Lower…and lower…
When she reached his belly button, he grasped her hands, and a deep growl rose from his chest. His pupils dilated, nearly shedding the green, as he dove forward, taking her lips fiercely. She returned the kiss with a force of her own. He wasn’t the only one who could play rough.
Now that her virginity was out in the open, Kyden would likely proceed at a slow rate. She wanted this—wanted him. Perhaps her exes didn’t measure up, but Kyden measured up, and then some. She wanted him…right now.
Squirming against him, she connected with the part of him she craved, and he tensed. With a grunt sounding mildly painful, he lifted off her to kneel on the bed. “You might think you’re ready, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re a virgin.” His voice sounded strangled, and his expression was equally taut. “Tonight, I don’t intend to change that.”
She wasn’t at all surprised he took this stance, even if it did, yet again, make him a complete gentleman. “Okay, fine, we don’t have to do that. But there are other things I can do to you.” She reached for him, but he wrapped his fingers around her wrists, and pinned her arms at her side. She sighed. “You’re being silly. Let me touch you.”
“If you do, I’ll lose the little control I’m trying hard to keep.” He hopped off the bed, and gazed at her with a look that nearly set her aflame. “I’ll return later.” With another once-over taking in the length of her na**d body, he slowly looked to her face again and groaned. “Rest.”
She rose up on her elbow. “Kyden…”
He never allowed her to finish. Instead he booked it out of her bedroom, and she heard the front door slam behind him.
Dropping down on the pillow, she basked in the afterglow. “Idiot.”
Chapter Thirteen
At the emptiness in the bed beside her, Nexi’s eyes fluttered open to a pitch-black room, and she nuzzled into the pillow. Reaching over, she turned on the decorative lamp that rested on the aged, wooden table that flanked the bed, and the warm glow lit up her bedroom.
Though tense and rigid, Kyden kept true to his word and left her virginity intact. When he returned after his leave of absence, with damp hair from his shower, he was relaxed. It didn’t take a genius to figure out the reason for that. He crawled into bed and within minutes, his breath had deepened with sleep.
She hadn’t heard him wake.
The scent of something cooking in the kitchen forced her to kick off the duvet and crawl out of bed. She grabbed her housecoat, wrapped it around her nude body, and followed the light casting into the living room.
When she entered the kitchen, Kyden stood at the stove with his back to her, and she smiled. “Smells good.”
He turned to her with a spatula in hand. “Glad you think so.”
A delicious slide of heat whipped through her at the sight of him looking sexier than ever with that little smudge of pancake batter dusting his cheek.
“Hungry?” he asked.
Hungry for what was the question. More kissing? More touching? “Mmm hmm,” she purred.
While his expression flared with the same type of hunger she experienced, she only had two seconds to believe that he planned to devour her before he gestured to the food on the table. “Dig in.”
In slight disappointment, but also with an empty stomach, she sank down at the kitchen table. She grabbed a couple pancakes and smothered them in maple syrup. Not the fake crap, either, the real stuff. After her first bite, she realized Kyden wasn’t all sexy muscle and caveman, but the man could cook.
He soon joined her with crisp bacon and freshly squeezed orange juice, making her all but salivate. She liked this about him, loved how he wanted to take care of her. He had a tendency to show that through beating his chest, but she could lose herself in this soft side of him.
“Did you sleep well?” he asked, shoving a pancake into his mouth.
“Dead to the world.” She nibbled on a piece of bacon, grinning at him, knowing his attention last night had been part of the reason. The other reason was his staying with her. She discovered Kyden made a damn fine pillow, and being wrapped in his arms was better than any sleeping pill. “You?”
He winked. “Likewise.”
She finished off her bacon and took a sip of the orange juice. “So, where on Earth…” she hesitated, then added with a laugh, “Okay maybe not Earth. But where did you learn to cook like this?”
He paused, holding his fork by his mouth, and his eyebrow arched. “You don’t know how to cook pancakes and bacon?”
“Oh, I can cook,” she retorted. “If you like black pancakes and burnt bacon.”
