NERTHUS
“Good evening, Rajid.” I shout as a greeting while stepping into the small convenience store.
“Oh, hello, Amber. Long time no see.” The owner of the store waves at me from behind the counter.
“What are you up to tonight?” He asks me while I scroll through the shelves for the ingredients that I need.
“Baking cookies!” I say elatedly.
As I grab a few ingredients from the shelves and get to the fridge to take a bottle of milk, I can sense Rajid’s demeanor shift uncomfortably.
I guess my hulk has entered the store.
Putting all the things I gathered on the counter, I smile at Rajid brightly. He starts to scan the items as Arawn steps behind me.
“What’s all of this?” He murmurs as he checks out my selection.
“A surprise.” I grin up at him and he shakes his head.
“I don’t like surprises.”
“Ha! You will like this one.” I chuckle, turning to Rajid with a big smile that is telling me the price of my purchase in a stutter.
Good enough for me.
After he has packed everything up for me, Arawn gets hold of the paper bag, taking it to carry it outside.
“Have a good night, Rajid!”
I say, as I follow Arawn outside the store.
“Wait.” I run in front of him, making him stop with a frown.
“What?”
“Where are your keys?” I ask him, putting my hand into his pocket and he smirks.
“Not there, beautiful.”
I giggle, and he reaches into his inside pocket, pulling out his car keys. Snatching them out of his hand, I grin. “I’ll drive, you are tired.”
As I walk around the car, he shakes his head but doesn’t protest before he gets in the passenger’s seat.
“Wooow!” I breathe out as I start the engine, having it roar to live with a deep rumble. “This is so much better than on the passenger’s seat.”
“Can you even drive?” He says with a smirk, closing his eyes while leaning into his seat.
“We will see.” I shrug as I watch him sigh. “How bad would it be if I crashed it?”
“Meh.” He answers with a shrug of his own. “I will just buy a new one.”
My heart stops as he opens his eyes, looking at me directly. “But we will probably end up in the ER. That would be bothersome.”
I laugh, putting the gear into drive and caressing the steering wheel. “Yeah.”
He breathes out, closing his eyes again. “Because I look forward to your surprise.”
Taking a deep breath, I push down the cute emotion, concentrating on driving into the street.
“Oh, wow!” I say, as I’m getting an overload of adrenaline. “The only thing that would make it better is the feeling of a manual gear change.”
Pushing out another shout of excitement, I hear him chuckling lowly.
At least he is having a good time as well.
Entering my street, I park the car in front of my apartment building. Turning off the engine, I slump back into the seat with a satisfied sigh.
“This was fun.” I whisper and as I turn my head, I find him already watching me.
“Good.” He murmurs, turning his head to check his surroundings.
He must have fallen asleep during the ride.
“Is this your building?” He asks as I get out of the car, and he follows me cautiously. “What are we doing here?”
“Why are you so nosey tonight?” I chuckle, holding the door open to make him enter with our groceries.
A concierge is already coming up to take the door from me, but I shake my head, thanking him.
“My oven is excellent for baking. And I have all my baking gadgets here.” I smile up at him as we get into the elevator.
He repositions the bag in his arms, making it rustle.
“OK.”
I don’t really get if he is really OK with this or just incredibly irritated.
He follows me out of the elevator and into my apartment with slow steps, and I’m quite surprised at how comfortable I feel at the thought of a man stepping into my sacred reign. And even though he was just over once, he seems highly accustomed to moving through my apartment.
Putting down the bag on my kitchen island, he starts unpacking all our ingredients while I tie up my hair into a ponytail.
“So, cookies.” He says, scrunching up the brown paper bag with his brow lifted.
I take a step closer to him, driving my hand through his hair.
“Yeah. You look like you need some rest, but you don’t want to tell me, and I don’t want to waste the sexy lingerie I bought for tonight. So, cookies.”
“Waste?” He says lowly, scanning my entire frame with his eyes.
“Eating outside can be very strenuous.” I pull my thin sweater over my head, revealing my semi-transparent bustier.
