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11

ISABELLA

T he initial shock of the lights going out fades as I take a deep breath. I realize I’m gripping Alessandro’s hand tightly.

“Sorry.”

“For what? And why are you whispering?” There’s a chuckle in his words. “Should be a flashlight right…here.”

He clicks it on, shining it up to illuminate the room better.

“I thought I saw some candles when I was looking for silverware,” I mutter, feeling a little silly for freaking out.

In moments, we have a fair share of light and manage to get the older stove lit and heating our meal. The rich, creamy soup and garlic bread fill the kitchen with a mouthwatering aroma. Even more so, since the temperature has already started to drop in the house.

Alessandro heads upstairs to get the fire going in the den hearth while I finish getting everything ready, traying up our feast.

By the time I get upstairs, Alessandro has a roaring fire rekindled in the fireplace and several candles shine merrily, making the room glow almost romantically. The blazing fireplace is a bright and happy welcome as I set out the meal and settle down onto the fur rug.

“Here…” Aless wraps me in a fleece throw and I bite my lip to keep from giggling at his awkward shrug.

“Thank you.”

We dig in eagerly, the minestrone and bread tasting far better than it probably would have otherwise. Something about the weather, the dark, the firelight. It reminds me of camping with Papa as a little girl.

Alessandro seems to share the sentiment, making a few pleasant hums as he starts eating. We sit quietly, in companionable silence, enjoying our bread and soup, staring into the flames.

“I guess I’ll have to see if I can get the generator on. Or brave the blizzard to check the transformer.” Alessandro sits on the floor, wrapped in his own blanket, his back to the couch.

“You’re not going out there in the dark.”

“Then we’re both going to have to sleep on the floor in here tonight. It’s going to get really cold.”

The thought of sleeping near him sends a thrill through my legs down into my toes. “I can live with that.”

The lack of power sets a mood, like we’re both dancing around each other. It also punctuates the fact that I am stranded, alone, with the most intense man I’ve ever met.

It sets my heart pounding.

And I’m not sure if it’s in a good way or a bad way.

I just have to get through tonight, and things can go back to normal tomorrow once we get the power back on. Whatever normal is.

My stomach full, I curl up on the couch, feeling fairly sleepy and deliciously toasty. Giving in to a whim, I pat the couch cushion next to me, inviting Alessandro to join me. His body heat washes over me the instant he sits down and I can’t help scooting a bit closer.

“We used to have nights like this on purpose as kids. Dad would turn all the lights off, light candles. We would all gather in this room, have a big camp out. Tell stories.”

“Ghost stories?”

He huffs a little laugh. “Sometimes. My best friend was always trying to scare all of us with monsters and ghouls. He was a terrible storyteller, though.”

“Are you still friends?”

A stillness settles over him, and for a bit I think he’s not going to answer.

“No. And yes. Domenico will always be one of the most important people in my life.”

An edge to his words sends a shiver down my back.

“I take it you aren’t exactly friends anymore.”

“He made a choice that there’s no coming back from.”

Every word Alessandro says is so carefully chosen, and there’s hidden meaning in every sentence, a history that I find myself wanting to understand. Everything Alessandro does, he does with the same level of intensity and wholehearted drive.

“You don't do anything in halves, do you?” I tease, trying to draw him back away from those dark thoughts.

“I’ve always felt that if you're going to do anything, that you might as well do it entirely. Give everything to it.”

“I agree.” If only he knew. I quit my job to track him down. “Your career, the company. Is it what you always wanted to do?”

“Not quite. I've always had an investigative mind. I've always asked hard questions, demanded answers. Oddly enough, I never really did the same with myself.”

“It’s easier to ask others questions than figure out what we really want sometimes.”

“Exactly. And there’s never a shortage of demands on my time—distractions, obligations. So there was never much time to think about what I wanted.”

“You have time now,” I murmur.

Alessandro locks eyes with me, the friction between us filling the air. Despite the freezing chill encroaching from all sides, the room feels so warm, the heat from his body filling me.

I shouldn't want him to be closer to me.

I shouldn’t want to ask him deeper questions about himself. To unlock the puzzle that has me all too intrigued. In the deep darkness surrounding us, I want to draw him into the light. I want him to open up to me.

I want to hate him. I want to stop falling for him.

And yet, I want to let go.

Looking up, I realize he’s been staring intently at me, watching me. I swallow hard, looking from his eyes to his lips.

“I’ll make us a couple of makeshift beds.”

He rises, leaving me hanging, lost in my thoughts.

“Good idea.” Another thrill zips through me at the idea of curling up next to him in the dark.

Lying on the floor, just a few feet away from him, the roar of the fire matching the heat I feel building inside me.

I’m already bundled in my pile of blankets when he settles into his, grunting out a sigh behind me. “Goodnight Isabella.”

