Page 83 of Never Kiss a Krampus
CHAPTER 28
When we finally broke apart, I rested my head against Bastian’s chest, listening to the steady, reassuring beat of his heart. “I’ve missed you.”
His mouth curved in a slow, wicked smile. “I missed you too.
When we finally broke apart, I rested my head against his chest, listening to the steady, reassuring beat of his heart. “I’ve missed you.”
His mouth curved in a slow, wicked smile. “I’ve missed you too. But I’ve been keeping track of your transgressions.”
“Really? You were on the verge of disappearing forever, and that’s what you were doing with your last hours?” I said, looking up at him.
“I have to have standards.” His fingers traced the line of my jaw. “And your tinsel is still crooked.”
I reached up and ran my fingers over the curve of one of his horns. He shuddered, a full-body reaction that I now knew was a sign of pleasure, not pain.
“And what about my tinsel?” I asked. “Are you going to punish me for it?”
“Absolutely,” he promised and swept me up in his arms, carrying me up the stairs to our apartment and straight through into the bedroom. He looked around at the room, at the vintage Santa Claus wrapping paper, at the reindeer covered comforter, and the fairy lights draped everywhere. I braced myself for the critique but all he did was shake his head, his expression warm and loving.
“I can see we will have to address the proper ratio of lights to wall space.”
“I don’t believe there is such a thing.”
“There is,” he said. He set me down on the bed, then kneeled in front of me. “It is a lot. But it is also you.”
He paused, studying my face. “You seem to have acquired a smudge on your cheek,” he noted. I lifted a hand to wipe it away, but he caught my wrist. “Allow me.”
He leaned in and very gently licked the mark away. The touch was shockingly intimate. It sent a shiver through my entire body.
“It appears,” he murmured against my skin, “that you have another transgression to account for.”
“Is that so?” I breathed.
“Oh, yes,” he confirmed, before kissing me. It was a slow, deep, and tender kiss that was an affirmation of everything we had been through. When he pulled away, I was breathless.
“You taste of Christmas,” he said, his voice low and intimate. “And joy.”
He kissed me again, and this time, there was nothing gentle about it. It was a kiss of possession and hunger and a desperate need that I felt mirrored in my own soul. When he pulled back, the raw, undisguised hunger in his eyes made my knees feel like they were made of tinsel. “It appears we need to address an immediate structural vulnerability.”
He reached out, his hand not going for my waist or my hip, but for the collar of my reindeer sweater. His claws, so deadly and precise, hooked into the soft cashmere at my neckline.
“Vulnerability?” I breathed, my hands coming up to rest on the solid wall of his chest.
“Mm,” he rumbled, leaning in, his lips brushing against my ear. “The single point of failure in an otherwise… flawless ensemble.”
He didn’t rip it. He didn’t tear it. He slowly, deliberately, drew one long, sharp claw down the front of the sweater. The fabric parted, not with a violent tear, but with a soft, sighing sound, as if it were giving up willingly. The cool air hit my skin, raising goosebumps across my chest. He continued the path down, down, past my navel, until the sweater hung open, a soft frame for the lace of my bra. The skin of my stomach was tight with anticipation, every nerve ending firing, waiting for that cool, dangerous touch.
He made a low, satisfied sound in the back of his throat. “Much better,” he murmured. “Improved access.”
“You keep destroying my sweaters,” I gasped as he lowered his head, his lips tracing the line he had just created, a hot, rough path against my cool skin.
“Are you objecting?” he growled as he circled my nipple with that extraordinarily talented tongue.
“Fortunately, there are a lot more festive sweaters in the world.” My words ended in a moan as he bit down lightly on the taut peak.
“That sounds like a challenge, little light. Perhaps it’s time to introduce you to my switch?”
“You’re what?” I squeaked as he rolled me over onto my hands and knees and flipped up my skirt.
