Chapter Thirty-Seven #2
I smack his arm, snuggling into him. “But we’re still friends, right?”
Kian chuckles. “Of course. But I know this is new for you, so if you don’t want labels—”
He offers it so easily, it’s almost convincing. As if he’s ever done no labels. “I do. Of course I do. But don’t get annoyed with me if I’m not good at it.”
“You’re good at everything, Scarlett. You’re the smartest girl I know. And I’ll happily tutor you on whatever you need.”
I laugh when he kisses me softly.
“I’m here for you. It doesn’t need to be complicated. It’s just us.”
“Okay, I like that. Kian Ishida, my boyfriend.”
His brown eyes glow like sunlight. “Say it again.”
“My boyfriend, Kian.”
Kian’s mouth finds mine, unhurried, his hand sliding down until his fingers press into the curve of my hips. He squeezes lightly, like he’s making sure it’s me. I sink deeper into him, threading my fingers through his hair, tugging until he presses more of his weight into me.
My necklace is warm against my skin, and it makes me pause.
With him still on top of me, breathing heavily, I loosen my arms from around his neck.
The black orbs slowly return to his usual soft brown when he looks at me like this.
Kian doesn’t move. He stays right there above me, his chest warm against mine, every slow breath from him a contrast to the shallow ones I’m still chasing.
“Can I give you something?” I ask.
His lips brush the tip of my nose. “Yeah, baby. You can give me anything.”
A grin stretches across my cheeks before I can stop it. I reach for the clasp of my necklace, my fingers shaking as I go to unhook it.
Before I can even try, inked fingers gently take over, wordlessly unhooking it and slipping the chain from around my neck.
Then, when I reach for his chain, he’s confused but unhooks it without hesitation and drops it in my hand.
I slide one tiny heart from the chain and onto the other.
Kian’s gaze never wavers. It’s like he’s memorizing every motion and each breath between us.
“Hold this,” I whisper, and he does.
When I reach up to fasten the chain back around his neck, he swallows as my fingers brush his warm skin. The tiny heart dangles in the space between us, glinting in the low light, swinging gently with every rise and fall of his chest.
When I look at him, his eyes are bright. Slowly, his hands move, finding my necklace, now with just one silver heart. He fastens it at the base of my throat, his fingers brushing the curve of my neck, lingering there for a moment.
“You’re giving me your heart?”
It’s always been yours. “Guess I got a little tired of carrying both.”
Kian dips his head and takes the dangling heart from his chain into his mouth, his lips closing around the cool metal. A beat later, he closes the space between us, kissing me slowly, making us both taste the silver on our tongues.
He pulls back, and I feel so lost in the kiss that I don’t realize how I’m squirming beneath his palm on my navel.
He works his fingers between us, watching me pant from beneath him as he teases my clit.
Kian fists his cock once, then presses it right to my clit, making me squirm until he gets his hands on my waist to steady me.
“Be still, Scarlett.”
“Then stop torturing me,” I whine as my hips buck involuntarily. The smirk on his face doesn’t help dampen my current predicament.
“Not torture, sweetheart,” he whispers, dragging his lips along my skin, then palming my breasts. “Cherishing you.”
He pulls at the metal bar of the piercing on my nipple into his mouth and I nearly come from that alone.
I feel restless, like a cat in heat. I’m desperate for his touch to ignite my body, to make me burst into flames, anything to stop this fire within me. “Cherish me faster.”
He chuckles, and the low rumble of it vibrates against my skin. Goose bumps rise on my skin, and I shiver from the sheer need ripping through me.
Restlessly, I hook a finger in his necklace, pulling him to me. His brows raise with pure amusement when I press his mouth to mine.
“Is this why you gave this to me? So it could be my leash?”
I smile into our kiss. “Maybe.”
Then he’s reaching for the condom on his bedside table and pushing into me, so slow and attentive like he is with everything else, taking away every one of my breaths.
“You don’t need a leash to get me to do what you want.
” He continues at the agonizingly pleasurable pace.
His brows furrow, and his fingers dig into my skin as he fills me up inch by inch.
There’s so much I’m used to at times like this.
The rough hands on my chest, the hard kisses to my mouth, bruising—punishing.
But none of that comes when I’m with Kian.
With him I feel everything, all the slow swipes of his fingers against my skin, the soft grunts when he feels me squeeze around him.
All of it keeps me right there with him, no chance of my thoughts drifting and waiting for this to be over.
It’s never felt like this before, never so gentle that tears well in my eyes.
“Too much?” Kian asks, slowing his already slow pace. I nearly cry from the need that bubbles up inside me when he brings his hand to my face, running his thumb over my jaw as if to soothe me.
“More,” I moan into his mouth, the word dissolving against his lips like butter. He answers without hesitation, his hands tightening, his breath hitching, and his body moving with a sudden, fervent urgency that steals any coherent thought.
“How much more, baby? I’ll give you whatever you need.” I don’t have to answer him because every thrust makes my toes curl and every swing of his necklace over my face makes my eyes roll back.
“Faster. Please.” I am now partial to one-word sentences—anything more and I think it would be a garbled mess. But even the small, barely loud-enough command from me doesn’t make him go faster. I stare up at him with irritation set in the lines of my furrowed brows.
“You’re going to take it like this. Slow,” he whispers. “Gentle.”
God. He’s an evil, evil man, yet I can’t seem to loosen my legs from around his waist.
I can barely keep my eyes open when there’s a light smack to my cheek. “You listening?”
My mouth falls open in surprise, throat dry as I nod.
“What’d I say?”
I laugh. “This isn’t a test, Kian.”
“Yeah, it isn’t.” His callused thumb presses against my bottom lip. “I need you know that.”
My mouth softens against the side of his neck, where his pulse presses against my lips.
There’s an ache in my chest at the thought of this ending, not having him this close all the time.
He must read my thoughts because we’re pressed closer than the contours of our body would otherwise allow.
But for him, I could shape into whatever he needs.
“Am I greedy for wanting more of you even when you’ve given me so much?” he asks.
I don’t let my eyes sting. I don’t say he could take more, that I wouldn’t stop him, not even if it meant there was nothing left of me. Instead, three words push against my teeth, but I choose to quietly kiss them into his neck instead. They’re safer there.