Page 59 of An Heir to Blood and Power

He reached up with one hand, smoothing his palm and fingers up my arm and over my shoulder to the back of my neck. His fingers threaded into my hair.

So I kissed him.

CHAPTER 17

that kiss

NICOLAI

My arms had been wrapped around Lexi’s soft body all evening.

Sometimes, one of my hands had rested on her waist as her body swayed with the music while she talked with my friends.

So pert, so vivacious.

Other times, I pressed the back of her hand against my chest, feeling my heart throb under her knuckles.

The public affection was for the optics, I’d told myself. My friends needed to believe our relationship was real. Everyone had to be scandalized that I’d been having a secret affair with someone not of our lot and married her in a spontaneous outburst of emotion without so much as a best man standing with me, and they would need to talk about it incessantly.

And then we’d been ensconced in that corner when she’d thought we were fantasy creatures, and I had balled my other hand into a fist to keep myself from reaching into her hair and drawing her mouth to mine.

But yes, I assured myself. Volkov needed to hear about our total lack of decorum fromeveryone.

And then in the casino, when we’d been walking out, Lexihad stumbled, and her fathomless eyes had been stricken as she’d looked up at me.

Thatfool—beady-eyed, his thin upper lip curled in disgust, hair badly shorn in some sort of broccoli-top variation of an undercut—had been staring at us.

Lexi had shriveled under his gaze.

I was jealous, possessive, positively livid that this wanker had ever touched Lexi, that he’dhurther kind heart.

I was everything Hanna had accused me ofnotbeing for her.

My instinct had been to snap the weedy fool in half and toss the pieces onto the roulette tables.

A few generations before, I would’ve gotten away with it, too.

Instead, I sized up what would hurt that weasel most, and I did it. The declaration, the dip, the ring, and the kiss were edged weapons I’d wielded to eviscerate him for her.

How could anyone hurt thisgoodwoman, thiskindwoman?

At the first touch of her lips in the casino, I was lost. I didn’t give a shit about that fool glaring at us, except maybe to punch him in the face if he came one goddamned step closer.

Every touch, all night, had been my soul reaching for her.

When I retreated, breaking away from the kiss because my world was spinning, Lexi’s eyes were shining with unshed tears.

No, not for him.

Her eyes were hazy forme,fogged with desire, searching mine for the return of that touch.

My soul cracked.

Right therewas where I felt it, when I determined that no one would ever hurt her again, no matter what it took, not even me.

When I realized every connection to another human being in my life was a pale imitation of this roaring desire and need.

Not to fuck her.