Page 83 of The Bonds of Nyx

Footsteps sounded down the stairs. I dropped my hand and opened my eyes to find Adrian stalking towards me. He must have splashed water on his face because the roots of his hair were wet, his skin damp. His shirt was gone, revealing the planes of his lithe form. His striking green eyes were trained on me and blazing with an emotion I couldn’t read.

I opened my mouth to say something, but he slammed his lips into mine, and I folded into his embrace.

He tasted like peppermint tea and sugar, dark desire, and something more. Adrian cupped my cheeks as he melded his lips to mine, and the heat grew stronger, filling me with stupid drunkenness that brought a smile to my lips.

I slipped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer. Adrian teased the seam of my lips, and I gladly opened my mouth to him. His tongue flickered across mine, filling me with the sweetness of his mouth, tugging at the mate bond so desperate to snap into place.

I should have been pulling away and going back up to bed, but the yearning only intensified the longer he held me. The magic didn’t want me to leave—and as his hands slipped from my cheeks to the bare skin of my shoulders, I didn’t want to, either.

Adrian pulled me into the living room, towards the couch, and lowered me onto my back. He hovered above me without breaking the kiss, his weight a blanket over me. One hand moved to cup the back of my neck while the other trailed down my arm and over my stomach, leaving a line of fire as he went.

When he broke the kiss, Adrian slipped a hand under the waistband of my shorts. “Can I?”

I blinked up at him, almost startled by the question. His chest heaved against mine, and it took me a moment to realise what he was asking me.

This moment felt entirely different from the first we shared in the hotel room. Last time, Adrian had been so certain of himself, of what he was doing, but I could see the uncertainty in his eyes now.

If we went further, if we went down this path, things changed. He and I wouldn’t simply be friends in the beginnings of a soft romance. We would be mates, bound to one another until the next Daughter of Nyx rose.

I swallowed hard. Slipping one hand down to his racing heart, I felt the strength of his adoration pouring through him. We were both breathing heavily; every part of me wanted him—his tongue on my clit, his cock inside of me, the bond snapping into place. The thought of completing the bond made my heart tighten, and yet it felt so right at the same time.

It wasn’t just my magic that wanted him.

I did, too.

His eyes moved from mine down to my swollen lips. “Ivy?”

I bit my lip. “If we do this…”

He released a soft breath, and our eyes met again. “I know. I want this. I wantyou. This bond is—” He shook his head and closed his eyes. “I didn’t realise before how much I wanted to learn we were mates, even knowing how you felt about…me. But Ivy, I want to be your friend, your lover, and yourmate. I want to stand by your side, and I need you to know that before you decide what we do next.”

There wasn’t anything I could say to that, not with tears burning behind my eyes. A smile tipped my lips, and I nodded instead. Relief filled his eyes as he lowered himself on top ofme again, pressing his lips to mine. But he didn’t capture them completely. Instead, he pressed featherlight kisses down my neck that burned while the hand on the back of my neck moved to caress the edge of my shirt. He slipped his hand under the material, over the soft rolls of my stomach, up to my breast.

His kisses travelled down my exposed skin, and without moving, my shirt was gone. I gasped, only to find it on the coffee table next to us.

Adrian chuckled and continued his exploration down my chest to my hardened peaks. He dipped his head and took the bud between his teeth, tongue flicking over the sensitive flesh. A whimper shuddered through me, and I arched my back into his mouth. I wanted more of him. All of him.

Adrian swept his tongue over my nipple again before giving his attention to the other. A moan built in my throat as his free hand traced the waistband of my shorts, tickling the silver stretch marks marring my stomach.

“Adrian, please,” I whimpered, arching into his next kiss.

He made a sound in the back of his throat. Finally, he continued his descent down my stomach, kissing each roll of my belly and the most prominent of stretch marks, worshipping each scar like they were the scriptures of my body, and he was at service.

As his lips brushed the waistband of my shorts, the material disappeared, leaving me in only a pair of cotton panties. A deep rumble sounded from his chest as he whisked those away, too.

I was too caught up in the sensations to care if we got caught or were heard. I was a puddle of need in his confident hands, a wisp of desire dancing with the promise of pleasure.

His head dipped between my legs, breath fanning over my sensitive clit, teasing me with the climax already slowly building within me. Adrian kissed my inner thigh and made a sound in the back of his throat.

“So beautiful,” he whispered, dragging a single finger through my slit, “so wet already.”

A sound that was half whimper and half moan passed my lips as Adrian skimmed his tongue over my feverish flesh. He added pressure to the wetness around my clit, but refrained from giving me the release my body needed.

Fire burned within me, coursing over my skin with his next touch. Adrian inserted two fingers into my pussy and pumped them slowly in and out of me, curling them as he did. My hips moved without a thought from me, rocking with each thrust of his fingers.

“So reactive and needy.” He slowed, kissing my clit with a gentleness that made me want to burst. “Tell me you want my cock, Ivy. Tell me you want me to fuck you.”

The words formed on the tip of my tongue, but the haze of pleasure and the swell of my inevitable climax lodged the command in my throat.

---