“Good thing I can cook, then.” He smirked. “One of us better make sure we’re eating well.”
Over the rim of her glass, she studied him as he polished off his pancake in a few short bites. He spoke so confidently about their relationship, as if he had no doubt things would work out between them, and she liked that, too. His self-assurance appealed to her, even if it could irritate her all the same.
A knock came at the front door. Before she could even stand, it opened, and Drake called, “Nexi?”
“In here,” she called back.
She had spent nearly every dinner with Drake since she’d come to the Otherworld, and each time she told him he didn’t need to knock and could simply walk in. However, every time he arrived at her door, he remained adamantly against the idea. Obviously, they didn’t have that custom in the Otherworld. Well, in her Earthworld, family didn’t wait at the door like a stranger, and she smiled to herself, glad he’d finally come around.
“Are you hungry?” she asked, cutting into her pancake. “Kyden’s a god in the kitchen.”
“I…”
Nexi lifted her head, finding her father staring angrily at the guardian across from her. She lowered her fork, scrunching her nose, wondering what in the hell he was angry about, until it hit her.
She was his daughter.
Kyden was sitting in her kitchen.
He had so clearly stayed the night.
Drake sat in a chair directly in front of Kyden and leaned in, his eyes blazing. “Training is going well, I see.”
“Going real good.” Kyden hummed and lifted his pancake to his mouth. His fierce stare never left Drake’s as he chewed.
Nexi didn’t know where to look and ended up looking between them, each man appearing on the verge of pounding the hell out of the other. They were in a serious testosterone staring contest. It wouldn’t have surprised her in the least if they pulled their balls out and decided the winner that way.
Blessedly, after an incredibly long awkward moment, Kyden downed his orange juice, then stood. “I better go change.”
She exhaled a sigh of relief, which quickly turned to a gasp as Kyden yanked her from her chair and sealed his mouth over hers. The kiss lasted way, way, too long. And was a scorching hot, fingers-tangled-in-her-hair, type of kiss that shouldn’t happen in front a dad.
Once he broke away, leaving her breathless, he untangled his fingers from her hair. “Sorry to leave you to the mess.”
Kyden clearly meant his words for her, but he fixed his eyes elsewhere, and when Nexi followed his gaze she took a giant step back. It became quite clear whom she got her temper, because Drake looked ready to blow his lid.
He rose from his chair, sending it flying back and slamming into the wall as he stood. “I’ll join you.”
“Drake,” she said with hesitation.
Both men ignored her, staring daggers at each other, and a sudden burst of anger flooded her veins. First, they overlooked her as if she didn’t stand there. Second, Drake’s chair had put a humongous dent in her wall. “Pissed” took on a completely new meaning. “Look at what you did to my wall.”
Kyden winked at her, then left the kitchen. Nearly in the same second, Drake spun on his heel and stormed out of the room. The moment Nexi heard the front door slam behind them, all hell broke loose.
Pushing out of her chair, she rushed toward the front door, hearing yelling, loud thumps, and deep grunts from the other side of the door. Just as she reached for the handle, it got quiet. Opening the door a crack, she peeked out, but they were gone. Apparently, all the commotion had been the two of them fighting their way out of the Guardians’ House.
She rolled her eyes and muttered, “Cavemen.” She shut the door behind her, knowing there wasn’t much she could do about it. Even if they were fighting, she’d never jump in the middle of them. She wasn’t stupid.
Forgetting about the sparring men for the moment, she hurried to clean up the mess in the kitchen. After which, she had a fast shower and set to getting dressed. Oddly enough, she went straight for her guardian gear instead of normal clothes, as if that was every day business. Somehow, though, it all seemed like a perfect fit now.
Just as she finished clipping her kilt, the front door jiggled.
She made it into her living room in two-point-two seconds, and watched the door swipe open. Drake and Kyden entered, big smiles planted on their faces. She gave them both a quick look over, and neither had any evidence on them of a fistfight, but that didn’t mean jack around there. Zia could have healed them.