Chapter 38
Kyron
I’m losing my mind in the bathroom.
This is ridiculous. I’ve shared space with her for weeks now. Eaten meals across from her. Watched her fall asleep on the couch with her head on Rane’s shoulder. Carried her through the front door while she kissed me like the world was ending.
But somehow, knowing she’s in my bed right now—wearing my shirt, waiting for me—has turned me into a fifteen-year-old who’s never been alone with a woman.
I grip the edge of the sink and stare at myself in the mirror.
Get it together.
It’s just Nova.
Yeah. Just the woman who completes the cluster. The one you’ve been waiting two years for.
Though admittedly longer.
I close my eyes. Shake my head.
I’ve been waiting for her forever.
The thought settles into my chest like it’s always been there. Like I’ve known it for years and only just found the words.
I take a breath. Steel myself.
When I open the bathroom door, she’s exactly where I left her—curled on her side in my bed, silver-blonde hair spread across my pillow, wearing nothing but one of my t-shirts. It hits mid-thigh on her. She looks small in it. Small and soft and mine.
The room is warm. Too warm, actually—I can feel the heat radiating off her from here. She’s been running hot for days, that flush in her cheeks that won’t fade, the way she keeps reaching for cold water like it’ll help.
It hasn’t helped.
I slide into bed behind her, keeping a careful distance. Not touching. Trying to give her space even though it’s the last thing I want.
She shifts almost immediately, pressing back into me, and I have to bite down on a groan. Her body fits against mine like she was made for this space—her back to my chest, her ass against my hips, her legs tangling with mine.
Fuck.
I remind myself that Locke told us. That this is all new for her. That the kiss on the porch was her first, and everything since then has been uncharted territory.
I settle for sliding my arm around her waist. That’s safe.
Except I’m not wearing a shirt, and everywhere she touches me feels like electricity. Even through the fabric, I can feel the heat of her—too warm, almost feverish—and my body runs cold enough that the contrast makes every point of contact light up like a live wire.
She turns in my arms.
Now we’re face to face, her pale eyes finding mine in the dark, and she shifts closer. Presses herself against my chest. Her hand comes up to rest over my heart and I stop breathing.
“Nova…”
“Yeah?”
I let out a little laugh. Can’t help it. “You’re not making this easy.”
“I just—” She presses closer, her forehead against my collarbone. “This is the first time in days. Maybe weeks. That I don’t feel like I’m burning from the inside out.” She looks up at me. “It’s when you touch me. It stops.”
Fuck.
“Not sure you should say things like that to me.”
Something shifts in her expression. I watch it happen—the moment she stops thinking about the burning and starts noticing something else.
The way her body is pressed against mine.
The way my hand is splayed across her lower back.
The way my cock is hardening against her hip no matter how hard I try to control it.
She shifts closer.
And then she kisses me.
I forget myself for a full thirty seconds. My arms come around her, pulling her tight against me, and I’m deepening the kiss before I can think better of it. She tastes like toothpaste and something sweeter underneath, and she makes this soft sound against my mouth that goes straight to my cock.
My hand slides under her shirt, up her back, feeling the heat of her skin. I bring it around to her side, my thumb brushing the underside of her breast, and I go rigid.
Stop. She’s never done this. You’re taking advantage.
I start to pull my hand away.
She grabs my arm. Holds me in place.
“Kyron, don’t stop.” She pulls back just enough to meet my eyes. “I want this. I want you.”
“Are you sure, Nova?” The words scrape out of me. “I know there’s a lot going on, and you’ve been dealing with—”
She puts her finger to my lips.
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life, Kyron.”
I look down at her. She looks up at me. And then I’m smiling—slow, real—and she’s smiling back.
“Then let me make you feel good, Nova.” My thumb brushes over her nipple. She gasps, her back arching into my hand, and I have to swallow hard before I can finish. “You deserve to feel good.”
I kiss her again. Slower this time, but deeper. My hand continues its path, cupping her breast, and she lets out a breathy moan that she clearly didn’t mean to make.
It lights me up from the inside.
I roll her nipple between my fingers and she arches into my touch again, gasping. I use the momentum to roll her onto her back, shifting partially on top of her, bracing myself on one arm so I don’t crush her.
