"I'm not naïve. I know you've had women in there before. They were all looking for seconds, and it was obvious you’d invited them up."
"I wasn't a saint, Ivory."
"I don't want to be another one of them, Teo." My voice broke, and I buried it in my hands.
"You could never be one of them." He stepped into the office against my wishes, kicking the door closed behind him and locking it. He didn't hesitate to bring me straight to the wall of glass overlooking the club, a King in his kingdom. He set me down, turning me to face the glass. Security convinced everyone to return to the fun, and the music cranked up loud again, but I didn't miss the way everyone's eyes seemed to fixate on the glass even as they drank and danced.
His hands grasped the bottom of my dress, tugging until he revealed my thong. Shrieking, I shoved his hands away. "What are you doing?"
His hand came down on my bare ass in a hard slap, and I screamed. "Matteo!"
"He had his hands on you." His voice went deathly quiet, and it took everything inside me not to tremble. Those strong, somehow callused hands stroked over the sensitive skin where he'd struck me, and heat bloomed in my core in response.
I hated how much I liked it—hated that I had to resist the urge to arch my back and press my ass into his touch. "I thought you fucked that woman. I didn't think you'd care."
Wrapping his hand around my throat, he slowly guided me back until I had no choice but to support my weight on the glass with my hands and the back of my head touched his shoulder. His free hand fidgeted with my thong, shoving it down my thighs one side at a time and inching it down like he couldn't bear to release his hold on my throat. "Teo," I rasped.
"Shut up, Ivory. Just shut the fuck up and listen for once." I stilled, snapping my mouth closed. The sound of him unzipping his pants behind me made me whimper, anticipation of what was coming like a pulse in my veins.
I thought I'd had everything Matteo had to give. I thought I made him lose control sometimes.
I'd been wrong.
He shoved inside me in one hard thrust, not giving my body time to adjust to the feeling of fullness that came with him being inside me. "This is where I belong," he groaned, keeping me still and keeping himself planted deep.
So deep.
It felt like I could feel him in my soul. Etched there permanently in some strange tether that tied us together through the years.
Over lifetimes.
Like nothing could ever keep us apart.
"I will never touch another woman again, Angel." His words were soft, menacing beneath the surface. The real Matteo that few ever got to see playing at the surface instead of hidden down deep. "I'm yours, Ivory." Tears stung my eyes when his lips touched my cheek, the soft pressure too much to handle at that moment. "And you're mine."
I nearly sobbed.
Because I wanted that.
I wanted to be his, and for him to be mine.
But to love Matteo was to be broken. I knew that better than anyone.
And I couldn't do it again.
"I'm not a good man." He pulled his hips back, thrusting in so hard he rammed against the end of me. A mix of pleasure and pain shot through me, and I gasped in his hold.
"Teo."
"I don't care if you want to leave me. I won't let you," he growled in my ear as he fucked me in slow and deep, hard strokes. "Do you know why, Angel?"
I shook my head, too incoherent to form words as he worked me over. His free hand wrapped around my front, pressing between my thighs to feel the place where we connected. He cupped me, touching himself as he slid in and out of me and made me mindless. The palm of his hand pressed against my clit and threatened me with an orgasm that hovered just out of reach.
"Because I love you. I have loved you since the moment I laid eyes on you." He shoved deep, pausing there and letting me think for just a moment. "Nothing will ever take you from me."
"Stop," I pleaded on a whisper, and from the way he slid out of my pussy and then glided back in, he knew I didn't mean to stop fucking me.