Chapter Eight
Chapter Eight
Nyra woke up to the sounds of the shower running. She blinked and instantly searched the other side of the bed.
The sheets were cool and unruffled while her side of the bed looked like it had been hit by an earthquake. A quick glance at her watch on the nightstand told her that it was nearly two in the morning.
She’d eaten dinner alone, again. Only this time, it was at the penthouse in the skyscraper that belonged to the bank rather than at the castle. After dinner, she’d just drooped and wilted, waiting for Adriano.
Her body had been beyond exhausted, the relief after three days of stress and tension taking her out at the knees.
Sitting up in the bed now, she turned on the night lamp and stared down at herself. Another one of Adriano’s dress shirts tented over her belly. She’d long ago discarded her bra. Her hair had lost whatever silky sheen it had been given after her hasty shower and letting it air-dry. Wavy and tangled, it was out of control.
She braided it quickly and grabbed the overnight bag she’d packed. Her fingers were cold, her sleepy brain slow to respond as she unbuttoned the shirt. Shrugging it off, she pulled on the beige-colored satin nightie she’d picked only yesterday afternoon.
Picking lingerie and sheer, lacy nightwear under Nigella’s gaze had been an exercise in embarrassment. But it was the only way—having Nigella call her personal shoppe—to get her hands on new clothes for this new image she was building.
Her choice had still been the most modest of them all, with the satin fabric simply draping over her curves.
Standing, Nyra studied her profile in the full-length mirror that had been hung directly across from the king bed. Pregnancy had given her skin that healthy glow, and eating well and sleeping on time the last couple of weeks had taken care of the rest.
She looked…pretty, if not ravishingly beautiful as she’d hoped. Her finger skidded across her mouth when she tried to apply lip gloss as a sudden, horrifying thought struck her.
Why did Adriano have a mirror right up against the bed in his bedroom? Was this his love nest?
The lip gloss tube fell from her hand and promptly rolled under the bed as she looked around the luxurious room with suspicious eyes.
For all that he had rarely been caught in tabloids with a partner, even before they’d met, she had firsthand knowledge of how insatiable her husband was. It had been months since they’d been intimate. Rightly or not, he’d thought she’d cheated on him.
What if he had already…
“Nyra!”
Flushing, she turned.
Adriano stood at the entrance to the bedroom, clad in nothing but a towel around his hips. The white of the fabric contrasted richly against his olive skin. Heat prickled over her skin, as she followed the trail of a waterdrop down the thick ridges of his chest and abdomen.
“You look like a ghost,” he said, coming to her. The scent of his soap made her flesh shiver and ache instantly. “What is it, bella ? Was it a bad dream?”
When he laid a hand on her shoulder, she jerked back. “Have you…”
“Have I what?”
“Have you been with another woman in the last few months, Adriano? When you thought I was…”
His jaw tightened and a vein ticked in his temple. “No.”
Relief poured through her in shivers. Turning toward him, she wrapped her arms around his waist like a child. Though the damp heat of his skin and what it evoked was another matter. “I’m sorry.”
His heart was a steadying beat at her ear. Though he didn’t put his arms around her or press his mouth to her temple. If anything, he stiffened in her embrace. “We’ve already established you have no trust in me. There’s no need to apologize.”
And yet he sounded angry. No, hurt. He was hurt. That wasn’t possible.
Hurt required attachment and expectations and some sort of affection. All they had was lust and this determination to be good parents now.
“You have a mirror right up against the bed and your assistant of nearly fifteen years blocked my calls. And you thought I had betrayed you.”
Suddenly, she could feel an echo of the pain he must have felt in seeing those photographs of her twin, naked and writhing in another man’s arms.
His humiliating her in front of his parents had blinded her to his pain.
She didn’t know if she could ever forget how easily he had thrown her out, but she thought she could forgive his jumping to conclusions.
“I couldn’t bear it if you even looked at another woman, if you…let someone touch you or give them the right to touch this body.” She dug her teeth into his chest, feeling a near savage thirst to mark him as hers. “I couldn’t stay then, not even for the babies.”
“Shh…” he finally said, one hand coming to the nape of her neck. Those long fingers bracketed her neck possessively, an adornment she liked more than diamonds. “My assistant,” he said, as if knowing not to bring the woman’s name to his lips, “had no right to block you and has been dealt with severely. I apologize for causing you that extra stress.”
“Fabi said she used to be your preferred partner at any number of society galas and parties.”
