CHAPTER 38 #2
Our gazes collided once more. There was no hesitation in hers.
I knew what I was seeing. A reflection of what was plainly written across every single one of my tightly coiled muscles.
The same thing that had bound me to Davina since the first moment I’d laid eyes on her.
There’d be no feigned rejection this time around, because there was no denying whatever force was drawing us together right then and there.
And then she said it, her voice midnight soft. “Zephyr.”
My name on her lips was my undoing.
I surged forward, hand cupping the side of her neck as my mouth crashed into hers.
The world as I knew it exploded. There was no mission, no army, no Kobra, and no fucking concerns burdening my every thought. There was only Davina Lachlan and the taste of her on my lips. The feeling of her soft skin against my palm. I had wanted her for so long, and finally—finally—here she was.
And it still wasn’t enough.
My hand trailed down her arm, pried the journal from her grip, and let it fall shut with a soft thud. That same hand slid around her waist, drawing her closer to me as hers finally landed on me.
At the first contact of her fingers against my nape, I became feral.
My want was too deep, and had been repressed for too long.
There was no resistance when I slipped my tongue past her lips, only fierce, matching hunger.
Her fingers dug into my shoulder, her tongue answering mine stroke for stroke, need for need.
Fuck. She was as perfect as I knew she’d be.
I devoured her, my hand moving higher to cradle the back of her head so I could kiss her deeper, harder, desperate to make up for every second I’d spent craving her in silence and forcing myself to deny it.
When I pulled back, panting and savoring the warm breeze of her breath against my lips, she had none of it. Her teeth closed around my lower lip and tugged. Hard.
A groan tore from my throat.
Her only answer was the tightening of her grip. Then she dipped down, mouth brushing my neck, sucking hard at my pulse point.
“By the Old Gods.” I fisted her thick ponytail, tipping her head back until our noses brushed. “You drive me fucking insane.”
“Because I’m smarter than you?” She taunted, defiance flickering behind the heat in her eyes.
“No.” I scraped my beard across her cheek, letting my free hand slide from her waist, lower, until I gripped the upper curve of her backside and squeezed. Her soft, pleased whimper hardened every muscle in my body. “Because you are a menace.”
My menace, but there were too many things keeping me from saying as much out loud.
“You haunt every dream, every waking thought,” I muttered against her mouth. “I’m starving, Davina. And I shouldn’t have you, yet I need you like a drowning man needs air.”
My fingertips skimmed down her thigh, beneath the overskirt. Her thighs widened on their own accord, and I cursed under my breath. When I cupped her center through her pants, the gasp that left her lips had a full-body shiver racking through her.
“Zephyr,” she pleaded, voice ragged.
Sweet gods. The cadence of her voice almost undid me.
I tightened my grip, hauling her closer with one arm, holding myself together with sheer will.
“Tell me something, Lachlan,” I growled, thumb pressing into her center through the fabric.
“If I slip my hand inside these shorts, will I find you dripping for me?”
Her answering moan was confirmation enough. Her whole body trembled against mine.
My lips traced the length of her jaw, her skin shivering beneath my beard. “What kind of centurion gets wet for her enemy?” I whispered in her ear.
Her fingers dug into my nape. “You are not my enemy.”
Oh, but I was. We both carried orders that would pit us against each other the moment the stash came to light. Had I been a better man, I would have let her go. Spare us both the inevitable ruin.
But I wasn’t that man. And I was oh so ready to get burnt.
She whimpered in need, and my cock throbbed painfully against the fabric of my pants.
Instinct took over.
I moved the candle to an empty shelf, then pushed all the papers we’d spent the last hour pouring over aside.
In a single move, I gripped her hips and lifted her onto the desk.
She landed on the edge with a soft gasp, legs falling open on either side of me.
I pulled back, just long enough to drink her in; cheeks flushed, lips parted.
“Is this okay?” I asked.
Her chest rose and fell in quick, shallow breaths, breasts straining against her corset. She nodded once, then whispered, “Yes . . . yes,” and at the plea in her words, at the sheer need in them, I jumped on my prey.
One hand fisted in her ponytail once more, the other clamping on her hip as I swallowed her moan. My mouth devoured hers, then trailed down the column of her throat, licking, grazing, biting, until her breath fractured into desperate little sounds that shot straight to my cock.
“I’ve wanted you since the moment you set foot in Kantria,” I murmured against her skin.
I thrust against her, letting her feel the thick line of my arousal through the thin barriers of cloth.
Her answering whimper was everything I didn’t know I needed.
“Wanted to taste that sharp mouth and pull on this wild mane.” I proved the point with a firm yank, drawing another gasp as her body arched into mine.
Bleeding Gods, she was a menace even when she was prey.
My fingers slid along her inner thigh, slow enough to leave gooseflesh in their wake. I paused at the edge of her shorts, hovering, teasing, feeling her tremble. “And most of all,” I growled, lips brushing her ear, “I’ve wanted to make you unravel.”
I drove the words with a hard press of my thumb over her center, the fabric offering no real protection. Her cry of sharp, unguarded pleasure seared itself into my skull, defining the soundtrack to which I would relieve myself in every lonely night to come.
Not for the first time, I was thankful for the thick walls of the Kobrant headquarters.
“Are you going to unravel for me, Lachlan?” With my free hand I thumbed the first button of her corset until it came undone, hungry for more of her.
Another button slipped free, and when no response came, I glanced up.
Her head had fallen back and, gods spare me, the full length of her throat was nearly as enticing as the heat I could feel between her legs.
Lips parted, chest heaving against my jaw, the need to make her fully and completely mine grew unbearable.
I ground my thumb against her again and she cried out, breath fracturing. “I asked you a question. Answer me.”
“Y-yes—ah—yes!”
“Good girl.” Her answering whole-body shiver had me grinning against her skin. I leaned in, abandoning my quest to reveal her breasts. My lips hovered over hers. “Want to know what I think?”
Her eyes fluttered open, hazy with need. She traced my lower lip with her tongue. “More,” she whispered, rough and needy.
A menace indeed.
I chuckled darkly, increasing the pressure on her clit. “We both know,” I murmured, “that, even if not by choice, we are enemies.”
“Oh!”