He cast aside his reaction to her garments, shut the door, and inquired, “Do you have an assignation after our business tonight?”
She turned to him to give him startled but amused eyes. “An assignation?”
He moved into the suite while flicking his hand her way. “You’re quite fetching, Aurora.” He stopped several feet away from her and crossed his arms on his chest. “More fetching than normal. More, indeed, than need-be considering our business this evening.”
She lifted a hand and lightly touched a tendril of hair he had no doubt was not tucked in her attractive coiffure for the very purpose that it was more appealing curling around the skin in front of her ear. Appealing enough to make him want to touch it, curl his finger around it, and maybe tug it lightly just to see her response.
He tore his attention off the tendril and gave it back to her, prompting, “Aurora?”
She started before she wet her bottom lip, peering at him under the thick fan of her lashes, and whispered, “You haven’t kissed me yet.”
Bloody hell.
He sighed before he began, “Aurora—”
“It’s important you kiss me,” she stated on a rush, and he felt his eyes narrow.
“Pray, why?” he asked.
“We need that connection,” she explained.
“I beg your pardon?”
She made to take a step toward him, stopped, lifted her hands to her sides in a helpless gesture, and dropped them.
But she spoke.
“I need to be connected to you. The more connected to you I am, the better I can protect you.”
He needed to be connected with her as well, but not for that reason, nor would that be happening now.
“From what Barb has explained about tonight’s proceedings, it would seem you need to focus on protecting yourself,” he stated.
“You’ll still be there and you’ll still be in danger,” she returned.
“This is true, but you’re there to take care of me, as are your witch sisters, and beyond that, I can assure you, I’m quite adept at taking care of myself.”
“And I can take better care of you if we…” She trailed off, moved a step toward him, and began again. “Something’s happening between us,” she said quietly.
“No, my sweet,” he disagreed. “Something will happen between us after we finish tonight’s business. Before that, neither of us needs distractions.”
“But I—” she started.
“Want me to kiss you,” he finished for her. “Because you’re young, you desire me and tonight frightens you, so you came here hoping I’d give you something to see you through. And if the fates frown on us, the unspeakable happens and you don’t get through, at least you’d have something you wished to have before you die.”
“Okay, to put a very fine point on it…yeah,” she muttered, casting her eyes to the floor.
“Aurora, come here,” he ordered, and her gaze instantly came back to him.
She hesitated nary a second before she moved to him.
When she got close, for the first time, Yuri gathered her in his arms and brought her closer.
And he very much liked the feel of her there.
“Put your arms around me, my sweet,” he murmured when she seemed not to know what to do with herself.
She did as told, and when she did, he slid a hand up her spine to the back of her neck and around to the side where he stayed it, curled there.
“No harm will come to you tonight,” he told her quietly.
“Yuri—”
“No,” he stated, still quiet but now also firm, underlining his word by pressing the pads of his fingers into her flesh. “I will not allow it; your mother will not allow it. We will prevail tonight.”
“Okay, I believe you,” she replied in a tone that said she didn’t exactly, but she was trying. “Still, I don’t understand why you won’t kiss me.”
Yuri pressed the pads of his fingers deeper, bent his neck, and took her mouth, demanding and receiving access inside by gliding the tip of his tongue along the crease.
When he had her, she tasted better than he imagined—of honey, moonlight, and fear.
He ended the kiss moments after he started it, his cock already beginning to harden, opening his eyes to see hers closed, her lovely face dreamy, her breaths escalated, feeling her fingers clenched into his sweater at his back and her breasts pressed tight to his chest.
And his cock continued to harden.
“That, my sweet,” he whispered, “is why I didn’t kiss you.”
Slowly, her eyes opened and the dreamy was still there, as was the moonlight and fear.
Enchanting.
She didn’t move away and he knew why when she breathed, “That was the best kiss I’ve ever had.”
Unfortunately, in their current situation and as short as it was, he could say the same and he’d had vast amounts more experience than her.
“Do you want more?” he asked, knowing the answer. He could see it, feel it, and smell it.
“Absolutely,” she answered.
“Again, Aurora, that’s why I didn’t kiss you.”
Confusion glided into her features as she peered up at him. “I don’t understand.”
“A kiss like that leads to other things. We need to focus our minds elsewhere. Now, you need to be very good; leave me and go back to your mother. As arranged, I’ll join you in half an hour.”
“Why can’t you just take me to go get Mom and the others when it’s time to leave?”
He dipped closer and slid his hand at her jaw back into her hair, against her scalp, under her soft, thick bun.