Chapter 20
L EILANI
That sensation stays with me. Him being inside me. Him throbbing. Him fucking me. I’m drunk on everything that’s happened.
My center is still pulsing.
Wet arousal still trickles down.
I’m still smiling. Still yearning. Still celebrating the biggest win of my life.
Still hungry for the man of my life.
He tosses a napkin he has soaked up the mess between my legs to the bottom of the picnic basket while I fold an arm beneath my head and look up at the stars, and then at him.
He looks so handsome in the moonlight, his eyes borrowing mystery from the moon, his lip wearing a little cut from my teeth.
He didn’t say a thing to me.
There was no reprimanding from him.
Is he how I had imagined him?
Yes, he is.
That and more.
I’d go crazy if he weren’t mine.
And he seems to know it.
His lips curl into a knowing smile, his unshaken confidence making me want him even more.
I didn’t know this could hurt like a bitch.
I’d take this pain and even more to be with him. To satisfy him. To satisfy myself.
He lies next to me, shirtless, his muscles my pillows as I turn to him, press my chin against his chest, and look at him.
“I’m sorry.”
He laughs.
His eyes are smiling.
His teeth sparkle in the moonlight.
“Sorry? For what, baby?”
He brushes a few strands of hair away from my face.
“I didn’t know how to tell you about this.”
He studies my face with a thoughtful look in his eyes.
“There was no time for you to tell me anything,” he says, gently moving his forefinger over my cheek. “I had to assume things like everybody else. Don’t worry about it. I wish we had done it in a different order, though.”
“Meaning?”
Curiosity beams in my voice.
He clamps up, unwilling to elaborate.
“What do you mean?” I insist, lying on top of his chest, whatever’s left of my crumpled dress still clinging to my body.
He looks at it and removes it so I can be naked on top of him. He’s still wearing his pants, although his pants are open and he is full and hard again.
“I want to marry you, Leilani,” he says in a low, serious voice that makes me shudder at first before I realize the full meaning of his words, and my mouth falls open.
He uses this opportunity to nudge me off and peels his pants off before picking up a towel and covering himself.
It’s useless in my opinion since he can’t hide how hard he is, if that was his intention.
“You want to marry me?” I murmur, shifting my eyes from the hand palming his groin to his face.
He props himself against a pillow and looks up at the sky for a moment.
“Like now? How soon?” I ask.
I know that he said what he said about us growing old together.
It looks like I need him to say it a few more times for it to register with me.
“How soon would you like?” he asks.
I tap my fingers on his hard, tattooed chest.
“Well, I need to marry that guy first, don’t I?” I say with dark humor. “Can’t we just kill him and be done with him?” I go on, and he studies me, entertained.
“I will kill him. It’s just that we need to wait till next month when the two of you are having the wedding.”
I rub a hand over my face, having a good laugh.
“You’re funny,” I say.
“So are you.”
I lock my eyes with his again.
“Can’t we just kill him in Taormina?” I ask.
“I thought about that too, but it’s too risky to do it here. Things need to be set up properly to prevent a full-fledged war.”
I ponder his words.
“And there is no other way?” I ask, a bit sad. “Can’t we just come out and announce that I said yes to your proposal?”
“Have you?” he jokes.
Chuckling, I press my face against his chest while he rests his hand on my head.
“Yes. It’s a yes. I can’t wait to be your wife. Why can’t we let them know that I picked you, so they could leave us alone?”
“Because you don’t have that kind of power,” he says. “You belong to your family. They choose for you.”
“For themselves.”
“That, too.”
“What will happen if I said no to them and announced to the entire world that I’m marrying you?”
“They’ll try to kill us.”
I flick my head up.
“Why? I don’t understand.”
“For one, they don’t have a choice. Varela is most likely blackmailing them.
He wants to replace me. So, he wants you, of course.
And then, even it that weren’t the case, Giorgio considers him an upgrade in terms of influence.
He’s already had me as an ally. He wants someone even more powerful than I am. ”
“Is he more powerful than you are?”
“He controls more money and territory. I’m talking about that type of power. At some point, he’d be out, even if I didn’t take him out.”
