I shake my head. “I’m not sorry,” I tell her. “Shaking you down is the highlight in my long and illustrious career as the family enforcer.”
Trevor cringes. “I’m sure I don’t want to know how that went down.”
“Nope, you don’t.” I toss some cash on the table and stand. “Now I’m gonna steal your sister for a while.” I take Caitlin’s hand and help her to stand. She weaves her fingers through mine. “We’ll meet you back here for a late dinner.”
“Yep. See you later. Have fun.”
Caitlin
“I need a shower,” I declare the minute we’re in the suite. If Paolo’s going to exercise his rights to my body, I need to get clean.
The suite’s gorgeous—rustic in design but with all the amenities, including a gas fireplace, which Paolo promptly fires up.
I head into the bathroom and strip off my clothes.
Paolo’s right behind me. When he climbs into the shower I feel suddenly shy. Exposed. Vulnerable. Like this is the first time we’ve been naked together instead of the twenty-seventh.
Maybe it’s because so much has changed between us. I’m not looking at Paolo as a play partner or a sex partner. I’m not viewing this as a sugar daddy situation or something more coercive than that.
We’re talking about love now.
About two people who made a baby together. Who are angling for spending their lives together.
My breath quickens as he steps into me, crowding me back against the cool tile. He picks up the soap and rolls it in his palm, his eyes never leaving my face.
“Are we good?”
His gaze is magnetic. I nod, drawn into the intensity of his regard. He strokes across my collarbone, spreading the soap he gathered in his palm. He traces down my arm. Underneath it. Across my breast, stopping to strum my nipple with his thumb. Every touch is reverential. Honoring. Like I’m a goddess and he’s worshipping at my altar.
The trembling starts in my knees, but it spreads through my core, my belly, down my arms. I keep expecting him to turn savage, to throw me up against the tile and fuck me hard, but he never does. He soaps my entire body, every inch, every crevice, until I’m clean. Then he turns off the spray and steps out.
He wraps a towel around me and uses the two ends to pull me up against his burly body for a kiss. I kiss him back like it’s our first kiss. Like it’s our first date and I’m just learning to taste him.
We built our romance backward—starting with his belt across my ass and zip tie bondage. Ending—no, not ending, but arriving here. Me trembling before him. Finally ready to give myself.
Not my body, but my whole self. My heart. My trust. My life to him.
He dries me off, stopping to kiss me again and again. Then walks me backward until I hit the bed. Even there, he remains gentle, lifting me to place me on my back before climbing over me.
He dips his head to suckle one nipple as he toys with the other. They’re both sensitive from the hormones, and I feel the answering tug in my core almost immediately.
I arch on the bed. “Paolo.”
He rubs the head of his cock between my legs, and I spread them and lift my hips to take him in. He plunges deep.
“Look at me.” His command penetrates straight into my bones.
I lift my eyes to meet his. I hadn’t realized I wasn’t looking, but now that our gazes lock, I squirm at the vulnerability. Of being so very bared to him as he rocks slowly into me.
“I know you don’t like it basic, but this is what you’re getting.”
There’s my tough guy.
Swoon.
“Who’s gonna make you come like a porn princess?”
I smile. “You are.”
“That’s right.” He plunges even deeper, but his strokes remain smooth. No slamming home or pounding. “Who’s going to take care of you for the rest of your life?”
I nearly crack open at that. I can’t bear how raw those words make me feel, so I sit up to wrap my arms around his neck. To bury my face there.
He puts his hand around my throat and pushes me back down to the bed. “Look at me.” Now his true nature starts showing itself. He rocks in harder, more insistently. “Who, doll?”
“You are?” I whisper, lips trembling.
“That’s right. Even from the fucking grave. I’m your man, bella. I’m gonna take care of you.”
His words imprint onto my soul, and I’m utterly humbled by them. I feel undeserving of such devotion. “Why me?”
He just smiles. “You’re my wildfire. You’re you. That’s all it is. You’re the woman for me. I knew you were special from the first time I saw your photo. Before I even showed up at your place. But I was unprepared for how much of an effect you’d have on me. How much you’d change me. I’m yours, doll. This is it for me. And I’m gonna keep working until you believe in me. Until you trust what we have.”