26. Lucrezia
Chapter 26
Lucrezia
I don’t know what making love is. Is it the slow sensuality of having sex with someone who makes you feel alive, who sets your skin ablaze with the gentlest touch? Or is it the candles and dim lighting casting shadows on the wall as you shower each other in pleasure, whispering sweet nothings between heated breaths and tender caresses? Perhaps it’s the quiet moments afterward when two hearts beat in sync, and the world beyond each other ceases to exist.
If that’s making love, then that’s what Raiden and I do. It isn’t a conscious choice. We don’t come home and decide to slowly strip off each other’s clothes and bare our souls to one another.
It starts with the darkened streets of his neighborhood. As he pulls the motorcycle onto his street, everything is uncharacteristically dark and still. Even the street lamps overhead have gone out, creating an eerie silence as we pull up to Raiden’s house. The familiar outline of his home looks different somehow, more ominous in the darkness. He attempts to open the garage and pull inside, but the door doesn’t move, stubbornly refusing to respond despite his repeated attempts with the remote.
“Huh,” Raiden announces with a frown as he removes his helmet, running a hand through his slightly disheveled hair. “I think the power’s off.”
The absence of light makes the stars shine brighter, turning the night sky into a glittering canvas of distant suns. I step away from the motorcycle and look up at the sky, picking out constellations like an astronomer. “This reminds me of Italy. It was always a spooky sort of dark at the convent. You prayed and studied the Word of God by candlelight.”
Raiden joins me on the grass, his shoulder brushing against mine as he gazes up at the sky with the same intensity. A playful smirk crosses his face in the starlight. “I probably have a Bible somewhere if you want it. But if I dig it out, I expect you to be wearing a nun’s habit with nothing underneath.”
The corner of my lip stretches into a smile as I reach around to hit him playfully in the shoulder, my fingers lingering against the leather of his jacket. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Hey!” He chides with a grin, catching my hand before I can pull it away completely. “I’m trying to make you feel at home. Now, give me ten minutes and I’ll cobble together a priest’s uniform real quick. You can confess your sins, and I’ll punish you accordingly. We’ll probably both be naked by the time it’s over, but I promise that God will forgive you. Probably.” His eyes sparkle with mischief.
“You’re so stupid,” I laugh, the playful banter putting me at ease.
Raiden brings my hand to his lips, kissing each knuckle slowly and gently, his warm breath ghosting across my skin. “This wouldn’t be the first time someone said it. Come to think of it, it isn’t even the first time today.” His voice carries a familiar mix of self-deprecation and pride that only he can manage.
I withdraw my hand before his gestures make me fall head over heels in love with him. “Why am I not surprised?”
With a cheerful shrug, he heads for the front door. “I’m a delight, Lucrezia. Ask anyone. I can’t help the nasty, vicious rumors people spread about me.” The way he says it, with a roguish half-smile playing on his lips, makes it impossible to tell if he’s joking or serious.
As he lets us in, we feel along the walls and furniture until we reach the kitchen. I lean against a wall while Raiden rummages through drawers and cabinets, searching for matches and a candle. “If people are spreading rumors about your stupidity, wouldn’t that be a sign that they don’t think you’re a delight?” I ask, unable to resist poking holes in his logic.
He strikes a match, and it creates a soft ball of illumination in front of him. “I can see how you might come to that conclusion, but no. My guy, Trig, dumb as a box of rocks some days, but I still hang out with him. Nice guy, got a lot going for him, but catch him on an off day, and he’ll have you wondering if it’s safe to let him out of the house without an escort. Once, I saw him microwave a metal bowl. Almost blew up the Destroyers clubhouse.”
My nose wrinkles in shock and surprise at the stupidity. “I didn’t even know they made metal bowls.”
