Chapter 167

That night, I sneaked out of my room when everyone else was asleep. The guards pretended they didn’t notice. Then I quietly walked down the hallway, keeping my steps light as I wound my way through the palace until I stood before Nicholas’s door.

I gently knocked, and it opened right away.

Nicholas stood behind in. He wasn’t wearing a shirt. His muscles were on full display. He did wear a pair of thin lounge pants that hung low on his hips. His feet were bare.

“Piper,” he said, voice low. A shiver ran down my spine.

“Were you expecting me?” I asked.

He smiled a little, sheepish. It was boyish on his face, making him appear much as he did back when we had dated three years ago. My heartbeat went into overdrive.

“I was hoping…” He stepped back from the door. “Come inside. Please.”

I entered the room and he closed the door behind me.

Despite my trust and comfort around Nicholas, I was nervous in what I was doing here, in what was about to happen. So I continued to face the rest of the room, my back to Nicholas. If I looked at him, I might lose myself.

Maybe I came here for that. But I was afraid of it too.

Nicholas moved into the space behind me. He placed his hands on my shoulders.

“You’re tense,” he said. “Nervous?”

“I don’t know…”

“You don’t have to be with me. I know your boundaries and will never press you. You can trust me.”

“I do trust you.”

He began to give me a massage, pressing his thumbs deep into the strained muscles of my upper back. “Then trust me to take care of you…”

I relaxed at once, turning to putty in his hands.

“I’ll take care of you, Piper.”

“I know…” I sighed, happiness spreading through me.

He stepped closer to me, pressing his chest against the length of my back. His hands trailed from my shoulders, down the length of my arms. My nerves prickled pleasantly where his feather-light touch traced along my skin.

He lowered his mouth to my ear. “Tell me what you want tonight, Piper.”

Deep within me, a fire sparked and burned. It spread out up into my heart and down, down into my core.

“You know what I want,” I said.

He hummed. “I want to hear you say it.”

My heart soared. He had such a way to make me feel safe and special. Even this, right here – his obvious consideration for me made me feel properly cared for.

“I want you…” I swallowed down my embarrassment. This was Nicholas, the man I trusted. The man I loved once. Maybe loved still, somewhere inside of me. I was afraid to think about that now.

“How do you want me?” he asked, voice so low, it was practically a growl.

“Touch me...” My cheeks burned. “Taste me…”

Slowly, he slid the sleeves of my dress off my shoulders and down the length of my arms. The top half of my dress fell down, catching on my hips and pooling at my waist.

Nicholas traced his knuckles down the length of my spine. He stopped when all he felt was bare skin.

“Piper…” He didn’t sound disapproving. More, surprised. “You are not wearing a bra.”

“I’m not,” I confirmed.

He slipped his fingers around my waist and teased my stomach.

“Such a bad girl,” he whispered into my ear. His breath was so hot on my skin. Slowly, he lifted his hands upward and cupped my bare breasts. His fingers were cold and I gasped. At the same time, my nipples hardened, peaking into his palms, searching for friction.

I moaned at the sensation.

For a time, he simply massaged me with his hands. I dropped my head back against his shoulder, enjoying his ministrations. Then, blessedly, like he could read my mind, he pulled his thumbs inward and brushed against my nipples.

“Nick,” I gasped.

“I’ve got you. Let yourself go, Piper. I swear I won’t let you fall.”

My mouth fell open. I could barely catch my breath as he teased, flicking and then rolling the nubs with his thumbs.

“Oh, Nick.”

“Does it feel good?”

I nodded.

“Good.” He continued to touch until it was nearly too much. I clutched at his upper arms with both my hands, squeezing.

“Maybe we should see what else you aren’t wearing,” Nicholas said, then. He held onto one breast with one hand, while his other lowered down to my hips. He tugged the dress down over my curves, and it dropped fully down to the floor.

His hand slipped around my backside, and traced the bare globe of my ass.

I had decided to forego my panties as well.

“You are a very bad girl, Piper,” he purred. “Let me see you.”

Stepping back, he came around to my front. His hooded gaze traced the expanse of my now-naked body. Heat and lust shimmered in the gold in his eyes, sparkling like coins under the candlelight I now realized we were surrounded with.

How easily he had distracted me from my surroundings.

How romantic he had wanted this moment to be for us.

“Nick…”

While I was appreciating the candlelight, Nicholas was appreciating me. His pants were now straining in the front. His fingers twitched, like he wanted to touch but didn’t know where to start.

He’d seen me naked before in the past, but this felt different somehow. I was standing here, in his room, bare and begging. We were different people than we had been three years ago, but we were the same too, in some ways.

Our lust for each other had a hair trigger.

Nicholas suddenly stepped forward and scooped me into his arms in a bridal carry. He struggled to walk, but he managed to hobble with me into the bedroom. So softly, so tenderly, he lowered me down onto the soft cushion of the bed.

“Nick, please…”

He lowered his lips to mine and claimed my mouth with his kiss, licking his way inside. Gently, so as not to put too much weight onto me, he shifted over me, rested in the cradle of my thighs.

His hands traced up and down my sides, starting tiny wildfires along my skin. Wherever he touched burned with my desire for him. I wanted more. So much more.

I whimpered against his mouth.

That was all the guidance he needed. He broke the kiss, and instead, dragged his open mouth down the side of my neck. He planted soft kiss after soft kiss down my chest, through the valley of my breasts, and over my flat stomach.

Eventually he lowered so far that he had to stretch my hips out further to rest his torso more comfortably between them.

He licked his lips, looking at my exposed core. With extreme softness, he reached forward and pulled back the hood from my clit.

I swallowed my nerves, suddenly feeling so exposed.

This was Nicholas. He was safe. He was kind.

“You are so beautiful,” he said, then leaned forward and took me into his mouth.

I threw my head back against the pillows. My back arched up off the mattress, pressing my breasts out into the air. I wished he would touch my nipples again, but his hands were busy pinning my bucking hips in place while he lavished my most sensitive nub with his tongue.

The sensations were incredible, almost too much. His mouth was a hot, wet temple dedicated, in this moment, to my pleasure alone.

He was relentless in his attentions, quickly driving me into a begging, whimpering mess. Words had no meaning. Only his name sat on the tip of my tongue.

“Nick. Oh, God, Nick…”

My delirium was his encouragement, and somehow, he moved even faster, even more insistent, nudging and licking with his tongue, bringing me to the cusp of pleasure.

I clawed at the bedsheets, bunching them in my fists. It was almost too much, I was so close.

Then, without warning, he slipped a finger inside of my core. He slowly moved it in and out. He curled it, pressing into the bundle of nerves deep within me.

“Ah! Ah! Ah!”

My pleasure spiked impossibly high. It couldn’t last. I toppled over the edge into bliss.

“Nicholas!”