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?”
Clio tucked her face away from his, shameful tears filling hers.
He trailed hot kisses along the seam of her bra, kissed the curve of one breast, and she shifted restlessly. She needed his hands on her breasts, needed to feel his mouth over the tight, aching points.
But, of course, he wouldn’t give her what she wanted unless she stripped herself bare of that last layer. Until she was completely exposed to him.
Until she was all his.
His hand caressed the flesh of her hips, tugging her close, until he was leaning over her and she was looking up at him. “Tell me.”
“I was not hiding myself. I was hoping to not see your reaction, Stefan.”
With a hard grip, he turned her to face him. “Explain.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Being naked in front of him should have made her awkward. But the maddening circles he drew over her hips, the protective circle of his arms, freed Clio from that last fear. “He…I have been unhappy for a while. With myself, my career and, of course, my relationship with Jackson. I…somehow found myself without friends even. And it affected everything I did. How I dressed, how I ate, how I interacted with others. Even…”
“Sex?” He gritted out the word as though the very thought of Jackson and her set his teeth on edge.
“Yes. It became such a chore that one night he said the Hudson River in winter would be more warm and receptive. After that, I kept finding excuses to not do it. That he cheated on me so blatantly and for so long is unforgivable but I can’t help thinking I pushed him to it. That it was something in me.
“I don’t want to see the same disappointment in your face, Stefan. If the lights were off, I could still lie to myself about…”
To bare this last fear of hers felt so excruciating that her words died on her lips. Clutching her eyes closed, she waited with her breath hinging unevenly in her throat.
Seconds piled on top of each other but he said nothing.
Until Clio felt his fingers crawl up her thighs, and part the folds of her sex.
Invasive, arousing and utterly addictive, he pressed the bundle of nerves that had been aching for his attention with his thumb. Drew on it in mind-numbing strokes.
Her spine arched, her breath flew out of her in a wave. A lick of heat swept through her as he kissed the sensitive skin of her thigh, as she felt the warmth of his breath.
“You smell so divine, bella.” In one smooth move, he pushed two fingers inside and Clio gasped at the avalanche of sensation. “And, dannazione, you’re so wet for me.”
Turning toward him, Clio met his gaze, heat pooling under her skin in a rush, blasting through every tip.
Bending over, he tasted her mouth. Palmed the engorged and needy tip of one breast.
Clio moaned into his mouth.
“I was not joking, Clio. I have always wanted you, even back then.”
Surprise glinted in her face. “Hitting on every woman you met was your knee-jerk response.”
“I have always wanted you. And now, the reality of having you in my bed…you have no idea how crazy you drive me, Clio.”
While Clio grappled with that information, he bent his dark head and sucked her nipple.
Raw sensation zigzagging over her, Clio sank her hands into his hair and arched into him, needing more.
With a smile, he continued the rhythmic pull of his mouth, driving her out of her skin, while his other hand delved between her curls down below and started a fire again.
He stroked and palmed her heat while suckling at her nipple. The relentless caresses even as he whispered the wickedest words in her ear started Clio on a chase that knocked the breath out of her lungs.
There was nothing but sensation and pleasure, beating at her from every side. There was nothing but Stefan—his kisses, his touches, his body’s warmth and the best of all, his words.
And Clio forgot all her fears, all her doubts as her climax hit her in wave after wave, throwing her out of her body. She felt like she had been shattered and then remade.
Tears seeped out of her eyes.
Feeling his gaze on her, she opened them and saw his raptured look. Gasped when he pulled her onto his lap and took her mouth in a bruising kiss.
But she wanted more, she wanted to be utterly possessed by him.
She ran her hands over his chest, traced the ridges of his ribs, learned his skin to her heart’s content. Reveled in his short breaths, the flexing of his muscles to the slightest of her touches.
Reaching down, she unbuckled his belt and pulled it out. Unfastened his trousers and sneaked her hand in.
Felt the already engorged length of him grow harder and longer in her palm.
Rubbed her thighs together as the heat that rushed through her at the rigid weight in her hand.
Coming to a kneeling position, she vined her arms around him, and licked the rim of his ear. “What else did I do in this fantasy?”
His muscled frame racked in her arms, and she felt like the most powerful woman on earth.
“Some other time, bella,” he whispered back, his abrasive palms roaming restlessly over her back.
“Now, Bianco,” she commanded, and bent down to lick his flat nipple.
His hands tightened in her hair, whether to hold her there or push her, she had no idea. Kissing the ropes of muscle that had fascinated her for so many weeks, she looked up and caught the flush in his cheeks.
Saw the truth shining in his hungry gaze.
Grinning, she trailed wet kisses down his rock-hard frame. The muscles tensed harder and harder as she moved downward.
The tip of his erection lay against his taut belly.
Clamping her thighs together at the thrill in her own blood, Clio licked the soft head.
His harsh groan fell on her ears, a thunderous roar that goaded her on.
On the next breath, Clio fisted her hand at the base and took him in her mouth.
Tasted the hard length of him in a long suck that sent little tremors to her own sex. She continued as he shuddered beneath her caresses, as he cursed and groaned.