“Yeah, so, it was one of those big mixing bowls bakers use. Except Trig ain’t a baker. He made a big ass pot of spaghetti for the guys, but the guys were late coming back from a run. Instead of turning the burner back on, he threw it all in a mixing bowl and said to give him two minutes to get it ready. Next thing you know, Priest is calling 911, and the rest of us are trying to put out the fire he started with every extinguisher we could find. The whole kitchen smelled like burnt pasta and chemicals for weeks.” Raiden shakes his head, but there’s a smile on his face. Despite the chaos, it’s obvious that he has a great deal of affection for his MC brothers. The way he tells the story, with exasperated fondness rather than real anger, speaks volumes about the bonds between them.
A moment later, the candle is lit and placed on the counter. It gives the room a yellow glow as it flickers back and forth. And despite myself, despite every instinct in my body screaming at me to make fun of him or go upstairs and go to bed, I want to kiss him. The urge is almost overwhelming, making my heart race and my palms sweat like some lovesick teenager.
“What are you thinking about?” Raiden asks as if reading my mind.
“You,” I reply simply, surprised by my own honesty.
His lips curl upward into a happy smile. “And what are you thinking about me?” The playful curiosity in his tone makes my stomach flutter.
It would be easy to make a joke right now, to puncture his ego and bring him down a peg, but I swallow past the urge and do the unexpected thing instead. My heart hammers against my ribs as I cross the space between us, stand on my tiptoes, and press my lips to his for a brief kiss. The contact sends electricity racing through my veins. “I was thinking about that,” I whisper, putting a millimeter’s worth of space between us.
“Careful, gorgeous.” Raiden’s hands come out to grab my hips, his fingers curling possessively around me. His eyes darken with something dangerous and promising as they lock onto mine. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think a gesture like that should lead to something else.”
“Maybe I want it to.”
I read books growing up and watched movies. I know first dates are supposed to end with a sweet, tentative kiss on the front porch before both people go home and realize that they’ve found the one. But that isn’t how my date ends with Raiden.
Instead, he peels off my dress right there, uncovering every inch of skin until I’m standing there naked. Then he kisses the scars on my back as I stand with my hands pressed to the kitchen counter, fingers gripping the edge so hard my knuckles turn white. He whispers that I’m beautiful, that I’m strong, that I’m perfect.
Raiden’s hands trace patterns on my body as he worships me from head to toe, lingering in some places and skating over others. He is a perfect gentleman, igniting my body with pleasure and making all my senses come alive before he’s even taken off his shirt. His fingertips dance along my spine, mapping constellations between my shoulder blades while his lips follow the path his hands have blazed.
In the flickering candlelight with a half-moon peeking through the window, he takes me gently against the kitchen counter. He removes his clothes while I’m panting and begging for him, desperate to feel him closer. His hard length presses against my backside, teasing me, and Raiden growls his approval as I push back against him, seeking more friction, more contact, more of everything he has to offer.
“Fuck, Lucrezia,” he whispers in my ear, his warm breath causing me to shiver. His skilled fingers tweak my nipples, rolling and pinching them until they’re stiff peaks. I’m soaked, my body trembling with need, ready for him to take me right here on the counter.
His other hand slides down my body with torturous slowness, tracing a path down my trembling thigh before finding my wetness. He circles my entrance with teasing strokes before plunging two thick fingers inside me. I cry out, my knees buckling as he continues to thrust his fingers in and out, curling them to hit that perfect spot that makes me see stars.
“That’s it, baby,” he murmurs, his lips brushing against my neck, leaving a trail of searing kisses. “You’re so wet for me, gorgeous. So ready, so perfect.”
I can feel his cock twitching against my ass, hard and demanding. The dual sensation of his fingers inside me and his length pressed against me is almost too much to bear. “I need you, Raiden,” I beg shamelessly, giving in completely to my base desires.
He growls, the sound vibrating through his chest against my back as he pulls his fingers out of me. In one smooth motion, he replaces them with the thick head of his cock. “You want this, don’t you?” Raiden asks, his voice low and rough, full of the same desperate need that’s consuming me. His hands grip my hips possessively, holding me still against him.
