“What?”
My panties had been drenched since the fight, and I think I’d been having mini orgasms ever since. Being plastered to a sweaty, aggressive male was so arousing, I despaired we couldn’t shake everyone around us. My husband was annoying because he passed up an opportunity for hot sex in favor of finding out what happened. But Luca wasn’t ruled by his dick as he had often informed me. And I should be swooning that his concern for me came first.
I’d been anxious for everyone to leave, but now that they had, I didn’t know what to do with the man in front of me.
His whole body said “don’t fuck with me,” yet my body was screaming “take me, take me.”
Instead of answering, Luca tipped the bottle of scotch to his mouth, all the while not taking his eyes off me.
His eyes were wild and heated.
Like he wanted to eat me alive.
I backed up a step. I didn’t know what to do. He told me to run.
He lowered the bottle. “I’m giving you a seven-second head start.”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. “Where will I run to? It’s a big penthouse but—”
He erased our distance, and his nose touched my neck. He breathed me in. Then he nuzzled its curve and traced a path to my cheek and inhaled some more. I spasmed between my legs and grew wetter.
“I smell your arousal. You want to fuck.”
I burst into a brief, nervous giggle. “Isn’t that what you want?”
He backed up a couple of steps. “Yes. But I want to do other things.”
Other things? What other things? He continued to back away until he was by the wall. His fingers hovered over the light panel of the penthouse. “Tonight, you made me feel helpless. I just got you back, and then I thought I lost you and it would have been all my fault. Because of my ambition, Carmine was still out there.”
“I’m sorry, Luca, but it had to look real and—”
“I understand that.” He cut me off. “A few days from now, I might even think it was brilliant. But tonight, you’re going to give me back control.”
I swallowed. “What?”
“Your surrender. I don’t want you to give it to me easy. I know I have to fight for it. That’s the only way to tame the aggression inside me. To be worth it. You’ll always find a way to defy me if you think it’s for my own good. It would always drive me crazy, but that’s who you are.” His mouth tipped derisively. “And I will enjoy it every time I remind you that you are mine.”
“So, what do we do now?”
His smile was feral. He touched the light controls. I startled when the penthouse fell into shadows and drew the blinds. The lights of Chicago peeked through the vertical blinds so we weren’t in total darkness, but still…
My husband stood motionless, like a predator playing with its prey. “Run.”
I took another step back, deciding to take the hallway that led to our bedroom even as arousal twitched wetness between my thighs, and my clit felt swollen. “Do I hide?”
“Six seconds. Run.”
His last “run” was more forceful, more guttural like he was more beast than man. It triggered a flight response in me. I spun away from him, nervous laughter trapped in my chest as my feet began to move, relieved I was wearing sneakers and in less danger of breaking an ankle.
I ran.
With each step that pounded toward our bedroom, my excitement rose, my vision became sharper, and my skin burned. There were three rooms in this section. I bypassed our bedroom and dove into the unused guest room, knowing that the bathroom was attached to another room. I could escape from there and loop back through the apartment. At the back of my mind, I wondered if it was unlocked.
Dammit, why was I so nervous?
My sneakers skidded on the tile, making a cringy loud squeak. I threw myself on the adjoining door. Locked. Why was it locked? Hysterical laughter bubbled inside me. This was a stupid game. I ran back into the bedroom and stopped.
Luca darkened the doorway. The white T-shirt he wore after the fight was like a beacon in the shadows.
I scrambled around the bed and put it between us.
“This is stupid,” I said, through heavy panting. “I mean, where is there for me to run? You saw me come into this bedroom.”
“It’s not stupid, because I’m having fun,” he drawled. He took a step into the room. “Are you afraid of me, Natalya?”
“What? No!”
“Good.” He took another step. “Because I feel this is going to be our game.”
I focused on his movements more than his words. He was going around the bed slowly. I could jump over it and escape him and run the length of the penthouse to the other wing. I laughed lightly. “This cat and mouse?”
“No.” Another step. “That I will always chase you.”
He lunged.
I screamed and jumped over the bed. I was almost at the door when his arms came around me and lifted me up against his hard body.
“Luca!” I screeched.
He threw us on the bed like he was still in a caged match, stealing the air from my lungs. Pinning me on the bed, his mouth came crashing down on me, but the kiss was brief and I lost sight of him because he dragged the sweatshirt over my head. Then, while straddling my legs, he unbuttoned my jeans and dragged down the zipper.
“I wish you’d worn a skirt,” he growled.
I pummeled his shoulders. “What? And make it easy for you?”
He had to get off me to remove my jeans, so I twisted around and tried to leave the bed, pumped and drunk on euphoria and getting into our primal play. The sudden chill over my ass told me he’d taken off my panties along with my jeans. By this time, my head and arms were dangling over the edge of the mattress, but he put an end to my attempts to escape him and hauled me back onto the bed. I grappled for leverage and pushed up on all fours, but his mouth hit my pussy, taking broad swipes, sending exquisite pleasure racing between my legs. His head moved under me and he gripped my thighs to drag me down.
