Chapter Eighteen-Luc
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN-LUC
I never take off work, but I just spent the last forty-eight hours in my bed with Maria, only leaving to use the bathroom, shower, and eat.
I still haven’t talked to her. I need to. I mean to.
But every time I look at her, my dick takes over.
The woman is a witch. A goddamn sorceress.
She has me completely captivated.
“It’s ready,” Maria calls from the kitchen where she insisted on making us something to eat, and I grin.
I get up from the sofa in the living room, where I just logged onto my laptop, and I walk to the kitchen.
The layout is open, so I have a view of everything she is doing.
Sunlight is streaming in from the huge windows, and I pause.
I haven’t spent a lot of time with Maria outside in the daylight.
This is really the first time I’ve observed her in full sunshine.
And holy fuck.
She takes my breath away.
I never really notice because I’m over six feet, but Maria is tall for a woman. She has long, curvy legs that drive me insane.
I want to lick them.
Bite them.
I want to feel them squeezing me tight while I pull on her hair.
That fucking hair. It’s so damn beautiful.
Her glossy hair is usually so dark, I thought it might be black.
But it’s not.
It’s a riot of colors this morning. A chestnut brown with dozens of lighter highlights running through it. They are every shade from gold to caramel to a burned sort of auburn.
I'm stunned. She's even more beautiful than I know.
Her almond-shaped eyes are a deep, velvet brown. And she has short thick lashes, way darker than her hair, but still brown, circling them.
A couple of freckles dance across her nose and I'm dying to kiss them.
Her bottom lip is bigger than her top lip, but I know that already. I love how they feel when I kiss her.
Her skin is bronze and know it’s just her because I’ve seen her naked and she has no tan lines.
The thought of her nude sunbathing runs through my brain, and I frown. But I shake it off.
She tucks a stray lock of hair behind her ears.
Fuck, my heart stutters inside my chest.
She looks so sweet. This is not the girl I think I know. The sinful and seductive one.
My throat closes. I can’t speak even if I wanted to.
She is so stunning.
Gorgeous.
Mind-numbing.
I wonder why she uses whatever product that is that washes down my drain every time she shampoos her hair.
It’s criminal. Her hair is too pretty to cover up like that.
But I’m not such a beast that I tell women what to wear or how to primp themselves.
Her back is to me, so she doesn’t see me approach.
She’s wearing my robe, and nothing else as she dishes up what smells like scrambled eggs and bacon.
My stomach rumbles, but my cock is already at half-mast.
Maria turns to me with a smile on her face, but it falters, and I cock my head.
“What’s wrong?”
She licks her lips.
“Nothing, um, I didn’t know you wear glasses,” she murmurs.
Maria hurries to dish up the rest of the meal before handing me a plate. She’s not looking at me, and her cheeks are dusky with embarrassment.
I grin wider. Then I touch her elbow and turn her to face me.
“You like my glasses? I look good to you, Baby Girl?” I ask, knowing she does by the way her dark, almond-shaped beauties seem to eat them up.
“Shut up, you know you look good,” she says and rolls her eyes.
Who knew fucking glasses would be my woman’s kryptonite?
I tuck away the information for later.
She pours me a cup of coffee, and I’m fucking delighted with how she readily hands me things. I want to reciprocate, so I do. I doctor her mug with cream and sugar, noticing her shocked smile as I hand it to her.
“You know how I take my coffee?”
I nod. But I don’t tell her how I know. I don’t say how I’ve spent hours memorizing her.
“Smells good,” I say, trying to shake her out of her reverie.
“Oh? Thanks. Um, how did you know?—”
“Eat your food, Maria,” I tell her, and she listens, lifting her fork to her lips.
I watch her eat, and I am taken with the need to feed her. I don’t know why.
It’s something primal. A marrow deep need to provide for her.
I want to be the one to bring the food to her mouth. To slide it between her lips. To give her everything she needs.
I sit on those feelings.
It’s too soon.
Too much.
I already took her virginity, something a monster like me had no right to do. But now that I took it, I want all of her.
It’s not enough. But I can’t just keep her here.
I have work to do before Monday rolls around tomorrow, and she probably has things she needs to see to as well.
Right on cue, she brings it up.
“Um, I have to leave after this,” she says,
“What? Why?”
Even though I was just thinking the same thing, I don’t like that Maria brings it up first. Her leaving, that is.
I don’t want her to go.
I want her in my house.
Right fucking here.
But I’m being crazy.
I mean, I want this woman like mad, but I can’t just keep her here.
I want to.
But I can’t.
What am I going to do? Lock her up like a prisoner. Or some kind of fucking caged bird.
Yessss , hisses my inner Viper.
I rub my hand over my face.
Shit.
Yeah, I really do want to.
But I can’t. I just fucking can’t.
And it is pissing me off.
“It’s S-Sunday. I, uh , I go to church,” she says, and I can’t hide I’m stunned.
I’m over here getting all jealous, imagining a dozen fucking scenarios, all bad, and Sweet Baby Girl over here just wants to go to church.
I’m a complete asshole.
“Of course. I’ll drive you home after we eat and get dressed, okay?”
She nods, her smile a little dimmer now, and that pisses me off.
But I’ll make it up to her.