Nicholas broke their kiss on a deep chuckle.
"Impatient," he whispered by her ear as he paused to nibble at it briefly. "So eager."
"Yes," she breathed, "I need you."
The words made him chuckle again, but it died on a gasp as she tightened her fingers around him and let them slide his length. A growl followed, and then he caught her hand and pulled it away, pressing it against the bars by her head as he kissed her again. When she tried to reach for him with her other hand, he caught and lifted that too, then ground himself against her as he kissed her almost punishingly. Jo gave as good as she got, her own kiss becoming demanding, and—thinking it had worked so nicely with the clothes—silently wished he'd thrust himself inside her, but the dream Nicholas wasn't nearly as accommodating as their dream clothes. Instead of lifting her by the hips and thrusting himself into her, he broke the kiss to growl, "Not yet," and began to trail his mouth down her throat to her collarbone.
Frustrated, Jo twisted her hips, rubbing herself against him, and then gasped as his mouth dropped to one breast to briefly toy with her nipple again. He still held her hands, but was drawing them down with him as he lowered himself to kneel before her, his mouth trailing kisses across her stomach. Jo dug her nails into his palms with excitement as his lips then trailed lower to nibble at one hip.
"Nicholas," she moaned desperately, and then gasped and reached up to grab at a bar by her head to steady herself when he suddenly released one of her hands to catch her leg and lift it over his shoulder. The position opened her to him, and Nicholas took full advantage, leaning to press his mouth to the flesh his fingers had so excited.
Jo cried out and grabbed for the bars with her other hand as he released that too, needing the hold to keep herself upright. Her legs had suddenly lost all strength, and she didn't think she could have kept herself upright if he hadn't raised his hands to clasp her by the bottom and hold her in place as he drove her wild with his teeth and tongue.
"Please," Jo gasped desperately, releasing the hold she had on the bars to grab at his hair and tug demandingly. The pressure had built to a breaking point, and she wanted him inside her when that happened. She wanted to feel him filling her, their bodies joined, their breaths commingled.
Much to her relief, Nicholas left off his torment and suddenly looked up. His eyes were glowing a fierce silver with no trace of the blue they were in reality and then he surged upward, his mouth reclaiming hers. Jo wrapped her legs around his hips as he shifted and lifted her, slamming her back against the bars almost roughly, and then she opened her eyes as a muffled clang woke her up.
Blinking in confusion, Jo peered at the ceiling overhead in the darkening room, and then glanced toward the window as another clang and the murmur of voices reached her ears. Her eyes widened slightly when she saw window washers moving upward past the window on their mechanized scaffolding. She was just in time to see their knees and feet move out of sight, and she supposed they were calling it a day.
Jo let her breath out on a small sigh and then glanced to the side to find, not Charlie in bed beside her as he had been when she'd fallen asleep, but Nicholas. He was on the other side of the bed, a good couple of feet away, but his eyes were open and seemed to be glowing silver in the dimming room as he stared at her… as they had in the dream, she noted, and then he suddenly rolled off the bed and started toward the bathroom.
"Nicholas." She got up quickly, but he was in the bathroom and closing the door before she caught up. When Jo instinctively stuck her foot in the door to prevent it shutting, he paused abruptly.
His voice was a low growl when he said, "Unless you want to find yourself naked on the bed doing exactly what we were about to do in the dream, I suggest you remove your foot."
Jo's eyes widened incredulously at the words. "How do you know what I was dream—"
"Jo," Nicholas growled in warning. "You have one second to release the door. Otherwise I won't be responsible for what happens."
She closed her mouth and stared at him. One part of her mind really wanted to know how he could possibly know what she'd been dreaming. Another, much larger part of her mind—not to mention her body—was interested in the image he'd put in her head of the two of them naked on the bed finishing what had started in the dream. Her body was still humming with excitement over the interrupted interlude, her nipples were still hard and aching and the liquid heat that had pooled low in her belly had not dissipated.
Jo wanted him desperately. If Nicholas had meant to scare her off with the threat, he'd used the wrong tactic. To her, it had sounded like a challenge, and there was nothing she liked better than a challenge. Realizing that several seconds must have passed and he hadn't carried out his threat, Jo leaned up on her tiptoes and pressed her mouth to his.