"Leo is such an adorable gentle giant," Kira said, still smiling as they came into the bedroom.

Derek said nothing.

She pulled the blanket from her shoulders, folded it, and set it on the armchair. When the silence stretched, she turned around.

He was still by the door. Not moving. Just watching her with those amber eyes, steady and intent, and the quality of his attention was different from how it usually was. It had weight to it.

Kira felt her lower lip tremble slightly and pressed her teeth into it.

She could feel his pheromones shifting the air between them, his citrus scent deepening and concentrating until it was less a scent and more a physical presence.

Her body responded before her mind had finished catching up, heat pooling low, her thighs pressing together without her permission.

She wanted to turn and slip into the bathroom, have a shower and sleep. She was craving rest after another night of restless sleep, but her eyes moved to the front of his trousers entirely of their own accord.

He was not making any attempt to hide what he wanted. And her body, the absolute traitor, was already answering it.

She pulled in a slow breath through parted lips. She flexed her neck slightly, trying to steady herself. She stood motionless, the only movement the frantic hammering of her heart, which only quickened as he began walking toward her, eyes never leaving hers.

When he stopped just inches away, his fresh citrus scent engulfed her completely, making her body go rigid with anticipation. Kira held his gaze as he closed the last bit of distance, invading her space in the most delicious way.

"Turn around," he ordered, voice low and gentle.

Kira obeyed without hesitation. She loved how dangerous his voice sounded, how very intoxicated he looked.

Derek’s hands settled on her tense shoulders, and he stepped closer until his chest brushed her back.

"You seem tense," he whispered, thumbs kneading the tight muscles there.

Kira said nothing, simply savouring the feel of his strong hands on her. She closed her eyes and let her head roll in appreciation as the knots began to ease.

Soon she felt his hot breath against her ear.

"Are you enjoying this?" he whispered, the low vibration of his voice sending shockwaves straight through her body.

She couldn’t have lied if she’d wanted to.

"Yes," she breathed.

He pressed his entire front against her back, his mouth dropping to her ear. "I’m going to take your dress off now."

She was about to nod when he nipped her earlobe, sending another jolt of heat straight to her throbbing core.

He caught the hem of her jumper and pulled it slowly over her head. "You’re too fucking beautiful, Kira," he purred, skimming his lips across her ear.

"Oh goddess," she breathed.

Kira leaned back into him, feeling the hard length of his erection throbbing against her lower back through his trousers.

Every rational thought she had left about contracts and limits and careful distance was dissolving at the edges, burning away under the heat of his hands and his mouth and the impossible fact of him wanting her like this.

He had never touched her with this kind of intention before. And her traitorous heart and body were both aching for him.

His hands moved to her hips, fingers hooking into the waistband of her leggings, easing them down slowly until they pooled at her feet.

Kira stepped out of the fabric, now standing before him in only her black bra and lacy knickers.

He turned her to face him, lifting one hand to cup her breast and circling her nipple through the thin material with his thumb.

The sensation shot through her, sharp and immediate. Her nipples tightened against the material, and a small, satisfied smile touched the corner of his mouth at the sound she made.

He introduced a second finger to the motion, rolling and tweaking the stiffened peak until her breasts felt heavy and aching and she was gripping his forearms to stay upright.

She reached for his shirt buttons with hands that weren’t entirely steady.

He let her work through them, and when she pushed the shirt from his shoulders and ran her palms down the planes of his chest, she felt him shudder. A full, involuntary shudder, quickly controlled.

She looked up at him, and he looked back at her. She affected him as much as he affected her.

A low growl rolled through his chest and he spun her gently, unclasping her bra and letting it fall away. He cupped both breasts in his hands from behind, kneading slowly, his mouth finding the back of her neck.

"Derek," she managed.

But he turned her once more, crashing his lips against hers in a hungry, raw kiss that stole the breath from her lungs.

The kiss was rough and feral. His lips moved against hers with a hunger that she felt all the way down to her knees, and that thing beneath her skin, that thread, that live wire that had pulled toward him for earlier, surged forward and strained at its limits.

He made a low sound in his throat and deepened the kiss, his fingers threading through her hair, tilting her head back. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back with everything she had.

Everything else faded in that moment.

Kira was lost in him, and didn’t care if she was ever found.

He lifted her. Her legs wrapped around his waist instinctively, and he carried her to the bed and laid her down with a care that was at odds with the intensity in his eyes.

He sat back on his heels and looked at her. He had never taken the time to truly look at her like this before, but today was different. He wanted to see all of her.

Her perfect scent filled him like a drug, energising him and narrowing his world to nothing but the woman lying before him.

He wanted to please her. He wanted to take her apart slowly and put her back together and hear his name in her mouth when she came undone.

He moved over her and kissed her once more, then worked his way down with unhurried purpose. Her throat. The curve of her collarbone. The swell of her breast, his mouth closing around her nipple until her back arched off the mattress.

His hand travelled south, slipping beneath the lace of her knickers, and found her already slick and swollen and wanting.

The sound she made was not small.

She grabbed the sheets on either side of her as his fingers began to move, his thumb circling her clit in slow, deliberate strokes while his mouth stayed at her breast, and the combination of sensations was enough to make coherent thought an impossibility.

"Oh, goddess, Derek—"

Swept away on a tide of need so powerful she could barely think, her hands found his shoulders and pushed him downward.

She needed his mouth. She needed it with an urgency that bypassed every last shred of self-consciousness she had.

She sucked in a sharp breath as Derek pulled her knickers down and spread her legs wider.

The tip of his tongue parted her folds and mashed against her clit, licking up and down with devastating rigour.

His groan vibrated against her thighs. She twisted beneath him, legs falling open, fingers clawing at the sheets, and her heels pressing into the mattress.

Derek looked almost drugged, pupils blown wide, back rippling as his mouth worked her relentlessly.

He pushed a long finger into her, twisting it, then drawing it in and out faster, faster, with more pressure.

She just needed to get there. Get there.

And it was easy when his tongue continued to bathe her clit, loving it side to side, up and down, suckling it lightly while he added a second finger, fucking her with them. Hard.

It was too much and not enough all at once. Kira chased the edge desperately. When his fingers curled just right, something inside her shattered.

She choked on a scream as pleasure unlike anything she had ever felt tore through her. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

It was huge, overwhelming, frothy and bright. She looked down into his wild eyes and saw raw animal hunger there.

Her body convulsed, and she watched through fevered eyes as her release coated his mouth and chin.

He licked his lips with an expression of rapture, bending down to lick up every drop of her juice.