He was feeling it too. She could see it in his dark eyes that told her he was just as on fire as she was. He was imagining exactly what he’d described.
Her mind shut down and her body took over, swaying as Midas moved across the ring, his enormous shoulders lumbering onward as she imagined moving on top of Nazar. The feeling, the images in her mind, were so intense, she just about whimpered.
She couldn’t handle this! He was too intense! She was out of her league with him and he had no idea!
“I have to stop,” she said, trying to sound assertive but her voice was barely above a whisper.
“No you don’t. You need to keep going. You’ve finally found the rhythm.” He groaned when she shifted against him, his hand moving even lower on her hip so that his hand was almost on her thigh. “Don’t stop, Nicole.”
She couldn’t halt the shiver that traveled throughout her whole body. “We have to stop.”
“No we don’t,” and he bent lower, kissing her neck, nibbling on the sensitive skin. “Just keep that image in your mind, Nicole. Show me how you move. Show me what you like.”
She gasped again when his hand moved higher, resting just under her breast. She’d never felt anything so erotic, so sensuous. It was almost like he was making love to her on the horse. “I can’t!” she almost cried out, her body so inflamed and she didn’t understand how to handle him, how to fight him and she was too scared of what he made her feel to accept him. That only left retreat.
“Let me down!” she told him and pulled her back away from his chest, her hand grabbing his wrist and releasing his hold. Perhaps if he hadn’t been in the same state of mind that she’d been in, which had been totally lost in the sensuous moment and all of that moment’s possibilities, he wouldn’t have released her so readily. But she’d surprised him so she was able to almost jump down while Midas was still moving.
When she thought about it afterwards, jumping off of a moving horse – especially one as strong and ready to bolt as Midas – was an extremely bad idea. Thankfully, Nazar was a strong enough horseman that he was able to control the horse while Nikki ran away.
She’d thought that she would make it all the way to the stables before he could reach her. But obviously she hadn’t been thinking clearly. Nazar was on a huge animal with long legs, four of them! Those four legs were much faster at covering the distance than her two much shorter legs were at creating the distance.
So it shouldn’t have been a surprise when Nazar leapt off of Midas right next to her, grabbing her quickly and stopping her planned disappearance.
“What just happened here, Nicole? Why are you running?” he demanded, almost furious with her, both for putting herself in danger by such a stupid move as well as livid that she was once again ignoring the passion their bodies incited within each other.
“I don’t know! I don’t know anything!” she yelled out.
Nazar signaled to a stable hand, passing Midas off quickly before he took Nikki into the shaded cover of the stable. “What don’t you know?”
“I don’t know how to do that! I don’t know how to move like that!” she waved her hands wildly out to the ring for explanation. “I’ve never…” she saw the stunned look in his eyes as the tears of frustration and fear clogged her throat, making further, or even more coherent, explanations difficult. “I don’t know how to do that!”
She tried to yank her arm free, but he only tightened his grip which hurt her arm. With a muttered curse, he pulled her deeper into the stable. “What are you telling me?”
He had her pinned to the wall of a stall, his lower body holding her in place while his hands plastered against the wood behind her.
Nikki closed her eyes, imagining herself…and him…and her on top of him…riding like that… The image made her shiver again and she bit her lip. Taking a deep breath, she leaned her head back but refused to look at him. “You’re asking me to do things that are outside of my experience.”
There! She’d said it. And she didn’t care if he laughed at her. Or if he thought she was ridiculous for being twenty-five and never having had sex before. Other men had laughed and she’d scoffed at them, more than able to walk away from those relationships because they hadn’t done anything for her. Hadn’t created any need in her to care about the man.
So why was her admission now so embarrassing? Why did she care about Nazar’s reaction? She’d already accepted that he was too far out of her league.
She opened her eyes, bracing herself for either amusement or an irritating light of challenge, which was why Nikki was so startled to see tenderness in his eyes instead.
“I’m sorry, Nicole,” he replied, his voice still deep and husky, but she suspected it was for a different reason now. “I didn’t know.” He took a deep breath and continued to watch her, his hand moving across her cheek, caressing her gently. And then, with amazing tenderness, he pulled her against, him. This wasn’t a sexual embrace, she realized. Well, as much as anything with Nazar could be considered non-sexual, which was pretty much impossible. The man simply oozed sex appeal all the time. He couldn’t help it.
But this embrace felt different. It was comforting. It was, and she might just be imagining this, accepting.
“Ah, Nicole. I’m sorry.” He stroked her hair, her back, holding her close while his tall, strong body gave her a different sort of warmth than the ambient temperature of the stables. “I didn’t know. And I never would have suspected, but you’ve been so different in every other sense, I should have simply assumed.”
A part of her mind told her to pull out of his embrace. But it felt too incredibly nice. She actually leaned closer to him, her cheek resting against his muscular chest and she enjoyed hearing his heartbeat, loved the way his arms held her gently, as if she were something precious. And in that moment, she felt precious to him. It was a strange sensation to feel with someone like Nazar, but she didn’t push him away. Nikki just stood there, feeling warm and cherished.
But eventually she pulled away. She couldn’t accept his affection. She couldn’t accept anything from this man. She’d worked too hard to stand on her own two feet, to not depend on anyone except Brianna and Rachel. Dependence meant getting hurt. It meant that eventually, that person would either walk away or be taken away. Life had cruelly taught her the hard way that needing someone was dangerous to one’s mental strength.