“Goodnight Alessandro.”

I stare at the wall, practically holding my breath for several minutes, listening for any sound of him behind me. After a while, I must doze off, just for a bit. When I open my eyes, the embers in the fire are dying down, getting darker.

The wind howls distantly out in the storm.

My entire body is aching, longing to roll over and find him, to be near him. A buzzing, sensuous feeling tingles through me, imagining his hands sliding over my skin in the dark.

I nearly jump when I hear him say, “Are you still awake?”

“Yes.”

“Are you cold?”

“A little.”

I hear more than see him rise in the darkness. Moving towards the fire, adding wood and stoking the flames. Shadows cut him in stone, every muscle of his shirtless back rippling.

He’s easing back down to the floor when I realize he’s only wearing underwear, my eyes tracing down the muscles of his abs, then lower. His hand braces right next to me as he adjusts the blankets and I reach out, my fingers brushing his knuckles.

“Alessandro …”

I'm pulling him towards me before I can stop myself.

A swelling need overtakes me, consumes everything.

There’s no hesitance in his movements as he lifts the covers and slides over, scooping an arm under me and pulling me up. Our lips graze once, twice, and he inhales, taking me in, right before claiming my mouth with his.

His kiss is desperate, firm.

Our tongues lash out, dancing between our teeth, testing and teasing each other.

Just like our conversations, it’s a back and forth, a fencing match. He dives in, exploring with his tongue, then darts back. I follow, biting his lower lip, dragging it out until neither of us can resist and we’re kissing deeply again.

Strong hands grip me, running down my thigh, up under me, cupping my ass and squeezing.

My legs twine around him, pulling him where I really want him, on top of me, grinding lightly, feeling the staggering length and thickness of him press through my panties.

His kisses wander up my jawline, nibbling my earlobe, sighing a growling breath into my ear, my name faintly lost in the rumble. The sensation washes down my entire body, pebbling my skin in goosebumps from head to toe.

Like he can read my mind, he slips his hands under my nightgown touching every inch of my taught, tingling skin. In one swift, powerful movement, he whips my gown up and over my head, tossing it aside.

In the flickering light he pauses, drinking in the sight of my exposed breasts, my heaving chest, and down the line of my stomach.

“My God…” he whispers, his voice husky and dark, “you’re the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.”

He dives back in, devouring my lips, and just like that, I completely lose myself in him. We roll through a sea of blankets and furs, skin on skin, our soft moans and gasps accenting the popping crackle of the fire.

Alessandro leans over me, resting on his forearms as he drags his tongue around my nipple, then the other, shooting quivers of ecstasy down my spine. Until I press into his chest, flipping him to his back, and rising on top of him.

There are only two strips of fabric between us, my lacy thong and his boxer briefs.

Both doing little to hide what I've done to him—his immense, rigid cock looking like it might burst through the fabric any second—or what he’s doing to me; my core already soaked and slick.

The first rotation of my hips has him groaning, the second growling, his hands clamping down around my hips to clutch my ass cheeks. Friction zips electricity along my hips and into my groin as my clit presses into his bulge, making me bite down on my lip.

In response, he slides one hand up along my abdomen, cupping my breast and tweaking my nipple.

I almost chuckle at the sheer torture, and I can tell he won’t put up with this much longer.

His eyes are already tearing my underwear off before his hands get to it and I let him roll me onto my back, stripping them down my legs with a long, dragging pull.

Then his fingers are scraping up the inside of my thigh, while mine scrape up the back of his neck, twining into his hair, those sandy curls.

He slips one finger along me, gasping at the feel of the slickness he finds there. I can tell he’s about to slide it in when I shake my head, locking him with a stare.

It makes one side of his mouth curl in a little smile.

In one motion, he slips out of his boxers and lifts me, powerfully sitting up and resting me across his lap, my knees settling into the furs around us.

He’s still holding back, I can tell.

A caged animal.

And I want to unleash him on me.

I rest my arms across his shoulders, hovering over him, straddling him.

I reach down between us, wrapping my fingers around him, gripping tightly. The growl that forms deep in his chest rumbles through me as I guide him right to my entrance, holding him fast, keeping him right there.

A flash of animal lust flares in his eyes and I feel him flex every muscle below me.

He pulls me closer, wrapping his arms around me and I lean down, right next to his ear.

“Promise me one thing…”

“Anything.”

“Don’t hold back.”

There’s no foreplay.

I don’t want foreplay tonight.

So I sink down over him, taking him entirely inside me.

I need him all around me, filling me, scorching me with his desire. Making the bonfires of my soul rage and blaze into the dark. I need the storm of him, of us, to consume me, while the storm rages outside.

My long, deep moan accents his as I adjust to the size of him, relaxing to fit all of his impressive size into me. He grips me tight, holding me close to him right before we both slowly begin to rock, Alessandro rolling his hips and me bucking mine back and forth along him.

