Chapter 33
Roman filled his hands with Ava as she captured his mouth in a hot, soul-twisting kiss. Their tongues moved together in a
perfect rhythm, sliding and tangling in fierce caresses. She tasted crisp and sweet, a heady combination of fruity wine and
raindrops. He couldn’t get enough.
She was his mermaid, his sirena, a watery seductress who’d stolen his heart.
While Roman hadn’t started dinner with the intention of professing his love for her, the setting had been too romantic to
resist. He’d never imagined feeding someone could be so fucking sexy and so intimate at the same time. The moment had seemed
right, and like he’d told her, he wasn’t the type to hide how he felt. For what? Fear that she wouldn’t return the words to
him? That wasn’t why he’d said them. From the beginning, he’d put all his cards on the table where Ava was concerned. He wouldn’t
hide this realization from her either.
He hadn’t expected her to reciprocate—he knew it was too soon for her, that she’d need to examine her feelings from twelve different angles before coming to any sort of conclusion—but at least there would be no doubt in her mind regarding how he felt about her. He wouldn’t give her any more reasons to put space between them than she already had.
What she’d given him instead was more than he could have dared hope for.
I trust you .
Her trust, a fragile, precious thing, given cautiously by someone who’d been hurt in the past. He’d wanted to drop to his
knees and vow to prove himself worthy of this gift, but not every moment needed a grand gesture. He was learning the value
in simply being present.
“I’m tired of fighting this,” Ava murmured against his lips. “I want you. All of you. All to myself.”
His voice came out rough with desire. “ Then take me .”
She nipped his lower lip and gave him a seductive smile. “Oh, I will. But like you said, we’re too old to fuck on concrete,
so get that sweet ass of yours over to that bed.”
She punctuated the words by pinching his butt through his wet shorts.
“Sí, senora.” A hot spike of arousal zipped through him at hearing her paraphrase what he’d said to her that first night,
and he let her hustle him back under the patio overhang. Once again, they fell onto a bed together soaking wet, but this time,
Ava was the aggressor.
And he was more than happy to let her take the lead.
She shoved him down into the cushions and climbed on top of him, continuing the kiss they’d started in the rain. Pressed together, her thighs were warm on his lap, and he needed to feel more of her heat. Thrusting his hands under her dress, he pushed the skirt up, running his palms up her thick, gorgeous thighs. When he reached her butt and nothing impeded the slide of bare, wet skin, he rounded his hands over her cheeks, searching.
Nothing there.
He pulled back to find her gazing at him with a soft, knowing expression.
“You’re not wearing any fucking panties,” he ground out. Her kiss-ripened lips curved as she shook her head. His fingers dug
into the flesh of her bare bottom as he growled. “ Fuck .”
With something like a laugh, she reared back and wrangled the dress upward. The wet fabric clung, so he helped her pull it
over her head. The garment landed on the patio floor with a splat and then she was completely, gloriously naked, save for
the necklace with her name on it. Soft yellow light gilded the curves of her body, sparkled in her dripping hair, and caressed
the outline of her cheekbone.
His chest swelled with love. Around them, the rain fell in sheets, sending a cooler breeze through the patio and making a
heavy pattering sound on the roof and the pool. Thunder rumbled in the distance. The muffled noise and the thick foliage surrounding
the yard made it feel like they were the last two people on earth, completely alone, free to enjoy each other’s bodies without
judgment or shame. His hands slid up her torso to thumb her small, tight brown nipples.
“Mi sirena.” Awe made his throat tight. “Mi diosa.”
But she shook her head at the endearments. “Just Ava,” she breathed. “And just Roman.”
He nodded, massaging the warm weight of her breasts as she undid all the buttons on his shirt. He sat up so she could peel it off him, and it landed on the floor next to her dress. When he reached for her, she surprised him by shaking her head again and circling his wrists with her fingers.
“My turn,” she said, stretching his arms over his head and guiding his hands to the wicker rim of the daybed. “Hold on and
don’t let go until I tell you.”
His pulse beat thickly in his throat and he didn’t ask for explanation. He understood—this was her showing that she trusted
him. For someone else, trust might look like giving up control. But for Ava, being the one to initiate, to unleash her desire
without hesitation, was the deepest form of trust she could give him. She wasn’t holding back. She was letting him see her
as the strong, beautiful, sensuous woman she was, and trusting him not to judge her, laugh at her, or make her feel ashamed
for what she wanted.
As if he ever would.
He gripped the wicker bar so tight it creaked. “Anything you want, mi amor.”
She gently pinched his lower lip between her thumb and forefinger. “I want... this mouth.”
Her kiss was deep and thorough, sucking his tongue and nipping his lips. He groaned into the cavern of her mouth and thrust
his hips up to grind against her, but she was already moving away.
“And I want this skin,” she said next, trailing her teeth down the taut line of his neck to suck at the base of his throat.