His sigh ruffled the hairs at her temple. “Because I didn’t like playing games with women I had no interest in. As my assistant, she was a safe choice.” Like an ice cube rolling down her skin, he marched those fingers down her spine. And then he was winding her braid around his fingers and tugging, exerting just the right pressure on her scalp.
It dripped like drops of molten honey down her limbs. Every inch of her pulled taut with anticipatory pleasure.
Nyra gave her own hands free rein, tracing the thick ridges and valleys of his muscles. The power thrumming through this man, the thick length pressing against her thigh…it was all hers. How had she never realized the bounty the universe had given her, for once?
She would never take it for granted, ever again.
“And you never…before we met?” She knew she was pushing it, but she wanted this topic closed. Just thinking of how naive she’d been in not seeing his appeal to other women seemed foolish now.
“Never. She’s under my power and protection. I’m not my father.”
The steel in his words put paid to the final niggle in her head. “Will you fire her, or should I?”
“Where has this lioness been all these months?”
She hid her face in his chest. “Don’t remind me. I was…foolish and naive. Your mother was right about me.”
“ Basta, cara! I liked that woman,” he said gruffly. “She was brave and honest.”
Her heart inflated to dangerous proportions. It was the first time he’d admitted that their relationship had had more than just sex as its basis.
She pressed a kiss to his chest, then raked her fingernail over the flat nipple. His chest hair tickled her palm. Sudden tension filled his powerful frame.
“The mirror?” she said, looking up.
He laughed. “You’re quite the suspicious little thing, aren’t you?”
“It’s not just men who get jealous and possessive,” she said, raking her nails down his abdomen.
A hiss left his mouth.
She flushed as her gaze fell on the clear outline tenting the towel.
But before she could touch him, he shifted her so that they were facing the mirror. Behind her, he was all rough, rugged planes and masculine magnetism. Framed by the gilt-edged mirror, they looked like they…belonged together, she thought, with a shiver.
Their eyes caught and held, heat arcing around them like a coiled lash.
His erection at her back prodded her bottom even as his hands lazily drifted over her shoulders, grazed the sides of her breasts and then settled on her belly. “Remember the time I took you in the greenhouse?”
“You nearly shattered my orchid after I had just repotted it.”
He grinned. With his wet hair flopping onto his temple and his smile weaving crinkly lines at the corners of his eyes, he was a different man from the one the world saw. The one that had dismissed his entire board with one word that evening. The one that dealt with the forgotten scandal involving his wife and the mud raking that followed with harsh measures.
Maybe only she got to see this side, she thought, with a giddy joy. And maybe this passion and the trust they would build could be enough.
“You wouldn’t let me press you against the glass even though I told you no one can see us. Then when…”
“When you kept edging me without letting me come, I promised to let you do whatever you wanted in front of a mirror if only you gave me relief,” she finished, feverish tingles breaking out across her skin.
His hands cupped her breasts, the nipples poking through the satin. “ Si. It was delivered here by mistake.”
Nyra threw her head back as he pinched one peak. “Okay, have at me, then.”
His teeth and tongue played havoc on the sensitive spot at her neck, while his fingers drove her wild. “Maybe some other time. Right now, I think I prefer the bed.”
“What?” she said, straightening. “Why?”
His palms cradled her belly protectively. “I should curb my more dangerous intentions for you for a while, si ?”
She covered his hands with hers, loath to lose this one real, concrete thing between them. The pregnancy was already doing a number on her emotions. “No si . No bueno . Adriano, I’m not fragile. Whatever you want, I’m up for it.”
“Nyra—”
“This is a fresh start for us. And maybe it’s not a big deal to you, but I went to a lot of trouble to please you and—”
“What trouble?” he said, widening his eyes exaggeratedly.
With a huff, she pushed out of his embrace and glared at him. “Now I feel like I’m truly married.”
His mouth twitched. “Such temper, cara !” Reaching out, he traced one finger from her neck down to her chest. “Look how prettily it paints your chest and neck…”
Then he prowled toward her like some great predator. He hooked one finger at her neckline and tugged until the nightie ripped straight down the middle.
“I just picked this from too many,” she said, holding the torn edges together. “I got my nails done, got waxed to an inch, got a facial and picked out a whole new wardrobe so that you’re not ashamed of me.”
He froze, his gaze a stormy gray now. “I never claimed I was.”
“There’s a reason we’ve never been out in public even once in all these months. I didn’t even meet your—”
“You never asked to meet anyone.”