Each thrust drives any doubt from my thoughts, erases any thought but him.

All I need is Alessandro.

This.

And I want him to take whatever he wants from me.

Give me everything in return.

His fingers spear into my hair, down my back. Every movement is a need, an unraveling of years of pent-up frustration and denial. I can tell it’s only the tip of the iceberg, a well of passion miles deep inside him.

He’s not holding back, but the floodgates are just beginning to open.

I cannot wait for more, to see him let loose on me.

We’re pressed tightly together, grinding, our gasps and moans syncing in the sweetest rhythm.

I’m building up, heading toward a peak when he lays me onto my back, throwing my legs up over his shoulders. He lifts me effortlessly, powerful muscles flexing in the firelight.

When he slides back into me, its deeper, harder.

His girth is stretching me to my limit, filling me completely, my inner walls hugging him so snuggly.

And just as overwhelming is his presence, that pure dominance and strength.

Every time he slides out I’m desperate for him to thrust back in, bucking my hips toward him, demanding that he fill me deeper, rougher.

My first wave of pleasure begins, coiling in a spiral down to my toes, back up through my calves, and trembling up through my thighs. Shivers ripple up my back, caressed by the soft fur rug beneath me, adding to the stimulation as I reach the edge.

The first one is a slow, cascading wave breaking over me, and I inhale deeply to let out a low, long cry, echoing through the dark house.

My fingers curl into the fur, bunching and clenching, holding on for dear life as he drives into me again and again.

I luxuriate in the glow, watching Alessandro above me, his hands clamped around my thighs. He kisses and nibbles at my legs, sending more shivers of ecstasy through me.

His eyes are half closed, holding his own eruption in reserve, slowing every time he starts to throb inside me.

In response, I clench softly, flexing my walls around him and he growls out a low rumble, half laugh, half warning.

The rhythm slows for just a moment as he explores my body with his eyes, dragging the entire length of his manhood out of me achingly slow. “Don’t you dare stop,” I beg, my voice husky.

“This is just an intermission,” he explains, circling one finger around my nipple, pinching it softly.

“Good…because I know you’re not done.”

“I’m just getting warmed up.” The words are gravelly, a promise that I won’t forget this night as long as I live.

Our fingers clasp as I reach out and he pulls me up, rolling back, laying me over him. I straddle him, seating him back as deep as he’ll go and we both savor the feeling, my back arching in a sensual stretch.

I roll my hips once, twice, finding our rhythm again, grinding the head of his rock-hard erection into the bundle of nerves just inside, and Alessandro presses his palm to my lower abdomen, like he can read my thoughts. The pressure is intense, like a quake deep in my core.

I buck my ass back, then forward, and feel him sigh in surprise, his cock swelling inside me as he flexes his buttocks instinctively. I do it again and he locks his hands onto my hips, riding out each thrust with a deep groan.

“Isabella, you’re going to…”

“Yes …Yes!”

His eyes are practically rolling back in his head, the velvet of my inner walls, flexing and squeezing around him. This is the most aroused I’ve ever felt, the most free.

Even though there is a present, very real danger in the man inside me.

It’s a thrill that I can’t deny.

I’ve never come so completely undone with anyone, our bodies intertwining, becoming one like the roaring flame in the hearth.

Every buck of my hips gets me hotter, higher.

I’m slamming down on him, my ass slapping his thighs, his perfect, sculpted ass flexing to drive his massive cock as far inside me as he can.

I hear my own voice, far away, crying out his name, screaming.

“Aless, come for me, come with me!” His name is on my lips, in my head, he’s everything.

It only grows more intense as I feel his thumb press into my clit, sending an explosion of stars erupting behind my closed eyelids.

My fingers dig into his chest. This is it.

The motion of my gyrating hips does the work for him, his thumb pressing into me, his rock-hard girth completing me. A low growl issues from his lips as he watches me. Shooting thrills, a shock of electricity rocketing through my entire body.

I know he won’t be able to hold out this time.

I feel him tensing, clenching, building.

The pulse inside me, the swell of him, sends me over the edge; a roaring conflagration spilling out of him, filling me up in its entirety, lighting my very soul on fire.

We’re both screaming, his back arching off the carpet, my nails digging into his pecs.

It lasts for seconds, minutes. I lose track, lost in wave after wave of bliss crashing over me.

My legs quiver, shaking through my frame, sapping every last bit of strength I have left.

Alessandro roars to a finish, his body relaxing under me as I slump down onto his chest, my hair spilling across his shoulders.

I feel him inhale deeply, my scent. Our essence.

I breathe him in, the faint cologne of his skin.

The last thing I remember is Aless pulling a blanket over us as I fall helplessly, hopelessly into the deepest, most satisfying sleep of my life.