Chapter Eleven
THE SOFT BUSS of lips at her cheek instantly awoke Nush from a restless slumber. “Caio?” she whispered, her hands reaching out for him automatically.
His rough, calloused hands took hers, as her eyes got used to the darkness of the bedroom. He’d been standing by the bed on her side, bending over to kiss her. A thread of fear wound through her and words rushed out through a dry mouth. “Are you leaving?”
“No. Of course not. I only meant to check on you, make sure you didn’t tangle yourself up in the sheets. You’re the most violently active person in sleep.”
“Oh,” she whispered, feeling a flicker of joy at her chest. In the big scheme of things, it wasn’t a big deal that he knew her sleep habits or that he’d wanted to check on her. But to her silly heart, it was a huge thing.
“I didn’t mean to disturb you. Go back to sleep, querida.”
When he’d have pulled away, Nush tightened her grasp of him. “No, wait.”
His white smile flashed in the darkness and she breathed out in relief. She saw him thrust his hand through his hair, and sigh. “I demolished the entire bottle of wine, I’m in a sullen mood and sleep is far away for me, Nush. I’ll only disturb yours.”
Swallowing, Nush pushed up until she was half sitting, supported by her elbow and his tight grip. “I didn’t mean to upset you by raking up... Earlier, I mean,” she said, wanting to soothe him.
Caio rarely ever let her see him in a dark mood and clearly, she’d breached some invisible boundary she hadn’t even known existed.
“You didn’t upset me. It’s not something that’s...ever far from my mind.”
Nush swallowed the urge to say that that was by design. His ruthless pursuit of the company, this house even...he’d made the loss of everything a part of himself. He’d turned it into the fuel that drove him. And like a virus, it thrived inside him.
His thumb traced the plump veins on the back of her hand, the touch infinitely gentle. “It’s okay if you do upset me.”
“I know that,” she said, grinning cheekily. “I just meant that I didn’t mean to upset you tonight. Especially not when I want you in a favorable mood.”
His grin made her feel as if she’d won the biggest prize in the world. “And why did you want me in a favorable mood?”
“I’m bad at this, Caio,” she said, hiding half her face in the pillow. “Fighting with you, I excel at. Throwing dirty talk in your face to rile you up, give me a diploma already. But this...the real thing... I need you to drive this.”
His palm covered the other half of her face, encasing it completely.
Nush had imagined all kinds of scenarios between them and yet she’d never expected the tenderness with which he constantly touched her.
And that made her realize that he did touch her a lot.
Outside of sexual context. As if it were as necessary as breath.
Her chest felt like an enlarged balloon, full of wonder and joy and more.
“You’re better at it than you think you are.”
“Then stay, please.” She placed a kiss at the center of his palm, and then licked the spot.
His indrawn breath filled the air around them.
Egged on by it, Nush dug her teeth into the thick pad of his palm and the tension radiating from him increased a hundredfold.
Then she blew on the hurt she’d given him, pressing soft kisses to his wrist.
His thumb traced her lips and then plunged into her mouth. She gave it the same thorough treatment, nipping and biting and licking, sucking on it, until his harsh breathing was a symphony in the room.
“I am a little drunk, Princesa. I might not be—”
“Jesus, Caio, when will you understand that I trust you more than I’ve ever trusted another person? Even myself at times.” Her voice had risen, something electric arcing through her words.
Bringing her hand to his face, Caio buried it in her palm. “That’s what makes this so hard. I’m not sure I deserve it.”
“I told you. That’s not how any of this works. There’s no deserving when it comes to...” She swallowed the words that automatically rose to her lips, feeling as if she’d suddenly been plunged into ice-cold water. “Stop making me beg you.”
“Turn on the night lamp,” he said, command and desire in it making his voice deeper and heavier than she’d ever heard before.
She remained silent, and unmoving, suddenly nervous at the prospect of what she’d wondered for years.
It wasn’t that she was insecure about her body so much as she wanted to please him.
Having tried multiple times with not-quite-unpleasant partners, and then freezing halfway through, she didn’t want to face the same mental block again with Caio of all people.
