Page 30 of Ace of Hearts

I get down on one knee, then both. I move more slowly now, more gently, too, the exact opposite of the speed and urgency of my beating heart.

I don’t break our eye contact as I beg her, with a little smile.

“Please ... Rose ...” I murmur in Russian, which she doesn’t speak, that she is beautiful. “Let me taste you.”

Thank God, she doesn’t make me grovel any longer. She bites her lip and nods, trembling under my hands. I run them back up her legs, passing underneath the hem of her nightdress to her bottom. Then I pull on her lace G-string, draw it down to her ankles, and toss it away.

“Such a beautiful color ...,” I whisper, lifting her delicate nightdress up over her hips.

“You can’t even see it.”

Pause. I flash her a wicked smile. What does she imagine? I’m a model student. And if I’m not mistaken, it must be ...

“It’s rose-colored, isn’t it? Like you.”

She has no answer to that. She looks at me, open-mouthed, as I lift the nightdress still farther, up to her stomach. She’s so beautiful. So soft. At my mercy.

Or am I at hers?

I put my hands on her buttocks and kiss her where her thighs meet. Her nightdress falls over my hair, where Rose’s fingers are already entwined. I almost let out another groan just as my tongue makes its first contact with her skin.

I’ve fantasized about this moment, dreamed of this closeness, for so long .

.. I’ve wondered so often how she’d taste .

.. and now I know. Her essence is pure honey on my tongue.

I lick her skin with short, delicate strokes, lingering over the place that elicits her first groan.

She swears out loud, an obscenity that almost makes me laugh, and tightens her fingers in my hair.

I grab her buttocks and pull her toward me, galvanized by her reactions, and push my tongue into her.

“ Dio mio! ” she cries out, stiffening immediately.

I whisper to her to relax, but as soon as I speed up, she tenses again. I kiss her thigh tenderly, then stand up and, taking hold of the hem of her nightdress, pull it up and over her head.

Oh Jesus. Her breasts are absolutely perfect.

“Why are you tense?” I whisper, kissing her cheek. “Let yourself go.”

“I want to touch you.”

“You have to wait your turn,” I murmur, shaking my head.

I resist the urge to take off all my clothes and take her hand, leading her to the bed. I lay her down on her back and sit astride her, caressing her hips, then her waist, then her breasts, which I take in both my hands.

“You’re magnificent,” I say. “Absolutely perfect.” The words come out in my native Russian.

She takes my face in her hands as I bend down to give her a long, sensuous kiss. When I break away, I imprison her nipples with my lips, one by one. I lick and suck them until she’s panting heavily. Finally, she begs me to move lower.

I don’t need to be asked twice. I touch her with my fingers first, to help her relax. Then I kneel on the floor again, pass my arms under her thighs, and pull her toward me hard.

I taste her again, tenderly, my fingers moving inside her. The sensation is nothing short of divine. She’s warm and moist all around me, and I have just one desire: to enter her. Rose’s moans are getting louder, and she’s lifting her hips toward my face.

I can’t hold on any longer. I get up and join her on the bed, lying on my back so she can climb on top of me. I catch hold of her thighs again and continue licking her. Rose seems just as impatient as I am, moving back and forth against my lips.

Shit . Rose Alfieri is fucking my mouth. Unbelievably well too. It’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.

“Admit it,” she pants. “The other day, in the bathroom ...” I groan against her, my cheeks burning. She clearly realized. Anyone would have guessed, seeing me come out of there.

“Were you thinking of me while you were getting off?”

I nod, moving my fingers inside her again. My erection is pushing so hard against my jeans, begging for release, that it hurts.

“Were you imagining that it was my hands around you?”

Oh fuck. If she carries on, I’m going to come while I’m still fully dressed. I shake my head, my heart ready to explode.

“My mouth?” She tries again, straddling me sensually.

I nod as her thighs begin to tremble. And not with fear. She swears again, tightening herself around my fingers. I take that as a sign to accelerate. She moans again and again, her eyes closed, and trembles more and more violently against my tongue.

Rose explodes against my mouth with a symphony of erotic sounds, and for an instant—a wonderful instant—everything is perfect. Then, the next instant, a totally different sound tears through the room.

I clamp my hands over my ears, memories hurtling at me, then try to shield Rose with my body. Taken by surprise, she pushes me away.

“Levi . . . Levi . . . It’s just fireworks!”

I don’t see her or hear her. I’m caught up in a tornado of sounds that leave me terrified. The explosions don’t stop; in fact they get faster and faster. I feel as though I’m about to burst.

I see my father again, his hands around my mother’s neck. His crazy eyes. It’s as if he were here again, right next to me, ready to strangle me for having dared challenge him.

No, no, no. Please. Calm down.

Rose disappears for a moment and comes back, holding my noise-reducing headphones. She puts them on me and rests her warm hands on my neck.

I open my eyes again, paralyzed with fear, and see her worried expression. She’s pulled her nightdress back on, as though nothing happened, but the sheen of sweat on her forehead confirms that I didn’t invent it all. I’ve just ruined a supremely perfect moment.

I grow calmer, but my throat is still tight with tears I can’t shed. Her face is clearly asking the question I fear most: “What’s going on?”

I don’t know what gets into me at that moment. I don’t know if it’s because of what we’ve just shared, the vulnerability I’m feeling, or the fear that’s gripping my heart.

Or maybe it’s the fact that I can’t hear myself that causes me to murmur the words, painfully.

“I killed my father.”