Chapter 23
23
CELIA
I couldn’t sleep. Dante and Luca promised they would take turns keeping watch, and I didn’t doubt them, but I was plagued with restless anxieties.
Part of me didn’t want to sleep alone. They might deserve to be punished…but did I? Staying away from them was as much a punishment for me as it was for them.
I threw off the covers and slipped out of the bed. When I opened the door, moonlight spilling in through the open window illuminated a dark figure against the wall.
Panic froze me in place for a split second, before I recognized Dante. He stood there, tall and brooding, his dark hair falling into his equally dark eyes.
He looked up, pain and desire mingled in his eyes. “Celia.”
“I couldn’t sleep,” I said.
“I couldn’t sleep either. I just wanted to be close to you, just to make sure you’re safe,” he said in that though, husky voice that I still associated with a reckless feeling of joy. You don’t have to forgive me but let me look after you.”
“You’re right I don’t have to forgive you,” I said, and the pain that flashed across his face made me wish I hadn’t said it at all. “But we’ll talk more in the morning.”
He nodded. “Luca is taking the first shift. I’d feel better if you let me sleep in your room where I can make sure you’re safe.”
I stepped back from the door, gesturing him in. He moved past me, all broad shouldered and sexy and irresistible. We’d all showered, and he smelled good.
“I can forgive you for tonight,” I said, and then blushed, a little shocked at how brazen I had just been.
Dante turned back to me. His eyes smoldered with longing as he seemed to hesitate. I saw his decision reflected in his expression as he stepped closer, cupping my cheek in his strong hand.
“I have missed your face so much,” he told me, stroking gently across my cheekbone.
I would never have his old, familiar, beloved face back again. But I could love this one too. Maybe I already did.
Our lips met in a tender kiss that quickly deepened, as if there were years of pent-up desire for us to make up for. My hand stroked down the hard planes of his chest.
“Celia,” he breathed against my mouth. “Only the thought of you…the thought of seeing you again, of touching you again like this…kept me going in those first dark days after.”
I fumbled with the buttons of his shirt. As I pushed his shirt off his broad shoulders, I whispered to him, “I can’t believe it the first time I got to be with you again after all of that was…in front of everyone.”
“We get a do over now.” His hand slid up to cup my breast, thumbs brushing over my nipple. My hips jerked at the touch. “God, Celia, you’re even more beautiful than I remembered. I imagine touching you like this a thousand times, tasting you. Making you come undone beneath me. My fantasies gave me something to live for.”
I couldn’t bear another moment of wanting him. I pressed my palm to his chest, and with a firm push, I toppled Dante onto the bed. “Don’t tell me about those fantasies. Show me.”
He grinned up at me as I straddled his hips, my thighs bracketing his leanly muscled torso. I leaned down to capture his lips in a searing kiss. His hand stroked up my arms, careful to avoid the bandage across my shoulder.
“You’re incredible,” he murmured, his big hands roaming up my sides.
I rolled my hips, feeling his hard length press against my thigh. Dante’s fingers dug into my waist as he bucked up, seeking more contact.
“I need you,” I whispered, trailing kisses along his stubbled jaw. “Now.”
I guided him to my entrance, teasing his tip over my clit so both of us could feel how wet I was for him.
He rolled to a sitting position, his abs rippling, and kept kissing me as he massaged my ass with one hand. I groaned, full of need, and our eyes locked as I slowly sank down, taking him inside me inch by inch. The stretch and fullness were almost overwhelming.
“Oh God,” Dante groaned, falling back into the pillows. “You feel amazing.”
This position, with me on top, was the opposite of the position we’ve been in at the club, where he had been trying to protect me from prying eyes. I felt liberated as I rode him, establishing a steady rhythm. Each rule of my hip sent waves of pleasure coursing through us both.
Dante met my movements thrusting up to drive himself deeper. His hands roamed my body, caressing and teasing.
“That’s it,” he told me, his voice rough with desire. “Take what you want from me.”
The two of us kept moving, faster and faster, lost in the haze of pleasure. Tension built inside me, tightening with each thrust, and judging from the way Dante’s jaw clenched, the way his breathing stuttered, he was on the verge too.
“Dante,” I whispered, arching my back.
He groaned, his fingers tightening on my hips as he helped me up and down his cock.
The two of us move faster and faster until our orgasm crashed over us in a white-hot wave.
“Celia,” he groaned, his muscular body flexing against mine. “Celia!”
There was nothing as sexy as hearing that low familiar voice calling for me as he was lost to his pleasure.
I collapsed on top of him, his cock still buried deep inside me, and he locked his strong arms around me as we both tried to catch our breath.
“I love you,” he whispered to me. “I’ve never stopped loving you.”
I cupped his cheek with my hand. Already, the handsome features of his face felt so familiar. “I never stopped loving you, either.”
Dante kissed the top of my head. Then he murmured into my hair, “We have a long way to go before we can rest, but when I’m with you, I already feel like I’m home.”
Home. The place where I had grown up hadn’t turned out to be my home, but I was starting to believe that I really could find my home again.