Heroine: Nessa. She’s the heart of O’Kane liquor.

Hero: Ryder. He’s the brains of the revolution.

They’re facing a war that could end their world. Again.

“God, why are we still dressed?”

He reached between them and tugged at the buckle of her belt. “You don’t want to be, just say the word.”

“What word?” She tried to peel his shirt off, but it caught on his arms, and he was like a rock—focused on his current task, not altering course for anything. She consoled herself with stroking the skin she could reach. “You can have all the words. Any word. Just get naked with me.”

“Relax.” He drew her hands up over her head and pressed them to the leather cushions as he leaned over her. Another soft kiss, and he trailed his lips down to her jaw. “Just…relax.”

His mouth slid down, and she burned wherever he touched her. The tender spot beneath her ear. The place where her neck met her shoulder. The hollow at the base of her throat. The spot to the left of her collarbone where she had a funny little cluster of freckles.

Her heart pounded. She tried to get a full breath. “I can’t relax. You’re trying to foreplay me to death.”

His brows drew together. “I don’t think that’s a thing.”

She wiggled her wrists in his grasp. When that didn’t work, she rocked her hips up with a groan. “It is totally a thing. You’ll see when I die.”

He laughed softly and returned his attention to the spot just beneath her jaw. “If you die, I’ll stand corrected.”

The murmured words against her skin sent a shiver through her. Then he parted his lips and teased the spot with his tongue, and her toes curled in her boots.

It was relentless. It was inexplicable. No—that wasn’t true. She’d been to enough parties to know some people delighted in taking teasing to extremes. She just hadn’t expected Ryder, with all his stripped-down minimalism and efficiency, to be one of them. He sure as hell wasn’t being efficient now. She’d been wet forever, and if he worked into her now, she’d probably come on the second thrust. She’d never even gotten herself this cranked up with her own fingers, because she sure as hell wasn’t into self-control.

Maybe she was missing out.

Ryder stroked his hands down her arms as he eased down, licking a path past her collarbone to the center of her chest. She tried to obey and relax into the pleasure. But there was so much, and she couldn’t stop the way her body jolted when he grazed one of her nipples with his teeth. She wanted to grip the back of his head to hold him there, but he still held her arms trapped, so she dug her head back against the couch and whimpered. He couldn’t stop—the sudden ache blooming inside her was like a compulsion. “Ryder, please—”

“I’m here.” He soothed the aching peak with his tongue as he shifted his weight, and his fingertips tickled down her stomach and eased into her open pants.

Oh God, oh God, oh God. She dropped her freed hands to his shoulders and clung to him, her attention swinging dizzily back and forth between the slick heat of his tongue circling her nipple and the slow progress of his fingers.

The word anticipation hadn’t had meaning before this moment. It took hours and days and weeks for him to graze her clit, and any possible self-consciousness about just how wet she was vanished like smoke. So did the distraction of his tongue.

So did the world.

Beyond Surrender by Kit Rocha.

On December 13th, the Beyond series comes to its climactic conclusion with Nessa and Ryder’s story–and the final battle between the sectors and Eden. Our review will post on December 15th.

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