Chapter 15 #3
Maybe she’d been wrong to swear off relationships all these years. Being with Sebastian had felt like a fundamental shift in her world. More than sex. More than physical satisfaction.
It was a scary thought and one that would probably send Sebastian running. For the first time in her life, the sex had been so good, the emotional connection so honest and pure, she was almost willing to contemplate the idea of more.
Sebastian lay staring up at the icy ceiling feeling like the lowest kind of asshole as Nora slept against him. The sex had been phenomenal, and he knew he wanted to see Nora again.
But he hadn’t told her what he knew. He hadn’t been upfront. Her propositioning him had caught him off-guard, and he’d gone into it telling himself it wouldn’t matter. It was her business who she told about her past.
It was a one-off thing. Just sex.
Just sex.
It had blown his mind. Not the physical, although that had felt like some sort of electroshock torture that someone had plugged into the pleasure socket. Watching Nora’s openness, her vulnerability, had made him drop all his own armor. Had made him lose control.
He never lost control.
Never.
The worst thing was he wanted to do it again. And again.
He thought about poor pathetic Max Pasdeckie.
Why would Sebastian fare any different when it came to winning Nora’s affection? Even if the sex had been a lot better than average—for him anyway—why would he be any more successful at getting more from Nora, especially as he lived a thousand miles away and didn’t share her interests?
It was easier, much easier, if he accepted this as a one-off event with zero expectations. That’s how he usually rolled.
He went to get up, to go throw wood on the fire, when Nora’s thigh touched his penis and had him instantly hard again.
He closed his eyes. Great. He’d never get any sleep tonight. He tried to concentrate on ballistic calculations and the Coriolis effect.
She rocked her thigh gently over him again.
Huh. He looked down at her cat’s grin.
She’d woken from her short doze, and her fingers began to play with the light covering of hair on his chest.
“I thought you’d fallen asleep.”
She hummed.
“I never thought men with hairy chests were sexy before.” She planted her chin on his pec and gazed up at him with those violet eyes that he could stare at forever.
He cleared his throat. “And now?”
Her lips parted as she smiled. “Now I have to question every belief I’ve ever held.”
“Fair.” He looked down at her. The black cap had fallen off and was piled with their clothes beneath them. Her hair was messy. She looked like she’d just enjoyed some really excellent sex. And wanted more.
He should tell her the truth, but when her hand curled around him again he knew he wasn’t going to. He might hate himself for it, but telling her now, possibly upsetting her when they were stuck in this little homemade ice palace together, wasn’t fair either.
And was he going to say no to this woman? Not in this lifetime.
She slipped beneath the covers, and his eyes nearly rolled out of the back of his head when she took him in her mouth. For a man who hadn’t had sex in eons, he sure was making up for lost time.
Just when he was about to beg for mercy, she slid back up his body and found a condom.
He rolled it on quickly, needing her more than he’d ever needed any other woman.
She slid over him, took him inside her and rocked her hips in an exquisite dance.
She couldn’t sit all the way up because the quinzhee wasn’t high enough, but she kept up a rhythm that made him clench his jaw and count to one hundred—in Portuguese.
He needed to slow it all down, make it good for her. He reached up to the ceiling and caught a drop of ice-cold water on the tip of his finger.
He circled her nipple and watched the raspberry peak bead in reaction. She gasped, eyes flashing to his almost in outrage. He did it again to the other side.
She moaned, and he pulled her in for a tender kiss. Held her mouth against his with one hand and her hip steady with the other as he thrust gently inside her, small movements, monumental seismic shifts in the tectonic plates of his life.
“I thought you were going to die today, Nora. Don’t ever do that to me again.”
She huffed a laugh. Eyes closed as she took back control and moved over him sinuously. “I will try not to, but if another near miss does happen, I promise to fuck your brains out afterward at the first opportunity.”
“Don’t.” He held her to him. Kissed her roughly. “Don’t joke about that.”
Never about that.
She twisted against him, rotating her hips in a way that made him grab hold of her just to try to ground himself.
He panted. “You’re driving me crazy.”
“It’s what I do best.” She kissed him again. Gasped when he thrust even deeper inside her.
He couldn’t last much longer. The woman was killing him. But he needed her to come first. He wanted to watch her expression when she did.
“Look at me.”
She blinked her eyes open, and he fell into those violet depths.
Then he nudged her knees wider and thrust higher, harder.
Watched a drip of iced water fall from the ceiling and slide slowly down her body.
Her lips parted, her gaze disconnected from reality and hovering on that plane of anticipation as he thrust deeper, harder, again and again and again until she finally burst apart.
Her release catalyzed his, just like last time.
Stars collided, and galaxies were born as he cried out.
Nothing had ever felt this good before. Wondrous and new. Fate rather than biology.
His mouth went dry.
This wasn’t what he’d wanted.
It wasn’t what he’d planned at all.
He was falling for this woman whether he wanted to or not. The situation wasn’t ideal. The fact he hadn’t told her the truth about what he knew was an issue he’d deal with as soon as he felt the time was right.
They had a mission to complete and a little girl to rescue. In the meantime, this thing between them would have to be pushed aside. It could wait.
If it was real, it could wait.
She moved off of him while he dealt with the condom, then she lay against him, obviously tired and hopefully sated.
He playfully pulled the knit cap over her hair and then became aware of the chill in the air. He threw a few branches onto the fire as they both scrambled back into their thermal layers to sleep.
He pulled her against him and gently pressed her face to his chest.
“Why so long since you slept with anybody?” She traced a finger lazily over his sternum.
He shrugged. Telling her he hadn’t met anyone he’d been interested in this way for years felt like too big of an admission. “Been busy.”
He held her gaze when she looked up at him. “Why Max?”
It was her turn to shrug. “I was lonely.”
Her words filled him with an emptiness he understood. He hated everything that had happened to her, but was grateful to be here with her now. He kissed the top of her head.
“Go to sleep now, Nora Deacon. I’ve got you. You’re safe. Sleep.”