Chapter Twenty-Eight
chapter twenty-eight
CAIO
I’m nearly asleep on the couch. It’s Wednesday afternoon, I should be in a budgeting meeting right about now, but I’m currently lying here with Isla laying in between my legs with her head on my chest, and there’s nowhere I’d rather be.
My hand has been stroking her hair for the last hour, she let out a satisfied groan when my hands first started their soft movement and she soon fell asleep to the steady rhythm.
I like living in this little bubble with her, everything feels so perfect. Her soft breath on my bare chest, her hair splayed out over my body, her arms wrapped around me, it all feels so perfect.
I fight with my mind every day knowing that it might not last, but pretending like it will. I like living this little lie that we’ve been living over the last couple of weeks.
As I lay here, I take notice of how content I feel. How full I feel with Isla by my side. That gap that I always felt, that void, it’s gone. It’s gone and it scares the shit out of me.
I found out through the gossip mill that May has spoken to Isla about staying here, permanently. But with each passing day my hope dwindles. She hasn’t even mentioned it to me.
I know she loves it here—I see the way her eyes sparkle when she looks out the window—but that doesn’t mean she’ll stay. A pretty town isn’t enough to make most people leave their life behind.
I want to know what she’s thinking, want her to talk it out with me. I want to convince her to stay, but at the same time I know I shouldn’t.
She had pressure from all angles in her last relationship, I don’t want her to feel even a hint of pressure from me. No matter how selfishly I want to try to convince her that this place is worth it, that I’m worth it.
A small groan comes from her as she stirs in my arms. The sun is sinking in the sky, casting a golden glow through my apartment, settling on Isla’s sun-kissed skin. She’s spent so much time in the sun while here that she’s ten shades darker than that first day I saw her, and it suits her perfectly.
“Good afternoon, sweetheart.” I push her messy hair out of her face. I fucking love when she looks like this, all messed up from sleep. Looking up at me with her sexy, tired eyes. I could easily fool myself into thinking I see love in them.
“Good, morning,” she smiles, popping a sweet kiss on my nose before resting her chin on her folded arms.
“Will you tell me what I want to know if I ask you?” I fiddle with the ties on the straps of the pretty little dress she’s wearing today.
“Depends on the question,” she smiles.
“What scares you about this? About us?” Her eyes switch to look anywhere but me, I hate when she does that, like she’s contemplating whether to trust me with those parts of herself. I want that more than anything, so I go first. “Do you wanna know what scares me?”
She nods, her beautiful, vulnerable gaze finally looking back at me, and it gives me all the courage I need to open up to her now.
“That I’d do anything for you if you asked me to.” Her eyes widen an inch. “That I look for you in every place I go, that I want to spend every spare minute with you, fuck I couldn’t even do boys’ night without seeing you.”
She smiles at that.
“It scares me that you might simply decide one day that I won’t spend any of my minutes with you anymore.”
It might be crazy that I feel this way about her so soon, but that’s what she does to me, she makes me insane. I want to show her how I feel, and maybe she’ll do the same.
Maybe she won’t, but if I want her to open up to me then I need to do the same.
I tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear, I can see her thoughts swimming in her brown eyes like a splash of milk swirling in a cup of coffee.
“The last time I gave my heart away, it didn’t get smashed into little pieces like you’d think,” she starts, frowning as she concentrates on putting her feelings into words. “It slowly crumbled away, I lost little pieces of it each day, and after a while there was nothing left to smash, it had faded away. So when it came to that final night, I just left. I didn’t cry, I didn’t even really react, I knew it was over far before it ever officially was, but I hung onto it because…” she shakes her head. “I don’t even really know why. But that last slap in the face shut the light off in my heart, and I didn’t want to turn it back on. I didn’t have any intention of even speaking to any man but Miles on this getaway. I wanted to come here and reconnect with myself, find my spark again on my own. Figure out where I wanted to go with my life on my own terms, not on anyone else’s. But then there’s you.”
The words fall off her tongue, like she’s finally letting out something she’s been holding onto for far longer than she should have.
“You threaten that very idea Caio, because you ignite that spark in me, that light flickers back on when you’re around. Part of me hates it, because you make me want to uproot my life. Change my plans to spend all my spare time with you, because I don’t want to not spend any of my minutes with you either. You say I’m fiercely independent and stubborn. That’s because I’ve found many of the people in my life I haven’t been able to depend on. Other than May, the list of people I could rely on was nonexistent.” Her words throw me back to one of our first conversations. When I bragged about having so many people around me all those weeks ago.
“And with every passing day you make me want to depend on you Caio, to lean on you and let you in, you make me want to do all the things I said I’d stay away from. That’s what scares me.”
I smile, despite what she’s saying, or maybe because of what she’s saying, but mostly because she’s saying it at all. Trusting me enough to share this part of herself with me is all I could ever ask for.
“I’m sorry?— “
“You don’t have anything to apologize for,” she interrupts me.
