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13

GLORIA

“ D ad…” The sickening feeling forming in the pit of my stomach deepens.

“Do it. Now.”

He’s calmer. Cold.

I take one step, then another, raising my hands. “This is…”

“Necessary.”

“It’s sick.”

“But you wanted to go live with him. You wanted to go sleep in his house, in his bed. You’re going to tell me you haven’t?” But something in the way he says it makes me think he knows we haven’t. Like he’s been keeping eyes on us.

“We are just getting to know each other.”

“Well, then this is the next step in the right direction. And it’s gonna happen right now.”

Simply because he decided it. Like he decided to buy my debt. Decided I was moving to New York.

A strange calm settles over me. Nodding, I move forward again, this time pushing him lightly, gently toward the door.

“Then let me do this my way. Please.”

“That’s more like it. It’s not like you all don’t want this. Your mother was the same way.”

I inhale, resisting the urge to scream at him, to defend her.

“We aren’t ready for children, father. Please don’t do this. We will comply, just give us time, we’re not even married yet?—”

“You will do this for me. Until I get a child to call my own. Then you’re free to keep living your life. Working.”

“I won’t let you take my child—” I start to get agitated, the whole situation spinning out of control.

“You will. Or else.” When the gun points in Adriano’s direction again, I can’t bear the thought, the hammer cocking back sickeningly. But I can’t stand by and let this unfold.

“If you kill him, you’ll never get what you want. And I will die before I give it to you.”

Dom looks at me like he’s seeing me for the first time, his eyes contracting to pinpoints.

“There’s the spine I knew you had. Bolster that resolve, daughter. You’ll need it.”

It’s working. Playing to his pride, to bizarre moods. Maybe…

Maybe I’m an idiot.

Dom’s sneer warps his face as he leans in. “You’ll need it, because if you defy me again, if you do not give me an heir?” His voice drops to a hiss so only the two of us can hear. “I will go to France.”

No.

“I will go to a certain boarding school.”

Please God, no.

“And I will find your little sister.”

My mind is frantically looking for how, how did he find out?

“And I will take her from you. Sell her to the highest bidder.”

“She’s … she’s?—”

“Not. My. Blood. So I do not care what happens to her. Maybe she’ll fetch me a pretty penny. For a foreign drug lord in need of a wife.”

My mind is shutting down.

“Get in that fucking bedroom and do your job.” It’s deathly quiet. Icy cold.

He nudges me into the room, shutting the door behind me. The lock clicks from the outside, like a hammer hitting a nail in my coffin.

“Gloria?” Adriano asks, still sitting by the bed on the floor.

“Take me.”

“What are you saying? What did Dom say to you?” He’s rising, panic in his tone.

“Nothing. Just…please,” I plead, taking another step toward him.

Everything is coming undone. Falling apart.

My focus narrows to a pinpoint. To just him, his scent, his presence.

I need it now like I never have before.

Adriano opens his mouth to say something, to protest when he catches my eyes in the dim light. Everything slows down.

“I need you. Now.”

“I’m yours,” he whispers, taking me in his arms. “Whatever you need, but…”

“Then be mine. Tonight. Completely.”

Because I need to shut the horrible world out, to forget the sociopath that has my entire life in a stranglehold. Who controls every decision I make now, with a simple threat to my reason for living. Anna.

So I will make this mine.

On my terms.

I pull Adriano into me, crushing his lips with mine, and he gives, enveloping me in his embrace.

“You’re shaking,” he gasps, pulling back.

“You are too.”

“I …”

But I can’t say another word. I just shake my head, biting my lip. Begging him to give in. To let us have this.

And he doesn’t disappoint. His eyes soften, his head dipping to find my lips again.

This time it’s softer, exploratory. Building passion with every lash of his tongue across mine.

His hands graze along my arms, fiery hot to the touch. Warming me, setting my soul on fire.

In seconds, nothing else matters.

None of the danger, the fear. It’s all distant, far away.

Washed away in the torrent of his hands on my waist, my hands on his chest. Our bodies take over where words fail, where excuses and questions bind, speaking to one another in the only sure gesture we have left to give each other tonight.

