Chapter 32 #2
She smirked at his sleepy face. “You seem very distraught,” she said, snuggling into the cocoon of pre-warmed flannel sheets that smelled like him. Her whole body melted back into feeling okay once she was in his arms.
“I can worry and sleep at the same time,” he muttered, eyes closed and squeezing his arms around her waist. “How’d your thinking go?”
“Inconclusive,” she sighed, staring at the ceiling. He tugged her closer, so that she was flush against him, being the little spoon.
“Stop thinking so loud,” he said, nuzzling the back of her neck.
She leaned back into him, enjoying how her mind finally stopped spinning when he did that. “Can’t stop my brain.”
A heavy leg hooked around hers and tugged her legs back flush with his. He squeezed his arm around her, and she could have died from how good it felt. His mouth moved to the curve of her neck with slow, lazy kisses.
She sighed. “That helps.”
She pushed back against him, needing to feel even closer, until he angled her jaw for a slow, gentle kiss.
Just warmth and nuzzling. Taking their time. The scratch of his beard against her cheek made her smile.
She turned so they were nose to nose. For the first time, they were in no hurry. Just savoring each kiss as if it was a gift.
His hand cupped her jaw and ran up into her hair as his lips danced with hers in their own duet. Slow and sliding. The sensation made her feel like she was precious, perfect.
She ran her hands along his back, down to his ass, and squeezed.
He smiled against her lips. “Bunhead,” he whispered with a chuckle. An unexpected snort of laughter escaped her as he sucked on her earlobe.
He laughed harder and moved over her, his charming smirk making her weak with lust and love. “I’ll never get tired of your laugh,” he said, dipping down to kiss and bite along her jaw.
She loved the pinning weight of him against her hips. He was hard, and she spread her legs so he landed at just the right spot, wrapping her sore legs around him.
Propped up on his arms, he took his time as each kiss grew longer and deeper. He held her head with both hands, and the romance of it, how treasured she felt, was almost too much for her.
She loved him so much she might break in two.
“Luca, I…” she sighed, not even knowing how to say everything she felt. Can’t say “I love you” right now. Not during the lead-up to sex, like it was foreplay instead of her soul finding its twin flame.
He clenched his jaw, looking hungry. “I know, Liv.”
Their kisses became more desperate, more grasping. His hand slid under her shirt and grabbed her bare breast. They moved against each other at the pleasure of it.
He breathed against her neck as he wrapped an arm around her waist. “That music you danced to with the prince.”
She smiled in surprise as he locked eyes with her. The pas de deux?
“I… I knew it somehow.” He faltered, kissing her briefly. “I hear it when I touch you. In here,” he said, swiping a thumb over her heart.
He looked pained, as if he’d admitted something terrible.
Tears of longing filled her eyes. The most romantic melody ever. She understood him exactly. “You do?”
He nodded, kissing her, stroking over her heart again, the heat of his hand burning into her. Her eyes filled at the impossible sweetness of him. How much she loved him.
“Let me show you how I feel about you,” she whispered.
She pushed his sweatpants down as her lips never left his. Had to show him how much she loved him since she couldn’t tell him, for now. She had to make sure that when she finally told him, it was perfect, just like he always made her feel.
He reached for the drawer beside the bed as she tugged off her panties, her t-shirt. She didn’t want anything between them, wanted to feel every part of his heat against her.
As he rolled on a condom, she had to keep touching him. Kissing his heart where the music came from, nuzzling the chest hair there. Licking along the waves of his tattoos that covered his teddy-bear heart of gold.
Breathing against him, inhaling the cedar soap and sleep-warmed skin, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him down.
Thick fingers slid into her easily. Luca whimpered, her favorite sound, she realized, as he slid his fingers in and out. Her legs itched to wrap around him, but she threw her head back as his thumb strummed her clit. They breathed through their noses hard, feasting on each other’s mouths.
He threaded his fingers through hers and pushed his cock into her, so slow, so sweet. Needy and clinging to one another as if they’d finally found the place they belonged.
“This,” she gasped against his mouth, wrapping around him and pushing his head into the curve of her neck. “This is my fantasy.”
His thrust back into her was jagged, roughened, as if his muscles were fighting his control.
“Just like that,” she sighed. “Like you need me.”
“God, I do, Liv. I do.” His tortured face above her looked at her like she might sail away forever, never to see him again. “I do.”
She loved those words.
Wanted to hear them again and again.
While standing in front of everyone they loved, in a white dress, across from him.
“I do,” she echoed back to him. Their kisses were more urgent, more desperate as he reached between them and rubbed her clit in just the right way as he thrust.
“Coming,” she whispered through a hissed breath, trying to be so quiet. He kissed her hard, cradling her head as he destroyed every last defense around her heart.
As his tongue met hers, she climaxed with a gasped moan into his mouth and came around his cock, pulling and clenching it until a wrenched, whispered Liv had him coming in her.
Live. The word echoed into her as the sizzling, white static pleasure of her climax fizzled through her.
That was how it felt with him. Like she was finally living. Finally living a big, full life she’d never thought she could have.
Wrapped around each other, they stilled, and Olivia held him tight. The best gift he hasn’t even realized he’s given me.
Luca finally pulled back, his jaw moving like he was looking at a feast as he stared at her. “Go on our date tonight?” he asked suddenly, urgently. “If Pearl is free.”
She smiled. I want to go on a date with you for the rest of my life. “Is there a rush?”
“I just don’t want to miss whatever time I have with you.”
The reality of her life came back into focus. Her decisions to make, the people she might hurt, the potential she might lose.
Still, she nodded and kissed him as they cuddled back in bed, spooning as they’d started.