What’s he playing at?
Slowly, I bent down lower, peered around the side of the rock I’d been hiding behind and looked back to where we’d both come from. But I still couldn’t see him.
‘Nico,’ I called out again a little louder in case he hadn’t heard me the first time.
‘You can run, Bee…but you can’t hide.’ His voice sounded from behind me and I stood bolt upright in response. My body reacted to his voice and the bare skin on my arms broke out into goose bumps instantaneously.
I took a deep inhale, trying to give myself enough oxygen to fight down the growing sense of desire that was surging throughout my body. Then I span around quickly to find him still looking as amazing as he had all day.
He was leaning on the rock not two feet away from where I had been hiding, with one hand pushed down deep into the pocket of his pants and the other still holding fingers full of our wedding cake. He turned his head to look up from the floor he’d been staring at and looked straight into my eyes.
In the early evening light of dusk, he looked every bit the dark and dangerous man I’d always thought he was, and a thrill of possession ran through me.
We’re married. I’ve married him, were the two thoughts that ran on replay around my head
I let my eyes casually wander up and down his tall, broad physique. It appeared that he hadn’t even broken a sweat chasing me and the two pieces of his grey suit that he’d worn for our wedding still looked immaculate.
‘I don’t believe you waited around long enough to taste our wedding cake, Bee,’ he teased.
He looked amused as the words left his mouth.
‘They can’t see us anymore, you know. You don’t need to carry on pretending, Nico,’ I countered and lifted my head to look up at the cliffs above as if to demonstrate that we no longer had any spectators.
His beautiful mouth flexed as he briefly pretended to think over my words and then I saw a subtle shake of his head.
‘Who’s pretending?’ he replied.
‘You can’t possibly mean to cover my face in cake… I only did it to you to help us both out.’ I crossed my arms over my chest in defence and watched his eyes appraise my breasts. Then I looked at him defiantly waiting for an answer, and when his facial expression didn’t even change, I carried on talking, ‘You do understand that, don’t you, Nico? It was just “playacting” with an audience and you appeared to like that before.’
He didn’t even bother to answer me, but propelled himself forwards. I’d half managed to turn away from him to run again, when his arm came around my waist and I was pulled towards his hard body and unceremoniously lifted up and off my feet.
The squeal that left my mouth sounded so completely girly that I laughed out loud at the predicament I was in and at just who was sharing the moment with me.
‘I like the sound of your laugh, Bee.’ He buried his face into the side of my neck, and I shivered as I felt him inhale.
‘The smell of you, Bee… you tempt and entice me.’
A flood of wetness hit the top of my thighs. Being trapped in his arms with the feel of his hard body behind me, I felt his every breath as it left and entered his body, playing out my fate on the over sensitive part of my neck and I melted into his embrace. It was all too much. In a sudden and complete panic, I recognised that the man behind me could very easily open the locked door to my heart and alarm swept through me.
What are you doing? Get a grip Barbara!
I pushed both of my hands down onto the forearm that was wrapped around me tightly, in a very poor and pathetic attempt to get him to release his hold on me.
‘I think you need to let me go,’ I pushed out breathlessly as I struggled again to show my commitment to getting out of his hold.
‘No, that won’t be happening.’ I felt the shell of my ear burn with the warmth of his breath as it touched my sensitive skin and with the implied meaning I was imagining behind his words.
I could almost hear the final word ever as it floated in the sky around us and I wished hard to hear it fall from his lips. Then I let out a soft sigh of reprimand to myself that I was just being stupid. I had got carried away having drunk far too much Champagne for me, as I was nearly always a beer drinker.
I closed my eyes and then opened them suddenly when I felt his fingers cover my lips by circling my mouth with the cake he’d been carrying on his fingers. The moment a piece pushed up against one of my nostrils all of my thoughts once again evaporated and my fight returned.
‘Stop,’ I spat out.
As my mouth opened to talk his fingers pushed home and I received my first taste of the intense flavours that made up our wedding cake. For a few seconds, with his arm still wrapped tightly around me and with my feet at least a foot from the floor, I was just tasting the cake as Nico had insisted.
When that changed again, I couldn’t quite pinpoint. But with him restraining me and with his fingers pushed into my mouth, my pulse accelerated fast and the air began to once again crackle around us.
I lifted my hand up to hold his and began to suck the two fingers he had happily used to attack my face with our wedding cake. My eyes opened wide as a groan left his mouth and the noise vibrated over my ear. Spurred on by the sound and still holding his hand in place, I began to run my tongue up and down the length of his fingers and then sucked on the tip.
‘What are you doing?’ he forced out into the night air. I could hear the danger lurking in his tone, as his Italian accent crept in.
I released his fingers with a pop and a small smile skirted over my mouth after taking in how much lust I could hear in his voice.
Touché.
‘Taking what you offered,’ I answered, smiling to myself.
Instinctively, I shifted as much as I could in his tight hold and arched my back into his erection that was now pushing hard into my backside.
Unceremoniously, his arm released its hold over me. My feet once again felt the chill of the sand underneath them. He abruptly grabbed either side of my waist and spun me around to face him. His arms wrapped around me and he pulled me tightly against him. With my forearms resting on his well-defined chest I slowly raised my hand to run my finger along the delicate edge of the blue rose he was still wearing. Then I lifted my face to meet his gaze.
‘I’m a dangerous man, Bee.’
‘I know… like you’ve said already, you own me. Only dangerous people own others.’
I watched his long lashes flick down over his eyes as he closed them to take in my words.
‘You need to accept my help and friendship… and then keep the fuck away from me.’
‘But…’
‘But?’ His head tipped back, his nostrils flared, and his voice grew in strength as he questioned the fact that I was daring to question him.
‘But… what if I don’t want to?’
His eyes slow blinked and his beautiful long eyelashes flickered at me again before he eventually narrowed his left eye to study me closely. I averted my eyes from his and back to the rose on his chest, the one I had unwittingly been caressing with my fingertip.
‘I’m not the right man for you.’
‘How the hell would you know?’ My voice rose in volume at the annoyance he sparked inside me.
‘I just know. You’re a beautiful woman with a world of possibilities at her feet. You’re kind and thoughtful to all that cross your path. I’m nowhere near good enough for you.’