Nero - Page 170

“Because it’s not right!”

“Kael loved the house.”

“Kael loves a lot of things. You can’t buy everything he loves, Nero.”

“And the things he needs? Can we buy those?” She narrows her eyes at me, certain the question is a trap.

“We can,” she concedes, as always, turning theweI use intoyou. Nina doesn’t bother complaining anymore, because every time she does, my answer is the same: everything that’s mine is ours.

“Then I argue that he needed this house. The boy needs to learn how to swim at some point, after all.” Nina blinks, as if checking that she understood me correctly, then throws her head back in laughter.

“For the sake of your business interests, it’s better if you always leave legal matters to Atlas and Apollo, all right?” she says, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes. I twist my lips, feigning offense, and hand her the wine glass.

“Thank you,” she says, looking outside. Nina spends some time watching the view before speaking again. “It’s beautiful. The view here is beautiful.”

“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” I murmur—andLittle Faeturns to me, catching me as I never once looked away from her. I can’t resist. I lift my free hand and run my thumb along her cheek.

Within the limits Nina allowed, I’ve spent the last few weeks stealing every touch and every kiss on the cheek I could—but itwasn’t enough. Not even close to enough. Missing Nina’s body feels like a rope around my lungs, making it hard to breathe.

My eyes drop to her lips before returning to her eyes. We hold each other’s gaze for a moment while the shift in the air around us settles, and I honestly don’t know who moves first—but in the next instant, my mouth crashes into Nina’s, and I moan immediately, unable to handle the pleasure of tasting her in silence.

It’s a kiss that’s slow and desperate at the same time. It starts with my tongue gliding softly over both of her lips, then turns into a light bite on her lower lip. Only then does my tongue slide into her mouth—and when it meets hers, fuck, I don’t moan—I growl in satisfaction.

I set the glass I was holding on the a side table that felt like divine intervention, because if it weren’t there, I probably would’ve dropped the wine on the floor. There’s no way I’m taking my hands off Nina now.

I take her glass too, freeing us of it, and bury my hands in her hair. My fingers thread through the soft strands, and I drown in the sensation of having Nina in my arms.

It’s so much better than I remembered. Somewhere along the way, reality faded in my memories, because this—her lips on mine, her tongue sucking on mine, her hands gripping my back, her breasts crushed against my chest—I could never have imagined this overload of pleasure overwhelming my body.

“Fuck, I missed you, Little Fae. I missed you so much,” I say, dragging my lips down her chin and neck, scattering kisses along her jaw, her cheeks, and then wrapping my arms aroundher, burying my face in her neck. So drunk on the possibility of touching her without limits that I don’t even know what to do first.

I don’t know if I want to keep kissing her, if I just want to hold her all night, if I want to lie in a bed and talk to her for hours with her body curled into mine, listening to her voice—and suddenly, I know I want all of it. All of it and so much more. I cup her face, lining up our eyes.

“I love you,” I say, desperate, because I can’t keep forcing the words down every time they rise to my throat. “I love you, Nina. You’re the woman of my life. I love you.” I repeat it, and Nina’s eyes close. I don’t expect her to answer—but she does.

“I love you too,” she says, catching me off guard, and I’m completely unable to keep the tears from my eyes. “I was afraid to admit it once, and I keep wondering, over and over again, if things would’ve been different if I’d said it sooner.”

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “Nothing that happened was your fault, love. Nothing.”

“I know. I just… I’m done living in fear, Nero. I’m done wasting time. I don’t want to waste time anymore. I was so afraid you’d leave us again, abandon us… But during those hours in the hospital, it was impossible not to think,What if it’s something else? What if life takes you from us? What if that happens and I’ve lost all the time we could’ve been whole, just because I was too afraid of being broken again?I don’t want to waste time. We already lost five years.”

She goes for my mouth. The second kiss is just as intense and desperate as the first, but nothing about it is slow. I grip theback of Nina’s neck and pull her head into mine, deepening the contact. We spend a long time just kissing and touching each other.

Only separating our mouths when we need air, letting our hands roam over our bodies, anchoring the moment, making sure it’s real—that everything happening is real.

“Let me make love to you?” I ask, spreading new kisses along her jaw and neck.

“You’re obligated to,” she exclaims through low sounds of pleasure, making me laugh.

I kiss her again and spread my hands over her ass, lifting her. Nina wraps her legs around my waist, and I carry her in my arms, only stopping kissing her mouth when we reach the stairs so I can watch my step.

I kiss her whole face instead, and she laughs. Her hand caresses my cheek, and I kiss her palm too. I open the bedroom door, and as soon as I close it, I press Nina’s body between mine and the door. My Little Fae looks at me with eyes full of desire, and I suck on her lower lip.

My hands slide under the fabric of her dress, caressing her thighs, skin against skin. Nina gasps softly. My cock throbs, my balls ache, and I decide the door isn’t good enough for everything I want to do to her.

I walk to the bed and climb onto it on my knees, leaving Nina sitting in the middle of the mattress before pressing my palm to her sternum, guiding her down.

My hands return to her thighs and I bend, kissing every inch revealed as I lift her dress. I brush my nose provocatively against her skin, loving the sensation. I could do this all day.