CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Nova
THERE WAS NO HESITATION IN KOL. HE LIFTED ME AS IF I weighed nothing, my legs hooked around his hips as he carried me over the scattering of hair on the tile floor. I felt like I weighed no more than that snow on the air I thought I’d seen when he found me.
Because I was starting to let it all go. Let it all out. And that was the path to freedom.
Kol sifted a hand into my hair as he took my mouth, that powerful tongue sliding against mine. As he pulled back, his eyes were pure fire. “I like this.” His fingers tightened in my hair.
I grinned back. “Me, too. Makes me feel free.”
“Like you were always meant to be.”
My smile softened. “You showed me how.”
Kol slowed his steps as we reached the bed. He lowered me, my feet finding the floor as if there was no rush and he was determined to take his time. I could feel everything. The way the soft towel brushed my skin. The hard planes of his body. The ridge growing in those sweatpants.
“Time to feel that freedom. Time to fly,” he rasped. His finger came to the knot in my towel, light sparking in his dark-hazel depths. “Yes?”
“Yes,” I breathed.
With one flick of his fingers, my towel dropped. Kol took a step back, as if he were examining a work of art in a museum. Only it wasn’t analysis I saw in his eyes. It was pure, blistering heat. “So damn beautiful.”
And he made me feel it. There was no want or need to cover my scars or hide my insecurities. Not the marks from the shackles or the reminder of the stab wound on my torso. They only felt like reminders of everything I’d overcome to get to this place. To Kol. To freedom.
The man in front of me took one step and sank to his knees as if he were ready to worship me. And maybe he was, in a way.
His hands skimmed up my calves, the touch featherlight, then twisted around and slid up my thighs. “I’ll never forget this sight, you in the moonlight. Skin glowing like the damn stars themselves.”
Kol’s hands stopped just shy of where I wanted them the most. “Yes?”
“Please.” There was a begging note in my voice, but I didn’t give a damn.
One corner of his mouth kicked up. “Nothing makes me harder than hearing you beg. Than hearing you say yes. Say please. Say more.”
“Yes. Please. More.” My words vibrated with all the need curling inside me.
“My little demon.” Kol’s thumb slid along my slit, and I couldn’t help my sharp intake of breath. “Tell me, do you want my mouth on you?”
My legs trembled in response, giving me away. “Your tongue, your fingers, your cock.”
“My greedy girl.” But he didn’t begrudge my selfishness. His thumb parted me as his tongue flicked out, circling my clit.
I couldn’t help the gasp that left me, didn’t care that it gave me away, because I could feel whatever I needed, whatever I wanted. With Kol, I could feel it all.
He slid two fingers inside me and circled. My back arched, my body leaning into his, seeking more. His tongue moved in some sort of nonsensical figure eight over that bundle of nerves as his fingers stroked in and out.
My legs trembled again, and I wasn’t sure I could stay upright if this continued, but Kol read that, too. One arm came under my ass, holding me to him, telling me he’d never let me fall.
His fingers thrust deeper, and as they curled, he hit a spot that sent light sparking over my vision. My mouth fell open as my breaths came in quick pants. Sharp, staccato beats only punctuated by flutters of convulsions through my core.
My fingers dug into Kol’s shoulders, biting into the skin. “Not going to last.”
He only hummed against my clit, then sucked lightly on that bundle of nerves. The gentle pressure was all it took. I cried out as the first orgasm hit me hard and fast. My walls clamped down on Kol’s fingers as I struggled not to collapse.
Kol simply held me to him, his fingers moving through the pulses as his tongue circled that tiny bead, drawing out every last ounce of feeling I had in me.
Just when I didn’t think I could take anymore, Kol slowed his ministrations, easing back and gazing up at me, even as his fingers were still inside me.
“Flying yet, Phoenix?”
“Flying free,” I whispered.
“More?” he asked, a wolfish grin on his face.
It called on one of my own as I looked down at him. “If I’m your demon, you’re my devil.”
That grin only widened. “Seems only fair.” He slowly pulled his fingers from me, licking them clean. “Tell me what you want, little demon.”
“You. Filling me. Stretching me. Taking me.”
Those dark eyes flashed. “I’ll get the rope.”
Kol started to stand, but I gripped his shoulders. “No. No rope.”
A hint of uncertainty swept over his face. “Are you sure?”
I nodded. “I’m sure. I want to feel that freedom with you. For both of us.”
Kol slowly got to his feet, his hand skating across my jaw and then into my hair. “If something feels like it’s too much, you have to tell me. Promise me.”
“I promise,” I whispered against his mouth.
He kissed me, quick and deep, and then took a step back. A wave of cold hit me, but it was soon replaced by a wash of heat. Because Kol reached behind his head and pulled off his tee in one swift motion.
All that golden skin on display. All those dents and curves of his beautiful body. The tattoos that told the story of his life.
Then his fingers were in the band of his sweats, shucking them down thick thighs and kicking them across the floor. I swallowed hard, taking him in. All of him. He was pure power, which only made his restraint more beautiful.
Kol stayed exactly where he was, muscles rippling with that restraint. “Yes?”
“Yes. Please. More.”
A flash of gold fire, and then Kol was striding toward me. One hand slid into my hair as the other went around my waist. He twisted us as we fell to the mattress, my body atop his. He hauled us up the bed so he was nestled in the pillows, my newly shortened hair falling around us like a curtain.
“Take what you need,” he growled.
My hands landed on his chest as I lifted myself. “What we both need.”
One hand reached lower, curling around Kol. My fingers tightened ever so slightly, and he let out an almost pained hiss. I relished the power, the feel of him. The way he hardened further in my hand. How he thickened. But more than anything, I savored that I could make him feel.
“You always give me what I need,” Kol growled.
We gave it to each other—a give and take, a steady presence.
I guided him to my entrance, slowly sinking down, feeling all of him. Kol let out a guttural groan as I seated him fully inside me.
“Everything. This is everything,” he whispered.
One of my hands found his, using it for leverage and balance. His other hand found my breast, palming, thumb circling the nipple as I rocked against him.
Tiny barbs of sensation embedded themselves under my skin, pleasure with the barest flickers of pain. And that was life at its core: pleasure and pain. But if you focused on the good, the beauty, you realized it was only deepened because of the hard and the painful.
My body moved more, gliding up and then down, reveling in the feel of all that was Kol. He was careful with me. Thoughtful to keep his hand away from anywhere near my neck, but I wasn’t afraid—and I wanted more.
“Flip us,” I begged between panted breaths.
Kol stilled for only a moment. “You’re sure?”
“Yes. Please. More.”
I spoke the words that were a stroke to his senses, and Kol gave me exactly what I needed.
He flipped us but moved his hands to mine.
He pinned them above my head, not in a show of force but as a message that we were together.
That he would follow wherever I wanted to go. And I knew I would give him the same.
Kol pulled out and then slid back in, the friction everything I’d been needing. My legs hooked around him, digging into the muscular divots in his ass. My body encouraged him as he moved, rising up to meet him, spurring him on.
We met each other in the fading twilight, the way we always had from that very first moment.
“With me,” Kol rasped.
“With you.”
His body arched, driving him deeper inside me as he released. And I could feel it all as my walls tumbled down. Nothing kept us apart now. Everything had been laid bare.
I knew nothing would be the same, but I also knew we’d find something new, something better. Together.