Chapter 36

 

 

Her lips on his were soft and wet; the way he remembered them, the way he missed them. He hungered for her touch, for her, not just her body, not just her kisses, but her. He missed the woman. Missed having her around and talking to her, missed her reasoning and rational common sense. With Gina it was never just the sex, he wanted the woman, all of her.

Coming here had been a gamble, he’d almost been tempted to leave it, and just jump on the first train back, but he couldn’t walk away. He couldn’t sit on the train going past Verona, knowing she was here and not see her.

Now she was asking him to stay the night. He moved his face away and stroked her right cheek, before leaning in to kiss it. There was no scar left now.

“You want me to stay the night?” he murmured, “What is it that you’re asking me, Gina?”

She kissed him, further stoking the fire that enflamed his body. Knowing the effect she had on him, it wouldn’t be long before she would feel his excitement. He tried to calm things down, but she put her arms around his neck and clung to him. “After the week I’ve had, I could do with waking up to you tomorrow,” she whispered into his neck. He almost let out a groan as his boxers suddenly grew tight.

“We don’t have to do this,” he said, trying to remember why he had come here. It wasn’t to do this. She opened her eyes. “I want to. I need to,” she pleaded. “It’s been a tough week.”

“Tough week?” His brow furrowed trying to think of what might have gone wrong for her. Was it Nico? Was her ex giving her grief? Was that idiot colleague making her life hell. He cupped her cheek, his thumb moving over her lower lip.

“It can wait,” she whispered, her lips gliding over his, until she took his bottom lip between hers and sucked hard. It took all of his restraint for him not to throw her down on the floor and make love to her.

“What sort of a week?” he asked, needing to know. He wanted to know everything about her, not wanting there to be any secrets between them, even though he didn’t know what they had, or how long he had her for. He was content to stay like this, to have her arms around him, to have her sitting on his lap. This was heaven but she was asking him to stay the night and it could get complicated. He didn’t want to mess things up. There was a dichotomy between what she said and what she did, but having been in her home, he understood her a little better. She looked at him with bedroom eyes. “Everything and nothing,” she murmured.

“Then tell me everything, and leave out nothing.” He couldn’t help his hands, making their way underneath the sweatshirt she wore, slipping under her top and sliding around her waist.

She smelled of flowers, clean and fresh, and try as he would to still his heart, he couldn’t. He was exercising restraint as well as he could, given the fact that Gina was sitting on his lap tantalizing the heck out of him. Making a move on her had been the furthest thing from his mind but he was still a man with a healthy libido and an appreciation for the opposite sex and even though he wanted to make a good impression and to go slow, the way she was now, made it almost impossible for him to resist. Unless he pushed her off, and left the house. She was making it more impossible by the minute, especially when she lifted her arms and pulled off her sweatshirt.

He swallowed, and tried to shift into a position that would be more comfortable for him, even with her sitting on it. But it wasn’t his position that needed shifting. It was a release his body cried out for.

“You…” he swallowed again. “You don’t have to take your top off…”

She disregarded him completely. “I’m hot.”

He licked his lips again, craving water, a cold shower even. His mouth and throat had dried up in seconds. “Nothing and everything,” he repeated, trying to steer the conversation back to normality. “What everything?

“It doesn’t matter right now,” she moaned, sinking her body against his. She ran her fingers through his hair, giving him another inhale of her scent. He couldn’t help but cup her breast then, heard her whimper and lean towards him. He tweaked her nipple between his finger and thumb and felt it rise and peak, then did the same to the other one. Another moan, sexier than the last, escaped her lips, and she threw her head back slightly, exposing more of her neck. He couldn’t resist, and put his mouth to her neck, dropping a line of kisses along it, up and down and from side to side. She was moaning his name, running her hands over his chest and feeling her way across his shoulders and biceps.

“Ohhhh,” he groaned, moving around. Sitting down was becoming impossible.

“You want me,” she giggled, bearing down on him, pushing her weight on him. There was no way he could get on the train to Rome like this.

“Yes.”

He reached down for the hem of her top and rolled it off her, throwing it behind him and his eyes feasted on the sight of her topless, his mouth drooling to taste her pert little breasts.

He put his mouth to her breast and sucked as if he’d never tasted breast before. She quivered, and threw her head back, pressing him to her hard. “Upstairs,” she whimpered. He stood up easily, and she wrapped her legs around his waist as he climbed the stairs.

Two steps from reaching the top, he sat her on a step. “What are you—”

“Hold on,” he ordered.

She grabbed the banister hard, as he drew back and started to peel off her lounge pants. “Christian…” He heard her breaths, short and shallow.

Then another drawn out gasp as he pulled off her panties. Fully naked, she tried to cover up, bringing her knees together and folding an arm across her chest. He stared at her and fought the urge to thrust into her at this moment.

“You’ve still got your clothes on,” she whispered. “Take them off. Give me something to look at.” But her words fell on deaf ears. He had no intention of getting naked just yet. “I’ll give you something,” he said, gently prising her knees apart.

“Here?” she cried. “We’ll fall down the stairs.”

“We won’t.” He had a firm footing. “Trust me?” He knelt on a step, slightly lower than the one she was on.

“If you don’t, you can tell me to stop.” Her lips were parted as she stared back at him, her eyes dark, her expression wanton. She didn’t say a word and he saw the swell of her breasts as her chest heaved. She answered him with compliance, her knees falling apart. With his hands under her thighs, he gently pulled her towards him until her cheeks rested almost on the edge of the stair, her hips tilted upwards. He didn’t know where to place his mouth first, on her breasts again or lower down. Excitement pooled inside him like a white hot rod of heat. He was eager for release, but willing to be patient, to savor her, and to take her slowly. The scent of her arousal called to his most animal desires, and he bent forward, leaving a trail of kisses from her navel all the way down to her thighs.

She moaned out his name, her voice breathless, and ragged and desperate for him. But he took his time, his lips and tongue all over her inner thighs, kissing and licking her while his fingers skated over her hot skin. When she arched her back, thrusting her breasts out, he lowered his face and sank his lips between her legs. The sound of her moans, soft and silky, just like her, drove him insane.