Nikolai’s unbridled honesty struck her like a match. A flame roared up inside Kate, melting the reserve she’d built up after what happened earlier, making her body crave his so intensely she hurt. Tentatively, a part of her afraid he’d change his mind again, she reached out and weaved her fingers into his silky blond hair, where his braid should be. “But you’re the king.”
He leaned into her touch. “I’m just a male, like any male.”
It was such a lie. No man had ever turned the blood in her veins into flowing lava. No man had ever made her ache. No man had ever made her feel this…alive. It was all so overwhelming—she just had no experience feeling the things she felt, wanting the things she wanted. And he should know.
Taking a deep breath, she said, “I’ve never done this before, Nikolai.” As her cheeks heated, she watched her fingers drag through his hair. Oh, he was so beautiful.
He tilted his head to force her to look at him. “Done what?” A range of expressions played out across his face. “You mean…” His eyes went wide. “Are you saying you’re a virgin?”
Chapter Ten
Heart triple-timing in his chest, Nikolai soaked in the beautiful flush on Katherine’s cheeks and waited for her answer. What had he ever done to find someone like her? Someone so beautiful, so strong, so damn perfect in every way, for him.
She nodded, her eyes flickering to his and away again.
And Nikolai’s thinking brain went offline.
Triumphant euphoria flooded into every cell. He locked his hands around her neck and pulled her in for a kiss so deep, so intense, it drove everything else from his mind. His tongue explored her mouth, his hands massaged her neck and tugged her hair. Needing to be closer, to drive away every molecule of air separating them, he pushed between her legs and ground himself against her mound. Kate cried out and threw her head back.
“Oh, God, angel,” he rasped. Her body was like a feast spread out before a starving man. His lips fell to her throat, kissing, sucking, drawing the heated flavor of her skin onto his tongue. He laved long strokes against the throbbing pulse of her jugular, reveling in the drag of his fangs against her tender flesh. “I want you so damn much.”
He scooped his hands under her thighs and lifted her atop the high bed. She wrapped her legs around his hips and her heels dug into his ass. He rocked his cock against her pussy, fascinated as the towel parted and rode up, inch by tantalizing inch.
Light fingertips fell on his chest and traced down the center of him, making his stomach muscles flinch and clench. At the waistband of his pants, she stopped. Nikolai nearly groaned in need, but he didn’t want to push her. He wanted her to want him in return, so he had to let her go at her own pace.
His brain refused to let him think through everything that her still being a virgin could mean.
After the briefest hesitation, Kate’s hand slid between them and gripped his cock over the thick cotton. That time, Nikolai couldn’t restrain the groan the incredible contact drew out of him. “Christ, how you make me feel…”
His words seemed to encourage and embolden her. She massaged and squeezed, until he couldn’t help but thrust into her hand.
Nikolai rubbed his fingers over the knuckles still clenching the towel in front of her breasts. “Katya, let me see you. Let go.”
She dropped her hand, and the towel slipped behind her.
Pressing his palm to the valley between her beautiful breasts, Nikolai met Katherine’s heavy-lidded gaze and counted the rapid thumps of her heart. Vitality thrummed through her and into him, tempted parts of his soul back to life he thought long gone. Dragging his hand down her body, over the curve of her belly and into the soft brown hair of her pussy, Nikolai watched her watch him.
“What do you want, Katya?”
A deep blush roared over the flush already staining her cheeks. He leaned over her and rubbed his nose along her jaw. The blush strengthened the scent of her blood on the air. “You are so lovely. I have to know what you want.”
She ducked her head against his. “I don’t have the words,” she answered. “I just want you.”
Her words eased the ache in the center of his chest. Oh, what was she doing to him? With slow, gentle thrusts, he rolled his cock against the nerves at the top of her pussy. “You don’t know the words,” he asked, “or it’s hard to say them?”
“Oh, my God,” she whispered. “Nikolai.”
The desperation in her voice rocketed into his balls. Cupping her breasts, flicking her nipples with his thumbs, he nipped his fangs down the long column of her graceful neck. “Tell me,” he rasped. Her throat worked at a rough swallow under his worshipful lips. Hoping to deaden the hot ache in his palm, he lowered his right hand to the wet lips of her pussy and rubbed slow, tight circles.