Chapter 24 #3
The beat of his heart became a focus point, low and impossibly fast, deep as summer thunder.
With the elevation of my senses, I could taste the breath from his lips as he let out short, quick bursts of air.
Even the feeling of the shirt bunched between my fingers was more pronounced, the heat of his skin melting through the thin fabric.
But there was something new joining all the elevated expectancies. A scent that I hadn’t caught before, rolling from him in waves and growing more treacherous the longer we sat there, rubbing hip to hip.
Sweet and heady, it made my mouth salivate instantly, while a familiar ache gathered between my legs. I took long inhales, trying to understand it, feeling only more aroused as it finally hit me.
“Bloody Architect,” I whispered.
He wanted me. Not just with a simple attraction or a passing lust, but so intensely it practically smothered all other sensations.
“Yeah,” was all he said, the orange in his eyes glowing like twin flames. “Afraid now?
“Max—”
He sat up quickly, holding my waist, pressing his forehead into mine.
“I can’t have you, Nina. I won’t. You deserve someone normal, who will take you to nice dinners, maybe read a book every now and then.
Someone charming and sophisticated, and that’ll never be me.
I’m a thing made in a lab. An abomination that doesn’t deserve you. ”
Even as he denied that we could ever be together, his grip tightened, pulling me closer. His words had never been so unconvincing; his touch spoke to me so much louder than his protests.
“Why do you think our beginnings determine our worth?” I asked him.
“Does it matter that my father is dead? Does that make me less than someone who has two loving parents or better than someone who has none? It doesn’t matter where we come from, Max.
I see the man you are now. The man you choose to be each day. I like that man. I like him a lot.”
“But I’m—”
“The body doesn’t lie. You can deny how I feel, but you can’t change it. If I can scent your arousal, then surely, you’ve scented mine.”
“I have.” He slid the words through his teeth. “And after all I did, I thought you’d be running away by now.”
All he did. His cruelty, his apathy, all to push me away.
“If I ran… would you chase me?” I smiled at the idea. The scent of him was tantalizing, and my mouth watered until I was forced to swallow. I pushed my hips lower, sliding down the bulge in his pants, and took another hit of the smell.
“Fuck, Nina.” His face sought the curve of my neck, groaning. “Yes. I would chase you to the edges of the map and beyond.”
My fingers threaded into his damp hairline as he breathed across the sensitive skin of my throat. I was quietly wishing he’d sink his teeth into my neck.
I told him, “You claimed you wouldn’t make me do anything I didn’t want to. So ask me again, Maxence. Ask me to kiss you, without your dice. See what happens.”
All the air rushed from him at once. “Are you gambling now?”
“I’m feeling lucky,” I said, stroking the nape of his neck in a way that I hoped encouraged him.
His lips brushed the bounding pulse in my throat as he said, “Kiss me, Nina. Please.”
He didn’t demand it this time. He begged.
I was helpless as his mouth reached for mine. Our lips grazed, connecting softly for a moment, in a whisper of a true kiss, before Max applied pressure. He groaned. And that raw, primal part of him that was the cause for so much violence made itself known in our intimacy.
He took more control, shoving my lips apart in a quiet invitation. I answered in kind, sweeping my tongue beyond the seam of his lips while he opened for me, tasting me, pinching my waist with a bruising pressure like he wanted to unravel every layer between us.
This kiss wasn’t isolated to our lips. Every inch of our bodies was pressed together. It was in the guidance of his hand as he pressed me closer. It was in my exploration of him, measuring the sharp angle of his jaw and the curve of his neck against my grasp.
I’d been kissed before, but never this much. Anything before had been a stone skipped over a lake compared to this plunge into a rushing, plummeting, drowning deep.
Max withdrew, dragging the sharp edge of his canine gently across my lip and avoiding the spot where I was snagged the day before. “So,” he sighed, catching his breath, “will you bet on me now?”
I sank into his support, crossing my arms behind his neck. “You’ve already won, Max.”
The smallest of smiles tilted the corners of his lips.
“Damien is as good as dead,” he said. “And when I take the city, I’m going to make sure we use all our resources to help you get your mother back, Nina.
You once thought you were alone, but you have me.
You have my complicated family and the syndicate of the Cursed.
What’s left of this body will stand between you and any danger. ”
My fingers traced his jaw. “I have nothing to give you in return.”
He shook his head. “You’ve given me more than enough.”
That was impossible. I had no money, no territory, no cards left to play in this game. He didn’t owe me a single thing.
“Well, isn’t this sweet,” a voice echoed through the ring, coming from above us. Damien loomed with his arms crossed, holding a red flask. He was shirtless, with a squad of men behind him.
Max rose to his feet with me still curled around him, holding me until my feet found the ground. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s my time to train. You had it from midnight to noon. I have it from noon to midnight. We agreed on these terms last—”
“I know the terms,” Max hissed. “I just… lost track of time.” He cleared his throat and shoved his hair back.
“I can see why.” Damien’s voice went lower as his gaze traveled down my body. His stare sent a shudder through my spine. He knew for sure now that I’d lied to him.
“We’re leaving now.” He grabbed me by the hand and pulled me toward the half wall edging the area.
Meanwhile, Damien stepped inside, his goons dispersing to block each of the aisles between the ring and the exits.
“Ignore them,” Max murmured between us. “We can’t fight before the duel, or the whole thing is null.
Just get your things. I’m right behind you. ”
“You’ve made a mistake, Nina,” Damien spoke to me then. “Where will you go when he’s dead tomorrow?”
I squeezed the die in my hand until the edges cut into my palm. “I’ll be leaving with him, because he won’t lose against a coward like you.”
Damien smiled wide, his teeth stained red. “Your loyalty is weak if it can change so quickly. Or you’re a liar. I don’t deal with either of those kinds of people.”
He stood between us and our clothes. Damien kept a hand in his pocket, relaxed as he made a show of enjoying his drink.
His chest was thickly muscled with a dusting of hair trailing his abdomen.
It was obvious he was in great shape, a worthy adversary for Max if there was one.
He made a show of chugging the rest of the contents in his flask, tossing it in Max’s path as he followed close behind me.
Everything was intentional with Damien. Even the way he still looked at me like he could see through my camisole. I tried to give him a wide berth as we passed, but he snatched my arm unexpectedly, pulling me into his chest.
His breath had a heavy scent of metal, like he’d been drinking blood all morning. “You will regret the day you chose him, Nina. But I will enjoy keeping you once I get Maxence out of our way.”
Max was at my side immediately, slipping an arm around my waist. “Keep your fucking hands off her.”
“Or what?” Damien growled. “Would you break our terms for her?”
“Yes. Along with every bone in your body.”
“Max…”
He leapt at Damien, but the other men grasped his arms and pulled him away. It took three of them to slam him against the wall and hold him back.