move. She ran her hands along his biceps, marveling over each curve of his glorious muscles. With the palpable heat still burning between them, she slid her fingers over his squared chest, and kept on going.
Lower…and lower…
When she reached his belly button, he grasped her hands, and a deep growl rose from his chest. His pupils dilated, nearly shedding the green, as he dove forward, taking her lips fiercely. She returned the kiss with a force of her own. He wasn’t the only one who could play rough.
Now that her virginity was out in the open, Kyden would likely proceed at a slow rate. She wanted this—wanted him. Perhaps her exes didn’t measure up, but Kyden measured up, and then some. She wanted him…right now.
Squirming against him, she connected with the part of him she craved, and he tensed. With a grunt sounding mildly painful, he lifted off her to kneel on the bed. “You might think you’re ready, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re a virgin.” His voice sounded strangled, and his expression was equally taut. “Tonight, I don’t intend to change that.”
She wasn’t at all surprised he took this stance, even if it did, yet again, make him a complete gentleman. “Okay, fine, we don’t have to do that. But there are other things I can do to you.” She reached for him, but he wrapped his fingers around her wrists, and pinned her arms at her side. She sighed. “You’re being silly. Let me touch you.”
“If you do, I’ll lose the little control I’m trying hard to keep.” He hopped off the bed, and gazed at her with a look that nearly set her aflame. “I’ll return later.” With another once-over taking in the length of her naked body, he slowly looked to her face again and groaned. “Rest.”
She rose up on her elbow. “Kyden…”
He never allowed her to finish. Instead he booked it out of her bedroom, and she heard the front door slam behind him.
Dropping down on the pillow, she basked in the afterglow. “Idiot.”
Chapter Thirteen
At the emptiness in the bed beside her, Nexi’s eyes fluttered open to a pitch-black room, and she nuzzled into the pillow. Reaching over, she turned on the decorative lamp that rested on the aged, wooden table that flanked the bed, and the warm glow lit up her bedroom.
Though tense and rigid, Kyden kept true to his word and left her virginity intact. When he returned after his leave of absence, with damp hair from his shower, he was relaxed. It didn’t take a genius to figure out the reason for that. He crawled into bed and within minutes, his breath had deepened with sleep.
She hadn’t heard him wake.
The scent of something cooking in the kitchen forced her to kick off the duvet and crawl out of bed. She grabbed her housecoat, wrapped it around her nude body, and followed the light casting into the living room.
When she entered the kitchen, Kyden stood at the stove with his back to her, and she smiled. “Smells good.”
He turned to her with a spatula in hand. “Glad you think so.”
A delicious slide of heat whipped through her at the sight of him looking sexier than ever with that little smudge of pancake batter dusting his cheek.
“Hungry?” he asked.
Hungry for what was the question. More kissing? More touching? “Mmm hmm,” she purred.
While his expression flared with the same type of hunger she experienced, she only had two seconds to believe that he planned to devour her before he gestured to the food on the table. “Dig in.”
In slight disappointment, but also with an empty stomach, she sank down at the kitchen table. She grabbed a couple pancakes and smothered them in maple syrup. Not the fake crap, either, the real stuff. After her first bite, she realized Kyden wasn’t all sexy muscle and caveman, but the man could cook.
He soon joined her with crisp bacon and freshly squeezed orange juice, making her all but salivate. She liked this about him, loved how he wanted to take care of her. He had a tendency to show that through beating his chest, but she could lose herself in this soft side of him.
“Did you sleep well?” he asked, shoving a pancake into his mouth.
“Dead to the world.” She nibbled on a piece of bacon, grinning at him, knowing his attention last night had been part of the reason. The other reason was his staying with her. She discovered Kyden made a damn fine