She dragged her mouth downward to lick and tease his nipples, making him gasp. In the center of his chest, she pressed a kiss
over his sternum, her lips lingering long enough that he imagined the accompanying words: I want this heart . This soft, simple kiss seemed to acknowledge that she knew it was already hers. Something inside him melted at the thought, but then she was continuing down his abdomen, kissing his skin until she was stopped by the waistband of his shorts. His muscles quivered but he didn’t move his hands.
She wrestled the fastenings open and he lifted his hips to help her push his sodden shorts and boxers down. And just like
that, they were both naked.
Ava sat astride his thighs and gazed down at him like he was good enough to eat.
“And...” she breathed, “I want... this cock.”
He groaned as she wrapped her hand around the base of him and gave a few idle pumps.
“You know,” she said conversationally, “I’ve been wanting to do this since I first saw you climb out of that pool.”
Words were hard. He was hard. He gritted his teeth and held on to the edge of the bed for all he was worth. “You have?”
“Mmm.” She trailed her fingers up and down his length and he swallowed back a shout. “But you’re always too busy going down
on me, so I never get to.”
“Fuck.” He slammed his head back into the cushions when her lips closed over the head of his dick. “I won’t apologize. I fucking
love eating your pussy.”
“You’re so good at it too,” she purred, nuzzling his groin. Slowly, she lowered her mouth onto him, taking him deep.
Roman bit back a curse and slid his fingers into the damp hair at the nape of her neck. “Sí, mi vida. Just like that.”
She lifted her head and gave him a stern glare. “Hands.”
“Oh, shit. Sorry.” He grabbed the bar behind his head. “Don’t stop.”
“Say please.”
Fuck, why was that so hot? “ Por favor ,” he begged.
Her glare melted and she looked like she was trying not to smile. “Very good. Now let me focus.”
Roman lost track of time, place, everything but Ava’s hot mouth moving up and down his length. He threw his head back and
closed his eyes, reveling in the pull of her lips and the slide of her tongue. But he needed to imprint every sensory detail
of this moment in his memory, so he opened his eyes, but the visual combined with the slick caress of her mouth threatened
to overwhelm him.
“That’s enough, mi amor,” he whispered, his voice hoarse. “I’m too close. Ava—god. Fuck. Esperate.”
He was bucking his hips and thrusting into her throat when she finally lifted her head. Her full lips were shiny and slick,
swollen from her ministrations, and she looked eminently pleased with herself.
His lungs heaved like a bellows as he struggled to catch his breath. “That was incredible,” he said, panting.
“And you’ll let me do it whenever I want?”
“Anytime. Anywhere.”
Her mouth curved. “All right, since you’ve been such a good boy...”
She climbed up his body while he muttered filthy things about how good he’d be if she would just sit on his fucking face , and then she was clasping the edge of the bed on either side of his hands and lowering herself to his mouth. He inhaled
the scent of her and stretched his neck, licking and sucking until she came, shuddering, and his face was drenched again,
this time with a combination of his saliva and her juices.
When she eased back, her breath was ragged, her cheeks and neck flushed, and her gaze bleary. She’d never looked more beautiful
to him.
“Good boy,” she said unevenly, patting his cheek, and he turned his head into her touch. He’d never thought he’d be into this kink, but it was really fucking doing it for him.
Ava slid back down his body, kissing him as she settled onto his lap. He delved his tongue between her lips, fucking her mouth
like he wanted to fuck her with his body, before pulling back.
“You taste yourself on me?” he rasped. When she nodded, he said, “One of these days, I’m going to taste myself on you.”
He could tell that surprised her, but from the way her lips parted and her eyelids lowered, she liked the idea.
Good. For all her talk of barriers, she’d soon find out he had not a single one where she was concerned.
With a rough exhale, she slid her wet folds over his cock, making them both groan. He muttered obscenities in English and
Spanish as she reached between them, angling his dick upward, but he didn’t release his grip on the wicker rim. Not even when
she notched him against her slit and sank down.
As her slick warmth enveloped him, he stuttered out an oath that came from the depths of his being. Even though she was wet,
it was a tight fit, and she had to work herself onto him. By the time she was fully seated, he was beside himself, nearly
mindless with need, sweating and panting and cursing a blue streak.
But his hands remained firmly fixed where she’d placed them, and he did not let go.
In that moment, Roman’s life was complete. There was not a single other thing he wanted in this world other than this woman,
this connection, for the rest of his days.
I love you , he thought, gazing into her eyes. I love you so fucking much, it’s killing me not to say it .
Her hands stroked over his hair, his shoulders, his chest in soothing movements, almost like she was petting him, almost like she knew he wanted to tell her.
And then she planted her hands on his stomach and began to move.
