Chapter 35 #2
The kiss was deep and hungry, and all I wanted was more.
Roman chuckled and pulled back, that talented tongue sliding over my top lip. “You are having a hard time obeying, huh?” he said with a wicked grin.
Before I could answer, he captured both my wrists and pinned them above my head.
I yelped as he claimed my mouth once more.
This kiss was different—hotter and hungrier. Roman kept one hand wrapped securely around my wrists while the other slid toward my chest, his palm warm and firm against my skin.
It was almost disorienting how fast the passion rebuilt between us.
But just as quickly, he was gone. I blinked up at him, head spinning. He sat back, dropping my wrists to tug his shirt over his head. He tossed it aside before his hands went to the waistband of his sweats.
I watched, enraptured as he stripped them off, kicking them aside. There was nothing left between us, and I gawked at the masterpiece of his body the way he had mine.
Roman was…pure art. The sight of his bare skin and the hard lines of muscle shifting as he moved made it impossible to look away.
I didn’t want to. My hands itched to touch, to caress the hard planes of him and feel the dark, enticing trail of hair across his chest. His biceps flexed as he settled back over me, begging me to grab onto them.
With an incredible amount of effort, my hands stayed where he put them.
A slow, knowing smile tugged at his mouth. “Like what you see?”
I licked my lips. “Always have.”
His expression darkened at the admission as he gripped my wrists. “Good.” Then he crashed his mouth to mine.
His lips were fervent and possessive as he kissed me like he meant to claim every breath I took. My pulse thundered in my ears as I shifted, my legs parting wider as he settled between them.
Roman broke the kiss, touching his forehead to mine. His thumb brushed across the inside of my wrist, where he held my hands captive.
“You drive me crazy.”
The roughness in his voice made my heart flutter.
I tilted my head, brushing my nose against his. “You started this.”
A low laugh rumbled out of him. “Did I?”
His free hand drifted down my side, fingertips grazing my skin and sending a wave of chills over me.
I moved beneath him, raising my hips, aching for him.
“Careful,” he murmured, voice low. “You keep moving like that and I’m going to lose what little control I’ve got left.”
The warning sent another rush through me.
Instead of stilling, I tugged at his firm grasp on my wrists. I wanted to touch him, and it wasn’t fair he wouldn’t let me. I didn’t care whether it hurt.
“Maybe I want you to,” I challenged.
His gaze flicked over me, like he was searching for a lie. His fingers grazed along my thigh, his thumb tracing circles as the space between us grew thick with anticipation. “You sure about this?”
I didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
He leaned down and kissed me—slow at first, then deeper as he reached between us, guiding himself.
The first movements stole the air from my lungs. I felt the unfamiliar stretch of him and the instinct to squeeze my eyes shut flashed through me, but I forced them open.
I focused on him.
As he moved, the sounds Roman made were intoxicating. His fingers tightened around my wrists as he found a rhythm.
He was stunning like this—completely mesmerizing. The muscles in his jaw flexed as he inhaled through his teeth, his brow furrowing as if he were holding back.
When his eyes slid closed, as if the sensation was too much for him, I said his name softly.
His head tilted, but he didn’t open them.
“Look at me, Roman.”
I wanted to see those beautiful slate-blue eyes.
He opened them slowly, and when they found mine, there was so much there—so many emotions swirling beneath the surface that I couldn’t begin to distinguish them all.
Except for one.
It shimmered in his gaze like a penny glinting at the bottom of a wishing well. I could just make it out beneath the ripples of turmoil and lust.
Love.
The realization sent a chill racing down my spine because somewhere deep inside me, I thought I felt it too. My own glimmering token ready to be given away the moment he asked for it.
Roman tilted closer until our noses touched, but he didn’t kiss me. We simply stared at each other, our breaths hot and mingling in the small space between us as he moved at a punishing, aching rhythm.
Oh God.
It built again—the tightness, the pressure climbing higher inside me.
A soft moan slipped from my lips.
Roman answered with a low growl.
His free hand slid behind my knee, bending my leg up, and the new angle sent stars bursting across my vision.
I cried out his name.
Roman’s head dropped into the curve of my neck as a deep groan tore from his chest, his movements quickening, driving the tension up until I trembled beneath him.
I couldn’t hold it back anymore.
My cry tore free as the sensation crashed through me a second time, brighter and hotter than the first. I sank my teeth into his shoulder by instinct, trying to muffle the sound.
Roman followed moments later, his body shuddering above mine as he buried his face in the crook of my neck.
As the pulsing waves receded, and our heartbeats slowed in time with our labored gasps, I wrapped both my legs around his hips, pulling him tighter against me in the only way that I could. His nails bit into my wrists, as he placed a soft kiss at the sensitive place behind my ear.
I shuddered, skin slick with sweat and the scent of Roman Ramsey. I didn’t want to pull away. I never wanted to let him go.
I had promised myself that I would protect my heart this time. I swore I wouldn’t let it be battered and bruised again.
But I had not anticipated the way Roman would reach right inside my chest and demand that I be his.
It was never a fair fight to begin with.
For a long moment, neither of us moved.
Roman’s weight rested over me, solid and grounding. His breaths slowed, the steady rhythm brushing across my skin as the last echoes of everything we’d shared shifted into something softer.
Eventually, Roman rolled onto his side and pulled me with him. One heavy arm wrapped around my waist as he crushed me to him like he had no intention of letting me go. I let myself relax, exhausted.
The last thing I remembered before sleep claimed me was the steady beat of his heart against my back and his fingers tracing slow patterns along my arm. I was safe and protected. Nothing would hurt me here in Roman’s embrace.