Deceived

  “Vieni qui e baciami.” I lowered my mouth to hers and pressed a bruising kiss to her lips. She struggled beneath me, twisting between my legs and wrestling her hands in my grip. But she didn’t open the way I wanted, and all her struggling did was make her nipples harder and bring my cock in closer contact with her pussy.

  I kissed her again, aching to push her lips apart and taste her. She bucked against me, though, shifting her face as far to the right as she could to get away from my mouth. My lips passed over the corner of hers. She answered by slamming her eyes shut and struggled harder, turning her head a fraction of an inch farther away so her face was nearly hidden in her arm.

  This was not what I wanted. I drew back just enough so she could breathe and lifted my weight off her hips. But instead of pushing me off her as I half expected, she immediately wrapped her legs around my waist and rocked up against my erection. Then she lifted her head and nipped at my throat, telling me she was still horny as hell and begging to be fucked.

  That fervor roared through me again, this time with the force of a hurricane. I pushed her back down to the mattress, grasped her wrists in one hand, and used the other to turn her face toward mine.

  “Look at me, angioletto,” I whispered, my lips a breath from hers. “Tell me you need me, and I’ll give you what you want.”

  She wiggled beneath my hold and angled her hips up against my swollen erection. But she was careful to keep her eyes from meeting mine. “I don’t need you. I just want you to fuck me. There’s a difference. It’s the same damn thing you want from me.”

  That wasn’t what I wanted. I needed so much more. I needed the parts of her that were completely untouched. The parts she’d never opened to anyone else. The parts I’d only seen glimpses of when we’d been together in Italy. The parts that had called out to me like a singing siren, embracing my darkness in a way no one else ever could. And I knew deep down, she needed the same damn things from me.

  “You need me,” I whispered, pressing my lips to the corner of her mouth, holding her still so she couldn’t turn away from my kiss. “My touch. My words. My darkness. Admit it, angioletto.” I kissed the other side of her lips, loving the way she trembled beneath me even as she fought against my hold. “You need me because I’m the only one who can take you to the edge of your comfort zone. To that place where you can let go of all your inhibitions. Where you’re free to be wild and dirty. Where we both know you ache to submit to every one of my desires.”

  She huffed. “N-no.” But already I could tell her resistance was wavering. “I don’t need any of that. I just want sex.”

  “You lie.” I brushed my lips over hers again, teasing the softness of her mouth with the tip of my tongue. “You were made to be tasted, to be enjoyed, to be pleasured by me, angioletto. Only by me.” I kissed her lightly again. “I know it.” I rocked my aching cock against her. “You know it too. You’re just too scared to admit it.”

  Her mouth opened on a groan, and I swept my tongue between her lips, kissing her deeply. And with one taste, I knew all this time I’d been starving without her. A famished traveler wandering in the wild. She was the light guiding me home. She was the fire that illuminated my soul. She was the strength I’d been drained of and desperately needed to keep me going.

  I let go of her face and swept my free hand down her side to cup and mold her gorgeous bare breast. And as I kissed her deeper, I felt her body softening, felt her warming to my touch, felt her walls coming down and the internal war she waged between want and need and pleasure and pain slowing its crazy fight.

  I felt her giving in to what we both knew only I could give her.

  “Dammit, Luc,” she murmured against my lips. “I hate you. I fucking hate you for this.”

  My heart seized. I let go of her wrists and gripped her face in my hands, desperate for her to feel what was inside me. Every emotion I’d been holding back because I thought showing her would only make things worse. “No, you don’t. You’re lost without me. E il mio cuore batte solo per te.”

  This time when I kissed her, she opened at the first touch. I didn’t know what she was thinking, what she was feeling, but when she opened to me like that, when she grabbed hold and pulled me deep into a searing kiss that made my toes curl, I lost all ability to think or see or do anything but fall even deeper in love with her.

  Her hands streaked into my hair and fisted. Her legs wrapped around my waist as she rocked up against me. Her mouth turned greedy, wild, frantic beneath mine, and in her kiss, I knew these last few weeks, the plans I’d made, none of it mattered if I didn’t have her by my side.

