"We should stop," she said, but her tone wasn't convincing even to her own ears.
"Please don't," Alexei murmured against her lips, his hand cupping the back of her neck as he pulled back slightly. "I don't want to stop."
"Alexei," she breathed.
She didn't pull away again. She didn't ask if this was a good idea or a mistake. He kissed her and she didn't hesitate in kissing him back. Instead something inside her melted, like it finally clicked in place.
She groaned when he was the one to break their kiss.
Alexei lifted his hand, tracing the line of her jaw, the pads of his fingers along her jawline his touch warm against her skin. Keira met his gaze.
He was a man of contradictions, one who provoked and frustrated her, but also one who had stood between her and danger. If they ever got out of here, did she dare tell him he had stolen a piece of her heart? Was she ready for that? For him? This is all they might have.
Alexei's thumb traced her bottom lip with tenderness. "I need you to be sure about this, Keira. Because once we cross this line..."
"I know." Her voice caught. "But I do… I want you. I need you." She hadn't meant for it to come out so needy
The admission hung between them, it hadn't just been needy but raw and honest.
She could see his eyes darken, pupils dilating in the dim light filtering from the bathroom. She watched him struggle with restraint, his jaw clenched tight.
"Maybe here isn't the right choice," he said finally. "Not in this place."
"Where else is there?" She shifted closer, her body pressing against his on the narrow cot. "This might be all we have." Keira was surprised that she was the one pushing for sex.
For them both tomorrow was uncertain. Rescue was a hope, not a guarantee. They could die at any time. This moment, this feeling between them, might be their only chance.
She watched him fight with himself, but finally Alexei's resolve cracked. His mouth crashed against hers, desperate and hungry. She responded immediately, her hands fisting in his shirt as she pulled him closer. The kiss was nothing like the tentative exploration from moments before. This was need, greedy and consuming.
His hands roamed her back, fingers finding the zipper of her dress just above her bottom. The sound of it sliding down seemed very loud in the silence. Cool air hit her bare skin, making her shiver.
"You're so fucking hot," he whispered against her throat, pressing open-mouthed kisses along the column of her neck.
Keira cried out and arched beneath him, her hands working at the buttons of his shirt. Each one that came undone revealed more of the chest she'd glimpsed earlier, muscles defined from years of training. He was no soft royal. Her palms flattened against his skin, feeling the rapid beat of his heart.
"Your head, should we be doing this," she asked worried about him hurting himself more.
"Is fine, my head isn't as bad now," he assured her, as he shifted above her. "Now I have you where I want you, I'm not going to stop."
He used both hands to pull her dress down over her shoulders, leaving her bare from the waist up. Alexei's eyes wandered across her naked skin with an adoration that stole the air from her lungs. No man had ever looked at her like that, like she was something precious and perfect. Not like she had slept with heaps of men… Just two, but they had found her too hard to handle. So the relationships had fizzled out quickly.
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