21. Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-One
The World Comes Back
Simone
I’m floating.
My feet have left the ground. My body has ascended into some impossible place where time no longer exists.
And it’s entirely because Luca Moreau is kissing me.
He kisses exactly the way he looks.
Like sin.
I feel years of yearning, frustration, and denial in every stroke of his tongue against mine. All that restraint collides between us in an inferno that burns through my body and threatens to pull me completely out of it.
I welcome the fire.
His hands frame my face as he tilts my head and opens my mouth beneath his.
It has only been a day since he kissed me beside the pool.
Since he touched every part of me.
Since I felt him inside me.
But this kiss feels more intimate than everything we did beneath the moonlight.
Now I know what it means.
He loves me.
Every slow drag of his mouth against mine carries the words.
Heat rushes across my skin, through my bones, and settles between my thighs.
I want more.
More kisses.
More of his hands.
More of the low sounds he makes when my tongue meets his.
When Luca lifts me and wraps my legs around his waist, I hold him tighter.
He carries me to the bed.
The moment my back touches the mattress, I twist beneath him and push until our positions reverse.
Luca lies beneath me with surprise and amusement warming his green eyes.
The bed creaks as I straddle him.
“I’m taking control this time.”
His hands close around my hips.
“Are you?”
“Yes.”
“Show me.”
I kiss him again.
Slowly at first.
Then harder.
I rock against the erection beneath his trousers while our mouths remain locked together.
His fingers dig into my hips.
We separate only when we run out of breath.
Our lips are swollen. Our chests rise and fall together.
Luca watches as I lower my mouth to his neck.
His pulse hammers beneath my lips.
“Simone.”
I don’t answer.
I kiss the side of his throat and drag my teeth over his skin.
His grip tightens.
I work open the buttons of the clean shirt Brock loaned him, kissing every new section of skin I expose.
His collarbone.
His chest.
The hard plane of one pectoral.
I push the shirt from his shoulders and sit upright.
Luca is beautiful.
Strong and broad beneath me, covered in muscle and dark ink. The scars on his body are pale lines against warm skin, pieces of stories he has never told me.
I trace the shape of his chest.
His stomach.
The sharp grooves beside his hips.
His muscles tense beneath my fingertips.
“You’re so beautiful,” he says.
The emotion in his voice makes me look up.
His gaze moves over my face as though I’m the one exposed beneath him.
“Especially when you bite your lip.”
I release it slowly from my teeth.
His hips shift.
His erection presses more firmly against me.
“It drives me fucking crazy.”
“I’m glad you find me interesting.”
“I’ve always found you—”
His sentence ends in a hiss when I drag my tongue down the center of his stomach.
I kiss the ridges of his abdomen, smiling when they tighten.
Then I reach the waistband of his trousers.
Luca watches me.
His breathing becomes shallow.
I unfasten them and pull the fabric over his hips.
He isn’t wearing anything underneath.
His cock springs free, hard and heavy against his stomach.
My mouth waters.
I need him inside me.
But first, I want to give him what I promised.
I push the trousers farther down his legs and kiss the inside of one thigh.
Then the other.
Luca’s head drops against the pillow when I cup him gently.
“Fuck, Simone.”
I kiss lower.
His stomach tightens.
“You’re killing me.”
I wrap one hand around his cock and stroke slowly.
A bead of precum gathers at the head.
I drag my thumb through it.
His hips lift.
I smile and take the tip into my mouth.
Luca releases a rough groan.
I circle him with my tongue, tasting salt and heat before drawing him deeper.
His hand moves toward my hair but stops.
“Is this what you want?”
I look up at him with my lips still wrapped around him.
Then I nod.
“Tell me if you need me to stop.”
I pull back enough to speak.
“I don’t want you to stop.”
Something fierce enters his expression.
His hand closes gently around my hair.
I lower my mouth again.
He guides me without forcing, letting me choose the depth and rhythm.
I take more of him.
My cheeks hollow as I suck, one hand stroking the length I can’t fit into my mouth.
“Jesus Christ.”
His fingers tighten slightly in my hair.
“You look so good.”
The praise sends heat between my legs.
I take him deeper.
The head of his cock presses against the back of my throat, triggering my gag reflex.
I pull away for air.
Luca immediately loosens his hold.
“Too much?”
“No.”
I draw a full breath.
“Again.”
His eyes darken.
I take him back into my mouth.
This time, I relax and let him guide me deeper.
Tears gather at the corners of my eyes, but pleasure pulses through me when Luca moans my name.
I love knowing I can dismantle his control.
That I can make this disciplined, impossible man tremble beneath me.
His thighs tense.
“Simone.”
The warning is strained.
“I’m close.”
I don’t stop.
I want everything.
His breath catches.
His hips lift once.
Then he comes with a low, broken groan.
