Mine to Keep (NOLA Knights #3) - Rhenna Morgan Page 0,84

it so we’re both free to learn each other without obligation.”

His brow pinched into a hard V and his voice drew gruff. “You do not want to be my bride?”

She couldn’t have helped the chuckle if she’d tried. His expression was too priceless. A boy’s pout transposed on a man’s handsome face. “I want to be with you. Learn more about you. And after we’ve taken some time and both of us feel certain, I want you to ask me to marry you. Not assume I’m a forgone conclusion.”

He smiled at that. The nefarious grin of a man well accustomed to earning what he wanted come hell or high water. “You want to be courted.”

“No!”

He nodded. “Yes, you will be courted. It is fitting.” He cupped the side of her face, pure determination marking his gray eyes as he lowered his head. “Fitting for my Queen.”

His lips claimed hers before she could argue. Swept her beyond words and thought and reason with a single stroke of his tongue against hers. Damn, but he tasted good. A unique flavor that made her think of cinnamon and sultry nights. That worked her body like a key and made everything inside her unlock and unfurl for his attention.

He shifted and gave her a bit more of his weight, trailing hungry licks and nips along her jawline and down her neck. “It was good to find you at my table when I came home.”

Good.

Yes.

Everything he was doing was good. Especially the hard length of him straining behind his jeans and pressing perfectly against her clit.

His kisses moved lower, following her top’s neckline. He nudged the fabric farther and teased the swell of one breast with his tongue. “I like hearing about your day and seeing your smile when I walk through the door.”

For crying out loud, why was he talking? He needed to be doing. Rolling his hips against hers. Taking her nipple in his mouth. Losing his clothes so she could feel him skin to skin. Anything except talking.

She wriggled, trying to gain the friction she wanted, but he pulled back, shifted to his knees and eyed her with pure wickedness. He slipped his hands beneath her tank and lifted it up and over her head. “But there is one other benefit that will be my undoing. The temptation that will earn me much grief from my brothers.” Just as quickly, he peeled her bottoms down her hips and tossed them to the floor.

Cool air assailed her skin. Sent goose bumps skittering in all directions. “Wh-what’s that?”

The stuttered words were the best she could do, too much of her mind gripped by the sheer fascination of watching him stand and shed his clothes. She should have been ashamed. Or at least a little remorseful for the way she ogled him every time he was naked, but she could no more stop herself than she could stop breathing. He was a visual feast. A dark Viking who knew exactly the impact he had on her and took great pride in letting her look her fill.

He crawled toward her, the intensity and power that clung to him enveloping her the closer he got. “At the end of the day, I will always have this.”

Heat. Pure, decadent, masculine heat. It blanketed her chest to toes and fired the same instinctive need and odd peace she’d wrestled since his first kiss. She couldn’t explain it. Had yet to even fully accept whatever it was that made her come alive beneath his touch, let alone find a way to fight its pull.

But it was there. Undeniable and ravenous for more.

She closed her eyes and savored as he explored her. Surrendered to his calloused, yet tender touch along her belly, hips and thighs. Delighted in each teasing kiss against her tight breasts and the wet heat of his mouth drawing on her taut nipples. All she knew—all she wanted—was him. His warmth. His passion and the surreal connection that burned between.

This was what it felt like to be adored. Revered. Valued and loved.

He painted a leisurely path down her belly with his lips and tongue. Greedily nuzzled the top of her sex and inhaled deep before fastening his mouth to her aching clit and suckling deep.

She bucked against him. Dug her heels into his back and shamelessly grasped the back of his head.

His approving growl rattled through her. Mingled with each insistent slash of his tongue and pushed her higher. Her belly tightened and the muscles in her sex