My pulse quickens as he slips his fingers under the edge of my dress, teasing my tingling skin. It’s a giddy feeling, elation, like I drank a little too much champagne. And it’s a sensation that I have associated with him since he first flirted with me on the train.

Since he caught me when we fell, when I looked into those deep, dark brown eyes.

I lose myself in them, in him.

Adri tugs at my skirt, hiking it up, pulling my leg along his side, stroking my thigh. He’s gaining momentum fast, growing rock-hard between us as our kissing deepens, tongues, then his blazing lips along my neck, a stroke of one finger behind my ear.

Electric shivers rush through me.

With a husky grunt, I shove him back onto the bed, climbing on top of him, straddling him.

Every time I feel him under me, pressing into me, I’ve wondered, fantasized about it…

I slowly start to grind on top, feeling him swell to his full, enormous prowess. Adriano inhales me, dragging his nose, his lips, his chin, along my chest as I let my head fall back.

His kisses start feather soft, toying with me, tasting me. And then they get deeper, sending chills along my skin, pebbling every surface, and scintillating in sparks up and down my spine.

My shoulder blades pull together, thrusting my chest out towards him as he works his way lower along my collarbone, into the nape of my neck, and then lower still. One of his hands thrusts up, cupping my breasts through my dress, pulling it down again, sampling one nipple, then the other. The flimsy fabric gathers around my middle, exposing me to him setting a fire in his eyes as he looks upon me.

The chill in the bedroom adds to the sensations, to the overwhelming tingles as he sets to devouring my breasts, aching, firming to his touch. Taking each one into his mouth, Adri circles, sucks, squeezes.

Until I’m writhing on his lap, rocking back and forth over his muscular frame.

“Gloria…” he says my name like a prayer, like a song.

“Be with me…” I breathe into his ear, silencing any doubts that might surface in his mind.

Unbuttoning his shirt, I tug it back, slipping it over his arms and off into the darkness. Then we’re up, my dress falling to the floor, his belt buckle snapping, unzipping, kicking his pants aside.

The tumult of the threat outside mixes with our growing desire, the urgency of our love building into a frenzy, passionate and wild. Fuel for our fire.

Not to mention the two of us have been avoiding this for so long.

Pent-up. Stressed out.

And now it’s finally here.

I cannot get enough of his muscular arms, the rock-hard shoulders, his firm sides, rippling under my fingertips. Clutching those pillars, his corded, shredded arms, I let him surround me again, his hand tracing the line of my spine down, finding the dimples I know he’ll love along my lower back. His soft growl tells me I’m right.

Laying me back onto the bed with absolute care, but with a hint of abandon, a slight roughness that belies his desire, Adriano gazes at me, my naked form, and I’m unchained. Set free.

Nothing in the world could be hotter than the way he looks at me.

Until he cups his hands under my ass, following the line of lace around, toying with my thong. There’s something about the way his fingers tease into the crook between my thighs and ass, each hand dragging out from the center along the crease.

The sensation rolls through me like a wave, doubling my arousal, igniting my core.

No one has ever touched me there before, like that.

Butterflies erupt in my stomach, fluttering up through my chest. Right before he drags my underwear down, kissing a path all the way down my tummy. The torture persists as he scrapes fingertips and lips down each leg, inside my thigh, that delicate spot behind my knee, all the way to my ankle.

“You’re killing me…” I whisper, a soft laugh reaching my lips as I luxuriate on the sheets, sprawled out for him, spread open for him. “Adriano. Make love to me…”

And with that permission, I sense the snap of all of his self-control, completely and utterly giving in to the want, the desire, the need . He lingers over me raised up on his knees, my legs hooked over his hands.

Every muscle of his chest and abs are etched in moonlit shadows above me, sculpted in glorious relief of blue silver.

And lower, I can see how hard he is, straining against his boxer briefs. The black fabric is doing very little to conceal the enormous size of him. Rising up, I stroke one hand up, cupping, then palming him along the bottom of his shaft. I savor the size of him, anticipating every inch of that magnificent shaft sliding into me.

I know this won’t suffice.

I need him as naked as I am.

