She had secrets just as all of her sisters did, but hers were dark and ugly. “I need to breathe and I can’t with you this close,” she said, uncaring that she revealed too much to him. She didn’t know what she was going to do, but if she didn’t get air, she might faint, right there, at his feet.
His hand didn’t loosen from around her throat. His thumb brushed her chin and then lifted it. Easily. She was very short in comparison to him. He tilted her head at an angle that forced her to look into his eyes. His eyes were startling mercury. Silver. The only other person she’d ever seen with eyes like that had been his youngest brother, Ilya. It was no wonder he wore tinted contacts all the time. Those eyes were memorable. Totally rare. Eyes that left a woman weak. He had scars on his face. Lines of silver in his hair where the scars continued. She sucked in her breath, wondering how those faint white lines got there.
He stared down at her for what seemed an eternity. He bent his head slightly toward hers. She found herself wanting to go up on her tiptoes, to cover those last few inches, but she locked the soles of her feet firmly to the ground. She wasn’t going to get in any deeper.
“I really can’t breathe,” she whispered again. Hoping he’d let her go. She couldn’t make that move herself, so he was going to have to come to her aid.
“I’ll have to breathe for both of us,” he said gently. Softly. His voice a stroke of velvet, caressing her skin.
His lips touched hers. Just touched. Rubbed. Softly. Barely there. Her bottom lip. Her top lip. His tongue outlined both. Traced the curve of her lips and then along the seam. “I had a lot of hours on that plane to stare at your lips. I memorized the shape of them. I dreamt of them. Fantasized about them.”
When he whispered the words to her, his lips brushed against hers, sending a million darts of fire streaking through her body straight to the very feminine core of her. She felt each one strike, igniting more and more of that terrible need growing in her.
“Open for me.”
“No.” She whispered the denial. She needed to stay strong. If she didn’t, if she opened her mouth to him, she’d be lost.
Casimir was so hot. His mouth would be hotter. The fire inside would break free and she wouldn’t be able to rein it in ever again. Not with this man. He would own her. He would. She knew it just by standing there. He didn’t have to touch her or kiss her. She felt him around her. In her. His passion called to hers. The wildness in him, buried deep, suppressed just as the fire in her was suppressed, called to her.
“Yes.” His mouth moved over her face, lips tracing her jaw, her cheekbone, her eyes, moving back to her lips.
He was gentle. Patient. Persistent. He knew she was already lost. He knew. She saw the knowledge in his eyes. The possession there. The absolute resolve.
“I can’t, Casimir.” She didn’t sound determined or sure, she sounded pleading. More, with her head tilted this way, she could see the hunger in his eyes – for her. No one had ever looked at her with precisely that look. She was melting for him, and that wasn’t a good thing at all.
His tongue teased the seam of her lips, his lips, firm and hot and very, very tempting teased at hers. “Open for me, malyshka.”
“Not I won’t. I can’t. There’s a difference.” She tried reason. Her brain screamed at her to push him away. This was self-preservation. Self-preservation was strong in her. She had duties. So many of them. She had taken a vow with her uncle when she was just a little girl. She’d kept that vow. It didn’t include having a man or a family. It meant, ultimately, she would probably die. But until she did, she had to stick to her absolute purpose.
“Golubushka,” he murmured against her mouth. “You can. You will. I have waited a very long time and I never thought I could have you. Now, even if it is for a brief moment before we both die trying to save those we love, you have to give yourself to me.”
He couldn’t have said anything else that would induce her to let him have her. He intimated they would be partners. That he understood her vow. That he would never try to stop her from carrying out her plans.
Just this once, just this moment, she could have him for herself. She could be a woman. Real. Allow her fire to burn with his. She could let down her guard and just be herself. She opened her mouth before she talked herself out of it.
His tongue swept in and swept her away. There was no way to think, only feel. He kissed like he did everything. Sure. Confident. Perfect. Hot. So hot she knew she was melting, and it didn’t even matter. She wanted to melt into him. Skin to skin. She didn’t care if she paid the price later on. Right then, his mouth was all that mattered to her. All she focused on.