Chapter 114

Nicholas’s mouth was hot on mine. His body pinned me to the door.

I attacked his lips with my own, eager to burn away any trace of that mystery woman who had been there before me today. Lilliana? Olivia? It didn’t matter who. My mind was flooded with angry, scalding jealousy.

Maybe Nicholas couldn’t be mine forever, but here, for the duration of this moment, I was staking my claim.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pushed my fingers through his hair.

He coaxed my lips open. It was no great feat.

When his tongue slipped into my mouth, I was ready and waiting for it.

As our tongues tangled, his hands wandered. He’d started at my hips, but in an impatient instant, his fingers slipped under the waist hem of my shirt and teased at the bare skin of my stomach.

I broke the kiss to moan. He gave me exactly one half-second before he plunged back in and stole my breath away all over again.

Slowly, he slid his hands up my sides. I shivered, even as I burned. His touch was hot like a brand. I was laying my claim on him, but he was just as easily doing the same to me.

When his fingertips touched the edge of my bra, he deftly worked his way beneath it. His palm laid flat against the side of my ribs. Then, inch by small inch, he moved his hand closer to my front.

His thumb brushed against the bare side of my breast, and I gasped.

“Nick,” I said, a moan and a plea both.

He growled. His hand moved another inch, and he cupped more of my breast under my bra.

“Nick,” I said again, this time as a sigh.

His lips stayed against mine, even when all we did was breathe on each other. I needed that closeness. I wasn’t ready to give up my claim yet.

“You were jealous,” he said, voice low and rough. “You want me all to yourself.”

“I do.” It was so easy to admit like this, safe in the circle of his arms, with his lips brushing mine.

His tone dropped even further, wolflike, as he growled, “Good.”

He licked his way back into my mouth, swallowing my moan. At the same moment, his hand shifted, and he fully grabbed my breast. My aching, peaked nipple brushed against his palm.

He fondled me and it felt so good. I couldn’t remember the last time I had been touched like this – and wanted it. I was desperate for him. For more. For all he would give me.

I was ready to lose myself.

His hand turned and he caught my nipple between two of his fingers. The friction was delicious, sending shockwaves up and down my spine. With his other hand, he reached behind my back and unlatched my bra. With my breasts now free of that confinement, he more easily cupped me with both hands.

I dropped my head back against the door. Breathing heavy, I knew only the insistent touch of his hands, and the feel of his hot wet breath as he moved his mouth to the side of my neck and sucked in a mark.

My voice could only say his name. Over and over, like a prayer.

“Nicholas. Nick. Oh, God, Nick.”

His hands were masterful, and sent me back to when we had been a couple years ago. He’d always been attuned to my body. Though we’d never had penetrative sex, he seemed to know the ways to touch and caress my body to have me lose my mind.

He was a master musician, and I was his instrument then as now.

God, everything he was doing was so perfect. If only I could have had him all the time. Although, we’d likely never leave the bedroom.

I pulled at his hair, lost in my own pleasure. In another life, I’d strip him bare, push him down onto the floor, and climb on top of him. Though, knowing him and the possessive way he left mark after mark along the column of my neck, I doubted he wouldn’t be just as eager.

In that same life, he’d likely rip my clothes away and fuck me against this door.

I’d never had penetrative sex. We’d experimented some, years ago. But now, I wanted his dick inside me so much, I was dizzy for it.

I clawed at his shoulders and his back. I moaned and whimpered as he rolled my hardened nipples between his fingers and then pinched them ever so slightly, just enough to send a jolt across my skin.

I arched off the door, pressing myself more fully into him.

His hips collided with mine, pushing me straight back against the door and pining me there. His hard cock strained against his pants. He ground it against the crux of my thighs.

He was like an animal, bucking wild, desperate. He was as lost as I was.

“Piper,” he growled against the juncture of my neck and shoulder. Then he put his teeth there. He didn’t press down. He made no claiming bite. But the thought of him being so near to it lowered me to begging.

“Please, please. Oh, please.”

We couldn’t be together. When this moment ended, we’d have to go our separate ways like this had never happened. Nicholas would kiss other girls. He’d marry one. Have his own children. And I’d go my way too.

But in my heart, I knew I’d always be here in this moment in some form. Nicholas was my first love, and though feelings were messy now, I was still bound to him deep within. It was a bond I didn’t want to break, even if it was destined to be one sided.

I’d face any heartbreak, if it meant I could claim Nicholas for however long. Even if that however long only lasted the next few precious minutes.

I clutched him tighter. I squeezed my eyes closed.

No, thoughts. Please stay away.

I wasn’t ready to wake up from this dream yet.

Yet Nicholas must have felt the chill of awareness return to him too. His hands had slowed their ministrations. His hips still moved against mine, but it was gentler now, rubbing more than hard bucking.

“Piper,” he said, and his voice was returning to normal.

Not yet. Please. Just a few minutes more.

Then his hips and hands totally stopped moving. He lifted his face away from my skin.

I could have cried. I could have thrashed and pleaded and begged.

But I didn’t.

Because I understood.

We weren’t in the past. We weren’t in some other lifetime.

He was a prince, and I was a commoner. These moments we shared were stolen, not fully ours.

He lowered his hands away from my breasts.

“Piper,” he said again, like he was building up to something.

I knew it was going to be an apology.

“Don’t,” I said. It would break my heart to hear it.

He closed his mouth. A muscle in his jaw ticked.

My heart still broke. He didn’t have to have said it. Knowing he thought it had been enough.

“Don’t be sorry for this,” I whispered. “Don’t regret this.”

He took a breath. I held mine, anticipating his reply.

Suddenly, the door behind me opened, and the world tilted off-balance.

Nicholas fell with me. His hands moved quickly, cushioning the back of my head as we hit the floor. He was on top of me, his body pressing down on me.

My bra was still undone and my breasts against his chest. I blushed.

I blushed harder when another face came into view.

“Well, well, look what I found,” Julian said, smirking.

I immediately wished the earth would open and swallow me whole.