A Sudden Engagement and The Sicilian’s Surprise Wife(66)

                He kissed and stroked her lips, tangled with her tongue until the roar of his own blood was the only thing he could hear.

                The hot drag of her lips over his, the hesitant slide of her tongue against his, the honeyed taste of hers, it was a feast he couldn’t get enough of.

                Kissing a woman until now had never been more than a forerunner to release, never more than foreplay. And yet, he could kiss Clio for hours, hear the soft mews and moans that fell from her mouth for days. Could lose himself in her soft mouth for aeons.

                He would never have enough of this fantasy-turned-reality that shredded his control. He would never have enough of her, something warned him. He would never be satisfied with possessing her, yelled the cavernous chasm inside him.

                He could never keep her from pervading his life, his days, his every moment, his every breath.

                She was already everywhere, making him ache, making him want, pushing him toward the man he vowed he’d never be again. Shattering through the shell he had grown and reaching the most vulnerable part of him.

                Soon, she would know all of him, she would know his darkest fear.

                She would know how he had turned against his own nature and buried his heart and his deepest desires so that he could move on in life. She would know how much he envied Rocco for finding the woman who adored him for who he was in Olivia, and Christian for the family he would have with the lovely Alessandra…

                How in the process of putting himself together after Serena’s betrayal, he’d lost something fundamentally good in himself, how he didn’t even know how undeserving and out of control he felt as he had watched Clio struggle with her fears and insecurities and emerge victorious.

                How she made him wish he could be that old Stefan again.

                But even through the aching vulnerability that he despised so much, he couldn’t walk away.

                Instead, it fused with desire, pumping powerlessness through him.

                Her soft gasp when he dug his teeth into her lip sharply dragged him from the edge of his own desire, remonstrated his lack of control.

                He had bedded numerous women over the decade, and yet nothing like this need today had even touched him. He craved so much more with Clio.

                Of her scent, of her skin, of her aroused gasps. She was vined around him, her slender body arching and pressing, as he devoured her mouth again.

                One hand sank into her hair to hold her immobile for him, while the other snaked around her hip, pressing her into his erection.

                Whatever he did to arouse her, to drive her out of her mind, he was the one who felt owned by her, consumed by his need for her. And it was a feeling he couldn’t shrug off.

                All he seemed capable of was drowning and that’s what he did. But if he was going to sink, she would, too.

                * * *

                His mouth was so hard and perfect over hers. And so desperate and urgent. Her lower lip still stung, radiating waves of pain and pleasure all over, awakening a million nerve cells that had been dormant in her until now.

                At least, that’s how it felt.

                He was hers. Clio couldn’t stop the thought from resonating like a drum inside her head.

                He was hers like he had never been anyone’s, she knew it from the increasingly erotic strokes of his tongue.

                His mouth was an erotic lesson, a blast of heat to every inch of her, a fire that spread to every tip.

                “Dio, bella. I knew not being able to see you would be a punishment. But not in this way,” he said angrily.

                But Clio didn’t care why or how. All she cared was that he sounded on edge. Winding her arms tighter around his nape, she pressed herself closer, tighter, relishing the hard give of his muscles. Rubbed herself against him until her breasts were crushed and her breath a chore.

                He growled in response, dug his fingers into her hips in a bruising grip and swept her up into his arms.

                Settling her on the high bed, he moved between her legs. Grabbed the edges of her silk blouse and pulled.

                The pearl buttons flew in all directions.

                The urgency in him, instead of scaring her, filled her with power. That she could send his muscled body to shudder, that she could send him to desperate need, it was a balm over wounds Jackson had inflicted so cruelly.

                She looked down the same time as he did.

                Her flesh was milky white in the moonlight, her nipples tight points of need against her silky bra.

                His pithy curse as he traced a long finger against the seam of her bra was a song to her ears.

                But instead of touching her as she ached to be, he pulled her to her knees and unzipped her jeans. Tugged them down past her thighs, and feet. Threw them across the room and settled her on the bed again.

                Until she sat in front of him in a thong and bra, her bare legs stretched indecently to make space for his broad frame, exposing the heart of her.

                But she sat still, the dark of the night giving her a courage she wouldn’t have had if his hungry gaze settled on her. She hated that Jackson was still there in her fears when he shouldn’t be, she hated that she had let him break her confidence.

                “Stefan?” she called out to him, only now sensing his stillness.

                Grasping her ankles, he pushed her onto the bed. And she slid soundlessly on the luxurious goose down sheets.

                In the next blink, the lights came on and he leaned over her lower body in a movement of such sheer perfection that Clio forgot the glare of lights.

                His gaze swept over her like a white-hot flame, inciting little sparks wherever it touched. With a gasp, she moved to cover her sex but he grabbed her hands, held them over her head, liquid lust and resolve dancing in his green gaze.

                “I won’t let him take away even a single part of you that should be mine today, bella.” He sounded ravaged and angry and determined, all at the same time. “I won’t let that bastard be a silent specter in this room between us.”

                Her heart slammed so violently against her rib cage that Clio shivered. That he could read her fears so well made her feel more exposed than her most intimate parts on display for him.

                He ran a reverent finger over her rib cage to the hairline over her sex. And Clio caught the moan that wanted to hurtle out. “I can’t bear it if you—”

                “You’re so breathtakingly beautiful, Clio, more so than my imagination could do justice. Dio, why would you hide yourself from me? Why would you deny me the pleasure of seeing you when you know how much I want you?”