and silenced her with his lips. He kissed her hard, like he wanted to swallow her protests whole. Like he wanted to devour her whole. It was bruising and possessive. Brutal and giving even as it took as much as he cared to steal from her. His hand drifted to the back of her neck, cradling her head in his grasp as he worked his lips over hers.
It felt like nothing she’d ever experienced before. It sent crackles of something like lightning through her. He moaned against her lips, a low growl that reverberated through her. When he broke the kiss, she felt him hovering close. She was trembling, and she felt lightheaded and strange.
By the fates…no wonder he’s so popular.
When his hand trailed up her thigh, it snapped her out of whatever reverie he had placed her in.
Smack.
“Five.” He sighed. “One thing at a time. Gotcha. Message received loud and clear.”
“Still making friends, old boy?” Kema said with a laugh as she walked into the room.
“As always. She hits hard, y’know. It isn’t funny.”
“I’m glad she does. You deserve it. And it’s hysterical. Anyway. Hugo called.”
“Oh, joy. What’s my dear estranged older brother want now?” He sat back, the wood chair creaking. She was glad for the air. He smelled like a campfire and like summer nights. It was wonderful, but it was a heady and dizzying sensation. She sipped the orange juice, wanting to get the flavor of him off her lips before she decided she liked it more than she should.
He killed a man.
The kiss was incredible.
I have issues I have recently just discovered about myself.
“He heard the news about your new religious advisor. He’s deeply concerned about your mental state and will be here later in the week to check on you. This also coincides with the East Wind and his new wife coming up from the south. I expect he’s hoping to get all three of you in the same room together.”
Nero groaned loudly. “No, by the fates, no. What’ve I done to deserve this?”
“I understand why you dislike Morten from the story you’ve told me, but…I’ve never heard rumors of tension between you and the other Winds.” Hope commented more out of needing to know what she was going to be involved in than real curiosity. She had no love for politics.
“Viktor is an asshole. An uptight, strict, overly serious, overly pompous, first-rate ass-clown. I think he lodged one of his canes up his butt and hasn’t figured out how to pull it back out. Or if he did, he’d probably bleed to death. He’ll come here, glare at everything I own, judge me like he knows me, then storm off back to his castle in the clouds like the self-righteous piece of shit he is.”
“Well. Tell me how you really feel.” Hope sipped her orange juice.
Nero laughed at her dry comment, his arm resting on hers. “Sorry, sweet girl. I get caught up.”
“Apparently. I’m learning this quickly.”
“Hugo is fine. Hugo is…well, he’s my brother. Yeah, we didn’t see each other for twenty years while we were growing up except for a few occasions here and there, but he’s never done anything to outright piss me off.”
“Seeing as I hear it’s an easy thing to do, I’m surprised.” She didn’t know where she got the gall to tease, but she felt a little bolder around him for some strange reason. He didn’t seem about to kill her, at least. And he seemed intent on kissing her. That had to give her some kind of leverage, didn’t it?
“The West Wind is mild-mannered.” Nero kissed her shoulder. “He’ll want to meet you. Are you all right with that?”
“As you’re the most unpredictable of the bunch, I don’t see why not. It can’t get any worse.” She smiled, enjoying ribbing him. She shifted a little bit out of his reach.
“Wait until you meet Viktor. It can get worse. Although at least Morten won’t be here. You wouldn’t be able to tell him from one of my statues. Frozen-hearted bastard doesn’t talk. Just stands there and stares.” He shuddered dramatically. She felt it because he was still insisting on touching her. “Gives me the creeps. So. Will you meet them?”
“I’m not sure I have much choice.”
“If you locked yourself in your room and refused to come out, I wouldn’t drag you.”
“I suppose there is that to be grateful for.”
Nero chuckled at her dry comment. “Well. Now that it’s settled, what do you want to do today? I say