Diamond (Diamond Trilogy 1)

‘Mmm.’ She was more than ready, as her leg brushing up and down his thigh signified.

He pushed forwards and she was lost in a dark place of half-memory, half-new experience. It had never felt like this before. She hadn’t felt so stretched, so filled, so raw, so vulnerable before. He had a gold chain round his neck with a ring attached, and the ring swung over her breasts then brushed its cold metal traces over her face while Leonardo eased in, inch by inch.

She was reminded of the early times with Deano – the heady aroma of that body spray that had been so popular with the teenage boys back then. Leonardo didn’t smell of that but there was something else, so familiar and so instantly transporting to those days of innocence that her heart contracted. A natural scent, a musky animal thing. Desire. Sex. Youth.

Lately, with Deano, a sour chemical smell had accompanied him everywhere, even to bed. Jenna didn’t miss it one little bit.

Here, with Leonardo, she was suddenly aware of an opportunity – to

have everything she had with Deano, but to take a different, better path. She could find out what she could have had, if they hadn’t been consumed by a whirlwind of fame.

Lying here, while Leonardo entered her with considerate deliberation, watching every flicker of expression on her face for signs of pain or discomfort, she was aware of a clarity that had eluded her before. Sex was trying to teach her something. She needed to make sure she understood what it was.

‘Jesus, you feel sweet,’ he whispered, his dark eyes huge above her. ‘So tight. God.’ His voice gave out.

She reached up and touched his cheek.

‘I’d forgotten,’ she said, and then she had to shut her eyes in case he saw the glisten.

As if prompted to remind her, Leonardo began to thrust.

She felt the passion in every move he made and was swept along with it, wrapping her legs and arms around him and clinging on for dear life.

He kept his eyes upon her and she watched them grow rounder and darker and darker and rounder while the rest of his face remained pale and immobile. When his chest pressed against hers she felt the hectic bumping behind his ribs. He was hot against her, and their skin stuck together in places.

Between her legs, he was inside her, drawing all her consciousness down to that place until the rest of her body floated off beyond the periphery. Everything was concentrated there, in that central nexus of sensation, while a white noise of panting and scents and the gold ring knocking against her teeth misted around it.

‘You’ve needed this,’ he said.

He reached down between her legs and pushed the pads of two fingers against her clitoris. Together with the slick invasion of her sex, this drove her towards a rapid and violent climax, and she tensed against him, sure her whole frame would seize up, before pouring it all out.

‘Yes,’ he growled, ‘yes, yes, I can make you feel it.’

He held her tightly and pushed, pushed, pushed, taking her so hard it almost hurt, and then he was there. His eyes had done too much work, and the rest of his face joined in at last, screwing itself up into configurations of agony and bliss that made Jenna want to kiss it all over.

They lay all corkscrewed up in each other for a long time. Jenna felt her body loosen, little by little, whilst she breathed in her lover.

Some people, she reflected, described certain relationships as ‘just sex’.

How odd that ‘just’ seemed, when sex, after all, was such a huge thing. So huge that she quickly moved from satiated to terrified, before Leonardo had time to yawn. What had she done? What had she given of herself? Could she afford it?

She disengaged from him and sat up, pushing her fingers through her hair.

‘You all right?’ he asked. His hand on her thigh felt heavy, almost like a dead weight.

‘Yeah,’ she said, but she couldn’t look at him. She stared at a damp patch at the top of the wall, where the old paper was peeling. She couldn’t take her eyes off it.

She heard Leonardo shift, and felt him prop himself on his elbow.

‘No, you aren’t,’ he said quietly. ‘Come here. Look at me.’

He nudged her back down, strong fingers at her arm. She couldn’t face him and hid her nose in his shoulder. He stroked her hair silently for a while, which made it all worse. It was too lovely, much too addictive. If she started to need human warmth and all that, where would it all end?

‘Look at me,’ he said again, more softly still, but there was real intent behind the whispery tone and she knew he wouldn’t put up with much more of her evasion.

She lifted unwilling eyes to his. She seemed to be accusing him of something, but she wasn’t sure what.

‘I’m pretty sure you enjoyed that as much as I did,’ he said, his head on one side. ‘Hmm?’