Unable to contain them, angry tears streaked my cheeks. My eyes widened as he pushed the dress down, so I was reduced to wearing nothing but my thong and heels. I stood bared to him, defying his attempt to weaken my state.
Sex is not love.
I kicked the ruined fabric aside and faced him head on. “You owe me a dress and a fucking explanation!” Exchanged energy pulsed between us as his chest bounced with quick breaths. He gripped my hair and leaned in an inch from my mouth. “In that bed, behind that door, you put your fingers inside your pussy with my name on your lips. I am the man you want. There is no other explanation.”
Realization dawned. “You watch me.”
There was no apology in his eyes or his tone. “I watch you with my cock in my hand, Phoenix, with my need for you. I know who you are. I know what we are. Do you?” he sneered as I snaked my tongue out to wet my lips. Tumultuous eyes narrowed as his lips turned up. “I can smell him on you.” He gripped my hair and tugged it until I was kneeling. Sparks prickled up my spine to my screaming scalp. “You need me, here I am.”
His words bit and stung as he challenged me. “Fuck you.”
He leaned down. “I am what you crave. Dare to deny it.” My eyes watered from the sting. He stood, a picture of pure temptation, while he kept my hair fisted, and slowly unzipped his pants. His bulging length sprang free and my mouth watered.
“Deny it, Taylor. Lie. To. Me.”
Sex is not love.
Warmth soaked my panties as I reached out and scratched his thighs before I enveloped his hard as stone cock in my mouth. Scalp screaming from his angry pull, he thrust his hips, and I choked as he made sure it hurt. Stroke after stroke, he satiated his rage as he kept our eyes locked. He punished as I took every inch and moaned, fueling his anger.
He hissed through his teeth while he demanded remorse from my lips I refused to give, opting for delicious punishment. His eyes closed briefly when he saw a solitary tear streak my cheek. His misread it for hurt when it was an elation of sorts. I’d never felt the passion I had for him for any other man. The want, the need, it surprised me, but I knew it was lurking. I’d ignored it before, but my eyes were wide open. He knelt in front of me as he gripped my throat. “Do you need me?”
“No.”
He wiped my mouth with the back of his hand before he pulled me to the concrete floor, his back to the door. His eyes searched mine as he gripped my ass and pulled it apart, teetering me on his spread thighs, his cock displayed between us. I eyed it with hunger before he thrust two fingers inside and pushed a third into my ass. I pumped his cock as his fingers teased. With hooded eyes, he spoke. “Impossible fucking woman. You need me.” Built up to the point of breaking, he gripped my throat again. “The truth.”
Emotion-filled words slid off the edge of my tongue as his eyes implored mine. He wanted to break me. He was blurring the lines. I knew better. But I tipped over anyway. “Daniello, don’t.”
He let go of my throat and gripped my hips, robbing me of my orgasm. Lust-filled black eyes dove into me as the silky head of his cock nudged my backside. Inch by inch he filled me as I crumbled in his arms, full of emotion and on the brink.
His grip tightened as we connected and then collided.
Fully seated, he waited as I gripped his shoulders to ease the burn. It was a blissful pain. “Do you feel me, Taylor?”
“Yes,” I gasped, my heart plummeting as he kept me idle.
“I cannot see that, Taylor. I cannot see that man with his hands on you, his lips on yours.” Pressing his thumb to my clit, he resumed pumping his fingers while I scratched his shoulders, drawing blood. He eased his hips up from the cold floor and fucked me, claimed me, owned me, possessed me, and took the rest of my control.
“Taylor.” With a hoarse whisper, he demanded his answer. “Tell me.”
“I need you,” I gasped before his lips claimed mine. With one deep thrust of his tongue in my mouth, I burst, inside and out, my heart heavy between us as we worked into a frenzy, mouths and movement and deep-seated need.
We clung to each other as he tore me apart piece by piece and fed me for his absence. My body repeatedly shuddered as he commanded it. At his mercy, an ocean of feeling swept between us as he silenced my doubts with every soothing touch of his hands. Devoured and defeated, he took my lips again before he filled me with a heavy release. Touching his forehead to mine, he eased me off his cock and pulled me to his chest. “I just want to know who you are.”
Gentle lips brushed my temple before he whispered, “You know.”
We lay in bed, the penthouse silent hours after the most intimate sex I’d ever had. The early morning light covered the penthouse in an eerie blue hue. Daniello slept next to me as I pulled his dress shirt around my body and looked out at the harbor. I fed on the feelings that surfaced from simply being with him and had done my best to sabotage it. I knew why. He knew why. Emotions were becoming a thick cloud between us, far too hard to ignore. Denial was my only escape, and he was doing his best to stop me. But why? We had no future; we barely had the semblance of a relationship. We were fiery sex and stolen moments.
And still on his terms. I hated myself for it, but I’d lost the battle. I wanted him, that much I knew, but he’d just proved to me I needed him.
His silky, sleep-filled voice drifted through the air. “You think too much.”
“I think too little,” I said as I turned to look at him. He was a perfect picture of masculinity. Dark, ominous, and fully alluring. No man had ever compared. No man after him ever would. “When it comes to you, Mr. Di Giovanni, I think too little.”
“You regret this?”
I nodded slowly. “In a way, yes.”
He looked down briefly at the bed before his eyes shot to mine. “I do not want that, Phoenix.” I shrugged as I turned back to face the water becau