He steps back off the bed, slipping his underwear down, kicking them to the side.

Then he presses one hand right at the top of my abdomen, forcing me back down.

As I breathe deeply, my chest heaving, and he just looks at me. His eyes taking in every curve of my figure.

“I’ll never get enough of you,” he mutters, dropping down at the foot of the bed, kissing my belly, and lower.

“Try…” I moan, aching for his tongue to find my apex, for his fingers to caress my center.

“You taste…amazing…” he gasps between lashes of his tongue, his lips buried in me.

And each of those growls, those heated words send a shock through me.

My eyes flare with each one as he watches me from between my tense and quivering thighs. A little smile plays on his lips as he glances up, that devastating gaze splitting me right in two.

It’s a promise of how he’s going to make me feel.

Any worry is washed away in the surge of his attention, his focus entirely on my pleasure, on worshiping every inch of me. It’s unreal.

It’s unique.

Perfect.

Every caress sends me soaring, rushing toward my first release and farther, deeper into a place where I know I will never come back from. A place where only he and I reside.

That place is my heart, hidden away.

Secured for so long.

And he’s shattering my defenses.

Each kiss he places with such care on my body destroys my inhibitions, my insecurities. And they send my heart fluttering, pounding, and my hands scrambling for something to hold onto, anything.

The sheets bunch in my grip, bracing me as I begin to come undone.

The flush of heat, the blushing swell that starts at my toes, blossoms through my core, up through my ribcage, erupts out through my fingertips, flooding my brain in pure unfiltered ecstasy.

Everything about him is exquisite, more hypnotizing and stimulating than anything I’ve ever felt before, than anyone I’ve ever been with. And Adriano is more beautiful, sexier, and more powerful than anyone I’ve ever seen in my life.

His muscular arms, his shoulders, the column of his neck, stretching down the curve of his back like a canyon, running down to perfectly sculpted ass as I look down on him, devastating me over and over again with every thrust of his tongue.

His hands find my sides, teasing my hips and I giggle, shuddering slightly.

“Sorry,” he laughs.

My only reply is a deep, sudden moan as he finds his way to the summit of my sex, pressing into it with purposeful spirals of his incredible tongue.

“Right there!” I groan, arching up into him.

My whole body starts to shake, tremors rumbling through me.

My toes curl as my calves pull down on his back, dragging him into me closer, keeping him right where I need him. The small humming noise of pleasure that escapes his lips as I tighten makes me even hotter, drives me faster to my climax.

Adri knows exactly what he’s doing as he increases his pressure, speed, gripping my hips.

But if there was any question, I guide him with my ever-increasing moans, with a twist of my hips tilting, turning, making sure he gets to those spots that I want him to touch most, that I want him to lick the most.

There’s only one thing that would finish this sooner, end me in a heartbeat, and like he planned this, like he’s perfectly in sync with my mind, Adriano reaches up, cupping my breasts, pinching my nipples, caressing…

The first waves of my orgasm wrack my frame, sending me into lip-biting, back-arching, hip-bucking spasms.

It’s fucking incredible.

Coruscating ripples zip along my skin, under the surface, making every muscle glow in ecstatic rushes of pleasure. It’s over way too soon.

I need more. I want so much more.

And I must have said so because Adriano chuckles, leaning back. “And I fully intend to give it to you. When you can’t take it anymore.”

It’s pure sexual indulgence. Arrogant in just the right way.

And utterly spine-tingling.

I love every second of it. His fingers join his mouth when he dives back down, teasing my opening as his tongue circles closer and closer, tighter. Speeding into a fluttering rush again. A feather light touches back and forth across my apex, exposing my clit to devastating effect.

My hips are gyrating uncontrollably after only a few seconds, my second release on the horizon. And just as quickly as he started, he stops, dipping his tongue down. Slipping right around my opening, tasting me, curling into me.

The deep, rumbling moan of satisfaction vibrates into my middle as he tastes the soaked mess that I know he’s already drawn out of me. There’s nothing more tantalizing, making me nearly come with just a sound.

This is the unbelievable sex that books could never quite replicate, never quite explain. Every sensation speaks to me of romance, lust, love, and longing.

