His heart melted at the whispered admission. Still, she tilted her face and brushed his lips with hers. Light. Barely there. The shock was electric. His pulse jumped. His heart slammed up against his chest. Flames raced through his bloodstream straight to his cock.
Her breath was honey and strawberries. Impossible. When she pressed her lips to his again, the tip of her tongue slid along the seam of his mouth. It felt like a living, burning flame. He gripped her hair, angled her head perfectly and took control. Honey and strawberries gave way to fiery whiskey. The flames rolled down his throat.
Azelie ignited. Detonated. Set him off. The explosion between the two of them was a fiery volcanic storm that built in intensity. The earth rocked beneath them. No joke. It happened. He hadn’t known it could happen, that the world could spin and drop away when the one woman who was your other half kissed you.
She wasn’t experienced in the least, but she followed his lead and surrendered herself to him completely. There was no holding back; she gave him everything. He took it without hesitation, although he hadn’t planned to follow through, not until they had talked. He wanted her to know exactly what she was getting into with him before she surrendered her body to his keeping.
Maestro wasn’t a man to share intimacy with anyone. Kissing was as intimate as it got, and yet once he had her mouth, the dance of their tongues, the heat poured down his throat, racing like a wildfire out of control straight to his cock. Every nerve ending was awake. He felt alive for the first time. Completely and utterly alive. This woman owned his heart.
He had to feel her skin. There was no going back from this moment. No stopping and slowing down. He was on a runaway freight train rushing down the tracks, and there was no way to put the brakes on. Thunder roared in his ears. Flames ignited in his belly and settled lower. A sinful dark craving rolled through him. Took hold. Those flames branded that addiction deep into his bones. Wrote her name on his heart.
He made short work of the off-the-shoulder top. Azelie didn’t seem to notice. She was too busy trying to pull his shirt off, evidently needing the same thing he did—bare skin. Her lips feathered over his throat, leaving tiny flames behind.
“We’re taking this into the other room.” His voice sounded like a growl, but she didn’t seem to notice as he stood in one smooth motion, holding her to him. She wrapped her legs around his hips as he made his way to the bed, grateful the room was so small, with his aching erection making it difficult to walk.
One knee on the bed, he lowered her bottom to the edge and quickly dispensed with her bra. She was wearing one he’d purchased for her, a sexy demi-cup that held her breasts lovingly. Any other time he would have focused on the sight, savoring the luxury. She had gorgeous breasts. Full and round, with nipples begging for attention.
He pushed her back until she sprawled out in front of him, her silky breasts jutting up at him as he grasped her jeans and panties to draw them down her legs.
“You take my breath away.” It was the truth, and he needed to give her that when the trepidation was creeping back into her eyes.
“I’m afraid. Really scared, Andrii,” she admitted in a little whisper. “Most of the time I feel alone and a bit lost, but when I’m with you, everything is different. I know better than to depend on anyone else, but when I’m with you, I can’t help the way I feel.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Azelie. I want us to have children, grow old together, the works. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you happy. I hope you can hear the truth in my voice.”
He had to reassure her, give her that much. His teeth tugged on her lower lip and then nibbled down her chin. That sweet chin that beckoned him to use his teeth for just one moment. He pressed kisses over the pulse racing in her throat. He needed to feel the way her heart pounded, assuring him she was there, alive and in perfect tune with him.
“You have one foot out the door, baby. I don’t blame you; I’m a bit much, and I know that. Still.” He kissed his way over the upper curves and down the valley between her full breasts. She shivered in response as the bristles along his jaw rasped against that sensitive skin.
Her fingers bit into his shoulders as she struggled to decide what to do. Push him away or pull him closer? He read her easily.
“Tell me what’s happening in your mind right now, Solnyshkuh.” He swept his palm down her body from her breasts to her mound. All that satin-soft skin. Those feminine curves. “What are you afraid of?”
Her blue gaze searched his a little frantically. She gave the barest shake of her head.
“Be brave, Zelie. You’re always brave. Trust me to catch you.” There were little inviting drops of moisture caught in the fiery auburn curls guarding what he wanted. What he was determined to claim.
Cautiously, gently, he slipped one finger lower, swept it across her wet opening and went deep. He’d expected her to be tight, and she was, much tighter than he’d imagined. It was going to take some time to make her comfortable enough to take him. But she was hot and slick, her body reacting to his. There was no denying the chemistry between them.
She gasped at his invasion, her body jerking, but she settled when he turned his gaze on her.
“When I look at you, Azelie, when I see you like this, I feel like I’m drowning. I love the way your body responds to mine. I need that from you, and you give it to me without reservation.”
He’d been doing his best to convince her they belonged together, try to get her to fall in love with him, but somewhere along the line, when he didn’t even believe in love, he had fallen right off a cliff. Fallen hard. He hadn’t even realized just how much emotion he felt for her until that moment.