I kiss down her neck. She tilts her head back, giving me access, her fingers threading into my hair.
“Kyron…”
“I know.”
I kiss down her chest, over the thin fabric of my shirt. My fingers splay across her stomach underneath, feeling the heat of her skin, the rapid rise and fall of her breathing.
“Can I?”
She nods.
I push up her shirt slowly, kissing my way back up as I expose her. When the fabric clears her breasts, she gasps—the cold air of the room hitting her heated skin.
I pause. Look at her. Really look.
“You’re beautiful, Nova.”
Her cheeks flush darker. She tries to look away but I catch her chin, bring her eyes back to mine.
“I mean it. You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
Then I lower my head and take her nipple into my mouth.
She cries out—surprised, overwhelmed—and her hands fly to my hair, gripping hard. I lavish attention on one breast, then the other, until she’s squirming beneath me, making sounds that are going to live in my head forever.
I start kissing lower.
Down her ribs. Across her stomach. I feel her tense when she realizes where I’m headed.
“You don’t have to—”
I pause. My mouth is right there, hovering over the waistband of her underwear. Close enough that she can feel my breath through the thin cotton.
“Oh?” I look up at her. “I don’t have to?”
She squirms. Her hips twitch toward me without her permission.
“You don’t want me to?”
“I—” Her voice is strained. “I just meant—”
I press a single kiss to the inside of her thigh. Light. Barely there.
“Are you sure?”
Her whole body shudders. She’s losing the battle—I can see it in the way her chest is heaving, the way her thighs are trembling, the way she keeps trying to form words and failing.
I breathe against her center, letting her feel the warmth through the fabric.
“Kyron—” She breaks. “I take it back.”
“So you want me to?”
“Please.”
I hook my fingers in her underwear and pull it down her legs. Toss it somewhere behind me. And then I settle between her thighs and look at her—flushed and desperate and so fucking beautiful it makes my chest ache.
“Hold on to something, Nova.”
Then I lower my mouth to her.
The sound she makes is worth every second of restraint.
She’s so responsive—every lick, every stroke of my tongue pulls another gasp or moan from her throat. Her fingers are in my hair, gripping hard enough to hurt, and I don’t care. I’d let her pull it out by the roots if it meant she kept making those sounds.
I slide one finger inside her while my tongue works her clit, and she nearly comes off the bed.
“Oh god—Kyron—I can’t—”
“You can.” I curl my finger, finding the spot that makes her see stars. “Let go for me, Nova.”
I add a second finger, stretching her gently, getting her ready for me while I keep working her with my mouth. She’s so tight, so wet, so hot—the heat coming off her is intense, like her whole body is burning from the inside.
I notice the air getting thick. Warm. Humid.
Steam.
There’s steam rising from her skin, curling into the cold air of my room, and I should probably be concerned but I can’t find it in me to care. I already knew what she was. This just confirms it.
She’s fire. And I’m the only thing that can cool her down.
“Kyron—don’t stop—please don’t stop—”
I suck her clit into my mouth and press hard against that spot inside her, and she shatters.
My name tears out of her throat as she comes—her back arching, her thighs clamping around my head, her whole body shaking with the force of it. I work her through it, gentling my touch as she comes down, pressing soft kisses to her inner thighs until she stops trembling.
When I look up, her eyes are dazed. Glassy. She looks wrecked in the best possible way.
“Holy shit,” she breathes.
I laugh—can’t help it—and crawl back up her body, pressing a kiss to her mouth. She can probably taste herself on me, but she doesn’t seem to mind. She just pulls me closer, deepening the kiss.
“More,” she whispers against my lips. “I want more.”
“Are you sure?” I pull back to look at her. “We don’t have to—”
“Kyron.” She meets my eyes, and there’s no hesitation there. No uncertainty. Just want. “I want you inside me. Please.”
Fuck.
I reach over to my nightstand, grabbing a condom from the drawer. She watches me roll it on, her eyes wide, and I realize she’s never seen—
Easy. Go slow.
I settle between her thighs, the head of my cock pressing against her entrance. She’s so wet, so ready, but I hold myself still.
“It might hurt at first,” I tell her. “Tell me if you need me to stop.”