And now it’s mine.

He’s mine.

Those feather light touches of his tongue find my bud again, sucking his lips to pull me into his mouth. Just as he does, his thumb presses to my opening and I realize just how badly I need him to fill me. To complete me.

Tilting my hips forces the tip of his finger inside me, but not nearly enough. Each time I try he pulls back, teasing, a little deeper each time.

Just when I think I can’t handle it anymore, just when I think I’m going to scream with frustration and longing, he gives in, thrusting inside gently, knuckling the bundle of bliss just inside me, firing off explosions of feeling in my head, making my body shudder, my mind flash in ecstasy.

The rhythm of my writhing takes over, taking me straight toward the edge. I can’t wait.

I give into it.

The rush hits me harder this time, forcing a cry, nearly a scream, from my mouth, my head slamming back into the pillows, my ass grinding into the sheets. It’s lightning, thunder, shaking the foundations of my world.

Clenching around his finger, I flex to draw out the length of the orgasm, but it’s gone too quickly. Already fading, leaving me drenched, gasping.

For more.

“I need you inside me. Now .” I don’t care how pathetic I sound. If I sound like I’m begging.

I am.

Adriano doesn’t hesitate, dragging me toward him, pulling me off the bed and sitting down, setting me on top of him like I weigh nothing. We kiss as my knees hit the mattress to either side of him, holding me above his rigid column, letting the glistening head of him brush along my folds, dallying for only a moment to let my body prepare, to let me catch my breath.

But I can barely contain my impatience.

The taste of my sex on his lips is too much for me to resist. It’s utterly intoxicating.

There’s no coming back from this, from what he’s already done to me. I will always want more. And more. And more.

His hands never stop holding me tightly, keeping me pressed against his chest as we share the deepest, most sensual kiss. I feel him throb under me, notched to my entrance and ready. But waiting for my permission, for me to make my move.

A smile plays on his lips as I back off just a hair, watching his eyes. He knows what I’m doing. That I’m intent on causing him the exact amount of torture he caused me.

But unfortunately for him or maybe very fortunately, I don’t have the patience he had.

Reaching back, I stroke the thick width of his shaft, keeping him just inside me, only a hint of what I can nearly feel him dying for. His eyes flare with every squeeze, every pump on my fingers.

I let my eyes drift half-closed as I rock back and forth over him, savoring the building expectation of what he’s going to feel like. We move as one rolling like waves in the ocean.

Adriano flexes in my hand a few times, his breath hitching as he nearly slips inside, but I hold him off, pinned down with my splayed fingers on his chest, the other hand gripping his cock, and the steady roll of my hips above him.

I could make him come, just like this.

I know I could.

And it’s tempting.

But there’s no fucking way I’m letting him anywhere but inside of me. It’s the only thing I can think about, him filling me. I’ve wanted this for way too long.

I can’t wait any longer.

His mouth drops open in shock as he slips inside, one inch.

“Yes, yes,” I breathe in a raspy whisper.

His position at the end of the bed lets him lift me, my legs straightening out behind him, then curling around his core. Adriano eases me down, slowly, so slowly. He’s savoring this as much as I am, closing his eyes to feel me encircle him, take him.

I kiss his lips softly, closing my eyes to feel the same.

Then there’s no holding back and we’re tumbling down, over the edge of the cliff.

It’s a rush as I open myself to him, his powerfully strong hands lowering me around him. Somewhere in the back of my mind I’m grateful for his pace, for his patience.

Adriano is massive.

He stretches me to the limit, every inch making my entire body quake. But he lets me adjust, rolling my hips back and forth, so softly, settling him within me, feeling him everywhere, consuming every sense.

He’s the air in my lungs. The taste on my tongue. He’s every sensation that I want to feel.

My moans match the pace of each thrust, easing him out and taking him deeper until I’m sitting on his lap, my calves locked around his back, my arms wrapped around his neck.

The warmth of his skin, the pressure of his arms around me as he starts to pump, bucking under me, fills my heart, swells in my chest.

This is love.

No matter the words, or if we ever say them.

