Italian Billionaire's Stubborn Lover (The Romano Brothers 1)

Nicolo’s hand tightened on hers into an unbreakable grip when the light faded to pitch black. The water was instantly colder, but not as cold as the open sea.

Five seconds later, maybe ten, just as true panic had crept its way into her heart, a bending shimmer of light reassured Adeline that the worst had passed. All the while, Nicolo was by her side, swimming and guiding. His strong strokes kept them moving forward faster than she could have done on her own. He moved with confidence and an absence of doubt, and when he angled them upward into the moving, dancing light, she held onto his one hand with both of hers as he torpedoed them up to the surface.

Adeline broke through the water’s surface gasping for air, and she threw her shaking, trembling limbs around Nicolo as he guided them through the water to a rock ledge at the far wall of the small, dark cavern. With an elbow on the ledge and another around her thighs just below her bottom, Nicolo lifted Adeline to sit on the ledge before hoisting himself up as well.

Adeline stared out at the view in front of her. “Where is this place?” she whispered. Even though her voice echoed in the small cavern, she felt as though she were in a cathedral, in a holy place meant for God and angels. Beams of light broke through small cracks in the rock face to create ribbons of light dancing in the water. “I’ve never seen anything so beautiful.”

“I have,” Nicolo said, sliding his arm around her hip, “every day that I look at you. I love you, Adeline. I know that it’s fast, but I will not deny the truth of how my heart feels for you.”

“My grandfather said that he knew he would marry my grandmother within five minutes of meeting her,” Adeline said shyly, kicking herself for bringing up such a subject as marriage.

“If she was anything like you, I understand why.” Sliding a hand behind her neck to cup her head, Nicolo took Adeline in a kiss that curled her toes.

“I love you, too,” she breathed into his mouth.

The rock ledge, just inches above the water, was big enough for one person to lay down—or for two bodies to lay together. That is what Nicolo and Adeline did, and they moved together in their efforts to strip their bathing suits away. Nicolo hung them on the uneven surface of the cavern’s wall before kissing his way down Adeline’s body, then he was off of her and diving into the water.

“Nicolo? Nicolo!” Adeline called at his sudden disappearance, but she needn’t have worried because his head resurfaced inches away from the ledge.

“I’m going to devour you,” he proclaimed as he anchored his arms on the ledge and then took control of Adeline’s hips to swivel her toward him. His large hands guided her to drape her legs over his broad shoulders before he pulled her hips to the very edge of the rock shelf.

She was completely open to him and completely vulnerable, and she loved it. Every minute she spent with him was quickly becoming the best minutes of her life. Everything before was fading away, and every time she thought of her future, he was there.

Curling her fingers into his thick hair, she held on to him as he kissed his way up her thigh to the hot core that already throbbed in anticipation of his touch. When his lips finally closed on her, she gasped and then cried out at the intense, sudden pleasure. Her toes curled and she lifted her legs to balance her feet on his shoulders as he took what he wanted from her. His lips kissed, his teeth nipped and pulled, and his tongue plundered.

It was not long before Adeline’s body was shaking uncontrollably and her breath was coming in whimpered gasps.

“Nicolo… Nicolo, I need you inside of me. All of you! Please. Now!”

It was torture when his mouth left her body, then a surge of water slapped over her as he hoisted himself up onto the ledge next to her. But, this time he did not sit and he did not lay down. He stood to his full height on the narrow ledge, then bent deep. Nicolo slid an arm behind her back and beneath her legs and then lifted her from the rock’s ledge.

Water cascaded off of her, and she melted into Nicolo’s powerful embrace. He turned his back to the cavern and then shifted her, and she instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist. Nicolo’s thickly muscled arms were around her torso, one hand high on her ribs and the other under the curve of her hip. Nicolo’s mouth kissed a trail down her neck and shoulder before lifting her higher so that his mouth could capture her nipple.

Adeline’s fingers lost themselves in Nicolo’s hair once more as he flicked her tightened rosebud with his tongue before pulling it in for a hard, suctioned kiss. The want of having him inside of her coupled with the sensations of his mouth on her breast was almost more than Adeline could stand, and just about when she was ready to cry out that she could take no more, Nicolo’s mouth stopped his torture of her nipple… and moved to her other one. He was a little rougher this time, a little hungrier—in a way that felt good beyond reason to Adeline—and growled his frustration when she pushed his head away.

She pulled his head back by the grip of her hand on the crown of his head. Once his mouth could be reached, she attacked, kissing him with a ferocious need that left all of her sensibilities undone. She adjusted her hold on him as he let her slide down his chest. Then, she felt him reach below her and guide himself. His round head was swollen large, and she moaned into Nicolo’s kiss when he found his way inside of her.

The fight softened between them as a quiet, steady rhythm took its place. Adeline’s swollen nipples throbbed in time with the pulse of growing urgency at the depth of her core. There was something about the position. Something about the way he moved within her. He touched everything just right, and her entire body was trembling again within seconds. It took Nicolo’s strong arms to help her stay in place and the thrust of his talented hips to drive ecstacy into depths never before reached.

“Nicolo,” she whimpered as waves of tingling traveled up her spine.

“I’ve got you, t’amu.”

“It’s too intense.”

“Let go, t’amu. Let it happen.”

“It’s never felt like this.” Her head was dizzy as all the sensations from her core threatened to

overwhelm her. With his mouth against her neck, Nicolo’s words lost their English and transformed into lyrical Italian as he drove his thick length into her at a relentless pace that had a spot at her greatest depth spasming out of control. Then, her womb seized and Adeline forgot how to speak as a tidal wave of pleasure overcame everything that she thought she knew about herself. Her body jerked uncontrollably and from somewhere within the all consuming pleasure, Adeline heard Nicolo growl again. His hips quickened their pace and all of his muscles beneath Adeline’s touch became like rigid steel.

“Adeline… Adeline!”

Molten heat flooded her insides as Nicolo shuddered in her arms. A moment later and they were in the water, holding onto each other with a desperation that was new to them. This was different than it had been at the resort, Adeline knew. Even though Nicolo was no longer inside of her, she could feel him as if he were still there and still moving. It made it difficult to think, but she struggled through as she tightened her arms around Nicolo’s shoulders and held on as if her life depended on it.

Don’t fall. Don’t do it. But, it was no use. Her heart was gone, and she leaned her ear against his whispering lips as he continued to espouse her beauty to the heavens above in the language of his homeland.

"I love you." She let her mouth form the words, but she did not give them voice. He might have her heart, but she wasn't ready to let him know that. Not yet. Someday—soon—she hoped, but not yet.