  “Tu sei mia, angioletto.” I tipped her face up and kissed her deeper. “Ho bisogno di te.”

  She groaned beneath my lips and dropped her hands from my hair to my shoulders, then slid them down my waist to grip my boxers. “Take these off. Hurry.”

  I jerked back from her mouth, frantic to feel every inch of her naked skin against mine. She gasped as cool air washed over her, but the second I pushed back to my knees and dropped my feet to the floor at the side of the bed, she sat up and reached for the waistband of her sleep shorts, hustling to strip them down her sexy legs.

  My pulse roared in my ears as I pushed my boxers down my legs. Her naked body filled my vision. Moonlight glinted off her plump breasts and straining nipples, making my mouth water. She kicked the shorts free, drawing my gaze to the small thatch of dark hair at the apex of her legs and the wetness already gathering at her slit. I wanted to memorize every dip of skin and play of bone on her x-rated body, but I ached to bury myself inside that sweet, tight, slick place even more. And right now, the need to mark her there, to fuck her and brand her as mine was so strong, so primal, it overwhelmed every other want and need and rational thought.

  In thirty-two years, I’d never been tempted to fuck without a condom. Safe sex had been stamped into my psyche from the moment I’d become sexually active, primarily because the kittens my House used—though tested regularly—were so casually passed around. But even after I’d left that depraved scene behind, I’d been careful. Only with Natalie I didn’t want to be careful anymore. I wanted to feel every ridge and muscle inside her slick pussy. I wanted to fuck her with my bare cock and pump my hot cum deep into her body. And then I wanted my seed leaking out of her every time she moved, reminding her I’d been there. That she was mine. That she’d always only ever be mine.

  “Don’t just stand there gawking.” Natalie scooted to the side of the bed and reached for me. “Come here.” Her hands moved around my waist. Before I realized what she was doing, her lips pressed against my belly button where I stood next to the bed, “I need your cock.”

  Holy fuck. I groaned and rocked toward her, unable to hold back as she dropped her hand to my ass and wrapped the other around the base of my throbbing erection. My fingers slipped into her hair as my cock brushed her plump breast, leaving a trail of fluid over her creamy skin. My balls drew up tight as I watched, unable to look away. Sliding her hand up, she squeezed the head until I groaned, then smoothed the pre-cum down my shaft.

  “Does that feel good?”

  She pulled me closer so my dick slipped into her cleavage. I groaned at the silky feel. Releasing her hold on my shaft, she pressed her breasts together, surrounding my cock with the heat of her luscious globes.

  “How about this?” She rocked slightly back, then toward me, just enough so she could stroke my aching length. “Do you want to fuck me like this?”

  Holy hell, did I. I was on fire. Barely able to stand upright. My hips pressed forward. I gripped the back of her head, more to hold myself steady than to keep her still. Her breasts were soft and warm and felt so fucking good, I couldn’t help doing it again. She groaned, which only lit me up more, then dropped her chin and extended her tongue, just barely grazing the tip of my cock when it appeared between her cleavage.

  “Cazzo.” My eyes slid closed. I widened my stance, thrusting harder, loving every inch of her flesh wrapped
around my throbbing erection and the way her wicked tongue drove me crazy.

  “Mm, yes,” she whispered, squeezing her breasts tighter around me on the down stroke. “You like that. You’re getting harder. Fuck my breasts just like that. I want you rock solid when you slam this monster inside me.”

  I wasn’t going to last if she kept talking like that. If she continued to squeeze my dick so tightly. Holding her face to my belly, I thrust again and again, thundering toward a climax I was frantic to reach. But just before it claimed me, she released her breasts, tugged her head from my hand, and wrapped her silky fingers around my shaft.

  She stroked me once, base to tip, until I groaned. A tearing sound echoed through the room. I looked down, wondering what she was doing, then felt her soft fingers rolling a condom down my length.

  “There,” she said, releasing me. Twisting around so she was braced on her hands and knees on the bed in front of me, she shot a coy look over her shoulder. “Now fuck me already. Right now. Fuck me hard.”

