Her eyes drew closed even as the kiss morphed from lazy, tender exploration to something else. Something hungry and needy and dirty.

“Let’s get this off,” he said, placing one knee on the bed, right between her thighs.

Greedily, Nush scooted closer as he reached for the hem of her sleeveless tee. His laughter surrounded her as he realized what she’d been trying to do and he pulled her onto his thigh.

Nush threw her head back, clinging to him as his hard thigh gave her the friction she desperately wanted. She didn’t know how he managed to get the tee off or when he’d climbed onto the bed and lifted her atop him until she was straddling him or when he’d got her panties off.

All she knew was that he gave her everything she needed. His calloused hands roaming her bare skin, cupping and kneading her breasts, his fingers drawing mindless circles around her nipples, and his thick erection nudging against the folds of her sex.

“Open your eyes, Nush. Look at me.”

If he asked her to follow him the through the gates of hell just then, Nush would’ve happily done so. The sight that met her eyes tightened the fist tugging down in her lower belly. He still had his jeans on even though the button was undone and her sex was indecently open and rubbing against the hard ridge of his abdomen, while his erection nudged at her buttocks.

Heat crested her cheeks at the wetness she’d left on his bare skin. As she watched, he rubbed the dampness onto his skin with one long, elegant finger, the act downright filthy and erotic. And then he brought the tip of his finger to his mouth and licked it away.

“How do I taste?” Nush asked, any nervousness she’d felt earlier misting away at the dark, hungry gleam in his eyes. It was liberating that she could say anything that came to her mind and he only found it arousing.

Hair mussed by her fingers, mouth swollen from her greedy kisses, he looked like the stuff of her wet fantasies come true. He gave a thoughtful hum, as if considering the question before he said, “Like you’re mine.”

Nush arched into his touch, her spine elongating like a cat stretching, desire vibrating through her body. And Caio played her perfectly.

Touching her everywhere but never lingering long enough.

Over and over, bringing her to the edge and talking her down.

Asking her to trust him when she protested.

Filthy curses flying from his own mouth when she dug her teeth into his shoulder, encouraging her to do to him as she pleased.

It was like waiting for a storm and yet not knowing when it would hit.

Tongue and teeth licking and tugging at her nipples, those clever fingers learning and relearning her folds, his thumb playing decadent peekaboo with her clit, he pushed her toward the peak all over again. Soon, every inch of her was damp with sweat, muscles tense and tight, skin oversensitized.

She ground down on his fingers when he penetrated her, cursing at him to go faster when he barely moved them inside her, screaming that she hated him when he edged her once again, and then finally, he gave it to her with a gleaming smile and a whispered “You’re achingly perfect and you’re all mine, Princesa.”

The orgasm caught her by surprise and ripped through her, stealing her breath, making her sob incoherently, while she chanted Caio’s name like it was a benediction. She should’ve been used to it—to the physical and emotional cleansing it felt like every time he made her come.

Like he’d smashed her into pieces and put her back together again and every time, she emerged a little different. A little less scared of her own heart.

It was minutes before Nush could form some kind of coherent thought. She was on her back, Caio’s fingers lazily drifting up and down her side, her breaths still shallow and too fast. The cold of the damp sheets was a welcome contrast to the pockets of heat still tingling over her skin.

“I thought I died,” she said, tasting salt on her tongue.

“I wouldn’t let anything happen to you, Princesa.” He asked, a sudden gravity to his tone, “You okay?”

“You know when I went on all those dates with all those men over the last year?” she said, her throat hoarse after all the moaning and sobbing, her words shooting out of a place she hadn’t even known she wanted to visit. Especially in front of Caio.

Maybe the orgasm had undone not only her body but unlocked her heart too.

It’s just damn good sex, Nushie, she could hear Yana say with a roll of her eyes.Not magical healing.

But neither could Nush discount the fact that this intimacy hadn’t been possible for her with any other man except Caio, because she was emotionally invested in him already. Because she’d needed this real intimacy to go further.

The sudden tension that gripped Caio was a tangible thing in the air that plucked at Nush’s wooly head. “Is this punishment for stringing your release along for too long?” His voice was only half joking.

But it didn’t stop Nush. It seemed nothing could now.

“I was trying to get you out of my head. It got distressing to see you every day, every minute, to be so close and not tell you that I... I was determined that I’d prove to myself that it was just attraction. Lust. I’d idolized you for so long and somewhere along the line, it morphed into this...desire. I desperately wanted you to see me as a woman. I built up all these insecurities about why you didn’t and I drove myself nuts.”