Chapter 21
FELIX
How can I resist such a demand? Dove’s hands claw at my shirt, tearing it from my body and sending buttons cascading in all directions.
I shrug her out of her blouse, snap her bra from her shoulders and as her bare breasts spill out for my hungry gaze, something about the curious awe in her eyes makes me pause.
She touches my heavily inked chest, then runs her fingers to one shoulder and then the next.
“You have so much more,” she whispers. “So much more than the last time I saw them.”
“Every time the loss got too much, I went to the tattoo parlor,” I admit softly, following her touch with my eyes. She traces vines and leaves, trees and flowers, birds and bees and all manner of insects, then down more swinging vines to my abdomen.
My chest and back paint the same picture, and the ink feeds down both arms to my wrists.
“So much,” Dove repeats softly.
I’ve had a lot of years and a lot of pain, but with Dove back in my life, the urge for the burn of the needle hasn’t hit once. It’s been replaced by my hunger for her.
She looks back up at me and lowers both her hands to my belt where she grips and jerks me closer. “Clothes off!”
By the time I’ve shed my slacks and boxers, my cock swells at half mast and hangs away from my body, throbbing at the sight of Dove on my desk with one foot resting up on the wood as she pulls her panties past her ankle.
I immediately drop to my knees and kiss her ankle as she lowers her foot, then I follow that path all the way up her calf to her thigh.
Small scars I used to trace every day with my tongue still exist but they’re joined with more.
Unfamiliar scars with stories I know nothing about.
Dove caresses my hair as I kiss all the way up the silky soft skin of her inner thigh until I’m face to face with her glistening pussy, slick with her excitement.
I stare, amazed that she’s back with me until she pulls hard on my hair.
“Why are you staring at me?”
“Because you’re beautiful.” My eyes flick up past the swell of her breast and eager, stiff nipples to meet her dark, lust-filled eyes. “You’ve no idea how much I ache to relearn every inch of you.”
She blushes so hard that the crimson sweeps down her neck and she rolls her eyes, lips parting. “You’re such a dramat—!”
I cut her off by burying my face in her pussy and thrusting my tongue deep inside her while grazing my teeth every so slightly against her clit.
She squeals in alarm and pulls harder on my hair, sending a lance of desire straight through me.
Heat pools low in my gut and my cock hardens completely, aching for any form of contact.
Her pussy is my meal for now, though.
I kiss her all over, suckle over her clit until she’s gasping above me, trail down to her entrance and then lower to lick briefly over her asshole.
She closes her thighs around my head and moans that much louder, then completely melts when all my attention returns to her clit while two fingers rapidly pump inside her.
Dove cums almost instantly, just as I’m starting to enjoy the sensation of her hot soft lips against my tongue, so I pull up with a laugh as she collapses back on the desk.
“Holy shit,” Dove gasps. “If you intend to fuck my ass, I’m gonna need longer than this.”
“I’d love to,” I reply while kissing her inner thigh. “But I’m too damn impatient.” Rising to my feet, I kiss over her stomach and lavish as much tender attention as I can over the scar across her abdomen, then I kiss up to her breasts.
Each nipple stands perky against my tongue and she shudders while I lick between the valley of her breasts, then kiss all the way back up to her mouth.
“Impatient, huh?” She pants against my lips and gazes into my eyes while caressing the back of my neck with one hand. “You’re the most patient man I know.”
“Not when you’re involved.” Our lips collide as I line up my cock with her entrance, intent on teasing her a little more. But the moment the crown of my cock kisses her hot, slick pussy, all my resolve melts.
I can’t wait.
My heart pounds, my chest heaves, and my mind fogs with lust, leaving only one thought to swirl around my brain as I push my cock into Dove and watch her arch back and gasp while her body stretches and accommodates me.
Fuck her.
Her head falls back, exposing the long line of her throat to my wandering lips. I kiss over her racing pulse and then linger, sucking a bruise above her pulse while pushing inch after inch deep inside her.
An overwhelmingly tight heat wraps around my cock and by the time I bottom out, I’m panting heavily and unable to give more attention to her throat.
“Holy shit,” Dove gasps. “Holy shit. Holy shit!”
Placing one hand flat on her chest, I keep her down and lean back as I start to thrust.
The sight of my cock disappearing inside her is surreal and every muscle in my lower core pulls tightly.
Over and over, my cock vanishes as her body parts around me and I stare down, scarcely able to believe that this is my life now.
“You look so beautiful,” I say softly.
“You’re only saying that cause you’re fucking me,” Dove gasps and her hands scramble around the desk for something to hold on to. “Oh shit… oh shit!”
“I’m saying it because I love you.” I lean down and gather her up in my arms, pulling her from the desk. Her arms wrap around my shoulders and her legs gather around my waist, but rather than pressing her against the wall, I hold her.
Gripping the underside of her thighs, I pull her off my cock and then slacken my grip just enough that she drops back down my shaft with a gasp and a moan.
Once I’ve adjusted to the rhythm, my grip grows bruising and I start fucking her up and down my cock like she’s nothing more than a doll.
Dove chants her breathless delight in my ear, leaving trails like fire across my back and shoulders and she claws at me every time she sinks down onto my cock.
I don’t care if she rips me apart; it’ll be worth it.
I fuck her as hard as I can until my lower back aches and sweat threatens to loosen my grip on her thighs so I have no choice but to return her to the desk.
