The way she held my eyes, the way hers burned as she watched me approach, it was like no image of any virgin I could’ve conjured.
Again, I was reminded of the black panther I’d seen at the zoo. I might’ve held a bit more experience than her, but she was looking at me like I was her next meal. And as soon as the thought crossed my mind, her eyes tracked down the front of my chest, and she licked her bottom lip.
Instead of prowling over her and pinning her hands over her head onto the soft mattress, I stripped off my shirt and let it fall in a heap on the floor.
She blew out a slow breath, and I held out my hand for her to stand. Not once did she blink shyly away, did her gaze waver, not a word spoken between us when she smoothed the flat of her hand up over my chest. My nostrils flared at her touch, the wildfire it set off in my blood. It had been so long, and I wanted her so viscerally.
It dawned on me as I drew my fingertips down the graceful line of her neck and carefully tugged her dress forward, that she and I were the same, and that was why I never expected her, never anticipated finding a well of feeling like this. Because I’d never, not in my entire life, met a woman who was my exact counterpoint.
Some people found a soul mate in the one who filled in the gaps and closed in their pieces with one of their own. But she and I, we weren’t like that. Isabel and I were the same in the heat that ran through us, and instead of tempering the flames, we burned that much brighter together.
The crisscrossing straps of her dress fell with a whisper, and I sucked in a breath as she was bared to me. Isabel needed no guidance from me as she tugged down the small hidden zipper on the side of her dress, and it slid quietly off her hips until she stood before me in nothing but a tiny scrap of fabric.
I drew the tip of my finger down the front of her throat, whisper-light between her breasts until my hand spanned her waist. She was panting just from that single touch.
“So beautiful,” I murmured.
With the grace of a goddess, she sat back on the bed and quirked an eyebrow. “Your turn.”
I shucked my pants off, and she rolled her lips between her teeth. Her body laid out like that, it was no sacrifice to fall to my knees in front of her. I filled my hands with her flesh and tugged her hips against my stomach, Isabel clutched my head to her as I used my lips and tongue and teeth until she threw her head back with a loud gasp. With a hand on her chest, I pushed gently until she laid back on the bed, and I crawled up and over her, licking a line over her hip bones, nibbling the curve of her ribs.
When I placed a sucking kiss just underneath her belly button, her skin shook with anticipation.
“Oh, please,” she whispered.
“You’ve waited this long,” I murmured against the sleek muscle on her thigh. “You can be patient a little bit longer.”
Her head thrashed on the bed at the use of my fingers, back arching in a delicious curve. “I can’t.”
“Hands over your head,” I instructed. “If you can manage this without laying a hand on me, I’ll give you what you want.”
Instantly, she complied, and I felt the snarling beast inside me shake dangerously.
And then I used my mouth, her legs snapped tight over my shoulders, but she kept her hands fisted in the comforter. When she finally broke, a low moan wracked her frame. Fists planted on either side of her, I slid up the length of her body until I covered her completely. My hand curled over hers where it stayed on the bed as we kissed. As she worked through the aftershocks of what I’d done with fierce, deep kisses, angling her head to take more and more and more from me.
Despite her inexperience, Isabel would take everything from me that I’d give her, and already, I knew I’d serve myself up on a platter just to keep her like this for the rest of my life.
“I don’t know what I did to deserve this,” I whispered against her mouth, and her eyelids fluttered open. One of her hands cupped the side of my face while I pulled one of her thighs close to my side. “To deserve you.”
“It’s not about deserving, Aiden.” She kissed me. “It’s not about being worthy or perfect. It’s about finding the right person and choosing them.”
Isabel moved under me impatiently, but I kissed her again, gathering her body to mine until there was no space, no room for a single breath between us.
“I am falling in love with you,” I told her because I couldn’t not tell her. “And I choose you, every stubborn,” I pushed forward, and she gasped, “frustrating,” forward, “sexy,” more, “smart inch of you,” with a final snap, I let my forehead rest on hers as I tried to catch my breath.
Isabel’s breath escaped in a sob. Then she gripped my hips, fingernails digging into my skin.
“Are you okay?”
She grinned, looking more than a little drunk. “Yes. And just remember who fell in love with who first.”
I exhaled a laugh, pulling at her lips with a kiss. It slid into something deeper, something that had her shifting, tugging at my back. But I held there, allowing both of us to settle into the feeling.
“More, please,” she begged.
“I’m just getting started,” I whispered against her mouth.
As I moved, slowly at first, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t hurting her. Then she bit down on my earlobe, sucking it into her mouth, and the tether on my control snapped in a ragged, messy burst.
There was no thought of finesse or rhythm, no thought of anything other than our mutual pleasure.
Mine started before hers, and I fought to stay with her until the end, even as my chest heaved, my back arched helplessly when heat curled through my veins.
I smothered the sounds coming from my mouth into the curve of her sweat-shiny neck, and when she snapped her thighs against my hips, back curving, my name on her lips, we toppled over the edge together.
I slumped over her. The strength of a hundred men couldn’t haven’t moved me for how lethargic I felt.
She kissed me softly, running her hands over my back and up into my hair. I rolled to my side, keeping her anchored against me, our legs intertwined as we luxuriated in the taste of each other, the sweet sipping of her mouth against mine.
“I knew you’d wreck me.” She sighed happily. I kissed along her jaw, which she tipped so I could reach more of her skin.
“Did you?”
Isabel’s fingers traced the features on my face as she nodded. “The day I met you, I think I knew.”
The lithe line of her back was damp with sweat, and I touched as much of her as I could manage with long sweeps of my palm. “You’ve always been smarter than me about this.”
She laughed. “Not smarter,” she corrected. “More aware, maybe.”
I pushed some of her mussed hair out of her face. “If I’d had any idea, I probably never would’ve walked in the door.”
Just like I hoped she would, Isabel smiled at my honesty. “I know.”
Even though we were fully enmeshed, as many body parts wound together as humanly possible, I curled myself around her and breathed her in. It was cheesy and poetic, the types of thoughts I was never prone to, but Isabel smelled like the peace that I’d been seeking, that I thought she wasn’t capable of bringing. Ironic, given that she blew my life up, resetting it into something that would only work with her presence inside of it.
“I’m glad you did, though,” she whispered. “This is where I’m meant to be.”
I closed my eyes and held her against me. It was easy to imagine that every step of my life had led to this moment. Not just the moment, but to her.
“Me too,” I told her.
Eventually, we pulled the blankets up over us, whispering to each other as the night wore on. I decided, after sweet, gentle touches for the entire time, we were done being in bed.
“You owe me a bath,” I told her.
Her smile was wide and happy. “Do I?”
I nuzzled into her neck and decided she smelled best right there. “Yeah. Do you have any idea of how hard it was knowing you were in there?”
Her hand slid down between my legs, and I breathed out a pained laugh. “Tell me.”
Pecking a hard kiss against her lips, I extracted her hand and got out of bed. “I’ll tell you in there.”
Once we were under the water, the deep soaker tub filled with a lather of clean-smelling bubbles, Isabel turned and faced me, folding her long legs around my back so she was situated in my lap. I smoothed her wet hair off her face.
“This is what I pictured,” I told her.
She swept some bubbles off my shoulder. “Yeah?”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.