Nicolo hoped that Adeline knew what she was saying. He wasn’t asking for a one night stand. He wasn’t asking for a fling. He wanted to know her. He wanted her in his life. For once, he wanted to belong to someone—at least for a little while.
Cupping the back of her head in his hand, he bent to take her lips with his. He was gentle at first, but as her fists twisted into the fabric of his shirt, his kiss grew harder and more demanding. In the next moment she was climbing him and wrapping her legs around his waist. She was taking control—insatiable, determined.
Walking blindly, he carried her to the bed. There, with his hands on her waist, he lifted her off of his body and tossed her onto the bed. When he stepped away, putting distance between him and the bed, she got onto her knees and looked as though she would leap off to tackle him. He considered letting her. Her eagerness turned him on like nothing ever had before, and every noise of delight and desire that she’d made had his whole body straining toward her. But he held himself back. This was their first time together; he wanted to make it last.
“Bedda, will I survive this night with you?” he asked as he pulled his button-up shirt from his pants. He unbuttoned it at his wrists before going to work on the buttons below his neck.
“Rip it off,” Adeline demanded.
“Tsk, tsk. No, no. You do not mess with a Sicilian man’s clothes. I would’ve thought you knew this,” he teased. It wasn’t true, at least not for him. He would rip his shirt off in a heartbeat to please her, but he needed to take his time. He wanted to savor her.
It was Adeline’s turn to growl, but her growl turned into a purr when Nicolo finally stripped away his shirt to expose what lay beneath. “Oh my God… Where’d you get those abs?” she whispered. He watched as her eyes raked his body from head to toe and back up again.
Not wasting any time, his hands went to his belt. He pulled hard on the strap to release the buckle, tightening it around his waist. Then, he whipped it out of its moorings and slung it across the room.
Adeline’s eyes narrowed and she bit her lip as his hands moved to the button at the top of his trousers. After unbuttoning them, he took his time unzipping them. But once done, he let the offending covering fall to pool around his feet. It left him bare except for a skin hugging boxer brief that he knew accentuated more than hid what he had to offer her.
Adeline gasped, and Nicolo arched an eyebrow and relished her reaction with a crooked grin. She gasped again, then smiled, when he was naked a second later and his boxer briefs were kicked across the floor.
Nicolo advanced on the bed, eager to make the woman within it his. With a teasing smile, she backed away as he neared. Seeing her make him work to earn her pleasures set his blood on fire with want, and once he reached the bed, he moved an arm with lightning speed to capture her delicate ankle in his hand and drag her back down the bed to him.
Adeline screamed and then laughed with nervous glee as he pulled her to him. But rather than work his way further up her body, he held her leg up and cradled her foot between his bicep and forearm. Deft fingers unbuckled her shoe, then pulled it off and tossed it over his shoulder. She didn’t fight him when he caught her other leg, and he had that shoe off a second later.
Surprise registered on Adeline’s face when Nicolo released her altogether and extended his hand to her. She was b
reathing fast, and she licked her lips before sliding her hand into his.
Nicolo helped her into a position of kneeling upright so that they faced each other. Just as when they were standing, she only came to his chest. With trusting eyes she looked up at him, waiting for what would come next. His excitement stood out erect from his body, clearly ready and wanting. Yet, Nicolo took his time.
His fingers traced the spaghetti strap of her dress. It was such a small piece of fabric standing between him and his treasure. Dipping his head to her neck, Nicolo captured Adeline’s earlobe in his lips and teeth. He kissed and nipped it, earning him a moan of satisfaction as his hands brushed the straps from Adeline’s shoulders.
Her dress fell low on her body to pool atop the round curve of her hips. Everything above was bare.
“Adeline,” Nicolo whispered, his mouth traveling down the elegant slope of her neck as he cupped her naked breast. She was warm and soft to his touch, and she filled the palm of his large hand in a way that made his mouth want something more than her earlobe to nibble on.
“Adeline,” Nicolo groaned. “I didn’t plan for this. I didn’t bring anything.”
Adeline’s small hand lifted to Nicolo’s chest, but instead of cupping him as he cupped her, she dragged her nails down his skin with a forceful passion that ignited his blood anew with a need that made him feel drunk.
“I want you,” Adeline demanded. It was not the voice of an innocent. It was the voice of a vixen temptress calling him to his death upon the jagged rocks. He couldn’t do it, though. No matter how sure he was that he was safe, he couldn’t allow them to take the risk.
“I can’t—”
“I’m safe,” Adeline interrupted, “and I’m on birth control. Are you safe?”
Nicolo hesitated, then answered, “Yes,” amazed that he got to be here, tonight. That soon he would be inside her—filling her, feeling her tighten around him. The thought made the room spin and the air grow thick. He did not want to admit to her that it had been over two months since he had shared his bed with a woman, and that he had never—ever—been inside of a woman without protection. But now that the thought was in his head, he couldn’t imagine having her any other way for their first time. He needed to feel her, to really feel her—the urge was suddenly overwhelming. Silently, he thanked God that he’d had the foresight to get frequent wellness checks. He knew he was safe.
Nicolo captured Adeline’s face in his hands. “Are you sure?”
Adeline blushed and her eyes drifted to the side. There was something she was embarrassed to say.
“Tell me,” he bid her.
“It’s been eight months for me.” Her fingers traced the length of his abdomen, exploring lower and lower and making it more and more difficult for him to think. “We used protection, and the one before that was two years earlier.” Her cheeks turned pink as if she were divulging some shameful secret.
Laughing and no longer worried about his two-month stay from the touch of a woman, Nicolo pulled her close against his body and kissed the top of her head before kissing her lips.
The momentum of their passion grew like a fire across dry weeds. Adeline wrapped her arms around Nicolo’s neck and held on tight as he pushed her dress down off her hips. Her panties were gone a second later, and then Nicolo had Adeline pinned under him on the bed.