Page 11 of Savage Kingdom

He was covered in tattoos now. I could see some peeking from the back of his head down to where the water met his waist. The snake head that was on the back of his torso glared at me. It was a gorgeous piece of art that I remembered tracing with my fingers, with the tip of my tongue.

“If you want to join me, Petal, you’ll have to ditch your clothes,” he said without turning around. I didn’t have to ask how he knew I was here because, since the moment I met him, there had been an invisible chain wrapped around our necks trying to suffocate us.

“I’m leaving tomorrow morning,” I told him.

Gideon dived under the water, and I held my breath. My eyes stayed glued to the spot of water right below me. In no time, he was standing in the shallow water. Droplets of water ran from the top of his head down to his chest. The sunrays made the droplets glisten down his pecs and his well-defined abs.

His whiskey eyes shone with mischief.

“Are you a little thirsty, Daph?” Gideon winked.

Maybe if I were a weaker woman, I would have swooned. When he put his tattooed arms on the edge of the rock, I took a step back.

Gideon pulled his body up, water falling down his naked body, and I forced myself not to react. He was by far the most handsome man I had ever met. An enigma, unlike anything I had ever been exposed to. He was like feeling the sun on your skin after years of being in the dark.

He was standing before me naked, and he was hard. His dick was about the only place he didn’t have any tatts—that and his ass.

I gulped, hoping it wasn’t noticeable.

Did it get hotter out here?

“What’s the matter, Petal? Cat got your tongue?” His tone was hoarse, betraying his feelings. He was just as affected as I was judging by the way he was trying to cut steel, maybe even more.

“As I was saying, I’m going back to Sweden first thing in the morning.”

He took another step toward me, his naked body dripping down to my combat boots. His hand came behind my nape, pushing aside my hair, causing my back to arch because of his wet fingers.

“You said that already,” he murmured as he inhaled the skin below my ear. “I don’t know how that’s any of my business?” Gideon asked, just as the tip of his tongue flicked my earlobe.

In an instant, he plastered me to his wet body, his erection nestled between us. My hair was in his hands, and he was pulling it hard, so I was forced to look into his eyes.

My heart beat the same wild beat it was doing earlier, but this time it was with triumph. Whatever remorse I may have been feeling was now gone by his words. Fear shut some people down, but not me because I came from mayhem, and it lit me up like the winter palace at night. When darkness is all you know, you learn to love the shadows.

Something I think he knew. It was scary how much he knew me. We had moments through time and places not enough for him to have my number, yet he did.

“I’ve been waiting for you to make a move, Petal, because I know that I broke a part of you.”

My hand came to his erection, holding him firmly but not enough to cause pain.

“You never even cracked me, handsome.”

I was broken long before he met me.

“I missed that,” he murmured as he moved his hips back and then forth again.

I realized my mistake the second the word left my lips, but it was too late to take it back now.

“I miss the smell of your hair, the way your body succumbs to my demands. I miss the way you curse in Russian when I fuck your pussy hard.”

My grip on his cock became firmer, and my hand started to stroke him. Slowly I raised a hand to his chest, trailing the lines that created eyes of a skull.

“You have it all wrong.” My voice dropped to a sultry tone that made his cock twitch. “It was me riding you.”

“Fuck,” he groaned. He let go of my hair, his hand coming to my throat and the other one grabbing my free wrist and bringing it to his nose. “You always smell like heaven.”

My ministrations became faster and harder because, despite the time and oceans dividing us at points, I knew his body, and he knew mine. We were magnetic poles not meant to attract but to repel, causing destruction in our paths whenever we got too close.

His breathing became labored; the tense energy came off him in waves. He was close. Not only did I read his body language, but when I looked up at him, I saw him. It was in his gaze; he was burning up—he was burning up for me.

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