Chapter 30: Ellie Goulding - Love Me Like You Do
Three seconds. Three goddamned seconds.
Her brain screamed for logic. It told her to take a step back, to cross her arms like a shield between them. But her body? Her treacherous, stupidly honest body? It swayed forward. Just a hair. Just enough.
Step back, you horny bitch, she thought with a silent scream at herself.
But it was too late.
Damien bent his head slowly, like he was savoring the moment before a feast. His breath brushed across her lips. His fingers hovered near her jaw, not touching, just waiting for that final second of permission that she wasn’t offering but also wasn’t denying.
And then he kissed her.
His lips moved over hers with practiced confidence, it made her knees go stupidly weak. She made a sound, a tiny whimper of surrender, and his hands finally came up to cradle her face like she was precious.
The kiss deepened, his lips growing firmer, more demanding. He tilted his head and suddenly her mouth was opening for him. Their tongues brushed, and it was hot. It was messy. It was everything. Luna felt like the kiss reached down her spine and rewired her whole body. Nerves she didn’t know she had lit up.
Damien growled low in his throat, the sound vibrating against her lips, and backed her gently into the counter. Her hips bumped it with a soft thud, but she barely noticed. His hands slipped down her neck to her waist, gripping her and placing her on the counter.
She clutched his shoulders, dragging him closer, gasping slightly as the kiss went from sensual to sinful. He kissed like a man who had dreamed of this for years and was determined to make the reality better than any fantasy.
Without breaking the kiss, Damien’s hands moved down Luna’s sides with aching slowness, his fingertips brushing the hem of her nightdress. He paused to listen. Waiting. One small hesitation from her, a whispered no, even a flinch, and he’d pull back.
But Luna didn’t flinch. She didn’t say stop. She leaned in, breath hitching, lips parted, eyes stormy with want. So he slipped the nightdress from her shoulders.