He had taken a lot of convincing the second night and had put her powers of persuasion to the test. The third night he had taken less convincing. Right now, he looked as though he might be convincing himself.
“Do you often have nightmares?” Sera wanted to know what she was getting herself into so she could be prepared to deal with them. Would running her fingers through his rich brown hair and speaking calmly to him, reassuring him, like Snow had work for her? She hoped it would.
Antoine shrugged, the action causing his muscles to shift beautifully, luring her green gaze back down to his bare body. Her blood heated, desire scorching her veins until she was licking her lips and thinking about running her tongue over every delicious inch of him.
“More often than I probably remember. Sometimes I don’t wake with Snow here, so I have no idea if I slept peacefully or not. Have I slept peacefully with you up until now?”
Sera nodded and a curl of her blonde hair fell down over her chest. Antoine’s blue eyes followed it and burned into her, cranking her temperature up another notch. She silently willed him to come to her and strip the red sheets away from her bare body, to run his hands over her and forget work and everything else and just spend another night lost in ecstasy with her.
“You’ve snored like a pig, but you’ve been relatively behaved before tonight.”
He smiled and it was beautiful and full of warmth. She had somehow cracked his armour and made it through to the other side to find herself face-to-face with a man more beautiful than she could have imagined. She didn’t care about the darkness he held within him, because she would help him conquer it, just as he helped his brother, sacrificing everything for him and never blaming him for the terrible things he had done. How could she have ever thought that he was cold and unfeeling? The things he had to deal with were enough to make anyone distant.
Antoine crossed the room to her, muscles moving in a breathtaking vision of masculine beauty, and raised his right hand to cup her cheek. He held it, his gaze locked on hers, so icy and cool, but full of heat.
“I did not hurt you?” he whispered and she shook her head. Her wrist had stopped throbbing now, her pain forgotten as she lost herself in watching him. He looked her over, frowned at the silk sheets wrapped around her like a toga, and removed them just as she had desired. He dropped them on the bed and she closed her eyes as he inspected her, hands lingering in all the good places. His thumbs flicked over her nipples, teasing them into hard straining peaks, and then his hands skimmed over the curve of her waist and settled on her hips. He moved around her and she bit her lip as he peppered her lower back with soft kisses, working his way upwards. His hands skated over her stomach, pressing in and giving her a hint of his strength, and folded over her breasts, supporting them as he kissed her shoulders. “I do not want to hurt you.”
“You won’t.”
He pressed his lips to her shoulder and sighed. “You do not know that.”
“I do.” Sera turned in his embrace, pressing the full length of her bare body against his solid muscled one. Delicious. “I trust you, Antoine. I trust that you won’t hurt me, and I can prove it to you.”
“How?”
“Wait here.” She went to pass him but he grabbed her waist, curling his arm around and dragging her back against his front. She smiled over her shoulder at him and removed his hand from her. “I will be a whole two seconds. Trust me.”
She grabbed one of his shirts off a pile near the door, slipped it on and did up a few of the buttons. It reached halfway down her thighs and smelt like Antoine, warm and spicy. He started to speak when she opened the door of his apartment but she didn’t stop. She crossed the black and gold hallway to his brother’s door and knocked. While Snow had a habit of just walking in unannounced, she would rather not. Antoine had been angry enough when he had found her touching her brother in a gesture as innocent as a handshake. She didn’t want to think about the scale of the fight that would erupt should she walk in on Snow when he was nude.
The door opened.
Snow raised an eyebrow at her.
She mirrored him.
It was a good thing she had knocked. The darkly beautiful man was wearing nothing more than the world’s smallest towel around his hips and was dripping water all over his apartment floor.
“Can I borrow something?” Her heart flipped in her chest.
“Depends on what it is.” He went to take a step back and then stopped. “I do not think it wise that you enter my room. My brother has claimed you as his female. I do not enjoy Javier’s dark moods whenever Lilah enters my room without his consent. I have no desire to inflict such pain upon my brother. State what you desire and I will consider it.”