Chapter 28
Nia
I need you.
The words echoed in her mind as Lochlan carried her up the stairs. She kissed him the whole way—slowly, purposefully, nothing like the desperate, frenzied encounters they’d shared before. This was uncharted territory.
When he placed her on the bed, still nestled between her legs, his movements were unhurried. He brushed her hair away from her face, his fingers lingering as they slid to her cheek, then down her neck. He paused at her pulse point, his thumb pressing lightly.
“Do you feel that?” Nia asked, her voice low, rough. “How wild my heart beats for you?”
He answered with a kiss—soft and searching.
“This is so new,” Nia whispered, her breath mingling with his. “So different from anything I’ve ever known. It scares me.”
Their lips met again, the air between them thickening.
“I’m frightened too,” Lochlan admitted, his forehead resting against hers. “That you’ll open your eyes and realize I’m not meant for you, or your world, or…”
“I would never. I just…” Nia shook her head, her voice steady despite the maelstrom inside her. “I don’t know how to leave space for someone else. But I want you to take up that space. I need you. And I need you to be patient. I need…” Her voice broke, and she kissed him roughly. “So much.”
The thought scared her. She’d spent so long shying away from forever. And yet, as he looked at her now, she couldn’t help but think that maybe… he was forever.
Before her thoughts could spiral further, she moaned low in her throat, chasing him—chasing distraction. At that moment, she didn’t want to think. She just wanted him.
Lochlan’s hands tightened around her hips, his control fraying at the edges. “Keep needing me like that, and I’ll become desperate.”
“Don’t hold back,” she murmured, her eyes locking with his. “I want to see every part of you—the messy, beautiful, desperate parts, too.”
A groan rumbled from deep in his chest, and he kissed her again, this time with none of the restraint he’d shown earlier. His honey-colored eyes met hers, holding them with a reverence that left her breathless.
“Tell me if you want me to stop,” he said, his voice quiet but firm.
“Don’t stop,” she said, the certainty in her voice surprising even herself. “Please.”
Lochlan stood, his frame towering in the dim, golden light of the bedroom. Shadows danced along his body, emphasizing the quiet power he carried in his broad shoulders and the heavy lines of his chest, rough and real.
He pulled his shirt over his head, the fabric sliding free to reveal the expanse of his torso. She mirrored him, peeling off her own shirt, her gaze fixed on him, hunger rising with each inch of revealed skin.
He unfastened his pants, pushing them down slowly. The anticipation made her pulse quicken. As they pooled at his ankles, he stood before her in just his boxers, the tension of his arousal straining against the fabric.
She sat up on the bed, her eyes drinking in the breadth of his body, but as her gaze drifted lower, the breath caught in her throat. Faint silver scars peppered his thighs, becoming denser as they reached his calves, until they stopped abruptly near his ankles.
A pang of sorrow and understanding struck her—these were the remnants from the fire that had threatened to destroy the greenhouse he loved.
She leaned forward, pressing her lips to his stomach, then trailing kisses down to his thigh, her mouth lingering over one of the silvery marks above his knee. The touch drew a low, guttural groan from him, and when she glanced up, his eyes blazed with something raw and unguarded.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he said, his voice rough, almost desperate.
“Like what?”
“Like nothing else matters.”
Her lips curled into a mischievous smirk as she stood, catching his mouth with hers in a heated kiss. Then she pressed her hands to his chest, guiding him back until he hit the bed.
“Nothing else matters,” she murmured, her voice rich with promise.
His breath hitched as her shadows slid across his stomach, gripping the waistband of his boxers and tearing them apart with an audible rip.
“Repayment from earlier,” she teased with a sly grin.
He chuckled, the sound low and dark, but stopped as she took off the rest of her clothes, her movements unhurried. She crawled up his body, her lips marking a path over his skin, every kiss a declaration.
When she straddled his lap, her hands explored his chest, her nails grazing along the firmness of his stomach. She let a single finger trace his length, her touch featherlight but enough to make him twitch and groan beneath her.
This was dangerous—the way his reactions made her feel. He had said he needed a distraction earlier, and now she understood completely. Nothing else existed outside of this, outside of them.
