Chapter Eight #2
“Probably not.” He pushed his hand through his hair, though the movement lacked the usual grace. “But there’s mountains of work to get through, and you seem to—”
“Why do you never lie down fully beside me? Why do you always leave, whatever the time of the night?” She was needling him. And he didn’t deserve it, tonight of all nights. But she couldn’t stop.
Perhaps it was the way the moonlight caught the hard lines of his jaw, or the fact that their little cocoon was gone, and she was stepping into his world. She wanted some token of connection between them before they were swallowed up by the world and even Luca.
The realization both startled and freed her.
He stared at her, as shocked at her questions as she herself was. His mouth worked, as did his Adam’s apple, framed by the white collar of his shirt. Mimi had the most maddening urge to press her mouth there.
“Are you allergic to sleeping by someone?” she taunted him to cover up her own nerves. “Does no woman on the planet get the full Renzo DiCarlo treatment?”
Another half smile and then a roll of those hard shoulders. “You want the truth?”
“Yes, please.” She laced her fingers in her lap. “Whatever it is, I can take it.”
“I didn’t want to make you aware of my…ever-present desire.
” Self-deprecation coated each word. “I’m furious with Massimo for having no control over his temper, and yet my body behaves like a teenager around you.
After everything you’ve been through these past few months, it feels crass to even hint at what I would like to do to you. Even subconsciously.”
It was the last thing she had expected, and she felt like a floundering fish out of her depth. But they had come this far, and she wasn’t going back. “What do you want to do to me, Renzo?”
His gray eyes flashed with such simmering heat that her belly flip-flopped again. “So that you can call yourself the victor in this battle?”
“What? No. Of course not.” She was so eager to make him understand that she nearly crawled into his lap.
“Renzo… I’ve been worried that I was clinging to you and stifling you with my demands and forcing my hands onto your rock-hard abdomen every night.
I even wondered if whatever attraction we had before wore off on your side because you saw me give me birth, and then I had to take off points from you for being that shallow.
God, all these days…all I wanted was to beg you for just one more kiss, and—”
She got her wish without having to beg.
His soft, cold lips trapped hers in a hard, hot kiss that made a hundred champagne bottles fizz open in her belly.
Large hands cupped her hips and easily lifted her until she was sitting sideways in his lap.
The shocking evidence of his half-mast erection made her gasp, and he swooped in, tasting, licking every corner of her mouth.
As if he meant to plant his flag there and declare it his kingdom.
He cornered the tip of her tongue and sucked at it with such expertise that her toes curled in her pumps. The twin feelings of being tethered to the ground while flying overcame her. She clamped her arm around his shoulders, trying to burrow into him.
“Come, Mimi. Play with me,” he said in that commanding voice that could melt her insides like they were made of chocolate, and she lost the last layer of inhibition.
Sinking her fingers into his hair, Mimi kissed him with all the pent-up desire she had been feeling for months now.
Each rub and slide of their lips sent a spark shooting through her, teaching her about her own body’s new contours and fresh needs.
The taste of him—whiskey and sin—filled her to overflowing.
She felt like a new woman in a new body, even one with a little wear and tear.
For the first time in her life, she was doing what she wanted, without a thought to anyone else’s wishes.
Just her needs. Only her desires.
Wanton heat bloomed when she shifted in his lap and his thick, hot erection rolled against her hip.
The sound that burst out of his throat was like a feral animal’s, and it sent savage shivers through her.
That she could arouse this powerful, gorgeous man to such heights of desire…
made power thrum through her. Her arousal deepened into something more, stoked by the affection and admiration she felt for him.
He was the first person in the world who had paid real attention to her, who cared what she wanted and saw her like no one ever had.
Every guttural sound he made, every harsh breath that escaped those sinuous lips, she bottled it all up like a female dragon hoarding her treasure.
“And here I thought you were an innocent minx I would corrupt with my desires,” he murmured at her ear before licking the shell.
Shivering, she rolled her hips against that thickness again.
In return, that dampness bloomed between her thighs.
It drenched her flimsy lace panties, and that in itself was another new, decadent sensation.
“It’s your own fault for making assumptions.