He brought his finger to his mouth and sucked the taste of her off, all the while holding her gaze captive with his. A shiver went through her. He savored that moment. Let her see how much she meant to him. How much he desired her.
Very gently he nuzzled her breasts, once again using the shadowy bristles along his jaw to stimulate her even more. He slid both hands, fingers splayed wide to take in as much of her as he could, shaping her feminine body, the lush curves, narrow rib cage and tucked-in waist. Claiming every inch of her. Showing her she belonged with him. He knew she was afraid, and she had every reason to be, but he had every intention of going slow. Taking his time. Doing sweet and loving to ease her into their world together.
“Andrii,” she sounded lost. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“That’s the beauty of this, baby. You don’t need to do anything at all but enjoy what I’m giving you.”
Once more, he kissed his way up to her mouth. That fantasy mouth. He loved kissing her, dreamt of kissing her, thought too much about it during the day. He poured the emotion he couldn’t speak of down her throat. Giving that to her. Making certain she felt it. He hadn’t considered that he would be the one to fall. He thought all along that he could hold back, that part of him would always remain aloof and above it. She would fall in love with him, and he would be safe from betrayal. From taking the chance that she would rip out anything that was left of his heart. There was no holding himself apart from her. Not a single chance. He was already gone.
He kissed her with real emotion, pouring his feelings for her into his kisses. He kissed her over and over, stripping himself bare, making himself totally vulnerable by showing her what she meant to him. He did so with what he was best at, only his kisses weren’t practiced perfection. For the first time they were real and intimate and meant something.
Her mouth moved under his, surrendering everything to him. She caught fire, completely detonated. The chemistry between them was explosive. She didn’t know it yet, but she belonged to him. She kept trying to pull back until he kissed her. It was then she completely gave herself to him.
His heart pounded. Thunder roared in his ears. Hot blood pumped through his veins. He caught fire right along with her. He found her nipple, tugging, rolling, catching her whispered moan in his mouth. He kissed his way to her breasts and then flicked her nipple with his tongue. Her entire body reacted to that brief, cautious takeover of her senses. He wanted to go slow and savor every reaction. He wanted to keep her in the moment, so she couldn’t get into her head and feel fear.
She liked what he was doing to her, arching just enough to give him better access and her complete approval. He took the invitation, pulling one breast into the heat of his mouth while he worked the other, tugging and rolling her nipple, gently at first and then with increasing pressure. All the while, he was aware of her every reaction. Breathing. Squirming. Moaning. He needed to know what she liked and didn’t like. What she feared but would try.
He liked control in bed. He needed to know his woman would give that to him. Fortunately for him, his little wildcat seemed to prefer following his lead. The one way he knew he could tie her to him for sure was through sex. He’d spent years being trained to draw his partners to him, to keep them addicted, coming back for more.
Her nails dug into his shoulders as he spent time on her breasts, using teeth and tongue, at times rough and then so gentle, refusing to set a rhythm so she never knew what was coming. Her breath came in rapid little pants, and her legs moved restlessly.
Maestro didn’t want their relationship to be all about sex. If that was the only way he could have her, so be it, but he wanted what was between them to be the real thing. He wanted to give her as much pleasure as possible because, to his absolute astonishment, he had fallen hard for her.
He swept his palm down the length of her, absorbing the feel of her silken skin. The feminine shape of her. His fingers stroked her sensitive mound as he followed the path of his palm with his lips, sipping at her skin. Kissing and nipping. All the while, his fingers played and teased along her mound. Skimming along her enticing lips, looking for her slick heat and telltale dampness where he slid one finger through fiery wetness, testing that she was as eager for him as he was for her. Not that he thought that possible. He felt as if he’d waited a lifetime for her.
Her feminine channel clenched tight around his finger. He felt the silken muscles clamping down, nearly strangling his finger, making his cock ache even more. It was disturbing to need her so much. To want her the way he did. He’d barely touched her, barely gotten started, and he was harder than he’d ever been in his life. Every nerve ending in his body was alive, on fire, desperate for her.
He lifted his head and looked into her eyes. She was completely innocent and yet he saw trust there. It was such a gift. Seeing that look in her eyes humbled him. He was asking a lot of her and would be asking more. On some level, she knew and understood that, yet she was still willing to give her body into his keeping.
He had fallen hard. So fast. Finding her was unexpected, and given the circumstances of their meeting, it came at the wrong time, but nothing mattered to him but her. Her happiness. Her pleasure. She robbed him of his breath. Each separate beat of his heart was for her. He had found something to live for. Someone who elevated him when he didn’t think that was possible. He had been so far gone and yet there she was—his sunshine.
“I want us to always be like this, Solnyshkuh. The two of us.”
