CHAPTER NINE
Grey
Luca slid down my body until her feet touched the floor. I kept my hand on her lower back, keeping her pressed against me. I wasn’t ready to let her go, to create space between us. “This is the storage area, purgatory for the projects my mom deemed less than her best.” I grabbed her chin when she made a move to step away. I knew she’d want to see, want to explore this graveyard of oil and canvas. “After.” One word, it was all I needed to say. She nodded and let me lead her up the stairs.
Using this space to hook up with Luca hadn’t necessarily been a conscious thought. I didn’t start the night with a plan to bring her here. I didn’t see this coming. My parents had made themselves clear, Luca was an artist under contract with my mom’s gallery. A family friend, and completely off limits. I’d been a good boy all week. I’d stayed away from her.
Tonight though, sitting with her in the office, talking and learning more about who she really was? I’d been powerless. I’d needed more in a way that wasn’t entirely sane.
More time, more words, more stolen touches. I watched her as she worked the room, as people gushed about her work. She was humble and kind, reserved and almost shy at times. But every few minutes, her body would still and her eyes would search the warehouse. Her attention would stop on me, and she’d smile.
She was seeking me out, making sure I hadn’t disappeared. I’d been doing the same to her. There was something between us, something that mattered to me.
The main floor was pitch black, the heavy velvet curtains blocking all light from the street. I moved around the room, turning on lamps with mere muscle memory. “Welcome to my home away from home.”
“So this is where you rotate the roster?” She walked around, checking out framed photos and little knickknacks, a timeline of my mom’s life, and then mine.
My grandparents bought this studio for my mom when she was in college. She rarely came here anymore. She had a studio at home and she had her gallery. I used this little apartment more than she did. I didn’t bring girls here though. “You’re the first girl I’ve ever brought here to be honest.” I shrugged, my hands in my pockets so I didn’t reach out and haul her back to my side. “I’m more of a let’s meet at your place kind of guy.” Leaving was easier when I had to get home, or get to class, or get to my dad’s shop.
“I’ve never done this before.” Luca was standing in front of the bed now, tucked behind a brick half wall.
“Please tell me you’re a virgin.” I knew she wasn’t, not with the way she rejected me with a wink the first day we met. Not with the way she laughed at my stupid dirty jokes, not with the way her eyes came alive with my hand around her throat. “I have zero reservations about taking it from you.”
She snorted, finding no offense to my words. “Sorry jail bird, been there, done that.” She crossed the small space to the kitchen, opening cabinets until she found a glass. “I’ve never gone home with someone I barely know to a random studio in the middle of a town I don’t live in.” She filled the glass with water before bringing it to her lips. “I’ve never attempted to star in my own Dateline Special.”
I nodded. “Again with the murder?” She put the glass on the counter and turned to face me, humor in her gaze. “If you don’t do the Dateline thing, what do you do? Monogamy?” I made a gagging face, to make her laugh. Honestly the thought of seeing Luca again and again, day in and day out, was almost appealing.
She rolled her eyes and moved back to perch on the end of the bed. “I told you, I have lots of cousins—”
“I knew all you kids hooked up. That many horny gorgeous people on one piece of land? It’s too easy.” I moved to stand in front of her, loving the way she was peering up at me.
“My cousins have a lot of friends, and go to a lot of parties.” She ignored my teasing comment, which I found interesting. “I meet people.”
Safety. She met people on her turf, surrounded by men who would no doubt kill for her. She was smart. Too smart to be here in this studio with the likes of me. She was too good, too pretty, too talented. I was lucky to be standing in front of her. I reached out, wrapping my hand around the slender column of her neck. “I won’t hurt you, Luca.”
“I know you won’t.” She scooted back on the bed, kicking her Prada loafers to the floor. “It doesn’t make any sense, but I can feel it in my bones. You won’t hurt me.”
Her words were soft, spoken to me and the night. The low light of the lamps reflecting in her stormy eyes as she removed all her clothes, lying before me in black lacy lingerie that I hadn’t predicted. Everything about her was like a pleasant mind-bending surprise. I wouldn’t hurt her. My soul wouldn’t let me, of that I was certain.
I peeled my shirt over my head, tossing it behind me as I toed off my boots. I crawled up the mattress, hovering over Luca. Her hair was a wild mess on my pillows and her chest was heaving. “Are you nervous?”
She shook her head. “No, it’s not that.” Her fingers danced up my side and until they wrapped around my arms. “We get one night, right? Let’s make it count.”
One night. I hadn’t even been inside her yet and I was already positive that one night with this girl would never ever be enough. I emptied my pocket of the small box of condoms I’d had stashed in my glovebox, tearing one off. Her hands were steady as they unbuttoned my pants and shoved them down past my hips. Our movements were going from rushed to frantic and hurried. Ready. “I’ll take my time later, okay? I swear. I just, I need—”
“Don’t go slow, I want you inside me. Please.”
This girl was going to be the death of me. I slid on the condom as she took off the small scrap of lace that had been covering her pussy. Fuck she was perfect, every damn inch of her was perfect. Smooth and soft and sweet. I wanted to taste her. I wanted to trace her skin with my fingers and my mouth. And I would. Later.
I pushed inside her, admiring the way her back arched off the bed and the small gasp that left her lips. “Oh my god.” She moaned, wiggling her hips. “Is that a piercing?”
I chuckled, humming mmhmm against her neck. “Do you like it?”
“I don’t know yet. Why don’t you show me what it can do?”
I pulled back, smirking down at her beautiful face. I pulled all the way out before sliding back inside her, making sure to angle everything just right. I knew what my piercing was doing to her channel, I could feel her pulsing, gripping me impossibly tighter.
“Is that a yes, I fucking love your pierced dick?”
She nodded, her lips parted on a whimper. “More.” I did it again, and again. All the way out and then sliding home, hitting the perfect spot deep inside her. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could last. She felt too good, it was too perfect. Every nerve and sensation was on overload.
The sight of her losing her mind underneath me, the scent of her perfume, the feel of her pussy. I dipped down, needing to taste her. She was sweet, like the champagne she’d drank before we left the gallery. I caught her every moan, the two of us racing toward release, sharing the same space. The same air. I was consumed by her.
“Fuck, baby.” I nipped at her flesh, where her neck met her shoulder. “I need you to come for me. I need to feel you.”
I pounded into her harder, relentless, until she cried out my name as she came. Her nails sinking into my skin, her breaths in my ear, her pussy fluttering around my cock. It was all too much, it was everything.
Her pleasure triggered my own, dragging the orgasm from my body and her name from my lips.