Chapter 132: Hot Couch (I)

Elara:

Kairo’s mouth left mine only long enough for both of us to breathe before finding mine again, and this kiss was nothing like the one we had shared before Christmas.

That kiss had been careful, restrained, almost painfully controlled, as though Kairo had been holding himself back every second and giving me countless opportunities to walk away. This time, there was no hesitation in him. His hand settled firmly against the small of my back and pulled me closer until there was barely any space left between us, and the low sound that escaped him when I willingly followed his movement sent a shiver through me that had nothing to do with the cold surrounding us.

I had dressed for the weather, bundled beneath a wool coat and scarf with boots still firmly laced, while Kairo was wearing little more than a half open shirt and dark trousers as though the freezing winter night outside didn’t concern him in the slightest. When my hand instinctively touched his chest, his skin felt cold beneath my palm, and I frowned at him despite everything happening between us.

"You are freezing," I whispered when our lips briefly parted, but he merely looked at me with that infuriating calm expression of his and murmured, "I’m fine."

Before I could argue, his hand slipped beneath my coat and rested over the sweater underneath, the unexpected chill of his fingers making me inhale sharply.

"Kairo," I breathed, and his expression changed instantly.

"Say it again," he murmured, his mouth brushing along my jaw. "Say my name again, Princess."

I curled my fingers into the open front of his shirt and pulled him back toward me. His quiet chuckle warmed my skin, but the sound disappeared when he found the sensitive spot beneath my ear, leaving me suddenly incapable of remembering whatever thoughts were trying to form in my head.

"Kairo..."

His hands moved over my coat, undoing the buttons with surprising ease, until the heavy wool finally slipped from my shoulders and fell onto the floor beside the forgotten spell book. Yet even then, he didn’t rush me. His hands settled at my waist, his thumbs resting against the edge of my sweater, and he stopped.

The sudden stillness between us was almost louder than the kiss had been. Snow tapped softly against the window, our breathing filled the quiet corner, and Kairo simply looked at me as though waiting for me to decide what happened next.

"Yes," I whispered.

That single word seemed to be all the permission he needed. His hands slipped beneath the sweater, his cold palms meeting the warmth of my skin, and the contrast sent another shiver through me. The shock of it pulled a noise out of me I’d never made before, and my ears went hot with it. His fingers spread wide across my ribs and his thumbs traced up over the sweater’s edge to the underside of my bra, making me arch into him without deciding to.

The small reaction seemed to affect him just as much as it affected me. The warm lamplight cast our shadows across the far wall, stretching them into something almost unrecognizable. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

Kairo kissed me again, slower this time, his fingers tracing carefully along my sides as though he was trying to memorize every inch of the person who had spent weeks deliberately staying away from him. He got the sweater up and off between kisses. The air found my bare shoulders and my nipples went tight against the lace, making me shiver though it had little to do with the cold.

When he finally pulled back, his gray eyes remained fixed on mine, and for a moment I could see something vulnerable beneath all his usual confidence.

"You have no idea," he said quietly, brushing a strand of hair away from my face, "how many times I have sat here and told myself I needed to stop waiting for you."

I swallowed, suddenly aware of the strange ache those words created inside me. "How many?" I asked, and the faint smile that appeared on his lips didn’t quite hide the sadness behind it.

"Five weeks’ worth," he admitted. "Almost every night. Same corner, same stupid couch, same ridiculous hope that one evening you would walk up those stairs."

My gaze drifted toward the couch beneath us. "When did you-?" I began, but he answered before I could finish.

"I bought it the day after Christmas." His voice softened as he looked at me. "It wasn’t that comfortable sitting on those wooden chairs for too long."

I stared at him, completely unable to decide whether I wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it or feel overwhelmed by what was happening between us right now.

"Hey." He spoke quietly. Close enough that the words landed on my cheek. "I’m not asking you for anything tonight. I just want-"

"You are not asking." I kissed him. "I’m answering."

That was the end of talking.

His mouth came down harder and his arm banded around my back, and then I was on the couch on my back. The velvet was cold under my shoulder blades as Kairo hovered over me with one knee planted between mine and his weight braced on his forearm. His shirt had gone entirely open somewhere along the way, and my eyes immediately traveled over his smooth skin, fine muscles, and the ridge of his ribs.

My hands went everywhere I had spent weeks refusing to look, and he let me, and every time I found something new he made a sound low in his chest. Under the denim, the length of his cock lay hard along my thigh, and my hips moved before I told them to. He answered with a slow roll that put the seam of my trousers right where I needed it.

I bit down on a sound that would have carried down two floors. He caught it anyway. His thigh pushed up between my legs and the friction went through me like a struck bell, turning my panty wet. His mouth curved against my throat like he could taste my wetness in the air. His hand slid down my side, over the waistband of my trousers. His knuckles brushed the bone of my hip, and stayed there, asking without voicing it out.

"Tell me if you want me to stop," he said.

"Don’t stop." I answered immediately right before I moved and captured his mouth in a kiss.

A low and deep growl escaped him as he kissed me deep, pulling back moments later only to kiss his way down my throat, over my collarbone. He left open mouthed and hot kisses on the cold skin of my chest before closing his teeth gently around the lace over my nipple and pulled. And my back came off the velvet.