Page 57 of When Storms Ruin

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I tried again to push him off, but he held me firmly beneath him. My core felt molten, and I struggled against him, trying not to let thoughts of that night at Eight Bells consume me.

His lips were only a breath away from my ear, the scent of coffee and cinnamon rolling off him.

“Do. You. Yield?” His voice was a soft caress in my ear, and it almost broke any and all fight I had left in me.

Almost.

I met his eyes with a wicked grin of my own. His face was so close to me, it would only take one small movement to close the distance between us. I remembered the feeling of his lips brushing against mine. The taste of him. The feel of his bare chest beneath my hands.

I bucked my hips hard enough that his knee slipped on the mat, and I pushed with all my strength, flipping us over. I knocked his arms away, using my hips to press him into the mat. I grabbed his wrists and pinned them above his head, mimicking his movements. A smirk crossed his lips as he fell against the mat, not fighting against my hold.

“Do you yield?” I asked, pressing him harder into the mat with my hips. His smile deepened. He was enjoying this far too much.

“Yes, Diana. I yield.” He lifted his head off the mat and our mouths were only inches apart, my grip still tight on his wrists.

He had yielded, so why was it that I couldn’t bring myself to let him go? To roll off him?

I could detect every place where our bodies were connected. My hips against his, my legs resting on the outside of his thighs. My ankles hooked behind his knees. My hands on his wrists.

My eyes traveled down to his mouth, and I couldn’t help the traitorous thoughts that filled my head.

I wanted his mouth on mine.

I wanted his lips to taste me, to trail along my skin. I wanted to feel his hands on me, exploring beneath my training leathers.

Between my thighs.

Nik must have guessed where my thoughts had led me, his gaze turning molten. “Diana?”

The sound of my name in his mouth threatened to break me, to shatter every ounce of resolve I had left in my body and turn me to dust. One movement from him and I would come undone.

Just once, I wanted to forget abouteverythingand give in. To forget about Donika and her army. To forget about my storm magic turning against me and the resistance depending on me. I wanted to forget about everything pressing down on me and simply exist in this moment.

And in this moment, I wanted Nik.

His voice broke through my thoughts, my eyes meeting his. “I will not touch you unless you ask.”

I had been so adamant with him that I regrettedeverything, but here I was…wanting. Iwantedhim to touch me, to strip my leathers off and explore my skin. I wantedmore, more, more.

I had told him he would never touch me again, but that had always been a lie, hadn’t it? He had been the only one who could ever make me feel this way, and right now, I wanted to feel strong and powerful. Beautiful.

“Touch me, Nikolai.”

I didn’t have to tell him twice. I uttered those three words, and his mouth was crashing against mine, his hands slipping free from my grip to grab hold of my hips. He pulled me down onto him, and I could feel the length of him against my thigh. A soft gasp escaped my lips as he nipped at my neck. He hadn’t even touched me, and yet he was already hard against me.

“Say it again.”

A gentle sigh escaped me as his lips moved to my ear, then back to my throat. “Touch me, Nikolai.”

He flipped us over so fast I could barely comprehend it, his hips pressing me down into the mat, his hands working the laces of my leather training vest as his lips found mine again.

“Diana.” He whispered my name as if it were a prayer, over and over against my skin. My mouth.

My vest came loose, and I pulled at the white shirt beneath, tugging it over my head and settling back beneath him. The bare skin of my back stuck to the mat as I pulled his shirt over his head, leaving him bare from the waist up.

The sensation of his warm skin against mine threatened to send me over the edge. His lips found mine once more, and I ran my hands along his back, up his shoulders, digging my nails into the skin and dragging them back down.

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