Page 84 of An Heir to Blood and Power

Nicolai’s torso radiated heat, warming my side pressed against his.

The late-night stubble on his straight jaw scraped my palm, and I flexed my fingers on his cheek.

His hand between my legs massaged gently, a careful caress that spun in my head.

I reached over with my other hand and tugged at his trousers’ waistband. “These?”

His lips thinned. “I’m keeping them on. Too much temptation.”

His hand moved lower in my panties, reaching the top of me. One finger touched the place between, slick and cool, the pad of his finger lifting pleasure through me with each gentle rub.

Every time he touched me, perfectlyrightin thatspot,a wave of ecstasy billowed up my body, making me lightheaded, making me gasp.

He was above me again, one leg between my knees and the other beside my hip, and he kissed me before he started crawling backwards.

My head was still spinning. I reached,wantingto touch him,wantinghis strong body to press me into the bed. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Show me you like it.” His voice was low, gravelly. “I like toseewhen you like it.”

As he crawled backwards, his mouth left a trail of kisses between my breasts and down my stomach.

Warm skin closed around my ankles, squeezed, and I was slid down the bed, or maybe he flicked the bed out from under me because I couldn’t tell until my eyes flew open and the chandelier zoomed backward across theceiling.

My heels found and then slipped off the mattress’s edge.

When I half-sat up on my elbows and looked down my stomach, down my legs, Nicolai’s eyes were bright, and he caught my gaze from where he kneeled on the floor, his forearms resting on my bare knees like a king lounging with his hands on the arms of his throne. “No talking, pillow princess.Close your eyes.”

Princess.Heh.

I shut them again, darkness all around me, and fell backward.

His hands pressed back on my knees, lifting them, and then my lower legs rested on warmth, on skin, on?—

I slitted my eyes and peeked.

—on his shoulders.

His breath, sultry and humid in the cool air of the hotel room, misted over the inside of the arch of my right foot. He kissed that skin that should have been ticklish, but the warmth, the pressure, histouch,soothed me like a massage that could,should,becomemore.

He kissed the inside of my thigh from my knee, angling down. “So damn soft.”

I was shivering from his touch, still stretching from the compressing energy, and I peeked at him, past my boobs, holding my leg pressed against his mouth.

His eyes slipped to the side and caught my gaze, and he turned his head halfway, looking at me. “Your skin is like velvet. So beautiful.”

He placed my heel on the edge of the bed, and his eyes locked on mine.

There was nothing I wouldn’t do for this man.

That was it? I’d known him just over a day and he showed me a little attention, kissed me like he meant it, and I wasgone?

Yeah, maybe.

Evaluating my feelings seemed like a problem for future-Lexi. Right now, I wanted to feel his hands and breath on my body, touch his skin, and not let go.

Nicolai gripped my thighs, strong fingers, indenting just a little bit into my flesh. “Delicate. So delicate. I don’t want to hurt you, and yet I can’t fucking help myself. I fuckingcan’tstop touching you.”

My whole body was quivering, wanting and afraid and desperate andstarving.My arms slid out from under me to the side.