A flicker of nerves crept in, but she pushed through it. “I went to the healer for contraceptive magic last month. And I’ve been checked for illnesses—I’m clean.”
“I was tested in college,” he said, his voice low and husky. “And I haven’t been with anyone since.”
She shouldn’t like that as much as she did, but it sent a thrill racing through her.
Leaning down, her lips brushed the edge of his ear as she whispered, “Good.”
She felt slick and slippery as she ground against his hardness, her body aching for more.
“So, there’s nothing stopping this from happening,” she murmured, her voice teasing as she moved again, rolling her hips against him.
His hands gripped her waist in response, fingers squeezing and massaging as if steadying himself. A groan escaped her lips, and his grip tightened. “I guess not,” he said, his voice strained.
She captured his lips as he slid against her entrance, the tease driving them both wild. He cursed softly against her mouth as she worked him in, every movement agonizingly hot and unbearably slow.
The room seemed to shrink around them, the air thick and electric, crackling with every measured thrust. His ragged breaths fanned against her neck, each one a reminder of just how much she unraveled him.
Her thighs began to tingle, the telltale pressure building low and insistent. She sat up abruptly, her nails dragging lightly along his chest as she fought to regain control, desperate to delay the orgasm that teased her from a distance.
“Too soon,” she murmured, her voice trembling with both pleasure and frustration. She shifted slightly, adjusting the angle, her body humming with anticipation as she chased that perfect, dizzying edge without giving in just yet.
He sat up too, arms tightening around her waist like he couldn’t stand the space between them. She didn’t stop moving—pressing down hard before rising and falling in a rhythm that stole the breath from her lungs.
“You beautiful witch,” he whispered against her lips, the words coming out like a reverent curse.
His hands roamed her body, firm and searching, gripping her ass, holding her as though he was terrified she might disappear.
His mouth found her neck, his teeth nipping lightly before his tongue traced along her skin.
When he captured her nipple in his mouth, she gasped, the sensation sending bolts of electricity through her.
It was too much—and yet she wanted more.
She felt like a wave ready to crash, wild and unyielding, against the jagged rocks that were Lochlan.
His grip tightened, one hand on her ass as the other held her steady.
His mouth stayed hot against her breast, and with a low, guttural growl, he thrust deeper into her, the angle making her cry out.
The pleasure was everywhere—on her skin, deep in her soul, a storm she couldn’t control.
She tried to hold back, to make the moment last, but she was powerless against the pressure building inside her. Lochlan wasn’t going to let her hold back, either.
“Let me have it, love.” His breath was warm as his voice vibrated through her body. “Fall apart for me. Let me feel every piece of you.”
His words undid her completely. She couldn’t stop it—the orgasm tore through her like lightning, the intensity leaving her breathless and weightless. Lochlan caught her scream with his mouth, kissing her deeply as her body convulsed with pleasure, the connection between them heightening everything.
She floated somewhere beyond reality, lost in a magical space where nothing else existed but this moment, this man, and the fire burning between them.
Lochlan flipped her, his strength controlled as he pressed her firmly into the mattress.
His fingers found her slippery heat, teasing and stroking and unrelenting, as if he held the power to command the rhythm of her pleasure.
Each touch sent a jolt through her, reigniting and prolonging the blinding intensity of her climax.
She trembled beneath him, her body taut, caught in that unbearable edge between ecstasy and overstimulation. He groaned deeply as his own release overtook him, his body stiffening against hers, spilling into her with raw, unrestrained need.
A low, obscene curse escaped his lips, and she laughed—soft and breathless. Her body felt like it no longer belonged to her, and it was both thrilling and terrifying.
As the haze of their release ebbed, he leaned close, pressing soft, lingering kisses to her flushed skin. Between them, he murmured words—low, fervent, and unintelligible. She didn’t need to understand them to feel their weight.
They were a mess—slick and tangled, her thighs damp with the evidence of their pleasure. It only made her want more, a temptation that left her aching to feel him again, though her eyes were heavy. Her breaths slowed, her body reluctantly sinking into the blissful exhaustion creeping over her.
A small, satisfied smile played across her lips as he kissed her face, her shoulders, her collarbone.
For now, nothing else mattered. Wrapped in Lochlan’s arms, her skin still tingling and her body still humming, she let her eyes drift closed.