“And you think I’m likely not to do that tonight?”
“I can sit outside your house.” She said in a voice that was so gentle and soothing, along with the concern in her violet eyes. “I can block out all the noise. Help you sleep, maybe.”
He put a hand up to her neck and kissed her with a touch as gentle as her voice, then nuzzled his face against hers as though they were wolves again for the moment. “You don’t have to stay outside.”
Zara held tighter still to him as she enjoyed the closeness between them, as well as his touch. The more their relationship deepened, the more she wanted. “After the Fulness you kept away, and so I thought that you didn’t want…me.”
“Don’t even try. You can read my mind.” Nick countered. As much as he didn’t trust her in the beginning, he had grown very fond of her since.
She looked down as if he’d struck her, fumbling with her necklace in a way that Nick was beginning to see was a nervous habit. “Just because I can read your mind doesn’t mean that I do it all the time. I know you like to keep your thoughts.”
He kissed her cheek again, whispering. Enticing. “Just this once, read all you like.”
She dove into his thoughts at his allowance, since she desperately wanted to hear what he was thinking. She wanted to feel him want her. More than want, she needed it to hear it. Feel it. The connection they had was her lifeblood.
He had imagined a great many things over the course of the Fulness that they’d spent mostly together, and he made sure he was thinking of all those things so that she could feel them loud and clear in his mind. He wanted her, mind, body, and all. I’m not the only one who tosses and turns every night. I know my excuse for not sleeping well, but what’s yours?
Zara gasped softly several times as she listened to all of his thoughts, then she kissed him so passionately that there was no gentleness to be found. She held onto him so tightly it was almost painful, but she refused to even think about letting go. I can’t stop thinking about you.
Well, I think you should stop thinking. He pulled away finally, and started walking backward toward his house.
“I just want you to be sure that this is what you want,” she asked desperately as they finally reached his home and the privacy of his room, “to be with me. I know it hasn’t been long since…and I know that you still…”
He silenced her with a kiss that was as forceful as it was almost pleading. When she was finally kissed into silence, he held her eyes for a moment. “You know as well as I do that you’ll never be my mate, Zara. That’s not your way or mine. But you’ve been the one who’s stood beside me this last month. And I know you’ll continue to do so.” He kissed her again with a growl deep in his throat. “I’m sure.”
Zara kissed him harder several more times and then the whole world seemed to crumble around them, until nothing else existed except for the two of them.
Nick, in his experience, had never even considered the possibility of being with anyone like Zara. Being with an Ironborn was certainly good for an Ironborn, but being with a Heartborn left no room for comparison. Everything he wanted, everything he felt was poured into her, and then she took that energy and put it back into him. As they became more intimate, the connection between them deepened, and in every way she could, Zara was everything he wanted. She wasn’t just in his arms, she was in his thoughts, his emotions, and it was beyond anything he could even imagine sharing with another person.
Being with her was refreshing in ways that he couldn’t have foreseen. The longer they spent together, the more powerful he could feel Zara become, and the more powerful she became, the more she poured right back into him. It was intoxicating in a way he had never experienced, and which he knew he would never really feel again with anyone else. A part of him wanted to feel like he was betraying Aura, but he couldn’t truly feel that way. Being with Aura had been a fight every moment of their lives together. This was so easy it was almost painful by comparison, and when he finally drifted off to sleep in her arms, it was into one of the sweetest slumbers he had ever known.
It took her a little while to fall asleep, but the entire time as she was drifting off, she was caressing his skin and kissing him gently even as he slept. Everything was turning out so perfectly that she couldn’t help but smile at the luck she had been handed. Whoever said something about the truth setting people free was right. Zara told Nick the truth about Aura, and here she was, in his bed snuggled together. She was someone who, even if he didn’t admit it out loud, he was really and truly was falling in love with. Even luck wasn’t the right word for it. Fate, perhaps.
After sleeping the entire rest of the night in each other’s arms, Zara woke up in the morning just as he did, because he was moving around a little bit. “Hey.” She said with a smile and a kiss. “Good morning.”
“Mmm.” He said as he stretched, holding her in close to him. “What time is it?”
She turned her head slightly to look at the clock and then she kissed him again before she responded. “Just after ten.” Zara enjoyed being held the way he had his arms wrapped around her, so
