Chapter 38
Thirty-Eight
ROME
“Ithought we were going to the kitchen,” she says.
“We will. I need to do something first.”
She doesn’t ask any questions. Maybe she can feel the need coming from me. I lead her into the bedroom and immediately turn to her, unzip the back of her sexy-as-fuck dress, and let it pool around her feet.
She’s in lacy black panties that make me growl low in my throat, and when my eyes find hers, they’re wide and still full of anger, fear, and lust.
This woman feels everything.
How could her father hurt her? How could anyone want to hurt her?
“Come here.” Without hesitation, Eloise steps forward and pauses in front of me. I love the trust she shows me every day. “Undress me.”
She catches her bottom lip in her teeth and her little fingers unfasten the buttons on my black shirt, and when she’s finished, her mouth opens on an audible inhale as her green gaze flows over my skin, eating up the ink in front of her.
“What is this for?” she asks, brushing her fingertip over the angel on my chest.
“My mom.”
Her eyes fly up to mine, but she doesn’t press for more. She leans in and presses a sweet kiss there, making my breath catch.
She’s so fucking precious.
She unfastens my belt, then my pants, and when I’m standing before her in just my red boxers, she pauses.
“I’m not naked, firefly.”
“I know.” She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “I’m just enjoying this. I like it very much that you let me touch you.”
I reach out and push my fingers into her thick, dark hair. “I’ve come to crave your touch.”
She steps into me, works her hands into my boxers, and nudges them over my hips and down my legs.
“Same,” she whispers and drags her hands over my abs and up my chest. “I know you can be a brutal man, but you’re only ever so good to me.”
“That will never change.” I frame her face and lower my lips to hers, gently brushing them back and forth before I remove the black lace from her body, then lift her and lay her on the bed. “I will never let you go, Eloise.”
She smiles softly and pushes her fingers into my hair. “Good. I plan to stay right here. With you. For as long as you’ll let me.”
Forever. She’s staying for-fucking-ever. That’s what I mean when I say I’ll never let her leave.
I nibble my way down her chest and over to each perfect breast. Her tits are magnificent. They fit in my hands like they were made for me, and her pink nipples pucker beautifully when I brush my tongue over them.
Her legs scissor, and her breath hitches, making me smile.
“I have to deny you one orgasm,” I remind her. Her eyes snap open, and she stares at me in horror.
“I thought you were kidding.”
With a wolfish grin, I shake my head. “I never joke about that. It’s one of my favorite things.”
“Making me suffer makes you happy?”
“Not suffer.” I shake my head and kiss down to her navel. “Yearn.” I kiss that belly button. “Need.” Drag my tongue around it in a circle. “I want to push you right to the edge and bring you back down again.”
“That sounds horrible.”
I chuckle and spread her legs, opening her wide for me, and shake my head as I take her in. She’s already so wet, her pink pussy swollen and practically begging me to fuck her.
“Christ, you’re gorgeous.”
I wrap my arms around her thighs, hold her down with one arm over her lower stomach, and feast.
Her back tries to bow off the bed, but I hold firm, and her hands immediately sink into my hair, holding on tight.
“Oh God,” she moans.
I circle my tongue around her clit, and down through her lips, already swollen with desire. She’s so wet, and I lap at her, wanting every single drop.
“Rome. God, I love it when you do that.”
I know.
Pressing two fingers inside her, I look up and watch as her mouth opens and her bright emerald eyes meet mine.
“You’re perfect,” I tell her. “So fucking perfect.”
The way she responds to me is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. She doesn’t go through the motions just for the sake of it. She’s genuine. Her sounds, the way her body moves, everything is because she needs this, not because she’s trying to impress me or wants something from me.
She’s such a fucking breath of fresh air.
Her walls start to quiver around my fingers. Her thigh muscles tighten under my arms, and just as she’s about to lose it, I pull away entirely.
She tries to cover herself with her own hand to get herself off, but I move fast, capturing her wrists and boost up over her.
“No.”
“Rome—”
“No.” Careful not to wrench her left shoulder, I press just her right arm over her head and the other one flat at her side, restraining her. “You’ll come when I say you can come, Eloise, and not a second before. You’re not in charge here.”
She whimpers and lets out a shallow breath. “Can I at least touch you?”
“I don’t know.” I drag my nose down her jawline and kiss her neck, soaking her in. “Are you going to be a good girl?”
“Probably.”
I huff out a laugh, then bite the fleshy part of her shoulder, but I release her left arm, and her hand immediately finds my side and drifts up and down.
My cock is heavy against her core, moving back and forth in her wetness, and her legs lift higher around my hips in invitation.
“You feel so good on me,” she whispers sweetly, and that’s all I can take. “And that piercing against my clit is everything.”
I grin against her neck and rub it over her nub again, making her gasp. But I need to be inside her.
I need her.
I reach between us to guide the head of my dick to her entrance, and I ease into her carefully, unwilling to hurt her.
There’s a time and place for pain.
Tonight isn’t it.
“Fuck, what are you doing to me?” I push all the way inside her and hold steady, trying to rein in my emotions. Tonight was a shitty night … but this woman makes everything good.
Her heart is too good for my black soul.
But I know that I can never live without her. Now that I’ve had her, she’s mine.
“Please, Rome.” She pushes up to kiss my chest. “Please move.”
I pull my hips back, sliding out to the tip, then slowly push back in again.
“Nothing can ever happen to you,” I whisper.
“Nothing will happen,” she assures me, bringing her hand to my face. “I promise.”
Her hips move with mine, and we settle into a rhythm that feels so good, it shouldn’t be real.
“Please, can I come?” She doesn’t take her eyes away from mine as she asks. There’s no way I’d deny her anything right now.
“Fall apart for me, firefly.” I brush my lips across hers, then sink into her, and she tightens around me. Her arm, her legs, her pussy, all clench me to her, and she moans against my lips as she falls over the edge.
My spine tingles as my own climax works through me, filling her perfect pussy up with my release, and then I roll us to the side so I don’t smother her as I hold her to me, cradling her close.
“Are you okay?” I drag my lips back and forth over her forehead and feel her sigh.
“I’m so okay.” She breathes in deep and nuzzles against my chest. “Hungrier now than earlier.”
Her stomach growls, making me grin.
“Let’s clean up and go downstairs.”
“Okay.” But she doesn’t move away. She tips her head back and smiles softly up at me. “You’re … incredible.”
Christ.
I kiss her nose and her forehead. “Come on. Before I can fuck you again, I need to feed you.”
She grins and pulls away. “You have that backward. I’m going to feed you.”
Before I can smack her ass, she rolls away and hurries into the bathroom. I stay right where I am and watch her go.
Because what a fucking view.
This woman. This kind, loyal, and sexy-as-fuck woman.
I had no idea I needed her until she walked into my establishment with her bright smile and sweet heart.
Her strength. I love her strength. I loved watching her care for Scarlett tonight, refusing to leave her side.
I love her loyalty. I love that when confronted with something that unnerved her, she dealt with it, but then sought me out.
I love … that she needs me. Needs me.
I’m in love with her.
Fuck.
I’m in love with Eloise.