he kissed me, and he kept kissing me as if he wished to not simply taste me, but devour my very being, and I...I wanted to be devoured.

I didn’t know it was even possible to be kissed like that.

I don’t know how, but we ended up on our sides, our faces inches apart, our legs tangled and his one arm under my ribs, curled around me, and the other around my waist. I didn’t think I was ever going to breathe normally as we lay there, my heart still pounding.

“That was...” I cleared my throat. “I didn’t know it could feel like that without even, you know, doing it.”

Zayne’s arms tightened and he pulled me to his chest, flesh against flesh. “I didn’t, either.”