I clutch his shoulders, my legs tight around his waist as he takes three steps and plants my back against the freezing tiled wall. Our lips meet. Our teeth. Our tongues.
He turns rabid, devouring me. His hands on my body. His breath in my lungs.
I gasp. Cling. Claw.
I fight to unfasten his buttons only to be stopped when he hefts my dress over my shoulders. He throws the material to the floor, his hips strong and adamant against mine, his lips finding my neck.
He licks. Sucks. Bites.
One hand circles my nape. The other finds my hip. Both dig deep into flesh, possessing, demanding, while his cock teases my clit through my panties.
“We’ve got more to discuss.” His voice vibrates against my skin. “It won’t be easy.”
I nod.
I know.
From his life and mine.
But the world can wait.
I need respite from the revelations. To have him against me, on top of me, inside me. Each moment is a reminder of why I took this risk in the first place. “For now, all I need to know is that this is real.”
“It’s fucking real.” He digs his fingers harder into my skin. Pleasure and pain. Animal and man. “It always has been.”
I ignore Cole’s disagreement whispering through my mind.
Keira’s denials, too.
The voices have to stop.
“Fuck me.” I grind into him, whimpering as clit meets cock. “Hurry.”
He pulls back, his eyes narrow, as if noting my first significant instance of sexual confidence.
I shove the jacket from his shoulders and rip at his shirt. Rabid. Starved for more.
He keeps watching, keeps stalking me with his gaze.
“What?” My cheeks heat under his scrutiny. “Why did you stop?”
“Because hearing those words is beyond a fucking turn-on,” he growls. “Keep going, amore mio. Tell me exactly what you want.”
Heat blazes down my neck. “Jesus Christ.” I fist the hair at his nape and yank his face to mine. “Just fuck me.”
He grins. “Don’t worry. I will.” He licks my lower lip, following it with a bite of teeth. “Within an inch of your life.”
My pussy flutters, tingling and tight.
He smothers his mouth against mine and undoes his zipper while leveraging me against the cold tiles.
He doesn’t take off his pants. Doesn’t remove my underwear.
One minute, he’s consuming me with kisses—the next, he’s ripping the lace apart at my crotch and shoving his dick home.
I cry out as I’m filled, the walls of my pussy exquisitely stretching to accommodate his girth.
Fuck.
He’s brilliant.
Perfect.
He pulls back, pressing our foreheads together as he thrusts into me. “You’re mine.”
“I’m yours.”
He growls in approval, the vibration thrumming into my chest. “I’ll never lose you.”
My heart pangs.
I can’t reciprocate. Not this time. Not without lying.
“Say it.” He keeps plunging his cock into me. Harder. Faster. More punishing. “Tell me I’ll never lose you.”
“Matthew…”
“Tell me,” he demands.
I’m on the cliff’s ledge, arms hesitantly open, heart painfully fragile.
I can’t leap. Can I?
“All that I have is yours, amore mio. The money. The assets.” He steals my lips, punishing me with a rough kiss. “But you’re mine. I won’t lose you.”
I cup his cheeks, my closed eyes burning as I nod.
I don’t have a chance to contemplate the severity of my capitulation before he drags me from the wall with strong hands on my hips, his dick remaining inside me as he walks us to the bedroom across the hall.
The space is bathed in darkness, the only light coming from more candles on the nightstands.
He places me on the bed, decimating our connection when he descends to his knees, grabs my ankles, and drags me in one rough slide to the edge of the mattress.
I struggle to catch my breath as those forceful hands yank at the waistband of my shredded panties, dragging the elastic to fall to the floor. My legs are plastered wide, my sex on full display when he swoops in to plant his mouth directly over my pussy.
I jolt with the contact, the sudden rush of lips and tongue not merely kissing, but utterly ravaging.
His fingers dig into my thighs, the appreciative rumble from his throat vibrating deep in my core.
I grasp the bed coverings, wiggling my ass for more. “Matthew…”
I want to tell him how I feel. How I hurt and yearn and crave for this to be real. Truly real.
For the possibility of living without recrimination to be something other than a fairy tale. For this paradise to be more than an illusion.
“I need you, too,” I admit. “I need you too much.”
His growl turns to an animalistic snarl, his mouth rising to latch on to my clit. He sucks, flicking the sensitive nerves with his tongue while two fingers plunge inside me, curling into my G-spot.
I struggle for breath, my core snapping tight around his digits, the pleasure infusing me all the way to my toes.
But he’s too far away.
I need skin to skin. To touch instead of being touched. To give pleasure instead of merely receiving it.
“I want you inside me.” I strangle the bed coverings, my legs squeezing around him.
“I’m not even close to being done here.”
“Matthew.” His name is panted from my drying lips. “Don’t deny me.”
He pauses, edging backward, his stubble scratching my inner thighs. “I’d never fucking deny you.” He rises to his feet, roughly shucks his pants, then crawls on top of me. “My mouth not good enough for you, amore mio?”
“Your mouth is divine.” I grab him around the nape and drag him closer, licking his lips in a quick tease, tasting my own arousal. “But I want to be close. I don’t want space between us.”
He grinds his hips as his nostrils flare, the tip of his cock edging into me. “No space. No lies. No secrets.”
I nod, not knowing what I’m agreeing to as my teeth dig into my lower lip.
All I understand is hunger. Desire. Demand.
He nudges farther, sinking deeper. My core clamps around him as soon as he’s fully seated inside me. I’m already so close. The heat in his eyes undoes me.
I could come.
From his gaze alone, I could splinter.
“You’re ready.” He grins, backing out gradually, before sinking in equally slowly. “Amore mio wants to come.”
I mewl, raising my hips to meet his, silently pleading for him to move faster.
“Tell me what you want.”
“You,” I pant.
He clucks his tongue. “You know that’s not what I meant.”
I whimper, my cheeks regaining the heat of unease. “Fuck me.”
He increases his pace a fraction. “How?”
“Hard,” I beg, kicking off my sandals. “Fuck me hard… Please… Hurry.”
“All you had to do is ask.” He slams into me, jolting me farther along the bed. “I’ll fuck you as hard as you want.” He thrusts into me, over and over. Stronger and more ruthless. “I’ll fuck you until you can’t see straight and neither of us can walk.”