We revel in the feeling, Adri grinding himself into me purposefully, every movement creating ripples, starbursts of bliss, an aura of pure, sheer rapture reverberating through my body.

It’s as if he was designed to fit, barely fit, within me.

I lose all track of anything but that feeling. Slow rocking turns to faster, more insistent thrusting, bouncing me above him.

“Harder…” I moan, wanting to feel him in every possible way.

His thrusts drive up into me, dropping me back down over him again and again. The jolts of that sweet pressure building within me fire off again and again.

All I know is that this is the only place I want to be, with him underneath me, inside me. With me. We’re perfect together.

In every single way.

“Gloria,” he growls, making me cry out, a swell of deeper pleasure hinting at the coming climax.

Perfect bliss and ecstasy consume me.

Filling me up, my body overflowing with heat and desire. Streamers of light and sound vibrate out from my core, radiating around me, consuming my entire being with sensuous pleasure. Adriano’s love is rocketing through every nerve ending, through every blood vessel.

My legs locked around him as he drops back, scooting back to lay with me straddling him, settling my ass down on him. At this angle, poised above him, I can call the shots. I can ride him, and I can see that’s exactly what he wants.

And it’s a good thing.

I can feel my orgasm burgeoning, the swells of the coming cataclysm shuddering along the backs of my legs.

Rocking back and forth, I increase our pace, my arousal slick, drenched between us. He glides in smoothly, out again, and I’m bucking back and forth before I know it, desperate cries filling the room as his fingers clamp around my thighs, guiding the angle of my rocking hips.

Our bodies roll in time together, slamming Adriano home, right where I need him, again and again. The first crash of the tsunami hits, making me scream, wordless, and I feel him tighten under me, holding on to ride it out.

I’m clenched around him, my inner walls gripping him with wild abandon. Still, Adriano pounds into me, over and over. His eyes closing, his teeth grinding with effort.

“I’m gonna…” I cry, unable to finish the sentence as the full force of the tectonic shift unfolds within me. It rockets through my limbs, overpowering every other thought.

And right as it starts, I feel his fingers find my peak, driving the explosion to new heights, sending me into orbit.

The tide rises, my voice with it.

And I shatter.

Adriano shatters with me, dragging me down onto his chest as he loses control, pumping himself up into me with unrelenting force, flexing within me, crashing wave after wave of sensation into me.

The flood of his release is a molten heat in my center, fulfilling me in a way I never dreamed of.

Our rhythm slows but he never releases me, never pulls away as we roll onto our sides, clutching at each other for dear life.

Adriano kisses me tenderly, tracing lines over my skin, my back, with his fingertips.

I let my arms drop, rolling onto my back, feeling the soft cool comfort of the sheets around me. This must be heaven. This must be perfect and utter bliss.

We lay like that for minutes, caressing, drifting.

Until he rises again, in every sense of the word. And I’m ready, even though I’m nearly spent, my body drained.

So I wiggle a bit, making it clear that I want to stay on my back. “You can do whatever you want…” I whisper.

His grin is breathtaking.

And the feeling of him filling me up again even more so.

Resting my ankles over his shoulders, he plummets into me, lifting me up and down along his abs, my back rising up off the bed. It’s entirely different.

Entirely mind-blowing.

The sliding pulse of him increases, deeper. Hurtling into me. And all the while he locks eyes with me, our growing desire heating the air between us.

His chest heaves, coming in sharp gasps.

“Come for me, Adri…” I beg, ascending right along with him toward another dive.

“Come with me.” It’s almost a command. Just the right hint of sensual dominance to make my stomach flip.

“Adrian—Oh!” The cry tears itself from my chest, unbridled and fucking primal. Just like the current of buzzing bliss that makes me see spots behind my eyelids. As we careen off into nothing together.

All I can do is hold onto the bed and let him hold onto my legs as he comes undone inside me, my muscles giving out in spasms of ecstasy. My body releases, fully relaxed, the glow of aftershocks zipping along my nerves.

I sense, distantly, Adriano drop to the bed beside me, dragging me against his chest and the two of us are floating, lost in beautiful dark velvet.

And I’m falling, falling, falling.