She rocked on top of him, first keeping a slow and steady rhythm, then faster and more frantic as Roman rolled his hips to
fuck upward into her. With a sobbing gasp, her nails dug into his skin, and then she reared back. Her hand snaked up his chest
and she slid her fingertips into his mouth. He moaned as he sucked them, scraping the sensitive pads with his teeth, swirling
his tongue over the edges of her neatly manicured nails. Her eyes were dazed with lust as she brought her hand, now wet with
his saliva, to her clit. Praise fell from her lips—he was such a good boy, he fucked her so good, just like that, perfect —and he responded with his own endearments—his goddess, his life, his love, his Ava .
She touched herself as she rode him, and with her other hand, she pinched and twisted her own nipples. Desire suffused her
features and flushed her cheeks red, and he thought she’d never looked more magnificent, more powerful, than she was like
this, taking her pleasure and trusting him to let her.
When her inner walls fluttered around him, he clenched his jaw to hold back his own orgasm and thrust into her—harder, faster,
now —and then she was crying out, shuddering on top of him, her lashes falling to cover her clouded hazel gaze.
Her hips slowed and she braced her wobbly arms on his chest, holding herself up. Her curls fell over her shoulders and around
her face as she hung her head, trying to catch her breath.
He felt her pulsing around him and though he didn’t touch her, he begged.
“Ava, por favor ,” he pleaded. “Let me touch you. Please, my love, I need to, I need...”
He trailed off when she raised her head. She always looked a little disoriented after she came hard, and while the sight of
her blank, blinking eyes filled him with pride, he was wound too tight to wait any longer.
She stroked her fingers—the ones that had just been rubbing her clit—down his cheek. “You’ll be good?”
“So fucking good,” he promised.
She touched his hands where they were white-knuckled on the bed. “All right,” she said softly. “You can let go.”
And he fucking did.
Grabbing her ass, he rolled them into the mountain of cushions. Her strong thighs locked around his hips as he rose up over
her. This time, when he gripped the back of the bed, it was for leverage. Gazing down at her, he thought, I love you . And then he began to pound.
There was no finesse, no rhythm, no checking in. There was just heat and sweat and grunting—him—and cries of pleasure—her.
There was the bite of her nails digging into the flesh of his ass, the bruising press of her heels on the backs of his thighs,
the sweet friction of her channel clenching around him.
Through it all, her gaze remained locked on his.
He was lost, utterly fucking lost over this woman. Love for her overwhelmed him, spiraling with the fierce arousal pumping
through his veins, magnifying this experience to something he’d never imagined.
But he couldn’t do this alone. Not without her. Never again without her.
He stuck his hand between them, working it between their damp, heated bodies, and found her clit with his thumb. Her mouth fell open and her lashes fluttered as he stroked her, inside and out.
“Come with me, mi amor,” he panted, begged, demanded. “Don’t leave me alone.”
The words didn’t make sense but she nodded anyway. Her hands dove into his hair, clutching it in fistfuls, as she brought
their mouths together. She moaned into their kiss with each of his thrusts. He knew her sounds as surely as the familiar rhythm
of his own heartbeat, and he knew when she was close. He sped up his touch, deepened his strokes, and let go of the reins
on his own control.
When she shattered, so did he.
The orgasm shot through him, leaving him as devastated and wrecked as if it had been a lightning bolt from the storm raging
around them.
Harsh breaths sawed in and out of his lungs. He dropped his head onto her shoulder and her arms wound around his back. Seconds
ticked by, and she held him while his heart rate returned to something closer to normal.
“I meant what I said earlier,” he said into her neck. It was perhaps slightly unfair to bring this up when he was literally
still inside her, but he needed her to know.
Her breasts pressed against him as she inhaled. “I know you did.”
He rolled her on top of him so he wasn’t crushing her, and so he could see her face. “I don’t want this to end, Ava.”
Her expression was soft, and she brushed his hair back from his forehead. “I need to think about it, but... you mean a
lot to me, Roman. More than I wanted you to, if I’m being honest.”
He thought back to their first encounter. “I didn’t expect this either.”
She placed a hand flat on his chest, as if seeking his heartbeat. “You feel safe. It’s my own feelings that don’t.”
His heart squeezed, thinking of how much she’d been hurt. She felt safe with him. She trusted him. It was enough, for now.
But, greedy bastard that he was, he always wanted more.
“Sleep in my room tonight,” he said.
There was a fifty-fifty chance she’d say no, but she nodded. “Okay.”
But then she lifted her head and looked around, as if noticing their surroundings for the first time. “How do we—”
“Oscar’s gone,” he told her. “The house is empty. And there are towels in that chest in the corner.”
She ducked her head, hiding a smile. “You know me so well.”
Not as much as I want to , he thought. But what they’d shared tonight was a start. The start of the rest of everything.
Assuming she didn’t hightail it to the airport in the middle of the night.