Page 72 of Blind Devotion

A shirt was plastered over my chest before the heat from Adrien’s arms and bare torso encased me, effectively shielding me. He tucked me against him, and I squeezed my legs tighter around him.

“Get out,” Adrien growled, head turned over his shoulder. “Erel, so help me. Our history won’t matter if you don’t shut that door and leave right now.”

“You call this…this bullshit handling it?” Erel yelled. “Handling it, my ass.”

“Leave.”

The door slammed shut. Erel raged down the hallway, cursing up a storm in French, his tight voice growing fainter.

“You’re okay.” Adrien’s hands were on my back, squeezing me against him. I hadn’t realized how badly I was shaking. “I’ve got you. You’re safe.”

“Promise?”

“Always.”

This exchange was so typically us. I gave a breathy chortle as tension seeped out of me.

“You don’t think he saw anything, do you?”

“You think I’d let him?”

My heart warmed, and I smiled against him. My lips pressed to his pec, then to his collarbone. Another to his neck, jaw, his chin, until I was drawing his head down to my lips.

He pulled back. “Hold that thought, sweetheart.”

Maybe it was my shock at his refusal that allowed him the time to slip the shirt over my head and down to my knees.

He let go of me. I heard clothing rustle. Then he was tugging the sweat shorts back up my legs. My high from two seconds ago plummeted.

“What are you doing? I…I don’t want us to stop.”

“You’re mine, Tessa…Persy, whatever the fuck I call you now.”

“Tessa. I’ve grown out of Persy.” It sounded so childish to hear him say it now.

“Tessa,” he asserted, caressing my face. “We’re not stopping until your body knows nothing and no one else but me. But it won’t be here. Not today, at least.” He swept my hair back frommy forehead. “Our first time will be in a bed so I can worship you for hours like you always deserved.”

Our first time? We’d never been together before? How was that possible when we should have been officially engaged once I turned eighteen?

I didn’t get to think on it very long before his mouth was back on mine. He stole my air, then fed it right back to me. His arms slipped under me and swept me up bridal-style. I rocked into him with every rushed stride, bouncing with every jaunt up the stairs. All the while, I held him tighter. My hands in his hair. My lips on his, on his chin, on his neck. I doubted I’d ever get enough of him.

Chapter 29

Iracedbacktomy room like a man possessed, reveling in every touch she gave. It was absurd. Over seventeen years of shunning physical contact, and yet hers, I couldn’t get enough of. I craved it.

When we were younger, it used to be handholding, shoulder nudges, innocent hugs, sweeps of hair in front of her emerald-green eyes. I starved myself of touch for years, thinking it was the only choice. It only fanned the need to be alone and separate from others. This was different. We were different. My obsession with Persetta was worse than ever, and with the taste of her still on my tongue, I knew one moment with her was never going to be enough. I needed the world with her. I demanded it.

I nipped her ear. “I’m looking forward to tasting you again.”

“Now?”

“Later. I’ve got something else in mind.”

I resisted the urge to toss her on the bed, enjoying the view of her standing before me in my bedroom.

“I love seeing you in my clothes, but I like you better without them.”

“You shouldn’t have put your shirt back on me then.”