The lamp turned on and she blinked. When she lifted her eyes, Caio was leaning over her, his broad chest tantalizingly bare and within reach. He bent and took her mouth in a gentle, soft kiss that made her heart crawl up into her throat. “I will be as gentle as you need, Princesa.”
“Tell me what you like, please,” she whispered against the tug of his teeth, her body arching off the bed toward him like a magnet.
“Touch me. Whatever you want to do to me will please me, Nush. That you want me like you do makes me half-hard most of the time.”
Nush didn’t have to be told again. She ran her hands over his chest in mindless circles, relishing everything about him.
Christ, every inch of him was delineated and defined.
The hard, defined pecs, the springy hair sprinkled throughout, the rippling definition of his abdomen muscles, the taut musculature of his back and the dark trail of hair lower that disappeared into his jeans.
..everything about him appealed to her starved senses.
Every cell in her arched up to feel and absorb as much of him as possible.
His rough growl at her mouth when she raked her fingernails down his stomach egged her on.
Everything was contrasts—the roughness of his kiss and the softness of his lips, the light bursting behind her eyes and the darkness that surrounded them, the bubbling lightness that spread through her that she was finally, finally, doing this with the man she’d wanted for so long.
Her eyes drew closed even as the kiss morphed from lazy, tender exploration to something else. Something hungry and needy and dirty.
“Let’s get this off,” he said, placing one knee on the bed, right between her thighs.
Greedily, Nush scooted closer as he reached for the hem of her sleeveless tee. His laughter surrounded her as he realized what she’d been trying to do and he pulled her onto his thigh.
Nush threw her head back, clinging to him as his hard thigh gave her the friction she desperately wanted. She didn’t know how he managed to get the tee off or when he’d climbed onto the bed and lifted her atop him until she was straddling him or when he’d got her panties off.
All she knew was that he gave her everything she needed. His calloused hands roaming her bare skin, cupping and kneading her breasts, his fingers drawing mindless circles around her nipples, and his thick erection nudging against the folds of her sex.
“Open your eyes, Nush. Look at me.”
If he asked her to follow him the through the gates of hell just then, Nush would’ve happily done so.
The sight that met her eyes tightened the fist tugging down in her lower belly.
He still had his jeans on even though the button was undone and her sex was indecently open and rubbing against the hard ridge of his abdomen, while his erection nudged at her buttocks.
Heat crested her cheeks at the wetness she’d left on his bare skin. As she watched, he rubbed the dampness onto his skin with one long, elegant finger, the act downright filthy and erotic. And then he brought the tip of his finger to his mouth and licked it away.
“How do I taste?” Nush asked, any nervousness she’d felt earlier misting away at the dark, hungry gleam in his eyes. It was liberating that she could say anything that came to her mind and he only found it arousing.
Hair mussed by her fingers, mouth swollen from her greedy kisses, he looked like the stuff of her wet fantasies come true. He gave a thoughtful hum, as if considering the question before he said, “Like you’re mine.”
Nush arched into his touch, her spine elongating like a cat stretching, desire vibrating through her body. And Caio played her perfectly.
Touching her everywhere but never lingering long enough.
Over and over, bringing her to the edge and talking her down.
Asking her to trust him when she protested.
Filthy curses flying from his own mouth when she dug her teeth into his shoulder, encouraging her to do to him as she pleased.
It was like waiting for a storm and yet not knowing when it would hit.
Tongue and teeth licking and tugging at her nipples, those clever fingers learning and relearning her folds, his thumb playing decadent peekaboo with her clit, he pushed her toward the peak all over again. Soon, every inch of her was damp with sweat, muscles tense and tight, skin oversensitized.
She ground down on his fingers when he penetrated her, cursing at him to go faster when he barely moved them inside her, screaming that she hated him when he edged her once again, and then finally, he gave it to her with a gleaming smile and a whispered “You’re achingly perfect and you’re all mine, Princesa. ”
The orgasm caught her by surprise and ripped through her, stealing her breath, making her sob incoherently, while she chanted Caio’s name like it was a benediction. She should’ve been used to it—to the physical and emotional cleansing it felt like every time he made her come.
Like he’d smashed her into pieces and put her back together again and every time, she emerged a little different. A little less scared of her own heart.