” An ache pulsed at her core, fanned into a bigger flame with his roving, stroking hands and teasing lips, begging to be put out.
God, she couldn’t remember the last time she had been this turned on by a simple kiss. Although there was nothing simple about how Renzo devoured her. Like everything else about him, his desire was overpowering, addictive.
Biting out a curse, he pulled back and pressed his forehead to hers. “Contrary to our pre-wedding kiss, I don’t want the bloody world and the media to witness this one, bella.”
“Hmm…” Mimi said, still riding the delirious high of his kiss.
When he grinned—which rendered him even more gorgeous—she looked around. The launch was approaching the private dock of the Grand DiCarlo Venezia. It rose like a palace from the water, its grand facade illuminated by soft golden lights.
But even the sight of the imposing hotel couldn’t dim her awareness of the man holding her like she was fragile while his kisses were filthy.
“And here I thought you were all about the performance, Mr. DiCarlo.”
Groaning, he gently pushed her to her feet while surreptitiously arranging his trousers. “I think you should hold off on giving me a rating, Mrs. DiCarlo.”
She giggled, and his gaze swept over her face. A small but utterly genuine smile played about his own lips.
On impulse, Mimi threw herself at him and kissed that smile, desperate for a taste of it.
“Your smile…it does things to me,” she whispered, then hid her face in his neck.
“Even worse than your voice.” His laughter was a rumble against her body, both comforting and arousing.
“I think I know what I want for a wedding present.”
His fingers gently nudged her back. “What?”
“More of what we just did. I…like how I feel when you kiss me.”
His thumb traced her cheekbone. “How much more?”
“A lot more. All of it if we can manage it.” Then, because she couldn’t be anything but honest, she said, “I’m nervous, but I also want this. For you and me.”
“Ahhh…cara. Fate picked you to torment me, sì?” In one second, the passionate lover transformed into the caring partner who had held her hand through hours of labor.
His mouth was at her temple again. “I don’t want to rush you into anything yet, bella.
We have a lifetime for all the filthy, wicked things I want to do to you. ”
“Do we?” The words tumbled out of her before she could stop them, propelled by an urgent desperation to know if things had changed for him. “Our agreement was for one year.”
A harsh laugh escaped him. “It’s never anything less than a battle with you, is it?”
“Renzo, wait—”
“Let’s not argue in front of the whole world. I refuse to follow in Santo and Pia’s footsteps. Everything that happens between us remains between us, sì?”
It was a sentiment Mimi could get behind, so she swallowed her protest and nodded.
The hotel was a masterpiece. The hum of the boat faded as the launch docked at the private pier, and Mimi’s heart fluttered with nerves.
She’d known Renzo’s company owned luxury resorts, but seeing one up close like this was overwhelming. “This is one of yours?” she asked, her voice low.
“Ours, bella,” he said, standing as the boat came to a stop. “The jewel in the crown of the DiCarlo empire.”
He extended a hand to her, and for a moment she hesitated before taking it. His touch was warm, grounding, and despite his tight jaw, she felt a flicker of gratitude for his steady presence through everything. “Before you argue with me, the penthouse is home now, sì? Small steps are okay with me.”
“Are they? Because all I want to do is to leap into the fire and damn the consequences.”
His inhale was sharp.
She turned to face him. “I’ve never known this…
wildness before, Renzo. Everything I did and didn’t do, right up to what kind of man I dated and let close, it was colored by…
Pia and my mom.” She swallowed the knot of shame that came with the confession.
“I let them live rent-free in my head, dictating my every thought and action, and that’s my fault.
But this…you and me… I want to act on what I want, moving forward.
And that courage comes from trusting that you want this too.
That you want me and that there are no twisted reasons behind it.
” She pushed away the sudden surge of emotion pulsing behind her confession.
“You have no idea how…liberating it is. So thank you.”
His gaze flashed with understanding. Covering her from prying eyes with his wide frame, he stole a hard kiss that spun her senses into liquid sensation.
“Did I tell you how magnificent you are, bella? When you walked out of the elevator, all I wanted to do was devour you. In that, we’re equals then, sì? ”
Throat tight, she simply nodded.