13. Adriana
ADRIANA
Ican't quite believe what I'm seeing.
Lachlan Gallagher, the once-upon-a-time love of my life, is kneeling in front of me, copper hair falling over his forehead and his blue eyes glassy with want, begging me to let him go down on me.
Promising me he hasn't touched anyone but me in ten years. Telling me he'd come just from a taste of me, without even touching himself.
I don't believe him. Men don't do that. They don't deprive themselves. They don't become celibate for a woman they might never see again. No man goes ten years without sex just for some girl they fucked once and left behind.
But Lachlan swears he did.
And God, I want him so badly. I want pleasure so badly.
It's been so long, and I feel starved for it, for him.
He's become the kind of man I fear, but he's offering me something I want desperately, and in this moment, his hair falling into his eyes and his lips parted, face full of want, he almost looks like the boy I loved again.
And anyway, when he doesn't come from the taste of me alone, I'll know he's lying.
I move my hands away from my skirt and press them against the bed. He moves closer on his knees, and I can see the pulse in the hollow of his throat beating hard.
His hands are careful and slow when they reach for my skirt, like they were in my memories.
He bunches the material in his hands and drags it up inch by inch, revealing my ankles, my calves, my knees.
He leaves my skirt there for a moment, smoothing his hands up my inner calves, and then he brings my leg up slowly, leaning down to press a kiss to the top of my foot.
"You want this," he murmurs, his breath hot against my skin. "You want me. I can feel it."
"No." The word comes out breathless, unconvincing, and he laughs softly, the sound vibrating against my skin.
"Liar."
He lifts my other leg and repeats the motion. And then he moves closer, his hands bunching in my skirt again as he starts to push it up my thighs.
"I'm going to remind you," he murmurs, his voice low and rough in my ear, "what it's like when someone worships you. When someone wants you so badly they can't think straight. When someone would rather die than be with anyone else."
I can't breathe. He pushes the skirt all the way up to the tops of my thighs, and then his hands curl on either side of my knees, pushing my legs apart. When I don't resist, he pushes them wider, moving between them as he turns to press a sucking kiss to the side of my knee.
I gasp, but in a moment, I quickly realize that was the least of it.
He starts to kiss up my thigh, each kiss growing firmer, harder, his lips sucking at my skin and teeth biting until I see red marks where his mouth was a moment ago.
If he'd started like this, I realize, it would have hurt, but with each kiss, each graze of his lips against my skin, my arousal heightens.
My blood is racing, my skin tight and hot, my heart pounding, and the harsher kisses feel good instead of hurting, his mouth sucking and his teeth biting sending jolts of nearly unbearable pleasure through me.
He reaches the very top of my inner thigh, and sets his teeth into my skin, sucking hard. I gasp, a helpless moan spilling from my lips, and he groans in response, the sound vibrating against my flesh.
Then he pulls back, and I catch a glimpse of the thick, rigid line of his cock straining against the front of his pants before he leans in and starts at my other knee.
"Please," I gasp when his lips brush softly, the way they did before. "Oh God, please—"
"Patience," he purrs against my skin. "I waited ten years, Adri. You can wait ten more seconds before I get to your pretty pussy."
I gasp, and then his teeth set into my skin, and I nearly collapse back onto the bed.
My fingers dig into the blankets, my body trembling all over by the time he gets to the top of my other inner thigh.
He sucks hard again, leaving a wide purple mark on my skin, and then he rocks back on his knees, taking in the sight of the love bites he's left all up and down my pale flesh.
"Fucking beautiful," he murmurs. He runs a finger down the marked skin, and I shudder. "Fucking mine."
Then he shoves my skirt up the rest of the way, hooks his fingers in my panties, and drags them down my hips.
On instinct, my legs start to close, but he catches my knees, holding me apart as he moves in again.
His gaze is fixed between my thighs, and I feel my face flushing hot.
I can feel how swollen I am, how wet my pussy is, and I'm suddenly horribly embarrassed.
And I have hair there now, soft curling dark hair that wasn't there ten years ago, when I used to shave bare…
"Lachlan, I haven't—"
"I don't care." His voice is a rough, harsh growl.
"Fuck, look at this pretty pussy. You're so fucking wet for me, Adri.