“But you will?”
He nods in silence.
“What will happen after that?”
He takes in a long breath.
“Two things, possibly. A war. Or we’ll be on the run.”
“There isn’t a third option.”
“The dynamics of power will resettle. Once that’s done, we will face different options.”
I press my head against his torso again and lock my arms around him.
“I don’t want to die. Not now,” I say.
His fingers move through my hair.
“You won’t die. I’ll make sure of that.”
LEILANI
Things look a little different with the spectrum of death over our heads.
Our decisions are different, too.
Instead of putting our clothes on and going back, we stay here, naked, eager to feed our flesh again.
Life feels different when you contemplate the loss of it. When danger lurks nearby.
I want to taste this man again, to make him come again. To feel him lost in me again.
So, I turn my face to him and tease his lips.
Crawling naked on top of him, I feel his erection.
He doesn’t waste much time, since he’s as hungry as I am, and rolls me under him, yanking away the towel.
This time, his hand moves between my legs as if going home.
He parts my thighs, grabs the root of his erection, and enters me like the entire move has become a part of us.
Carefully, he gauges my reaction the first time he does it. My reaction doesn’t fail to come.
It still hurts. I still bleed. I still want to do it again.
And then, he enters me at normal speed, with medium force. Not too hard and not too gentle either.
My frame jolts as he thrusts into me. He does it with passion. He does it with need.
He needs from me way more than I can offer him tonight, and I’m ready to deliver it. I’m just not ready now. My center pulses around him, as I lock my arms around his neck, and my mouth with his.
We kiss with abandon as he wants me to forget the pain created by his moves and enjoy the friction.
The friction feels good.
It increases the wetness.
It makes my core pulse with joy.
I never knew how it would really feel to have a man between my legs. I was a little scared of the idea.
I was paralyzed with fear at the thought that someone I didn’t want would enter me.
In this case, I want him to enter every part of me. My core. My soul. My mind. My life. I want him to absorb me into his being and never let me go.
I never have.
Some things you just know.
His grip on me is harder than it was before. It’s more possessive and unforgiving. I like every bit of it.
I like how he rams into me. He’s taking possession of me and chasing a feeling that’s still foreign to me.
Although I like everything about it, my chances of coming are practically null without him touching my clit.
I wish things were different. And maybe they will be at some point.
And then, he pulls out and makes me turn my back to him. He enters me slowly from behind, only half of him in, as he did when it happened for the first time.
His hand slides around my hip and travels down below my navel, his fingers following my slit before circling my clit.
Things instantly change for me, my body swiftly recognizing its favorite sex game.
His breath fans hot over my neck, and then he gently bites my shoulder, moving slowly into me.
This time, my pleasure spirals up from his fingers and the fullness between my legs, and I rock my body against his hand. Against his hard flesh.
He rolls his hips, and I get that first spike of pleasure from his moves, and I quickly get it.
They work well together, his fingers on my clit, his hard cock entering me repeatedly.
I love this feeling now, perhaps too much, my hand clawing at the blanket, my body stiffening.
“You like that,” he murmurs in my hair, moving harshly, making me see a flash of light.
My hips tilt toward him, and he enters me at a perfect angle, filling me up, rubbing the most sensitive parts of me, and I quickly lose it.
“I can’t believe it,’ I say, witnessing the pleasurable increase in intensity. “This is so addictive.”
He sinks his teeth into my skin, and I feel his smile against my shoulder.
“You’re addictive, Lani.”
My name on his lips feels sweet like drops of sunny honey.
“You and I will have a hell of a good time,” he says. And his fingers rub my clit firmly, bringing me to the edge of madness, where he leaves me hanging, removing his hand from between my legs and making me come from the friction created by his shaft.
It feels like a setback at first, but it's not.
Things are delayed for me just a little, but as he increases his pace and pounds into me with force, my pleasure picks up, shoots up, and gives me the most pleasurable explosion I have ever felt.
Crying moans rush to my lips covered only by his satisfied grunts. And then a new world of bliss opens to me, making me ready for anything that might come my way.