“I’m not blaming you,” she said, rubbing her finger over his lower lip. “It suited me to hide in the corners of your life. I think I was almost waiting you out, waiting for you to come to your senses.”
“What does that mean?”
She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. But all that’s going to change now.”
“I like you in my shirts, bella , or like this, with nothing on.”
Before she could draw another breath, he bent that proud head down and licked her nipple. Electricity shivered down her spine. She sank her fingers into his hair as he played with the bud, licking and tugging and finally, closing his lips around it and sucking.
Shaking, Nyra half gasped and half moaned as his fingers gently cupped her belly and then delved down into her folds.
His curse rang loudly in the silence.
“You’re dripping,” Adriano said, laving the wetness and tapping on her clit.
“For you,” she said, holding on to him for balance but also hoping he would launch her into the sky like he usually did. “I’ve missed you so much, Adriano.”
He shifted his mouth to her other breast, his breath a sharp stroke against the waiting bud. “Never again, Nyra. You will never be deprived again.”
And then with his mouth alternating between her nipples and the valley between her breasts, and his finger strumming her folds, thrusting through her core, pinching her clit, while his filthy words of praise drenched her skin, he pushed her to the edge of the cliff and launched her into a thousand fragments.
Nyra came, sobbing and keening and crying, his name falling over and over from her lips.
* * *
When she returned to the ground, trembling from head to toe, it was to find the cool sheets at her back. On his knees and hands, Adriano was watching her, filling her entire vision.
She clasped his cheek, loving the rough bristle of his stubble against her palm. “I wanted to seduce you,” she said, her eyes flickering between his. “You didn’t come to see me after returning from Japan.”
“I wanted to,” he bit out, skating his mouth over her palm.
“I want this to work, Adriano,” she said.
“I know, wife. And it will.” Then he leaned down, his shoulders bunching tight when he stopped short of giving her his entire weight. “And you don’t have to go to these lengths to seduce me, bella .” His pelvis came down and Nyra instantly opened her thighs.
The rough, weighty press of his cock against her damp core made their groans ring out together. “All you need to do is ask me for this. For whatever you want.”
She threw her arms around his neck and pulled herself up. Her already sensitized nipples scraped deliciously against his chest hair. “Then, please, come inside me. I’m desperate.” And then she took his mouth.
He tasted like toothpaste and whiskey and him…
The kiss went to incendiary from the get-go. Heat flushed and prickled under her skin, as he plundered her mouth with the same desperate need she felt.
Nyra writhed against the sheets, anchoring her hands in his hair as he moved his mouth down her jaw and then blew a soft puff of air over her nipple. The peak tightened and arched toward him.
She tugged at his hair hard. With a chuckle, he closed his lips over it and she was riding the gates to heaven on a wave.
The suck and pull of his clever lips made her core weep and gush. A curse rattled off his lips when his cock felt her damp folds. “You’re so ready for me, bella .”
“I am,” she said, clinging to him.
He played with her breasts a little more, bringing her right to the edge, all over again. Just when she thought she might expire from the little mirage hovering out of reach, he pulled her up to lean against him.
Her chest heaving with rough pants, Nyra took a few seconds to register how he had positioned them. Her damp back slid against his hairy chest but it was only one point of attack. His hair-roughened thighs bracketed hers and against her lower back, his cock was trapped. The scent of his soap and sweat wrapped around her like a coil.
“Give me your gaze, Nyra,” he said, kissing a line along her shoulder blades.
Pushing sticky tendrils back from her forehead, she looked up.
In the mirror, gray-green eyes trapped her, as surely as if he was a hunter who’d set a snare for her. And the lure was this erotic picture of them together framed perfectly in the mirror.
The ceiling lights were in full brightness and they danced over her skin like gold drops. Her breasts were full with peaked nipples, and his long fingers on her belly, made her swallow. With his broad shoulders and long, powerful limbs and all those clenched muscles around her, he should have minimized her. Instead, against the contrast of his body, anchored by the naked desire in his gaze, she felt beautiful.
Seen. Known.
“Will you sit for a painting like this, Nyra?” he said, nuzzling her neck, his fingers beginning the ascent of her desire all over again.
“If you join me,” she said, throwing her head back.
His smile was a dark gleam in the mirror. “I shall convince you,” he said, digging his teeth into her shoulder.
And then his hands were everywhere, his mouth was everywhere. Nyra stopped trying to keep track of what he was doing to her and simply gave in to the assault.
Her second orgasm came and went, spinning and hurling her around as if she were a speck of light in the cosmos. Or even an exploding star.