I remember how good this wet pussy felt around my cock.
It was so good I haven't touched another pussy since.
Do you know how hungry my cock is for you, baby?
How badly it wants to feel you get it wet again? "
His voice is filthy, his Irish accent thick as he slides his hand between my thighs, one finger separating my folds. He groans as his finger drags through my wetness, his breath coming short. "Fuck, God, I'm close just from touching you. You're so fucking wet. So perfect."
He pulls his hand back, gripping my sore, marked thighs as he spreads me as wide as I can go. "Fuck, I've got to taste you, Adri. I can't fucking wait anymore, baby."
My entire body tenses, with fear or anticipation, I'm not sure which.
I'm suddenly terrified of the pleasure, of the sensations I haven't had in so long, but Lachlan doesn't give me more than a moment to think about it.
His mouth presses between my thighs, and with the first long lick against my drenched folds, I'm lost in it.
His tongue drags up to my clit, and suddenly I feel his grip on my thighs tighten as a long shudder rolls through him, a ragged groan vibrating against my skin and making me cry out.
His tongue lashes against me as he shudders and moans, devouring me, and then he pulls back, his eyes wide and pupils blown out, breathing hard.
"I just fucking came for you, baby. You taste so fucking good. I've been dreaming of this for ten years, and fuck, I just fucking came so hard."
I stare down at him, almost disbelieving, but I felt it… I felt his pleasure. And he doesn't seem to care that he finished; he leans back in, his mouth pressed against me as his tongue works my clit, rolling over it and lapping as he eats me like he's starving.
And I'm completely gone. The sensation is so good, better than anything I remember from ten years ago, years of deprivation and longing building up so quickly that I feel like I'm already close, too.
I forget to be embarrassed, forget shame or fear or anything except how good his tongue feels, how hungrily he's devouring me.
I clutch at the bed and then at him, my nails digging into his shoulders and the back of his neck as I feel the pleasure building, building…
"Give it to me, baby," he growls against my skin. "I want it. Give me everything."
I can't give him everything. Not anymore.
But this… this I can. I feel myself shatter, my hips bucking, writhing against him as I come hard on his tongue, my nails digging in so deep I'm sure I must draw blood.
But he doesn't care. He doesn't stop. He keeps licking me through it, dragging the pleasure on and on, and then just when I think I'm about to come down, he pushes two fingers inside of me and sucks hard on my clit.
The pleasure spikes again almost instantly, my moan turning into a high-pitched cry as he sucks my clit and flutters his tongue against it, his fingers thrusting into me in a rhythm that is going to break me apart again.
I feel myself tensing, and then the pleasure hits again, bowing my back and making me cling to him as I nearly fall back onto the bed, writhing under him as he makes me come for a second time in quick succession.
I'm gasping when he pulls back, his mouth and chin soaked and glistening with me. I feel my face start to flush again, but Lachlan shakes his head.
"None of that, baby," he murmurs. "Don't be shy, Adri. You tasted so fucking good. Do you have any idea how good it felt to know how much you still want me? To taste that wet fucking pussy?"
His hand drags his zipper down, pushing his pants and boxer briefs down just enough, and I see a glimpse of his half-hard cock drenched in his own cum. "I came so fucking much, baby. I'm fucking soaked, too."
For a long moment, we just stare at each other, breathing hard. It felt so good. I want to tell him to take all his clothes off, to strip off mine and get in bed with me, touch me until he's hard again and then give me everything I know he wants to.
But the moment I imagine it, Lachlan naked and holding me in his arms again, sliding into me, I feel the fear make my blood run cold.
The last time we were together, our world fell apart. We were hurt terribly. The consequences were unfathomable. And now… now I have a son to protect. I can't only think about myself any longer.
And even though the man kneeling in front of me still reminds me of the boy I loved, he isn't any longer. I saw him with blood on his hands. He kidnapped me and Matteo. He's become a mafia boss, the example of everything I'm afraid of in this world, and I shouldn't have even let him have this much.
We can never be what we were. Pretending is only going to make it worse.
"You need to go," I whisper. "I believe you… what you said. Okay? I believe that you only wanted me. But what does that change, really? You denied yourself, and I suffered, and for what? For a teenage fantasy—"