“Mia?”
Shaking it off, I pressed my lips to the small bandage above his brow, leaving them there as he shuddered out a breath. “That’s better,” he murmured, and nudged his hips into mine. Reminding me that not all of him was injured.
“Let’s take that shower.” At his relieved nod, I stepped to the door and locked it just in case. My sister didn’t need to walk in on anything R-rated. Maybe X.
When I turned back, he’d already stripped down, hopped in, and turned on the water. His eagerness made me laugh, as did the quizzical look he shot my way. I stepped into the shower and looped my arms around his waist, pressing my cheek to his roped back.
“Hey there.” He gripped my palms against his stomach, so low that his cock bumped our hands. I shivered right on cue. “I can’t wash you like this.”
“But I can wash you.”
He didn’t have a ton of ink like Giovanni but I found his bare skin twice as arousing. He definitely had as many muscles, which I set about to exploring with my tongue. I’d never gotten to examine a man’s body in detail—had never wanted to—and tonight I wanted to rectify that. Every part of him fascinated me, and I planned to indulge my
curiosity. In depth.
I spent extra time on the bruises he’d accumulated, all in various stages of healing. A large welt marred his hip and he hissed out a breath when I grazed the wound with my fingertips. I crouched to kiss it, closing my eyes at his next rapid exhale. Knowing I affected him even a fraction as much as he did me was the biggest aphrodisiac ever.
“Did you forget the soap?”
His choked question made me grin. “Patience, sensei.”
“Yeah, yeah, you won’t be so zen when your rough ride turns into a puddle on the tiles.”
Still grinning, I bypassed Carly’s floral body wash and grabbed my unscented bar, taking my sweet time lathering up my hands before I rubbed them over the broad expanse of his back.
He shuddered. “Just remember I warned you.”
“I have faith in your control.” I kneaded his muscles slow and deep, working through the individual kinks I found while the water ran from hot to warm. Occasionally I’d drop kisses in my wake, and I may have nibbled on one or both of his extremely bitable ass cheeks. Accidentally on purpose.
He was so taut and tight…all over. I rubbed soap over every inch I could reach until he braced his hands flat against the wall to let me have my way with him. Then I slipped around to the front and took him in my mouth.
His groan echoed in the steamy chamber, reigniting the warmth still burning in my belly. But rather than knotting his fingers in my hair and insisting on more, he stumbled back and held out a hand to ward me off. He shut his eyes as if the sight of me pained him.
“Get off your knees, Mia.”
My name sounded like a slap. A dismissal. I bowed my head under the streaming water, closing my eyes, and fought to swallow over the knot in my throat. What had I done wrong?
“Mia.”
Shoulders shaking, I let my hair cover my face. I shut my eyes, tight enough not to feel the sting of the water. Maybe if I concentrated hard enough I’d wake up in my bed alone. The way things were meant to be.
Somehow he knelt in front of me in that tiny space and thumbed my hair back, holding it away from my cheeks. My eyes opened but I couldn’t make out his features. He’d turned opaque. A shadow of what might have been.
I blinked, over and over, until his face restitched into what I knew. Until he became more real than the haze in my mind that so gleefully wanted to take me under.
That strong, stubborn forehead, the nose he’d broken. His high cheekbones, the slash of his generous mouth. And the stark fear in his gorgeous, wounded eyes. Even the one that was unharmed reflected pain. I would’ve ached for him too, had I had any reserves left.
“Dammit, Mia.” His lips formed words I could barely hear over the roar in my head. “Listen to me.”
“You don’t want me,” I said through chattering teeth. Of course he didn’t. He wouldn’t. I still had bruises all over me, inside and out. One wrong move and they’d start to bleed.
They already were.
He gripped my waist and lifted me on his lap, spreading my legs so that they fell on either side of his hips. Opening me to him so that with a heartbeat, a breath, he was inside me. Filling me up and chasing the darkness away. Mine, his. They were so different, but right then, they were exactly the same.
“Hold onto me,” he rasped near my ear.
I dug my fingers into his shoulders, his arms. Scoring his skin with my nails. Small hurts that he welcomed with low grunts against my neck. His uneven breaths centered me in the eye of the storm. For once, I wasn’t alone. Warm water poured over us, cocooning us in our need, and together, we rode out the ecstasy. Nothing existed except pleasure. No thought, no regret. Only pure emotion that he gave me with every driving stroke that broke me open and sewed me back up. With him, I became whole.