The second I do, I grasp her hips with both hands and fuck into her fast and ruthlessly, caring about nothing else than chasing my orgasm and making sure she falls apart by the end.
Dove’s noiseless cries rush past my cheek as she continues to cling to me, forgoing tearing at my skin for just clinging to me with everything she has.
Faster and faster I fuck into her.
The desk creaks beneath her, my thighs burn, my balls tightens and the air fills with the slick slap of flesh against flesh.
Suddenly, her lips collide with mine and she pulls me into a deep kiss that triggers me to end. I cum with a growl against her lips, losing my pace instantly and burying myself as deep as I can get inside her.
Pulse after pulse of cum spills into her heat and Dove whimpers and reaches her end a second later.
Dove ends up collapsing back on the desk, panting heavily but with a small, sweet smile on her face.
I match that smile with one of my own but as I gather her up in my arms and carry her to bed with sweet kisses, I can’t help a small, niggling thought in the back of my mind.
Is forcing her to stay here really the right thing to do?
Dove falls asleep in my arms for the first time in over fifteen years.
I’m so exhilarated by her pressed against me, smelling of sweat and sex, that sleep escapes me at first. Or so I thought.
In a blink, I’m opening my eyes to sunlight streaming through my window, Dove tucked up against my chest with one leg over my waist,and my phone buzzing repeatedly on the bedside table.
“Fuck,” I whisper softly, reaching for it.
Caterina called twelve times and sent countless messages in fury because I didn’t answer.
There’s also another message from an old friend, the family I reached out to help me secure the scapegoat.
[Unknown] Got a light?
Seems the scapegoat plan is finally in motion. I text back a quick, equally coded reply.
[Felix] I don’t smoke.
Then I settle back into the pillows. I’ll need to get up and deal with Caterina, but with the scapegoat plan in motion, this might actually be the best scenario to bring this entire mess to an end.
Caterina’s attention will drift away from Dove and onto the fake real target of the Rossi killings, which means Dove can go back to her life and I can be in it.
Her promises last night, as loving as they were, were surely made in the heat of the moment to appease me but now it doesn’t need to be a lie.
Now, she really can stay.
“Dove?” Waking her feels cruel but the burning urge to pee and another text from Caterina tell me time is up.
She moans softly and turns her face into my chest, then tenses as if realizing she’s in bed with someone else. Her lashes flutter and tickle my skin, then she opens her eyes and slowly eases up. “Felix?”
“I hate to wake you but work calls.”
“Oh.” Her voice is so sexy when thick with sleep and heat stirs once more in my gut, but it dries up when my phone buzzes yet again.
“About last night,” I say after kissing her forehead. “I have a plan. It can be real. You can stay and be safe.”
“Felix…” Dove pushes strands of her gorgeous hair out of her face and peers at me. “We should talk about that properly, y'know. Because I can’t—.”
“Give me a day.” I don’t need to hear her say no. “One day and then everything will be okay, I promise.”
Dove blinks slowly and then, either because she’s still half asleep or because last night was so good, she nods. “Okay. One day.”
“Excellent.” I kiss her quickly and leap from the bed. “I’ll be back. Just trust me. Everything’s going to be okay.”
That thought stays with me until I walk into Caterina’s Manor two hours later and she refuses to see me.
“Please, take a seat.” The doorman indicates to the chairs in the entranceway with a bored tone.
“I don’t have time for this,” I reply stiffly. “If she’s bust, I’ll come back later.”
“She needs to see you, she just can’t right now.”
“Fine. Tell her to call me.” I walk toward the door but just as I reach the handle, the doorman sighs.
“Right this way, sir.”
Once again, I walk familiar hallways and pass paintings from memory all the way to Caterina’s office, where the door opens for me at the behest of a guard and I stride right inside.
Only to immediately duck as a vase comes flying toward me. “What the fuck?!”
“Where the fuck have you been?!” Caterina screams. “Where, Felix?!”
“Holy shit…” I straighten up slowly once I’m sure she has nothing else in her hands, and brush my hands down my white t-shirt. “Are you fucking insane?”
“Me?!” She screeches, snatching up the snow globe from her desk. “Did you forget who I am?! You ignore my calls? My summons?!”
Some days, Caterina reminds me of a car with how bored she is. Other days, she’s all over me like some kind of rash because she has an infatuation on me I refuse to acknowledge. And other days she’s like this; unstable and somewhat terrifying.
“I was asleep, Caterina. You have my apologies.”
“Asleep?” She stares at me like I’ve grown a second head. “You were asleep?”
“Yes! I do that from time to time.”
“Oh really?” She lowers the snow globe and then stalks around the edge of her desk. “Sit.”
I obey purely so she doesn’t pick that globe up again.
“Now look me in the eye while you lie to me.”
“Excuse me?” My brow lifts and a beat of tension pulls through my chest.
“I trusted you. I trusted you more than I’ve ever trusted anyone because I thought we had a bond. You and Nico were two peas in a pod. How do you think he would react to you lying to me like a fucking rat, Felix? How you’ve betrayed me?!”
I keep my expression as calm as I can. “Caterina, I assure you I have no idea—!”
“Felix!” Toph sprints into the room at top speed, panting harshly as he skids to a stop and holds up one hand in apology to Caterina. “ Felix, we have to go!”
“What? Why?”
“What’s the meaning of this!?” Caterina yells.
“Sorry Dona, I’m sorry, but Felix, your penthouse is on fire!”