I fumble to open my door, but Alex is already there. He almost tears the damn thing off its hinges as he wrenches it open. Before I can even take a startled breath, he leans into the car and lifts me out of it, carrying me through the frosty grass that’s grown long front of the cabin.
“Alex. God, Alex…”
He sets me down at the top of the porch steps, tearing and ripping at my clothes. He’s an animal possessed and I’m no better. I’m trembling from head to toe as I grab hold of the bottom of his hoody and pull it up over his head. His t-shirt goes with it, leaving Alex’s torso naked in the cold night air, but he doesn’t complain. I don’t think he even registers the fact. There’s enough heat between us, sizzling and crackling like a hungry open flame, that I don’t flinch when he rids me of my sweater and the camisole I’m wearing beneath it.
Three feet away, the cabin’s front door stands easily within reach, but it might as well be a mile away. We’ve already waited too long as it is. Another minute to get inside, another second even…it’s just not possible. Alex lets out a low, guttural growl as he dips down and grabs my winter boots, tearing them from my feet. He rips my socks off, hurling them away one at a time, leaving me to stand barefoot on the icy wooden deck that wraps around the building.
The piercing cold robs me of my breath. Hands working of their own accord, I unfasten the belt at Alex’s waist for the second time in the space of an hour, ripping the leather from the loops of his jeans. Alex helps, shoving his pants down, kicking his way out of them. His dark eyes stay fixed on me, never leaving mine for a moment.
I strip out of my own sweatpants—the pants he insisted I put on back at the house—and then I step out of my panties, leaving them in a puddle of black lace on the deck by my feet. My bra is the last item of clothing to go. Fully naked and painfully erect, Alex watches me with a dazed adoration on his face as I tease the straps of my bra down over my shoulders, reaching behind my back to unfasten the hook.
He sucks in a sharp, agonized breath when I let my underwear fall to the ground and my breasts spring free. We’ve been frantic for the last thirty seconds, lost to a fierce, carnal insanity, but now we both fall still, looking at each other, eyes roving over hip and shoulder, stomach and thigh. Fog plumes on Alex’s breath as he swallows, taking a tentative step toward me. His huge frame towers over me, dwarfing me in a way that makes me feel incredibly small.
His dark hair hangs in his face, hiding his eyes. He brushes it out of the way with the sweep of a hand, and the simple gesture makes my heart swell in my chest like never before. I love him so fucking much, every small, beautiful, broken, incredible part of him, and it’s all too, too much.
The black ink that creeps up his arms, snaking its way around the collar of his throat in a tangle of rose and thorn, looks like it’s shifting in the moonlight that cuts through the clouds overhead, painting his torso silver.
It’d be easy to say that he’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen and leave it at that, but such a simple description wouldn’t do him justice. He isn’t just magnificent. He’s beyond words. Beyond imagination. Beyond dreaming. If I live to be a hundred, I’ll never be able to fully explain just how spectacular Alessandro Moretti is naked. He stands tall and proud, unapologetic of the fact that his dick is hard and brushing up against his stomach in a way that draws the eye down…
“Argento,” he whispers, sounding almost reproachful. He reaches up and trails his fingers lightly over the side of my face. “I haven’t been taking care of you, have I? I’ve been so wrapped up in all of my own shit, and all that time you’ve been hungry.” He doesn’t pose it as a question. He knows it’s true, just as well as I do. He can read it on me, the need vibrating off my skin like an electrical charge.
On the other side of the lake, a bird calls, its cry cutting the silent night air apart. The sound reminds us both of us that we’re standing outside, naked as the day we were born, in the middle of winter. “I want you here,” Alex rumbles, his voice rough as whiskey and smoke. “I want you under the stars, with the moon on our backs and the cold air in our lungs.”
I take him by the hand and lead him back down the porch steps, heading for the jetty that thrusts out onto the lake. Stones and sharp shards of wood bite at the undersides of my feet, but it doesn’t take long to cross the clearing. Then the jetty’s smooth, frozen planks of wood replace the rough ground, making it much easier to walk.
Halfway down the narrow pier, Alex takes hold of me from behind, his hands on my hips, turning me around. “You’re a witch, aren’t you? You’re gonna steal my soul and leave me to drown, love-drunk, in the cold black water.”
I close my eyes, smiling. “Ha. So, you love me, then?”
Alex’s lips brush lightly against mine, a bristling heat passing between us despite how gentle he is. “You know I do,” he murmurs against my mouth. “How could I not? You’re quicksand. The more I struggle against you, the deeper I sink.”
His chest brushes up against my nipples and a delicious shiver runs through my body. Strange that the ice and the frozen breeze feel like nothing to me, and yet the warmth of Alex’s breath skating over my skin has me breaking out in goose bumps. God, I want him so fucking badly. The insides of my thighs are slick, my pussy aching for him to reach between my legs and touch…
Finally, I’m done waiting. I’ve had enough. I can’t take it anymore. “I did what you asked, Alex. I got dressed. Bolted out of the house without even telling Dad when I was gonna be back. I came all the way out to the cabin with you. It’s time I took charge for a while, and you…”
“Me?” he asks, raising his eyebrows.
“You aren’t going to say a word. You’re going to lie on your back,”—I reach out for him in a bold move and take hold of him by the dick—“and you’re going to stay still, and you’re going to let me do whatever the hell I want.”
Eyes feverishly bright, mouth parted a little from the attention I’m currently showing his cock, as I firmly pump my hand up and down the length of his shaft, he treats me to a scandalous smile. I’m sure I’m the only person in the world who’s ever seen him smile properly, like he actually means it. “And what makes you think I’d sign off on that, Argento?”
“Well.” I squeeze him tight, enjoying the way he hisses out a curse word through his teeth. “You just said it yourself. You love me. You’ll do anything to make me happy, won’t you?”
He tips his head back, groaning, and the sound that comes out of him is a mixture of pure ecstasy and pure misery. “I’m doomed.”
“You are.” No point in disagreeing with him when he’s right. “But so am I. You’re my Achilles Heel, and I’m your kryptonite. Lucky for us, our weaknesses are also our strengths. Now do it, Moretti. Lie down, before I squeeze these.” I have him by the balls. Literally.
“Whoa now.” He takes hold of me by the wrist, but he doesn’t pull my hand away. A playful, crooked smile tugs at his mouth. “I’ll obey you always. I’m yours to command. Better be careful if you ever want kids out of me down the road, though. I think you’ll find that part of my anatomy is crucial to the baby making process.”