She nods, her hands coming up to grip my shoulders.
I push in slowly. Inch by inch. Watching her face for any sign of discomfort.
Her brow furrows. Her nails dig into my shoulders. But she doesn’t tell me to stop—she pulls me closer, urging me deeper.
When I’m fully seated inside her, I go still. Let her adjust. She’s so tight, so hot, it takes everything I have not to move.
“You okay?”
She nods. Breathes out slowly. “Yeah. Just… give me a second.”
I hold myself still, pressing kisses to her forehead, her cheeks, the corner of her mouth. Waiting for her.
Then she shifts her hips. Just slightly. Testing.
“Okay,” she whispers, and pulls me closer.
I pull back and thrust in slowly. She gasps, but it’s not pain—I can tell the difference. I do it again, setting a gentle rhythm, letting her get used to the sensation.
“Kyron…” Her head tips back. “That feels…”
“Good?”
“So good.”
I keep the pace slow. Steady. Watching her face, the way her expression shifts from uncertain to something else entirely. Her lips part. Her eyes flutter closed. Her fingers dig into my shoulders like she needs something to hold onto.
“More,” she breathes.
I give her more. Deeper. A little faster. She moans, and the sound goes straight through me.
The steam is back. Rising from her skin in wisps, curling into the cold air. I notice it in the periphery—the way the room is getting humid, the way her body is heating up beneath me—but I can’t focus on anything except the way she feels. Tight. Hot. Perfect.
I want to make this last. Want to stay inside her forever, feeling her come apart around me piece by piece.
She wraps her legs around my waist, pulling me deeper, and the angle changes in a way that makes us both groan. I drop my forehead to hers, breathing hard, trying to hold on.
“You feel incredible,” I manage. “You have no idea.”
She laughs—breathless, surprised—and then gasps when I roll my hips just right.
“Do that again.”
I do. She moans my name and I have to grit my teeth to keep from losing it right there.
The steam is thickening now. Curling around us, warm and humid despite the natural cold of my room. I watch it dance in the low light and feel something primal settle in my chest.
Mine. She’s mine.
I slide a hand between us, finding her clit, circling it with my thumb while I thrust into her. She cries out, her nails raking down my back, and I know she’s close.
“That’s it, Nova. Let me feel you.”
“I’m—Kyron, I’m gonna—”
“I know.” I thrust deeper, harder. “Come with me.”
She shatters.
I feel it in the way she clenches around me, hear it in the broken sound of my name on her lips, see it in the flash of gold and red at her wrist—
Her mark.
I blink—and it’s gone.
But something else isn’t.
A pull deep in my chest. A thread going taut. A click I feel rather than hear. Something ancient and certain settling into place.
Her.
I feel her heartbeat sync with mine for one impossible second. Feel her in a way that has nothing to do with bodies.
Bond.
The word rises up from somewhere instinctive. Somewhere that doesn’t need proof.
And then I’m falling too—burying myself deep, coming with a groan, her name on my lips, the bond echoing in every beat of my heart.
For a long moment, we just breathe. Tangled together, sweat-slicked and spent, the steam slowly dissipating around us.
I pull out gently, disposing of the condom before gathering her into my arms. She curls against my chest immediately, her body finally—finally—cool.
The burning that’s been plaguing her for weeks is gone.
I can feel it in the way she relaxes, the way her breathing evens out, the way she melts into me like she’s never been this comfortable in her life.
“That was…” She laughs—soft, surprised, a little giddy. “I didn’t know it would be like that.”
“It can be like that every time.” I press a kiss to the top of her head. “If you let me.”
She hums, already drifting. Her fingers trace lazy patterns on my chest, and I feel her smile against my skin.
“Deal.”
Within minutes, she’s asleep.
I hold her in the dark, watching the rise and fall of her breathing, feeling the steady beat of her heart against my side.
The steam is gone. The air is still. Her body is cool in my arms for the first time in weeks.
Something changed tonight. Something finished. Or started.
I brush a strand of hair from her face.
“I’ve been waiting for you forever, Nova.” My voice is barely a whisper. “And I’m never letting you burn alone again.”
She doesn’t hear me.
That’s okay.
She will.