I swallow, taking everything he gives me.
When I finally pull away, I lick the remaining moisture from my lower lip.
“Did you like that?”
Luca stares up at me.
Dazed.
Hungry.
Completely mine in this moment.
“Come here.”
He catches the back of my neck and pulls me toward him.
His mouth claims mine.
He kisses me as though he can taste himself on my tongue and wants more.
His hands slide beneath the borrowed dress.
One cups my ass while the other finds the wet fabric between my legs.
“Off.”
The command vibrates against my mouth.
I sit back and pull the dress over my head.
I’m wearing only my underwear.
Luca’s gaze drops.
My nipples harden beneath his attention.
I rock against his thigh, chasing friction.
His fingers stroke me through the soaked fabric.
My head falls back.
“You’re so wet.”
His mouth travels down my throat.
“I’ve been wet since you told me you loved me.”
A smile brushes my skin.
“I should have said it years ago.”
“Yes, you should have.”
His thumb presses against my clit.
I gasp.
“Luca.”
“I love hearing you say my name like that.”
He shifts my underwear aside and slides two fingers through the slickness between my thighs.
My body tightens.
“Same rules as last night?” he asks.
I know exactly what he means.
Sober.
Tested.
Protected by my birth control.
Certain.
“Yes.”
“And you want this?”
“I want you.”
I reach between us and wrap my hand around his cock, already hardening again.
“Inside me.”
That destroys the last of his restraint.
Luca rolls us over.
His mouth covers mine as he pushes into me.
Slowly.
Deeply.
My body stretches around him.
I moan against his lips.
He stops when he is fully seated.
“All right?”
“Yes.”
I lift my hips.
“Move.”
The first thrust is controlled.
The second is harder.
The third makes the bed strike the wall.
Luca freezes.
Voices murmur somewhere beyond the room.
I clamp one hand over my mouth.
His eyes gleam.
“We’re not alone.”
“I noticed.”
“As much as I love hearing you…”
He rolls his hips slowly, making me fight another moan.
“You have to be quiet.”
“That’s your fault.”
“Can you do it?”
I nod.
“Promise?”
“Yes.”
His thumb pulls my hand from my mouth.
“Use words.”
“I promise.”
“Good girl.”
The praise sends a sharp pulse through me.
Luca feels it.
His mouth curves.
“My perfect girl.”
He draws nearly all the way out and drives back inside.
I bury my face against his shoulder to muffle the sound.
His thrusts become deeper.
Harder.
Every movement rubs against the most sensitive part of me.
My nails score his back.
Luca’s mouth moves across my neck and breasts, kissing and biting while his hips maintain a punishing rhythm.
The narrow bed creaks beneath us.
“Quiet,” he reminds me against my nipple.
“You be quiet.”
“I’m not the one trying to wake the village.”
I clench around him deliberately.
His next groan is loud enough to prove my point.
I smile.
“Hypocrite.”
Luca kisses me hard.
Then he shifts us.
I’m on my hands and knees before I understand what he’s doing.
He kneads my ass and drags his fingers over the bruises he left beside the pool.
“Do these hurt?”
“Not in a bad way.”
His lips touch one mark.
Then the other.
“I like seeing where you held me.”
His breath becomes hotter against my skin.
“You shouldn’t tell me things like that.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ll want to give you more.”
He rises behind me and slides inside again.
The angle is deeper.
My hands fist in the sheets.
Luca grips my hips and begins to move.
There’s nothing hesitant about him now.
Each thrust is firm and deliberate, driving me forward against the mattress.
I bite the pillow to keep from crying out.
His body folds over mine.
One arm wraps around my waist and pulls me upright against his chest.
His hand moves over my stomach and breasts before settling lightly around my throat.
“Still okay?”
“Yes.”
He applies the pressure I asked for beside the pool.
My body clenches.
“That’s it.”
His lips brush my ear.
“Say my name.”
“Luca.”
“Again.”
I say it because it is the only word left in my mind.
His name becomes a prayer.
A plea.
A promise.
His fingers find my clit.
The combination of his cock inside me, his hand around my throat, and the rough praise in my ear destroys me.
“I’m close.”
“Come for me.”
He strokes me faster.
“Let me feel it.”
My orgasm crashes through me.
I bury my face against his arm to smother the cry.
My body shakes, tightening around him until Luca curses against my neck.
He continues thrusting through every pulse.
Then his rhythm falters.
He loosens his hand from my throat.
“Where?”
“Inside me.”
His body stills for half a second.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
I reach back and pull him closer.
“I want all of you.”
Luca drives into me once.
Twice.
Then he comes.
His hips press tightly against mine as heat fills me.
His body locks around me.
For several seconds, the only sounds are our ragged breathing and the distant murmur of the sea beyond the cottage.
When he pulls out, I whimper at the emptiness.