Chapter 106: what are we?
Nico
The first contact happened so fast. It was a collision of teeth and unbridled frustration. Alaric immediately stiffened against me, his hands coming up to press flat against my bare shoulders, his palms digging into my skin as he tried to forcefully shove me away.
But I didn’t budge.
I tightened my grip on his waist, my fingers digging through the wet linen of his shirt and pulling him against my naked chest until the friction of our skin felt like it was going to catch fire beneath the water.
I parted my lips, letting out a dark, demanding groan into his mouth, and drove my tongue straight past his teeth.
The moment our tongues tangled, the entire dynamic of the struggle shifted. I licked along the roof of his mouth, a deep, heavy stroke that made his knees go weak beneath the surface.
I sucked on his lower lip, pulling it between my teeth with firm pressure before sliding my tongue back inside to taste the flavor of the dark coffee we’d shared an hour ago on the road.
It was an aggressive, wet, thoroughly possessive kiss, the kind that demanded absolute surrender.
Alaric tried to push me away, but he slowly began losing his strength. His fingers clutched at the wet skin of my shoulders, his nails scratching lightly against my collarbone as a broken, muffled moan escaped from the back of his throat.
He started kissing me back, his mouth opening wider and matching the desperate, heavy rhythm of my lips as we drank each other in through the rising steam.
The heat of his mouth, contrasted with the cool mountain air hitting the back of my wet neck, was driving me insane. I slid one hand up from his waist, my palm tracing the wet curve of his ribs until my fingers wrapped around the back of his neck, tilting his head back further to deepen the angle and swallowing his breathless gasps whole.
Then Alaric pulled away, his head snapping to the side as he panted heavily for air. His chest was rising and falling in violent, erratic jerks against my own.
"Stop... Nicholas, wait," he stammered, his voice completely wrecked, his pale skin flushed a deep, vibrant crimson that had absolutely nothing to do with the temperature of the hot spring. He pushed against my chest again, his eyes darting frantically toward the dark, open windows of the master suite and the dense foliage surrounding the balcony. "What the hell is wrong with you? Someone... people can see us. Sophia is right down the hall. The manager—"
I let out a low, rough chuckle, my lips brushing against the sensitive line of his jaw as I leaned back just enough to look down at him. My hands remained firmly clamped onto his hips beneath the water, ensuring he couldn’t take a single step away from me.
"There is nobody out here, Alaric," I whispered, my voice dripping with an untouchable, arrogant smirk. "We are in the middle of a private valley in Totsukawa. The only thing watching us right now is the bamboo forest. Stop using them as an excuse."
"Nicholas, I swear to God—"
"And more importantly," I cut him off, my smirk widening into something incredibly dangerous as I deliberately leaned my pelvis forward beneath the surface, pressing the rigid, rapidly hardening length of my groin directly against his thigh.
Even through the heavy, soaked layers of his trousers, the message was entirely clear. "You should really stop lying to yourself, princess. Because right now, despite all your beautiful, high-and-mighty speeches about boundaries... you are growing a fucking boner."
Alaric’s breath hitched completely, his eyes widening in a mixture of pure panic and intense vulnerability as he felt the heavy, hot pressure of my cock grinding against him.
His lips parted, but no sound came out, and his face had turned a bruising shade of red. It was so intense it looked almost painful.
"Just enjoy the moment," I murmured, my voice softening as I slid my hands down to grip the wet fabric of his trousers, deliberately pulling his hips closer until there wasn’t a single inch of space left between our lower bodies. "Stop fighting me. Stop fighting what your body is clearly begging for."
He swallowed hard, his fingers trembling where they rested against my bare chest, his gaze dropping to the dark water between us before slowly rising back up to meet mine. The anger in his eyes had completely dissolved, replaced by lust he couldn’t contain.
"What the hell are we, Nico?" he whispered, his voice bare, stripped of all its usual defense mechanisms.
It was the question I had also wanted to ask him because when this started, we were only enemies with benefits, but it had grown deeper than that and I know.
But I was too afraid to want more.
I looked down at him, my expression softening, a genuine, quiet smile replacing the arrogant smirk on my lips. I reached up, my thumb gently tracing the wet contour of his cheekbone, wiping away a stray drop of spring water.
"Do you want us to be something more, Alaric?" I asked him back, the question hanging heavily in the space between our lips.
Alaric didn’t answer with words. He couldn’t. Instead, he closed the remaining distance himself, his hands flying up to grip the sides of my face with a sudden, desperate hunger. He pulled my head down and crashed his mouth back onto mine, completely obliterating any lingering doubts.
The kiss exploded into something infinitely more intense than before. There was no more hesitation, no more boundaries to protect. We tore into each other through the billowing steam, our mouths opening wide as our tongues slid and tasted each other with mutual desperation.
I licked across his bottom lip, sucking the flesh hard until he let out a sharp, needy whine that vibrated directly into my throat.
Alaric’s tongue lashed against mine, mimicking the heavy, deep strokes I had used earlier, driving me completely over the edge.
I smiled directly into the kiss, the absolute thrill of his complete submission sending a wild rush of adrenaline through my veins.
My hands moved down his body beneath the water, finding the wet buttons of his ruined shirt and ripping them open one by one, desperate to finally feel his bare skin against mine.