I was sitting on his face and he continued to eat me like I was his last meal.
“Oh my God,” I moaned. My clit was so swollen. “Can you breathe down…”
I didn’t finish the sentence. A growl vibrated at the same time he sucked my sweet spot and it throbbed with orgasmic pulses. I screamed and surrendered, pushed against his face, because, oh God, sometimes I felt murderous toward Luca, but if he wanted to suffocate, then he could do it while giving me an orgasm.
While I was still reeling from the massive climax, he flipped me over and drove into me. My body arched. Two weeks of no sex and he was enormous inside me.
His face appeared, triumphant and vibrating with leashed power. I saw the split second he lost all restraint. He hooked my legs over his elbows and spread me wide and rammed into me over and over.
“I love you. I love you,” he chanted, teeth bared, completely feral. He fucked me forever. He fucked me like he hated me. He fucked me like I was his whore. Pulling out, he flipped me over again and grabbed my hips, dragging me to all fours, and slammed back inside me. And this time, he thrust with abandon. And I reared into him and met him thrust for thrust. Because despite his roughness, despite the way he dominated me, it gave me power that I could do this to him and make him lose complete control.
His arm went under me, made me spread my knees further, and then his fingers circled my already sensitive clit and another blinding orgasm shook me.
I cried out again, and my breathing became labored. “Luca…enough, please.”
I was begging, and he was grunting, growling, and guttural. With one last thrust, he exploded inside me. Slick wet heat made me slicker and dripped down my legs. He continued pumping as though he hadn’t just claimed and wrecked my pussy.
Finally, he folded over me. We collapsed sideways on the mattress, and while wrapped all around each other, he kept my back plastered to his chest.
“You’re still inside me,” I murmured.
“You feel so good. I think I’ll stay in you for a while,” he returned. “Don’t move, baby.”
“We’re going to sleep like this?” I laughed into the pillow. “We both need a shower.” He hadn’t washed off the fight, and I hadn’t washed off the day either.
He snuggled deeper inside me. “Hmm…we fuck filthy. I love filthy.”
I did too.
Sometime in the early morning, we returned to our bedroom. We showered and indulged in a bath. Luca made slow love to me afterward, and we fell asleep. I didn’t know how many times he reached for me in the night, how many times he cleaned me between my legs, but I gave my husband what he needed. And he gave me what I craved.
The morning sun was high in the sky when I finally found the strength to open my eyes. My limbs ached. I was thoroughly loved and satiated.
The bed beside me was empty, and I wondered what time it was. I padded to the bathroom to freshen up, and I walked out just when the doorknob was turning.
Elias barreled through and hit my body full force. “Mamma!”
My mouth fell open, and my gaze flew back to the door. Luca was holding a breakfast tray. “Did you prep him to say that?”
Luca smiled sheepishly. The bruises from the fight were more apparent this morning. There was a cut on his brow. “It appears I had to make waffles for him to tell the difference.”
“So what is this, Mr. Moretti? Breakfast in bed?”
“Yes. Why don’t you get back under the covers while your son and I serve you?”
“Aw.” I did as I was told. Elias crept into the bed at my side while his father balanced the breakfast tray with my waffles, bacon, and orange juice. There was even a little glass vase with a daisy in it.
“This is all so sweet, Luca.”
He sat beside us. I cut up the waffles and gave a bite to my son. I grabbed a piece of bacon and munched on it. I was starving.
“You okay?” Luca brushed my hair aside.
“I’m fine.” I touched his face. “How about you, caro? Any aches or pains?”
His mouth twitched. “I should ask you the same.”
I leaned into him. “I’m deliciously sore.”
“Mamma, b-con,” Elias chattered. I handed him a piece, which he put in his mouth.
“He’s gonna be a big man like his papà when he grows up.” I nudged Luca. “Where’s everyone?”
“They’re in Sera and Matteo’s unit, having breakfast.”
“Oh my goodness, I feel like a terrible hostess.”
“Stop.” Luca put a finger on my lips. “That’s why I told them we wouldn’t be seeing them until the afternoon.” He looked at Elias. “I want it to be just us.” His eyes softened. “The three of us. Elias, do you remember what I asked you to do?”
I split a look between my boy and Luca. “What are you two up to?”
Elias made a big oh with his mouth as if he remembered something he forgot. Then he gave a big smile and reached for the end of the tray and grabbed a folded paper.
He handed it to me.
Curious, I opened it and laughed.
“Will you marry Papà?”
I glanced at Luca. “We’re already married.”
With a gaze too intense for morning breakfast, he picked up my left hand and ran his thumb over my bare ring finger. “This is telling me we aren’t.”
I never thought about my rings since I came back, but Luca was still wearing his.
“I’m going to have new ones made,” he said fiercely. “I want to say my vows again. Will you marry me again, Natalya?”
I hugged Elias and told his father, “Yes.”
