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Instead, a delicate blush rose to her cheeks. Finally, I planted a soft kiss on her fingertips. "Do you remember?" I asked, my voice too harsh to let pass what had just happened without a trace.
Nikau, however, looked at me as if I were the wicked witch who had come to steal her firstborn child because she had foolishly made a deal with the devil in ancient times.
Still holding her hand, I tugged gently until she rose and followed my movement until she stood directly in front of me. I looked up at her, ignoring the seductive effect of her body, and with another movement of my hand forced her to climb astride my lap. Not for the first time.
But never before had it taken on the sexual note as it did at that moment.
"Is that really why you're here, Kaden?" she breathed.
I recognized the nervousness in her eyes. She clung to my arm with one hand.
"Honestly, I don't know. We're not thirty yet, but if I have to spend one more second with someone who thinks she's Mrs. Kaden Haoa, who's owned my empire, for years– without even knowing me, mind you– I'm going to kill myself."
She snorted. "You won't." It sounded partly like a threat. "You could just stop dating."
Less enthusiastically, I grimaced. "Or I'll get you out of this awful place and do us both a favor."
"You think I don't like being here?"
I shook my head. "We're talking about Iowa, Nik. Iowa. There's nothing here. No ocean. No sun. No beaches. This town looks like an industrial hellhole. I understand that you left so your sisters weren't alone. But for you to stay, even though they've long since grown up? Are you truly happy here?"
Her fingers dug deeper into my arm without her consciously noticing. That was the answer, but I wanted to hear the words from her mouth.
"I'm not marrying you, Kaden. I’m aware of everything your ex-girlfriends ever said about you. That's not my world."
To stifle an annoyed sound, I bit my tongue. Maybe it was a stupid instinct I was following, but I slid my free hand up her arm until I placed it on her neck to make the distance between us disappear.
There wasn't much pressure needed to pull her toward me and close the gap. Again, she didn't resist, relying on me to do the right thing. Yet I was the worst person to make such decisions– because I made them based on what would give us the most pleasure, not what was reasonable or had the least consequences.
I did not rush to her mouth but started with her jaw, using the hand on her neck to position her head. My lips slid over her soft skin. I felt goosebumps forming on her arms and she shivered barely noticeably, as the unexpected assault turned out to be not bad, but rather pleasant.
Only when her hand pressed against my chest, nails digging lightly into my skin, did I move further until I could finally look into her wide-open eyes. I didn't need a translator for the invitation I found in them.
I felt the heat emanating from her core, throbbing against my bare legs, and finally closed the distance between us completely without removing my hand from her throat. Instead, I used it to guide Nikau, to give her the support and reassurance that this was not a mistake but a fucking revelation.
The way her body nestled against mine, the way she let herself fall into the kiss, even opening her lips to me to deepen it, made my pulse race with excitement. But the kiss, as it quickly changed from hesitant and cautious to something far wilder and more passionate, also stirred another need in me.
Kissing Nikau was not enough to convince her she was doing the right thing by getting involved with me. Honoring the deal we had made with each other. She needed more. I had to ignite that unmistakable spark in her that made her curious. Curiosity about the world she had so vehemently closed her eyes to, a world in which, in her mind, she had no business being.
But she was wrong. So very, very wrong. But there was no way I could prove to her the potential I felt in her, even by kissing her unexpectedly.
I slid my tongue over hers, savoring the sweetness of themalasadaswhile fighting the urge to take off her top and shorts and explore her body before laying something at her feet that she wouldn't understand at the moment.
It was only when a soft moan escaped directly into my mouth that she seemed to realize what was happening. She tore herself away as if she had been burned. But she only got as far away from me as I let her.
I looked at her in amusement. I wasn't ashamed of the kiss– and Nika shouldn't be either.
"We shouldn't be doing this," she groaned. A telltale blush rose to her cheeks, but that wasn't the only way her body betrayed her.
"So you didn't like it?" I asked, convinced of the opposite. "Won't I find evidence that you'd be willing to do much more than kiss me if I let my hand slide from your neck inbetween your legs?"
Hissing, she drew in the air. I saw a little anger in Nikau's eyes that she was cleverly trying to hide from me.
"You can't come here and say things like that, Kaden."
"Why not? Because you liked it, and me coming here gives you an out that you're willing to accept, even though your rational mind tells you it's stupid?" I was sure I had put my finger on the sore spot, and as she continued to rebel against my hand on her throat until I finally released it, I knew I was right about that too.
In some ominous way, I had managed to catch the right moment– and all she needed was a nudge in the direction that would finally convince her.
