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My own lips parted on a gasp.He did remember. Those were the same words he had spoken to me on the training mat in the safe house. When I had still been so angry at him but had already resigned to the fact that I forgave him.

That I loved him.

I spoke the same words back to him that I had that day. “Touch me, Nikolai.”

Whatever restraint that had been holding him back broke in that moment. I could see a flash of the old Nikolai—the Nikolai that I loved—before he lowered his mouth to my skin.

Achill ran up my spine when his lips touched me. Tasted my skin. It was a shiver laced with both fear andwant. I was walking a thin line, but I found in this moment that I didn’t care. That I wanted him.

No… needed him.

His lips felt much the same as they had before, but entirely different at the same time. His tongue darted out of his mouth to taste the skin on my stomach, sucking and teasing. I let out a groan of my own as he moved upwards, his one hand supporting my back and the other finding my breast. He cupped it gently, sucking it into his mouth. I could feel his fangs trace over my nipple and another shiver ran down my spine, my core throbbing.

My hand found his hair where I gripped it tightly. His gaze found mine, my nipple still in his mouth.

“Fuck.” The word slipped past my lips at the sight of him.

“You like that?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

I nodded fervently. Despite being in the now cooling water, warmth pooled between my legs. His right hand continued to help me float as his other dragged up my calf, then my thigh. The air strangled in my throat as he moved towards where that heat was growing, his fingers teasing but never touching.

“Nikolai.” The word was both an admonishment and a prayer as it escaped my lips, and he laughed darkly.

He lifted me and I hadn’t been expecting it—I clung to him as he stood. I wrapped my legs around him as he ascended the stairs of the pool, exiting the washroom altogether. He deposited me onto the bed where I crawled back towards the pillows. He stood over me, his hungry gaze tracing up and down my wet body. His clothes clung to him in an entirely inappropriate way, his cock hardened and pressing against his wet pants.

His eyes burned as he watched me take him in.

“I didn’t think… ” I spoke, my words trailing off.

“That I could still get hard for you?” He reached for the hem of his wet shirt, pulling it over his head and letting it fall to the floor. “Look at you.” He ran his tongue across his lips, licking them. “As if there was any doubt.” He shook his head, water droplets spraying. As if the thought, the very idea was silly.

I made an impatient noise in the back of my throat as his hands went to his belt buckle, undoing it with agonizing slowness. I was bare before him and he took his time stripping down, watching mewanthim.Needhim.

He unbuttoned the pants and slid them down his legs, stepping out of them. The sight of his hard length poppingfree had my core tightening. He was so Goddamn beautiful. Even like this.

He bent his knee on the bed before me, grabbing the back of my thigh and pulling me towards him. His gaze heated as he took in my breasts, my hardened nipples, then down even further as his gaze found the want between my legs. He kneeled before me, his mouth grazing the skin of my thigh before settling between my legs.

A gasp escaped my throat as his mouth met my center with no preamble, and I gripped the wet satin sheets in my fist.

Holy. Shit.

He had never had me like this before.

His fang grazed my bundle of nerves and I almost screamed, a noise of pleasure buried deep in the back of my throat as I pressed my lips together. He lifted an eyebrow, that wicked smile across his lips as he continued. One of my hands moved from fisting in the sheet to fisting in his hair, and that only made him work his tongue even harder against me.

Inside of me.

I was gasping against the sheets, one of his hands finding my stomach to press me down into the bed as I writhed beneath him. He worked me with his mouth, soft in some places and harder in others, driving me towards that cliff that I wanted desperately to fall over.

I could feel my pleasure building, but before it could crest he met my gaze, running his tongue across his lips to savor the taste of me. I thought I might come undone right then and there. He lifted off his knees to press his body over me. The hard length of his cock nestled between my thighs. My handmoved from his hair to grasp it, working my hand over the length of him as he groaned.

His mouth found my neck, and a gasp escaped me, but for an entirely different reason than pleasure.

My neck.

That was where the Noctani bit their victims to steal their blood and their magic. My limbs locked up, my hands finding his chest and trying to push him away, but all he did was laugh against me. He kissed my neck softly, gently, sucking at the skin there. My body reacted despite my mind’s warning, leaning into him.

No… I couldn’t let him bite me.