  I swayed, hypnotized by the power she held over me and desperate to give her exactly what she was begging for. But as I moved closer to the bed and reached for her hips, something in my brain kicked into gear, making this whole seduction scene feel...wrong.

  Yes, she’d kissed me, but only to get me to release her so I couldn’t take control and kiss her again. She was still avoiding looking me in the eye. She was still avoiding the intimacy I hungered for. She was seducing me into that hard, fast fuck she’d come for, and I was falling right into her trap.

  That fervor inside me was consumed by a firestorm of passion and anger and a frenzied determination to prove to her she was wrong. She was wrong about everything.

  I grasped her by the waist and tossed her to her back. She hit the mattress and bounced, gasping in the darkness. Hooking my arms under her thighs, I jerked her toward me. She grunted and pushed up to her hands, but I lowered one knee to the edge of the bed, and before she could try to take control again, I positioned my cock at her entrance and thrust hard inside her.

  Whatever fight had been in her completely disintegrated. She groaned at the tight fit and dropped back on the mattress, arching her hips to take me deeper. Her hot, slick channel contracted around me, holding me tight, but I drew my hips back, sliding along her sensitive walls until I was almost free, then gripped her legs to my chest and slammed deep all over again.

  “Oh, fuck, yes,” she moaned. “More.”

  I did it again, watching the pleasure darken her features as I drew nearly all the way out of her slick pussy before ramming home once more. “Like that?”

  She groaned and nodded vigorously.

  I fucked into her harder, faster, almost violently, both hating and loving that she was begging for this. “You like getting fucked like this?”

  “Oh my God.” She fisted the comforter until her knuckles turned white. “Yes, yes. Don’t stop. Just like that. Fuck me harder.”

  I planned to. I had no intention of stopping. But not like this.

  With a growl, I released her legs. She gasped, and her eyes shot open. Shoving her thighs wide, I lowered my body to hers until we were connected from chest to hips and I was buried so deep inside her, I was reaching places I knew I’d never reached before.

  I grasped her face as I held still inside her, preventing that hot fast friction she wanted. “Look at me. You need me. Say it.”

  Her hands landed against my shoulders, and she lifted her hips, rocking up, trying to get me to move faster, to distract me with the heat of her pussy. “Let go of my face.”

  “Not a chance.” I drew back gradually and slid in deep just as slow, striking her G-spot at the perfect angle. “Tell me you need me. Say it, Natalie.”

  She slammed her eyes shut. “No.”

  “Yes.” I did it again. It was torture for both of us, but I was unwilling to let this go. I didn’t kiss her. I didn’t force her to kiss me. But I didn’t let her turn away either. I held her tight beneath me, making achingly slow love to her, desperate for that connection I knew still burned hot between us. “Say it. Say you need me, not just my cock.”

  Her fingernails dug into my shoulders, sending pain across my spine. She struggled beneath me, frantic for the climax only I could give her.

  “Say it, angioletto.” My muscles contracted. Sweat slicked my skin as I continued to torment that perfect spot slowly and deeply so far inside. “Say you need me as much as I need you. I know you do. I know you’re crazy for me. Give in and tell me. Tell me you only want me.”

  “Oh fuck, Luc.” She arched her back. “Please. Faster.”

  My lips slid to her jaw, and I bit down, just enough to cause a jolt of sensation to permeate her mind. “Say it, angioletto. Say you can’t live without me.”

  “Ah, God, I can’t. I...”

  “Yes, you can.” I kissed the pulse at her throat, her jaw, the corner of her luscious mouth. “Say you can’t live without me the way I can’t live without you.”

  “Dammit.” Her fingernails curled into my sides. “I do need you. I only need you. Please stop torturing me and—”

  My willpower shattered. I closed my mouth over hers and kissed her, and she opened at the first contact, drawing me into a scorching kiss that detonated in my veins. I drew back and shoved in deep, unable to hold back any longer, giving us both exactly what she’d begged for, fucking her hard and fast as she devoured my mouth and heart and soul.

  “Oh yes, Luc. There. Right theeeeeere...”

