and I saw him in all his glory.
And sleep was the last thing on my mind.
He met my gaze, his own heating up when he did. Without a word, he wrapped me in a towel, bending over to kiss my neck. “Maybe you would let me take my time with you before we sleep. Maybe you would allow it, my Bianca.”
I sucked in a long breath. “I’d love that.”
“Good.” He picked me up in his arms. He hadn’t dried himself. I almost mentioned it before I decided I really didn’t care. If he didn’t mind, I certainly didn’t. He laid me on his bed, coming over me for a second before he ripped the towel away, throwing it on the ground.
My nipples were hard, achingly so. His gaze swept over me, and I almost moaned from that alone. How could I be so ready so quickly after what we’d just done in the shower? He leaned down, kissing me slowly. I opened my lips, and he pressed his tongue inside of my mouth, moaning when he did so. He pressed his weight on top of mine. It was heavy, and I loved the sensation. It shouldn’t have made me feel safe to have such a big man so in control of me in that moment; it should have made me nervous, but it was just the opposite.
This was Nox, who had pulled me from the crash wreckage, cherishing me.
I wrapped my legs around his waist. He thrust against me but didn’t enter. No, he’d said this was going to be slow, and I took him at his word.
He pulled his mouth from mine to kiss my neck, starting right under my ear and then moving to the spot where my neck met my chest. I giggled. He lifted his head to meet my gaze. “Ticklish?”
“No, I just sort of loved it. I giggled.”
His smile was very warm. “I sort of love that you did.”
He traveled lower, down my chest to my breast, where he found my nipple and sucked on it. He wasn’t gentle. No, he was anything but, and I loved it. His sucking quickly changed to a light bite, and I jerked in response. He held on to my shoulder, keeping me pinned down. I wasn’t going anywhere.
Nox let go, looking up at me. “You are so beautiful. I can’t believe that I get to touch you, let alone that you are wearing my numbers. I will take care of you, Bianca. Forever. However long that is.”
I believed him. Nox was a person who understood that time wasn’t guaranteed for anyone. That was so different than where I came from. With the exception of me, everyone believed they’d live to be old. But here he was, promising to take care of me for however long the time was. Warmth flooded me. This man got it. He understood. It might not have been a health issue that took him out, but a day like today could end everything, and they had them in abundance.
We had to find our pleasure when we could and—wow—when he found my other nipple with his mouth, I knew we could have that in abundance. With his patient mouth and teasing nips, he drew a cry from the deepest part of my chest, a guttural half-sob, and I didn’t care who heard it.
In my old life, touch was a detached, almost ritualized thing—one hand touching another, a kiss on this cheek and then the other, a cold and sanitized embrace for the media’s benefit. Maybe that was why it was so hard for me to experience a moment like this, because there was no part of me that wasn’t being touched, laved, stroked, warmed. His mouth on my breast, his hands moving down my arms, braceleting my wrists, then fingers twining with mine. The warmth of his chest on my legs, and the tickle of damp hair painting my collarbone.
Nox usually kept his hair braided back, for convenience maybe, but he’d loosed it for washing, and it felt like cool ribbons on my heated skin.
Sensation was too much, overwhelming, but the last thing in the whole universe I wanted was for him to stop. I curled my fingers around his, locking our hands together, and brought my legs up to encircle him.
“Nox, if you need to…” I didn’t even know what I was going to say, but when he pulled his mouth away from my breast, I lost the words.
“This,” he replied, putting only as