“Mina…” My name tumbles from his lips, into my heart.
I rake my fingers into his hair and press my forehead to his. “I love it when you say my name.”
“Mina…” Nathan groans, panting as he stares into my eyes.
I’m floating. Disintegrating. Coming undone and being made whole in an infinite loop. His lips are a necessity. His touch an inevitability. He brands me with his energy. He is everything and I am more than I’ve ever been and a flutter starts low in my belly then rises through me. For no reason and every reason, I realize my entire life was driving me to this point. Into his arms. His bed. His body hitting mine like a live wire.
I clench and I buck.
Coming apart.
Coming back to life.
Nathan nips at my throat. My jaw. “I warned you I’d be greedy,” he rasps. “I’ve wanted this too long.”
I’m beyond answering. Beyond caring. I am sensation and pleasure. I throb and scream, my hands on his ass, his name on my lips, my teeth on his shoulder.
With a guttural growl, Nathan finishes, spurting inside me with one last thrust as his eyes squeeze closed and my body holds him tight.
TWENTY-NINE
Nathan
Holy fuck.
Oh hell.
What the shit.
I collapse beside Mina, my lungs on fire. My head clear of the roar of questions and worries that have been my constant companion for weeks. Maybe my entire life.
I close my eyes.
Whatever happens next, this was worth it.
Mina was worth it.
I am not made for barbed wire and raised defenses.
I am made for her.
After this night, there’s one thing I know for sure:
I was stupid to think I didn’t like Mina Blake.
She lays her head on my chest, tracing designs on my belly with her fingernails. “I think we just violated every single rule we set for ourselves at the beginning of this. Maybe a few extras. I don’t know.”
I wrap an arm around her shoulders, fully relaxed. Completely sated. Sliding into sleep with her body pressed against mine. “Fine with me.”
The words slip into the room as my eyes close. So this is what contentment feels like. A complete lack of urgency to be anywhere but where I am or do anything but hold her close and breathe her in.
Mina presses a kiss to my chest, my throat, the soft spot beneath my ear. “But you’re in your villain era,” she whispers. “And I’m the sweet damsel caught in your trap. Shouldn’t I be afraid?”
I’m the one who’s caught. I’ll never not want you again. Why doesn’t that scare me?
No time for thoughts like that. Not now. Not yet. They can wait until tomorrow, when I have it in me to care about right and wrong. When I can wonder how Mina slipped through the barbed wire wrapped around my heart.
I run a hand through her hair. “Is that what happened? I trapped you?”
“That’s what I’ll tell people when they ask. Even though I can’t think of anywhere else I want to be” She giggles into my skin. It’s like oxygen. Like taking my first full breath after a deep dive. Like stepping out of the ocean in winter and warming myself by the fire.
“I can see the headlines now. ‘Nathan West falls for owner of ancient Honda. She’s more than dazzling and spectacular. She’s extraordinary.’” I wave a hand through the air as if I’m reading the article off my ceiling.
The joke sours my mood. I don’t want to think what that stupid Fallon Mae will say about this. She twists everything I do into something awful, and I don’t want that to happen to Mina. She’s wonderful. She’s everything. She’s the light I’ve been searching for.
“No, Nathan. That’s you. You’re the one who’s extraordinary. You’re kind and give so much of yourself. You’re smart and strong and so incredibly sexy I sometimes can’t hear what you’re saying because I’m too busy staring. Me? I’m just plain Mina,” she says, still tracing her fingers across my skin, driving me fucking mad with lust.
I’d rather focus on that then the what ifs and what nows circling my head like vultures.
In one swift movement, I roll Mina onto her back, caging her with my arms. She shrieks, giggling as I lower my lips to suckle a breast.
“What are you doing?” she moans.
“There’s nothing plain about you, HM. Nothing at all.” I nip at her throat, then whisper in her ear, “I was greedy before. Now it’s time to be generous.”
Who knows how long later, Mina and I are back in the kitchen. She’s wearing one of my shirts and nothing else. It grazes her thighs and whispers of familiarity. I like it more than the dress she wore here. She finishes her wine while I sip on whiskey, the light above the sink illuminating the room. There’s something comfortable about having her here with me. In my home. The whole world asleep except for us.
