it drop to the floor. I stood in front of him in nothing more than crystal beaded ballet slippers and French lace undergarments with garters.
He took a long time staring at me, his gaze slowly traveling from the top of my head down to my feet.
Hadrian was bare-chested, muscled arms by his sides with his fists clenched.
I approached him slowly and when I was standing in front of him, I grazed my fingers across the fair skin of his chest.
“Do you ever see the sun?” I asked, my breath teasing his flesh.
His muscles bunched beneath my fingers and I flattened my palm, wondering if I could absorb his power by mere touch.
“I’m from Shetland.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“It means I’m descended from Vikings and Celts,” he explained. “I’m fair skinned by nature.”
“I should’ve known you were a modern-day Viking,” I murmured.
My fingers danced across his body to skim over a thick, angry red scar that cut along the right side of his ribcage. It was clearly an old wound and was now healed, but even I could tell it had been deep.
What happened to him?
I wanted to ask, but that would send us deeper into the realm of personal, so I decided to ignore it. I slid around to his back and was unable to stop my feminine sigh of appreciation when I saw the naked breadth of his shoulders.
He turned suddenly, making my hand drop from his body. Hadrian cupped my butt and hauled me toward him, his mouth finally descending toward mine.
His kiss wasn’t gentle, but forceful.
Viking, indeed.
Ruthless and savage, I’d known from the moment I saw him that Hadrian in a suit had been nothing but a facade.
His hands traveled down to the back of my thighs, spreading them, urging my legs to wrap around his middle.
I jumped into his arms, the heat of me pressing against the straining erection behind his fly.
He carted me to the bed, and without letting go, laid me down. His body covered mine.
My hands and lips wanted to be everywhere, but Hadrian was a conqueror and I was at his mercy.
So I accepted his seductive assault and drowned in the feeling of him.
He lifted his lips from mine and raised his head. His blue-gray eyes raged with lust and the corded muscles of his neck were tight with restraint.
Hadrian scrutinized my body as his hands cradled my breasts. He pressed a kiss to the column of my throat and then inched lower to take a nipple into his mouth through the fabric of my lace, teasing and taunting.
“It’s beautiful,” he commented.
And then he ripped the delicate garment in half, leaving me almost naked.
Hadrian sieged my skin with his hot mouth, kissing and licking, devouring and removing lace as he went.
When I was completely disheveled and bare, he finally lifted himself off me, but only to remove his tuxedo trousers and black silk boxer briefs.
Hadrian, in all his nude glory, made my insides quiver with desire and fear.
He took himself in hand, caressing his member, all the while keeping his eyes on mine.
I swallowed, but couldn’t look away, and even went as far as bending my leg to reveal the wet sliver between my legs.
Hadrian made a noise of appreciation.
I was witnessing a man in his most basic element, and he was ready to take me like a mindless animal that cared about nothing except mating.
My hand slipped down between my legs.
“Don’t touch yourself,” he commanded harshly. “Let me.”
I arched a brow and continued to stroke myself. “I was never very good at taking commands.”
“You’ll learn.”
He released his member and kneeled down between my legs, inhaling slowly, as if absorbing my scent, my arousal having already perfumed the air.
His tongue lashed my skin, which caused me to buckle and cry out.
“Your punishment,” he reminded me. “Because you didn’t listen.”
He devoured the flesh between my legs. Hadrian knew the perfect masterful pressure to exert to bring me to the edge, only to pull back before my climax. And then he’d start all over again, tirelessly, for what seemed like eternity.
“Hadrian,” I moaned, mindless with my need to come.
“Tell me what you want, Eden,” he commanded. “Maybe I’ll give it to you.”
“Fuck me,” I whispered, the fever of desire making me mindless.
“I don’t have a condom. I told you, I didn’t plan on being with a Rex girl tonight.”
“I’m on birth control and I just had a physical. I’m clean.”
“So am I.” Hadrian grinned, revealing his feral intensity. He slid up my body