I grab her hands in mine, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. “I promise I won’t ever hurt you, not intentionally, sweetheart. All I want to do is take care of you Isla, if you’ll let me.”
“I don’t think you’ll hurt me; I think I will.”
I don’t have a minute to think over her words before a grey ball of fluff jumps up onto my couch. Marvin meows and smooches up against Isla’s legs.
This guy.
“Oh hello little Marv,” she coos at him, sitting up to scratch him behind his ear and he eats it up, leaning into her touch, reveling in it. I don’t blame him.
His tail curls around her leg as he meows again, capturing all of her attention and curling up into a ball on my couch next to her. She runs her hands over his body, showering him with the affection he loves from only her apparently.
“Baby,” I say, not able to leave that conversation like that.
I grab her face in my hands taking her attention away from the cat and press my lips to hers. She angles her head, deepening our kiss and swiping her tongue against mine. She unfolds her legs and climbs on top of me straddling me and moans into my mouth as she grinds her hips against mine.
Fuck she makes it hard to concentrate. I hope that cat made himself scarce, or he’s about to be scarred for the rest of his nine lives.
I thread my fingers into her hair, tugging as she continues to move against me, friction building with every movement, earning me another one of her delicious moans.
My dick is getting harder by the second. She makes it too fucking easy to get carried away. If we ever had an argument, all she’d need to do is move on me like this and I’d forget anything else.
“Sweetheart,” I pull away but keeping a hold of her head, keeping her eyes locked on mine.
“I need to tell you something, will you concentrate for a second?” I ask softly, very aware of how turned on the both of us are right now, but I need to get this out.
“I’m not going anywhere, okay? I know I said you’re in control, and you are, but don’t go thinking that means I don’t care about what happens here. You’re mine, okay? I want every single part of you, even the parts of you that want to run away.”
Her eyes shine with surprise as she looks at me, her eyes never leaving mine, I revel in her undivided attention. “And even if you decide not to spend any more of your minutes with me, I’ll still be yours.”
“Are you claiming me Caio Marchetti?”
“Not claiming you, just making sure you know that this is yours.” I place her hand over my heart that’s performing somersaults in my chest.
“But I can claim you if that’s what you prefer.” I place a kiss just below her ear before sucking down, hard. Doing just as I said, marking her as mine. She moans sliding her hand from my chest to around my neck before she tugs on the ends of my hair, every nerve ending in my body sparking at her touch.
“Fuck me,” I growl.
“Yes please.” Isla pulls my lips back to hers, kissing me with urgency, her hands fumbling with my belt beneath her.
Our kisses turn frantic as she yanks my pants down, freeing my aching cock. She runs her hand up and down, driving me insane.
I lift the skirt of her dress to see the pretty pink lace underneath, pity.
“Caio!” She squeals as I rip them off of her.
“I’ll buy you new ones, fuck I’ll buy you tens of them, but I don’t want to wait another second.” I reach between her legs to find her dripping wet.
“You’re fucking perfect,” I say, running a finger through her folds.
She moves against me creating friction before she whimpers. “More.”
I grab my cock lining it up perfectly and she doesn’t waste another second before sinking down onto me.
“ Fuck.” I groan into her neck as she moves up and back down slowly, moans escaping her as her eyes fall closed. I fucking love her like this. Her cheeks flushed, her eyes barely able to stay open, her chest glistening with perspiration.
“You’re in control remember? I tug the end of her earlobe between my teeth. “Take what you need.”
She wraps her arms around my neck, holding on tight as she begins grinding back and forth.
“Oh, mmm.” She pulls her bottom lip between her teeth as she moans into my ear.
I pull on the ties of her dress, letting it fall open and finding her bare underneath, her pretty pink nipples hard as I take them into my mouth.
“Caio, oh god, don’t stop.” Her head hangs back.
And I don’t, I circle my tongue around her nipple, tugging on it with my teeth before moving to the other.
She bucks her hips as I suck on her other nipple, sharing the attention around. Her pace picking up, she grinds her hips frantically against me, any rhythm abandoned. I can feel her body going taut, her release building, and I want it more than I want my own, so I reach my hand between us, resting it so her clit grinds against it with every movement of her hips.
“Oh fuck, Caio,”
Her lips find mine, her tongue exploring my mouth as she tugs hard on my hair, moaning over and over as she gets closer.
“That’s it sweetheart .”
“Oh!” Her eyes close as she finds her release, her hips bucking with each movement.
“So pretty,” I say before gripping her hips, taking control now, slamming my hips up from beneath her, the sound of smacking skin echoing through my open living space.
A few thrusts is all I need before I’m spilling into her. Watching her come nearly sends me over the edge every time.
I slow my pace to a stop, but stay inside of her, not wanting to leave her warmth just yet. I push her frazzled hair back from her face, and she drops her forehead to mine. I wrap my arms around her waist, pulling her even closer.
“I think I’m yours too,” she whispers. And she can’t see, but I’m grinning like an idiot over her shoulder like I just won the lottery, cause it kind of feels like I did.