Chapter Thirty-Eight
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
OPEN YOUR EYES
TWO MONTHS LATER
“ S tellina. ”
Sleep clings to me as I hear his voice just before I feel his hands slowly running up my back. When he reaches my shoulder, he massages it in his firm grip.
“I need you.”
A groan rumbles from my chest as I roll onto my back, trying to claw my way to consciousness as my body refuses to comply.
Abraham uses this moment to lightly pinch my nipple before his hand slides down my stomach to cup my pussy.
“ Apri gli occhi ,” he murmurs as he rubs his thumb over my clit, causing my body to spasm before my lids snap open. “Good girl.”
I’m disoriented, unsure how he ended up here in my bed. As if he realizes, he begins to tell me.
“I couldn’t wait until tomorrow so I came straight from the airport and used my spare key.” He leans forward to press a kiss to my lips, parting them to sweep his tongue over mine before pulling away. “Seven days is too long. ”
“I missed you, too,” I mewl as I stretch, pushing myself further into his touch. When I attempt to sit up, he nudges me back down against the bed. It’s too dark to see him but the dim moonlight cast across my bedroom makes his outline visible.
There’s a thrill, an excitement at the idea of him showing up here, wanting me so badly that he couldn’t wait. Letting himself into my home and climbing into my bed.
“Did I ever tell you how many times I watched that old video of us?”
“What…”
Immediately I’m brought back to sitting in the living room of his New York apartment, his camera on me as we masturbate together. Only one thing comes to mind now.
“I don’t look like that anymore,” I inform him just as his free hand meets my neck.
“What I am hearing is I need updated footage.”
Nerves wreak havoc on the moment as I suddenly feel small.
“What is it?” His question hangs in the air as he leans forward to lay his head on my chest. I’m quiet while he listens to the steady thump of my heartbeat, slipping his hand under my shirt to stroke my skin.
There are stretch marks there that I know he can feel and if he goes farther down, into my panties, he’ll find a scar there.
We’ve had sex, of course. But always with the lights off, per my instructions.
“You think I don’t know that you wish to hide from me?” He asks, turning his face to press a kiss to my ravaged skin. “This beautiful body carried our children.”
“I know,” I start, stroking his hair as I stare up the ceiling.
“You think you do.” He lifts his head so his chin presses into me. “My love does not require you to look the way you did when we met.” He slides lower so he lines up with my sex, as if he can hear it calling from him.
There’s a moment of hesitation from both of us before he takes charge, leaning up to turn on my bedside lamp. I close my eyes, terrified to be exposed but unwilling to turn him away. Unwilling to let go of a potentially healing experience.
The glow behind my closed lids is all I allow myself as he places his palms on my thighs, his fingertips inches away from the bottom of my sleep shorts.
“May I touch you?”
I’m nodding before I can overthink it.
“May I look at you?”
This question requires a pause before I answer, but I choose to nod again.
“You have to open your eyes, cuore mio, ” he begins as I take a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heart. “You have to see how I react to your body so you believe me.”
“I want so badly to take all the time we lost and wish it away,” I whisper as a tear escapes from beneath my closed lid. “I feel like a stranger to you sometimes.”
“Shh,” he consoles as he wipes the tear away. I open my eyes to see him looming over me, the ends up his lips upturned. “I have many regrets. But we are much more suited for one another now, no?”
It’s an answer I have to mull over, pausing my emotional reactions to give space for my logical thoughts. Because I don’t regret my children and I never will. I also don’t regret Peter. He was exactly what I needed at the time.
With a wicked grin, he slides down my body, his eyes never leaving mine. I watch as he pulls my shorts down, exposing my scar.
“Is this where they pulled my lovely girls from?” He asks, nuzzling it. I can barely feel the sensation, having had nerve endings cut and muscles sliced. It healed, but it was never quite the same .
Poetic as we draw a similar parallel here.
“Yes,” I utter, my voice thick with emotion and I shudder.
“How could I find this anything less than a display of utter devotion?” He doesn’t wait for me to answer as he pulls my shorts the rest of the way down, helping me as I kick my legs to take them off. Warmth pools between my thighs as he settles back there, examining me.
“If I kiss your pussy, do you promise to be quiet?” He asks, but yanks me by my hips to latch his mouth onto me before I answer. With my back bowed, I relish his tongue lashing, the messy way he devours me as his fingers dig into my flesh.
He makes love to me with his mouth, showing me just how much he missed me. His tongue runs over my clit and my breath catches as I ride the euphoric wave as he sucks me into his mouth.
“I’m gonna come,” I grit out, grabbing a nearby pillow and covering my face to smother the sounds the intense orgasm is pulling from me.
I’ve barely caught my breath when I feel the nudge of his cock at my entrance. He yanks the pillow from my grasp and I tilt my hips to offer easier access.
I need him in a way I’ve never needed a man before.
His molten stare pins me as he reaches forward to push my shirt up and reveal my breasts.
I want to cover them, to press myself against his body like armor so he doesn’t notice what breastfeeding has done to them. But he doesn’t let me, pinching my nipple again before palming my breast.
“Don’t ever hide yourself from me,” he grunts as he slides inside of me, causing me to groan. “Not when my cock and my mouth and my body exist to give you pleasure.”
He pulls back before slamming his hips against mine and I cry out, not caring about being quiet anymore. And this time, he leans forward, pressing my mouth against his shoulder .
“Don’t wake the girls,” he whispers hot against my ear as he begins to move, shallow thrusts that make me claw at him.
“More,” I hiss out, needy.
“You want me to fuck you, Stellina? ”
“Yes.” The answer is barely out of my mouth before he’s picking up the pace and I’m tumbling into another orgasm, unable to keep from yelling out. He presses me into his chest again and this time, I bite down on his flesh.
“Fuck,” he cries out, his strokes quickening at an impossible pace. He grunts as I feel his dick twitching inside of me, filling me with cum. And once the echoes of pleasure subside, he remains there, as if it’s where he belongs.
We lay there, catching our breath and I try to listen for the sound of little feet and tiny voices. But aide from the blood still whooshing in my ears, I hear nothing.
“I don’t think we woke them up,” I whisper against him, pressing a kiss to the spot where my teeth likely broke skin.
“I did not think I’d enjoy pain,” he murmurs, stroking my hair as he pushes his face into my neck, his words muffled. “I may require medical attention.”
I try not to laugh as I pull the neck of his shirt from his shoulder to examine my work. I lay back down with a huff of laughter.
“I’ll take care of you.” It’s red but not bleeding and I’m glad I didn’t hurt him that badly.
He shakes his head, leaning up to look me in my eyes. Brown meets green and my world is all right.
“No, Stellina . That’s my job now.”