He took it from her and cursed under his breath, pulling her away when Nicholas’s voice called out. “Knock, knock.”
Feeling guilty, she looked at him once more. “Who’s there?”
Carmine stopped moving, not amused.
“Tank,” Nicholas said.
“Tank who?” She got it the moment the words rolled from her lips. Tank who . . . Thank you.
Nicholas smiled. “You’re welcome, Haven.”
Soft music played and people paired up to dance as Carmine put his hands on Haven’s hips, drawing her closer. “You okay, tesoro? She didn’t hurt you, did she?”
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she gazed at him. “No, Nicholas stopped her.”
“Nicholas,” Carmine sneered under his breath, his eyes darting across the room to where Haven knew he still stood. “He’s always involving himself in shit.”
“I’m grateful for it,” Haven said. “Lisa punched him instead of me.”
Those words sparked a smile on Carmine’s face. “Good.”
Haven rolled her eyes as Carmine licked his lips, kissing her slowly as they swayed to the music. Love swelled inside of her. This was her Carmine, the one who wasn’t afraid to let his guard down and let her inside. In the middle of a crowded room, no one existed but them. He was all she saw, all she was aware of—his face, his smell, his warmth, his love.
The emotion took control of her as tears threatened to spill over. The song wound down, and the two of them stood in the center of the dance floor, staring at each other. “Can we . . . ?”
“Yeah, let’s go home.”
Carmine was all over Haven the moment they stepped foot onto the third floor of the house. His lips captured hers in a fiery kiss as he pulled her tightly against him. It had been a while since he had kissed her this way, as if he needed to siphon the air from her lungs to breathe.
“Carmine, we should . . .” She shivered when his lips moved to her neck. “. . . I think we really should . . .” She let out a whimper as he nipped at her skin with his teeth. “. . . It’s just that . . .”
She didn’t know what she was saying, what she meant, why she was even trying to talk. She couldn’t think straight. Every cell in her body yearned for him, wildly rejoicing at the feel of his hands on her again, yet the words kept spilling out on their own.
“Maybe we should just, you know . . .”
Carmine groaned, a mixture of desire and frustration. “I need you.”
That was all she had to hear. His declaration took every hesitant word that was on the tip of her tongue and replaced them with much different ones. “I need you, too.”
“It’s been too long,” he whispered as they stumbled through the library, toward the bedroom. “I need to feel you again. I need to be with you, on top of you. Fuck, I need to be inside of you.”
A feral groan vibrated her chest at those words, a sound she never realized she was capable of making. They barely had time to get inside the bedroom and shut the door before they were tearing at each other’s clothes. She dropped her dress to the floor, stepping out of it, as Carmine kicked off his shoes. They flung fabric across the room, the glow of the moon filtering through the window the only light they had to see. Carmine slapped at the wall, looking for the light switch, but gave up with a resigned grunt in a matter of seconds.
Haven let out a yelp of surprise when he clutched her thighs and quickly pulled her up. Her legs wrapped around his waist as he pressed into her, sending a shiver through the core of her body, seizing her muscles. She clung to his neck, kissing him feverishly as he stumbled a few steps, tripping over her discarded shoes.
She pulled back from his lips. “Don’t drop me.”
“Never,” he said breathlessly the same moment his grip slipped. He dropped her onto the mattress and she laughed as she bounced.
“Never, huh?”
“I did that shit on purpose, tesoro,” he said playfully, chuckling as he climbed over her.
Their bodies fit together easily, perfectly, like they had always belonged that way. It was lightning, and thunder, and electricity, as the two souls merged as one. All was forgotten as they gave in to their raw needs, each stroke longer, deeper, harder, their moans and grunts and cries louder and louder.
They stilled their movements when they had nothing more to give, covered in sweat and breathing heavily. Haven lay on top of him, her head on his bare chest as she tried to calm her wildly beating heart. She could feel Carmine’s beneath her, his pulse racing twice its normal speed.
He caressed her side and thigh, drawing patterns on her skin with his fingertips. She wondered what he was thinking, what he was drawing, but part of her was afraid to ask.