“So, I’ll do a little show for you, and you can relax without having to engage in any social activities.”
Shimmying out of my jeans with a giggle, he watches me, clenching his jaw. I step closer to him, pressing my finger into his chest, making him retreat to one of the barstools. As he sits down without taking his eyes off me, I speak lowly. “If you want me to take off more, just let me know.”
He nods with a smirk. Even if he looks like he is about to slam me on my kitchen island to fuck me raw, he seems incredibly tired.
And I get all the wrong thoughts when thinking about why he didn’t cancel our appointment.
The way he watches me baking is actually adorable, even though I’m sure that his thoughts are far from cute.
“Where did you learn to bake?”
I laugh as I take out the baking tray. “My mom baked a lot. Did your mom bake with little Arwan?”
“No.” His answer is just an entirely different tone than his question. This makes me halt in my tracks to look at him, seeing that he is fuming.
“Sorry.” I say sheepishly. “It wasn’t my place to-” He gets up, making me shut up immediately.
As I take a step back, he halts, tilting his head. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“Sorry.” I gulp, pushing out an awkward laugh. “Force of habit.”
He sighs, lifting his arm, his hand making a small gesture. Recognizing what he wants from me, I step back to stand in front of him.
My heart is beating into my throat as he wraps his arms around me, resting his hands on my ass.
“If you ever retreat from me again, Nerthus…”
I blink repeatedly, nodding swiftly. He really doesn’t have to finish his sentence to make me understand.
“What’s next?” He asks, and I jerk out of my trance, looking at my countertop.
“Erm…” I clear my throat, laying my hands on his arms. “I distribute the dough on the tray in cookie form.”
“Great.” He says, sounding unimpressed, and I turn in his arms to continue working. He positions himself behind me, his hands still wrapped around my waist. As I start putting the pastry on the baking sheet, he starts kissing my shoulder tenderly. I bite my bottom lip as the feeling of him nibbling at my skin intensifies. It gets more and more difficult to concentrate on my movements and by the time he has reached the crook of my neck, I’ve stopped, enjoying his lips on my skin fully.
“Nerthus.” He reprimands me, moving up my throat, his smoky baritone vibrating through my skin.
“Yes?” I whisper, closing my eyes as he travels further up to my ear.
“Don’t get distracted!” He says, and I nod, my head still floating away.
“I won’t.” I assure him falsely, and he bites into my neck with a chuckle.
I get pulled back to reality as he tears himself away from me and starts walking away.
“What? No, don’t stop!”
He flashes me a big smirk at my pouting and points at me. “Finish baking, I’ll be right back.”
I chuckle, returning to put the dough for the cookies on the tray. As I put it in the oven, I turn the corner, seeing him in my bedroom.
“What are you doing?” I ask, reaching him with fast steps. “Arawn!”
Stopping at the door, I cross my arms. “Why are you rummaging through my things?”
“Show me where it is, and I wouldn’t have to rummage.” He says, continuing to open my drawers.
“Where is what?”
He just smirks at me, and I shake my head. “I fuck for a living. I don’t have such things.”
He stops to look at me and his smirk grows. “Such a bad liar.”
“Come on, stop it!” I stand in his way, and he takes advantage of it, to push me onto the bed.
My chest squeezes as he puts a knee on my bed, his lust-filled eyes looking at me from above.
“Show me what you’ve got.”
“Why?” I gulp, not taking my eyes off him.
Without even answering me, he gets on me, making me move further onto the bed.
“Your bra!” He orders, making me slip it off while he pulls down my panties.
“I like this new set you got.”
“I’m glad.” I breathe out as he spreads my legs for him.
He starts opening the button of his shirt leisurely, and I risk going crazy at him not hurrying up. My feelings seem to swap over to him as he mocks me with a smug expression. As he has opened his pants equally slowly, even pushing me back down as I wanted to get up and help him, he puts his hands on my knees.
“You are not going to move until I show you, right?”
He smirks like a school on show-your-favorite-toy-day, and I groan.
“OK, you win.”