Page 37 of Bound By Valor

That’s when I heard him mutter a curse, his head angling toward my neck and he peppered me with soft kisses. I tilted my head to give him more room and felt him smile, his breath hot against my skin.

“You’re making me lose my mind,” he mumbled between kisses.

“And you love it!” I whispered.

“I do love it,Mi Corazón.”

I paused at the new endearment. It was Spanish.

“You’re Spaniard, I forgot,” my voice was breathless.

He pinned me against the door and lifted me to get a better angle on my neck. My legs instinctively wrapped around his waist and I felt the unmistakable bulge in his sweatpants.

“You don’t like me calling you baby, so I had to get creative,” he gently pressed his lips to mine. Parting my lips, his tongue tangled with mine with a controlled urgency. When I moaned into his mouth, a guttural groan escaped him.

“Fuck, we’re doing this, huh?” He whispered, surrendering. He was finally giving in.

“Yeah, are you scared?” I smiled coyly.

His hands tightly gripped my thighs and slowly slid towards my ass. I was wearing thin silk shorts loose enough for his fingers to easily gain their path to my soaked panties.

“I’m fucking terrified. But know that once we do this, there’s no going back,Mi Corazón.”His breath tickled my cheeks.

I gripped his shoulders tighter. I wasn’t sure whether I was afraid to fall, or just fall for him.

When he felt the wetness through the fabric, he pulled back slightly. “God, you’re so fucking wet for me, Dr. Leora Mateez.”

His lips crashed on mine and he was no longer gentle.

As I came up for air, I mumbled. “Zarek, I need you to–”

“I know what you need,Mi Corazón.Let’s do it properly this time.”

He carried me to his bed and gently laid me down. His body consumed mine as he loomed over me and lapped his mouth on me again. His hands grabbed the hem of my tank top and pulled it up.

Tracing a path from my jaw down to my neck, he found a tender spot between my breasts. Gently, he eased the cup of my bra aside and gazed up at me, his eyes clouded with a yearning that mirrored my own.

“I’ve been dreaming about taking these into my mouth since that day.” He murmured, his voice rough with desire.

His mouth closed over my breast, his tongue teasing my nipple into a taut peak, drawing a soft whimper from deep within me.

“Zarek,” I breathed out, my hands weaving intohis hair.

“I’ve got you,” he assured in a whisper, his breath hot against my skin.

The room was thick with silence, punctuated only by the sound of our breaths. His lips, which had been tracing a path down my stomach, paused at the two tiny, reminders of my past—my stab scars. This was something he didn’t see that feverish night. His eyes clouded with something dark for a moment, his touch halting.

“Is this from—”

I cut him off, breathless from the heat of the moment, “Zarek, just leave it.”

But he wouldn’t let it go, not yet. “I can’t just ignore these,Mi Corazón,”he murmured.

“It all led me to you,” I replied softly, trying to bridge the distance his concern had created. “I don’t care anymore, Zarek.”

He studied my face for a long moment, as if searching for traces of the pain that had once defined these scars. Then, with a tenderness that made my heart swell, he pressed a gentle kiss on each scar, his breath warm against the chill of my skin.

He lingered there, forehead resting against my stomach, a silent vow passing through his touch. He nodded against my belly, and then slowly, he continued his descent, his movements deliberate. With a careful ease, he hooked his fingers around the waistband of both my shorts and panties, peeling them away in a smooth, deliberate motion.

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