  I only managed a handful of thrusts before she threw her head back and screamed. And I was glad, because my orgasm was already streaking down my spine and exploding in my balls, triggered not from the sound of her pleasure but from her admission that I was all she needed. That I was all she ever needed. I slammed deep and groaned as my release erupted through my cock and devoured me, letting her words and sweet submission drag me down into a blinding bliss that—for the first time in weeks—gave me peace.

  I wasn’t sure how much time passed. I’m pretty sure I blacked out. When I came to, I was lying on my side on the bed with Natalie still curled around me, both of us slicked with sweat and breathing heavily, her face hidden in my chest and my hands buried in her hair.

  My eyes drifting shut as my heart slowed its maddening rush. This was what I wanted. Just this for the rest of my life. I breathed in her sweet scent and pressed my lips to her temple, loving that she’d come to me. Loving that she’d given in to me. Loving most of all that she was still mine.

  Her hand slowly lifted to my chest, and she drew back just a bit and inhaled deeply. “I...I need to use the restroom.”

  “Okay.” I released her. Cool air washed over me as she scooted back. I couldn’t see her face in the dim light, but my gaze immediately rushed down her curves as she stood and stepped away on wobbly legs. “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll...be right out.”

  She crossed the room in the moonlight, her hair a messy tangle hanging down her back, and closed the bathroom door behind her. Alone, I sat up and looked over the room, seeing my boxers and her sleep shorts scattered on the floor.

  I rose, got rid of the condom, and pulled on my boxers. After folding Natalie’s shorts, I set them on her dresser, then I tugged the comforter back and climbed onto the bed, bracing a hand behind my head as I reclined in the pillows and waited for her.

  We still had so many things we needed to talk about, but I didn’t want to get into them tonight. Tonight, I just wanted to hold her and kiss her and reconnect the way we should have done weeks ago. And then I wanted to make love to her all over again, this time so slowly, there was no question in her mind about what she meant to me.

  Long minutes passed. I glanced toward the bathroom door, expecting it to open at any moment. Silence filled the room. I could hear nothing coming from the other side—no water running, no toilet flushing, nothing but an eerie silence that made the hair on my nape tingle as five minutes turned to ten and ten cr
ept toward fifteen.

  I climbed off the bed and quietly crossed to the carved folding doors that separated the bathroom from the bedroom, listening for the shower in case she’d decided to jump in, but still heard nothing. I seriously didn’t want to interrupt her if she was on the toilet, but the flutter of unease in my gut told me that wasn’t the case.

  Cautiously, I knocked. “Natalie? Are you okay in there?”

  “I-I’m fine,” she called in a weak voice. A sniffling sound echoed from beyond the doors. “Don’t come in.”

  Don’t come in shifted my unease to full-on worry. I reached for both door handles and jiggled, finding them locked. “Open the door, Natalie.”

  “No.” That sniffling sound met my ears again. “Go away, Luc. I’m fine. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

  She didn’t sound fine. Her voice was raspy as hell. And I didn’t like her telling me to go away after what had just happened in that bed.

  My adrenaline surged, and I stepped back, ready to kick the door in if I had to. On the top of the bathroom doorjamb I spotted a small hooklike key.

  I grabbed the key and flicked the lock open. Then pushed the doors apart and froze when I spotted Natalie sitting on the floor in the bathroom with her back against the clawfoot tub.

  She was still naked, her legs pulled up to her chest, her arms wrapped around her knees, her hair a wild mess of curls around her face. But one look was all it took for me to see she’d been crying. Tear tracks marred her cheeks, and her bloodshot eyes were swollen and red-rimmed when they met mine for the briefest second before darting away.

  She turned her back to me and pressed her face to her knees. “I told you to leave me alone. Just go.”

  My heart dropped like a stone into my gut. I’d known I’d hurt her. I’d known she was mad at me and that she had every right to be. But until this moment, I hadn’t realized just how much I’d damaged her. In that bathroom, I didn’t see the headstrong, challenging, never-take-no-for-an-answer woman who’d turned my world upside down. I saw a broken angel who’d all but given up. One I’d finally pushed too far.