Heart of Fire (Blood of Zeus #2) - Meredith Wild Page 0,31
hours, it’s been a revolving door since she and Z showed up.
Hardly romantic…
But the way Maximus looks at me now feels decidedly more than romantic. The heat in his gaze, with the outer rings of his irises augmented to pure cobalt, hints at a cascade of longing waiting to be set free. It heightens my own pent-up desire. I’d love nothing more than to see it free.
Instead, I swallow over the rush of need coursing through me and refocus on rearranging the fruit bowl. No point starting something we can’t finish.
“Well, Mom actually wants me to stay here for a couple of days. She says the optics are priceless. So if it’s okay with you, I was thinking after the premiere—”
“If it were up to me, Kara, you’d never leave.” The words are low and swift, removing any doubt as to his genuineness—as well as every hot, needy thing it does to my bloodstream.
I close my eyes with a sigh, savoring his adoration more than my aching senses. “And if it were up to me, I don’t think I would either. I just wish it could be that simple.”
He takes one long stride toward me. Inside another second, he’s cradling my hip in one of his large hands as he spins me to face him.
I gaze up, my lips parted as I’m knocked breathless from his speed and his strength. Not to mention the sheer force of his appetite for our closeness. For me. Every molecule between us is weighted with that beautiful, inexorable truth.
“We could make it simple,” Maximus murmurs.
“What?” I force out. “Make what simple?”
“Us. All of it. To hell with the movie premiere. To hell with class this week and photo ops and anything else that puts distance between us. The way my phone has been blowing up every hour of the day, I can assure you, everything we’ve been doing has been sufficiently high profile. Jesus, they’re even calling us ‘Maxkara.’”
I spurt out a soft laugh. “That’s almost catchy.”
“Can’t that be enough publicity to buy us a few days? Just you and me?” He touches his forehead to mine, his eyes searching, passionate and vulnerable all at once. “With nothing between us,” he whispers against my lips.
My breath rushes out, but he doesn’t give me a second to recover. To argue…
With the urgent press of his kiss and the way he pins himself against me, I’m swept away in him. In the heady way he makes me feel and the beautiful fantasy he’s painting of us. Just us. Just this fire and falling and connection. Our bodies reunited. Our souls fully soldered. Our hearts beating as one. Losing track of the days in his bed.
Overwhelmed with that possibility, I moan against his mouth. I can’t reel it back, even knowing how it’s greenlighting his next motions. He begins working the buttons down the front of my dress, carefully enough not to tear the threads keeping them attached to the fragile vintage garment.
He makes enough progress to push a sleeve over my shoulder, dragging his teeth across the firm ball of muscle. Then his tongue. I arch and sigh. Tunnel my fingers into the long luxury of his hair. Groan with relief when he hoists me up and against him and carries me to his bed.
We tumble down together in a flurry of urgent breaths, rough kisses, and desperate touches. I drag my hands up his muscled abdomen, taking his T-shirt along the way. He rips it off, returning to the more important task of kissing me into wild oblivion.
Having seemingly given up on the tedious buttons of the dress, he hikes the skirt’s hem up to my hips. I’m blind to everything but the sensation of his fingers slipping under my panties, over my most sensitive flesh, then teasing my opening.
I draw in a ragged breath, taking the scent of him into me. Apples and rain, flesh and muscle, heat and desire. Maximus…this man I’ve fallen so deeply for in so many ways. In every way…
A groan vibrates from my lips, echoing from him as he pushes inside, penetrating me with fast, firm strokes.
“I… Kara, I—” He closes his eyes, wincing with emotion.
My eyes flutter closed too. The sharp rise of my orgasm blocks everything out—everything but the perfect pressure of his palm against my clit, his dedicated ministrations sending electric pleasure through every cell. A beautiful delirium.
I tremble against him as his movements slow.
“More,” I whimper, even as the pulses in my core persist. I