“I swear,” his voice was gruff as if he’d spent hours screaming orders.
I lowered my hand and let him pull my nightgown off. He released a low breath as he gazed at my naked breasts. I had to fight the urge to cover myself. His fingertips brushed the hem of my panties but when I tensed they retreated and he rolled onto his back and lifted me on top of him. I straddled his stomach, my knees on either side of him, my breasts pressed against his chest. I tried to keep my weight off him because I didn’t want to hurt his wounds, but he wrapped one arm around my back and pressed me tightly against him. His other hand touched my butt, making me jump. He began moving his thumb across my lower back and butt, and I relaxed slowly. The entire time his eyes were boring into mine and with every passing moment a tiny bit more of the darkness dissipated.
“Doesn’t your cut need stitches?”
He bent forward and kissed me sweetly. “Tomorrow.” He kept stroking my butt and kissing me slowly as if he wanted to savor every moment. I was completely overwhelmed but it felt good. I loved that he was suddenly so gentle. If he was like that when we were intimate for the first time, then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. My eyelids felt heavy but I couldn’t look away from Luca. I touched his throat, an inch below the cut. I wasn’t sure why but I leaned forward and pressed a feather-light kiss against the wound. It was small and wouldn’t need stitches, not like the one below his ribs. When I drew back, Luca looked almost surprised. His hand on my butt moved lower, cupping my ass cheek.
His little finger was almost touching me there. He squeezed my cheek and for a moment his finger brushed my opening through the fabric.
I sucked in a breath, shocked by the jolt the small touch had sent through me. Heat gathered between my legs and I could feel myself getting wet. I squirmed in embarrassment, not wanting Luca to realize that a bare brush and his stroking of my butt had caused such a reaction. Maybe I wasn’t experienced but I’d been imagining certain things, had caressed myself on many nights. It wasn’t that I was frigid.
Luca’s body turned me on. Maybe I wanted love, but my body wanted something else. The feeling of Luca’s strong chest and muscled stomach under me, his gentle kisses, his soft touch, they made me want something more, even if my mind told me it was a bad idea.
Luca’s eyes narrowed a fraction as he studied me, like I was a difficult equation he wanted to figure out. Then he lightly graced the crotch of my panties with his fingertips and I knew he could feel it. I could feel that the thin fabric was soaked. My cheeks flamed in mortification and I lowered my eyes but I couldn’t bring myself to slide off him or even close my legs. His fingertips against my core felt good even if they’d stopped moving.
“Look at me, Aria,” Luca said in a rough voice.
I peered into his eyes even as my face felt close to exploding from shame. “Are you embarrassed because of this?” He traced a finger over my wet panties. My butt arched and I exhaled harshly.
I couldn’t say anything. My lips were parted as small sounds that weren’t quite moans slid out. Luca’s moved his finger up and down, gently, teasingly, and small shivers of pleasures slithered through my body. I’d always thought that passion and orgasms came as a forceful wave leaving nothing in their wake, something almost intimidating but this was like a slow trickling; a deliciously sweet tension mounting to something bigger.
I quivered on top of Luca, my fingers clinging to his shoulders. He never sped up his stroking but the pleasure rose with every brush. His eyes bore into mine as he slid two fingers over my opening then between my folds and pressed down on my clit. How could this feel so intense? He wasn’t even touching my skin. I gasped and trembled as sparks of pleasure shot through my body. I buried my face against Luca’s neck as I clung to him. His finger rubbed my clit through my panties, slower and slower until he simply rested his hand possessively over my folds.
Luca pressed his face into my hair. “God, you’re so wet, Aria. If you knew how much I want you right now, you’d run away.” He laughed darkly. “I can almost feel your wetness on my cock.”
I didn’t say anything, only tried to calm my breathing. Luca’s heartbeat was strong and fast beneath my cheek. He shifted and his length briefly brushed my inner thigh. He felt hot and hard.
“Do you want me to touch you?” I said in the quietest whisper. I was half-scared and half-excited about seeing him naked and actually touching him. I wanted to lay my claim on him, wanted to make him forget about the women of his past. Luca’s hand on my back tightened and he drew in a deep breath, his chest expanding under me.
“No,” he growled, and I lifted my head in confusion and a little hurt. Some of it must have showed, because Luca smiled grimly. “I’m not quite myself yet, Aria. There’s too much darkness on the surface, too much blood and anger. Today was bad.” He shook his head. “When I came home today and found you lying on the sofa, so innocent and vulnerable and mine.” Something flickered in his eyes, some of the darkness he’d mentioned. “I’m glad you don’t know the thoughts that ran through my head then. You are my wife and I swore to protect you, if necessary even from myself.”
“You think you’d lose control?” I whispered.
“I know it.”
“Maybe you underestimate yourself.” I trailed my fingers over his shoulders. I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince him or myself. He had scared me, there was no denying it. But he had snapped out of it.
“Maybe you trust me too much.” He ran a finger over my spine, sending a new wave of tingling toward my core. “When I lay you down on the bed like a sacrificial lamb, you should have run.”
“Someone once told me not to run from monsters because they give chase.”
The ghost of a smile crossed his face. “Next time, you run. Or if you can’t, you ram your knee into my balls.”
He wasn’t joking. “If I’d done that today, you would have lost control. The only reason why you didn’t was because I treated you like my husband, not a monster.”
He traced my lips with his thumb, then brushed my cheek. “You are far too beautiful and innocent to be married to someone like me, but I’m too much of a selfish bastard to ever let you go. You are mine. Forever.”
“I know,” I said, then lowered my cheek back to his chest. Luca extinguished the lights and I fell asleep listening to his heartbeat. I knew a normal person would have run from Luca, but I’d grown up among predators. Decent, normal guys with jobs that didn’t involve breaking laws were a foreign species to me. And deep down a primal part of me couldn’t imagine being with someone who wasn’t
an alpha like Luca. It thrilled me to know that a man like him could be gentle with me. It thrilled me that he was mine and I was his.
***
The sky was only just turning gray over New York’s skyline when I woke the next morning. I was still lying on Luca’s chest, my naked breasts pressed against his hot skin, but I’d slid down his body over night and his stiff length was pressed against my leg. I shifted carefully and peered up into Luca’s face. His eyes were closed and he looked so peaceful in sleep, it was hard to belief that the same face had harbored so much violence and darkness last night.
Curiosity gripped me. I’d never seen an erection but I was worried about waking Luca. After what he’d said, I really didn’t want to risk him losing control. I tried to peek over my shoulder at Luca’s boner, but with the way we were positioned I’d have to break my neck to see it.
Suddenly a buzzing came from the nightstand and Luca sat up so fast I squeaked. He took me with him, one arm steadying me around the waist, the other reaching for his mobile. But the new position had made me slide down his body and now his erection was between my legs, its length pressed up against my core. I was practically riding it like a broom. I’d never been more grateful for my underwear.