I nod, unable to speak, and he slides inside me, filling me up in one swift, delicious thrust. My pussy clenches around him, still aching for more as he stretches me to my limits. The exquisite burn of accommodation makes my thighs shake. I cry out, nails digging into the counter as he begins to move inside me, each thrust deliberate and deep. My body yields to him, molding around his invasion. The counter’s edge presses into my palms, grounding me as the intensity threatens to sweep me away.
His lips find my neck, his breath scorching against my skin as he worships my body with every inch of his rock-hard cock. His teeth graze my sensitive flesh, leaving a trail of broken blood vessels in their wake, marking me as his. My mind is reeling, lost in a haze of pure animalistic lust as he fucks me slow and deep, every precise movement designed to drive me wild. My inner walls flutter and clench as I feel every vein, every delicious ridge of his cock while he slides in and out of me, my pussy wrapped so tightly around him it’s like we were made for each other. The pressure builds with each thrust until I’m moaning louder, shamelessly begging for more.
“Don’t stop,” I gasp, my voice hoarse and trembling with pleasure. “Fuck me harder, Raiden. I want to feel all of you, every single inch.”
He groans, his hips pistoning faster as he fucks me relentlessly, mercilessly. “Fuck,” he growls, his voice ragged and dark with primal pleasure, his breath hot against my neck. “Lucrezia, you’re so fucking tight, squeezing me like you never want to let go.”
“Oh god, yes. Just like that.” I reach down between our sweat-slicked bodies, my trembling fingers finding my clit. I start to rub slow, deliberate circles, my fingers slick with my own wetness. The dual sensations of his thick cock stretching me and my fingers teasing my sensitive flesh are almost too much to bear, sending electric jolts of pleasure up my spine.
“Come for me, Lucrezia,” Raiden growls, his voice ragged and strained. “Come for me now. I want to feel you fall apart around my cock.”
And with that, I explode. My orgasm rips through me like a tidal wave, my body shaking and trembling with pleasure. Stars burst behind my tightly closed eyelids as waves of ecstasy crash over me. I can feel myself clenching around Raiden’s cock, milking it for all its worth.
Raiden groans, his hips stuttering as he reaches his own climax. His fingers dig into my hips hard enough to bruise as his whole body goes rigid. I can feel him pulsing inside me, filling me with his hot seed, each throb of his cock drawing out the lingering sparks of my own release until we’re both gasping and spent.
There are no words as he slowly withdraws from me, only actions - the gentle slide of flesh against flesh, the shared shudder of oversensitized nerves. He doesn’t make a silly joke; he doesn’t clean up the mess we leave behind. Instead, he grabs me by the waist and twists me in his arms until we’re face to face. Raiden looks at me for a long moment, his dark eyes intense and searching, before pressing his lips to my temple in a tender kiss and resting his forehead against mine in an intimate gesture that speaks volumes more than words ever could.
I don’t know how long we stand there, how long the candle flickers on the counter, or how high in the sky the moon gets. But after a while, a brush of cold air sends a shiver down my spine, and goosebumps begin to appear across my bare shoulders and arms.
Raiden’s lips curve into a gentle smile as he reaches up to rub them away, his warm hands soothing against my chilled skin. “We should go to bed,” he murmurs, voice intimate in the darkness.
“I should shower.” We should clean up, but I doubt we will. Clothes are scattered all along the kitchen floor like breadcrumbs marking our path—a problem for tomorrow.
“Upstairs or downstairs?” He asks, thumb tracing idle patterns against my hip.
I think about it for half a second before deciding to shower downstairs. I only want to rinse off and warm my skin, to wash away the pleasant ache of our activities. “I’ll be up in a few minutes.”
Raiden kisses me one last time, slow and sweet, before walking away. I watch him go with a sense of fullness I’ve never felt before, a contentment that settles deep in my chest and makes me feel both lighter than air and more grounded than ever. Maybe when all this is over with Saverio, we’ll find a minute to figure out what’s happening between us.