The pleasure was so intense that she started sobbing at some point.
Every muscle in her body felt stretched, wrung out, but Nyra hung on to him, knowing he still hadn’t sought his satisfaction. “Enough, Adriano. Let’s take care of you now. Por favore ,” she said, turning and rubbing her swollen lips against his jaw.
He chuckled, and the sound went straight to her sensitized core. “Do you still think I don’t appreciate you, bella ?”
Taking his lips in a soft kiss, Nyra held back the things she couldn’t say anymore. “I will never complain, ever again.”
His fingers strummed her folds and then her popped clit, sending a weak arrow of pleasure through her. She whimpered, her spine feeling like it was made of Jell-O. “You’re ready for me, then?” he whispered.
“Always,” she said.
“Keep your eyes open.”
Nyra blinked and watched as he lifted her to sit on him as if she were a feather. Then he adjusted her thighs, and suddenly, she was glad for the flexibility and strength her daily yoga practice had given her.
“Now take me inside, bella . Easy and slow.”
Clutching his forearms, sensing his raised tendons with her fingers, Nyra pulled up and then drove herself down onto his cock. After all these months, she’d forgotten how the stretch and breadth of him felt inside her. Pleasure and just a pinch of pain drenched her.
A feral moan ripped from their mouths, joining into an erotic symphony.
One corded arm sat under her breasts, holding her impaled against him, while he sent the other to cup her cheek. His kiss was brutal in its need and so soft in its delivery.
“Is this dangerous enough for you, Nyra?”
She giggled. And even that sent a fresh arrow of sensation where they were joined, pleasure shorting out her synapses.
Of course, she should have known that her extracompetitive husband would take it as a challenge.
And in this new position, it felt like he was right in her heart. She’d barely taken stock of all the new, raw sensations strumming through her, when he said, “Give me your gaze.”
She looked up, and there she was, indecently stretched out and splayed against his lap. Sweat made her skin gleam with a sheen, and her mouth was swollen, as were her nipples.
Every inch of her screamed his possession with pride.
With one hand on her throat, she moved the other down to touch the place where they were joined. Licking her lips, holding his gaze, she stroked the root of him.
A fiery jolt speared her from that place.
His filthy curse, a guttural groan and a slight thrust were her rewards.
Her sated body pulsed with renewed desire as she repeated the motion. Something about seeing Adriano reach the edge of his control—seeing his lower lip slacken, the green becoming richer in his eyes—made her feral with possessiveness.
She repeated the motions with her fingers, skimming over whatever she could reach of him as he spun those wicked hips into slow, shallow thrusts, making her eyes roll back in her head. Moving inside her, reminding her how glorious it could be but not giving her enough.
“Will you come for me again?”
“I can try,” she said, sensations shimmering into life under her skin all over again. “I worried that…”
“What?”
“That you might not want to try all these things anymore. I prepared myself for a loveless marriage but this…you and I and this intense physical connection… I worried that all you saw anymore was a liar. And your children’s mother.”
His teeth dug into her shoulder and the hiss of pain made fresh sparks pop at her core. It was punishment, but she didn’t care.
“I’ll always want to do wicked things to you, bella . Your changing body only makes me hungrier.” As if to prove his point, he played with her nipples.
Burying her fingers in his hair, Nyra moaned.
And then he was urging her to move, setting a slow, soft pace. Splayed open like that, his every thrust hit some deep, incredibly soft spot, making her moan. Her thighs burned as she pulled up and pushed down, matching his pace and then upping it because the spring in her lower belly pulled tauter and tighter the faster she moved.
That spot sent out reverberations of pleasure, skewering her.
Praise and curses fell equally from Adriano’s mouth, urging her on the last inch. Soon, she was clenching around his hard length, and breaking apart. Her climax a wave bringing her under.
Aftershocks wracked her as he gently pushed her onto her knees and hands. And she watched him in the mirror, shamelessly, this glorious man of hers.
And his naked hunger was etched on every plane and ridge of his body.
He met her eyes in the mirror and his thrusts got rougher, faster.
Nyra watched, her heart thudding in her chest a thousand times faster, as his climax hit and soaked her insides.
He bowed around her body, even in that moment of utter escape. As if he meant to protect her, even from himself.
Tears pooled and overflowed, and when he wiped one with a shaking hand and inquired if she was okay, she said he had ruined her once again.
And some worried part of her found solace in the fact that maybe this passion would be enough to sustain their marriage.