Page 24

BIG brOWN EYES

SANTINO

S ix years ago

Even though he knew she was meant to be his, Vanessa hadn’t caught on to that fact right away.

In the first place, she didn’t like that he was younger.

It took two weeks of him “running into her” at the building and in the neighborhood and asking her out before she agreed to their first date for dinner at a restaurant downtown.

Over their meal, she couldn’t seem to stop staring at his mouth and his pulse pounded harder, wondering what her lips tasted like, imagining kissing and sucking on them when he was inside her.

The thought of that made him sweaty and full of a sudden, desperate hope he’d never felt before.

She thought he was after her “for ass,” and assumed he was hitting everything in sight every weekend.

Deciding she couldn’t take him seriously didn’t stop her from letting him into her place at the end of their dates, since he was still living at his parents’ on City Island.

At first it was just kissing, which got deeper and heavier, and then it was his hand up her shirt fumbling to get her bra off.

Then his mouth on those sweet tits as his fingers explored her pussy.

Her one directive: “The clit needs a lot of love.” He made a note of that and followed that rule like it was his new religion.

As for him, he’d gotten hand jobs before, and a couple of drunken blowjobs at parties.

They’d been nice but not earthshattering.

His first time tasting a woman was with Vanessa.

He didn’t know what the fuck he was doing but she didn’t seem to mind because she’d told him where she liked being licked and when she was breathless and moaning, “There, don’t stop,” he’d listened.

The higher moans that had followed and the flood of salted honey in his mouth let him know he’d done something right.

Her scent, her flavor, all of it was sublime.

And he was fucking hooked on all of it, all of her.

When she blew him, it was nothing like those fumbling, desperate girls who didn’t know what to do with their teeth or who used painful kung fu death grips.

She was enthusiastic but skilled, taking control of his cock and drawing out his pleasure until he erupted in her waiting mouth.

Hooked again, and this time the addiction had gone deeper.

He found himself staring at her lips when she ate, when she drank, craving the feel of them under his own mouth or on his body.

Then one night, he’d come over with take-out, exhausted from the job.

She’d been wiped from her week at work and school and wanted to stay in.

Even though she claimed to be tired, when he’d come in and kissed her, that smile was a thousand watts strong.

She was watching HGTV, and he quirked an eyebrow at her choice.

“You really like this stuff?” he asked, gesturing at the screen.

“Yeah, guilty pleasure. This place is falling apart but at least I can try to make it look nice while it does,” she said, gesturing to the cracking white walls of her apartment. “I guess you’re not a fan.”

“Never watched before,” he said with a shrug, which was true. By the end of the Chinese food and three more episodes with stunning reveals of the finished homes, he was a fucking fan after all, but he kept that to himself.

Vanessa got up to wash the few dishes. Santino leaned in the doorway with his arms crossed and studied her in the light of her kitchen. The glow was warm and lovely on her dark chestnut skin. After a while, she noticed him staring.

“What?” she asked with an amused grin.

“You’re beautiful,” he responded.

Vanessa tossed her single long braid over her shoulder and rolled her eyes, but that grin deepened. “Beautiful, huh?”

“Yeah. You’re gorgeous.”

“Your mama didn’t tell you staring is rude?” she followed up coyly, wiping the dishes and putting them in the cabinet.

“She did. Sorry, I’m not used to you yet.”

“When do you think you’ll get used to me?”

“Probably never.”

That earned him another laugh, a low, sexy giggle that made his dick hard.

“I give it three months.” Vanessa turned and ran her gaze down his body.

Apparently, the thin gray sweatpants he was wearing weren’t doing a great job hiding his excitement.

She practically licked her lips, her eyes darting to the clock on the wall.

The smile now reached the dark eyes that locked with his.

“Anyway, it’s late. Are you on shift tomorrow? ”

“No.” The smile and that question both jolted his cock, making it even more obvious through his sweats.

“Oh. I wish you could hang out a little longer, but I don’t like it when you get back on the road on a Friday or Saturday night with people driving crazy. Maybe you should plan to stay over.”

It was weird how those words could hit him so hard in two different places at once, his head and his dick. “You’re right. People do drive crazy. I should stay.”

His heart was thrumming, nearly pounding its way out of his chest. He crossed the small space and pressed her against the sink, kissing her full lips.

Something told him tonight would be different for them, for him.

But he was untested, unsure. Should he say something?

Just dive in, copy what those porn guys did and hope his inexperience wouldn’t show?

But she was pulling him by the hand into her bedroom decorated in soft, soothing pinks and yellows, and onto the queen bed.

“Touch me, Santino,” Vanessa whispered.

“Okay.” His voice was unsteady, husky with desire. It sounded like some other person entirely.

That desire couldn’t completely overcome the nervousness as he cupped her face between his palms and kissed her harder, then touched her breast, firm and warm.

It was a hot night, and her apartment was sweltering, her skin under her tank top damp to the touch.

As his dick got harder, his nerves grew tauter like a rubber band stretched to snapping.

Tommy had told him, “When a woman is disappointed in bed, they’ll most likely ghost your ass the very next day. There are too many willing men out there who know what the fuck they’re doing to think no one will take your place.”

He absolutely couldn’t fucking ruin this. He needed it to be good for her. If he got this wrong, that might be it for him. Failing this particular test could break him, permanently.

Their kissing was growing heavier, deeper, till sweet little moans were escaping her lips.

They undressed each other quickly, laughing breathlessly as they draped the clothing onto a corner chair.

He might not know what it would be like to work her with his dick but based on their few sessions he did at least know what she needed to get started.

She needed his mouth on her nipples sucking until they grew big and sensitive, then she needed that swollen bud tongued just right, until her thighs were shaking, and she called out her release.

“So far so good?” he asked, and she laughed, her skin gleaming in the soft light of her room.

“So far, really good.” The way her eyes shone at him made him tremble, and he rolled on the protection she handed him with fingers shaking so hard he nearly dropped it.

“I…um.” Santino swallowed hard, running his hand from her face down the slope of her breast, so full and tender to the touch.

He was having a hard time forming words as her hand did the same, tracing the muscles of his chest and the veins of his arms. He hissed when she touched his cock, aching and throbbing for her.

It stood straight at attention, a heat-seeking missile aiming for the dark patch between her thighs. “That feels nice.”

“Just nice?” she taunted with that silky laugh. It teased and tormented him, that laugh.

“Yeah. Nice.” He held her wrist to stop her for a moment before he came right in her hand like a kid. “I didn’t know if I should say anything, but I wanted you to know this’ll be a new thing for me. I might not – be as good as you might be expecting.” There. It was out.

Vanessa’s lips lifted at the corner. “New? Right. Like nobody out there has ridden this big thang.”

Her hand squeezed harder around his hardness, and it answered with a jerk.

Santino held in a groan as she began stroking him gently, pulling him closer.

The head brushed against her center, and they both moaned at the barely-there sensation that grew more intense the closer they pressed together.

His cock strained against her soft cleft, slipping against the wet folds and her tiny pleasure center.

“I’m serious,” he managed to get out.

This time she paused, her eyes wide. “But…you’ve had girlfriends. And you’re fucking hot. You’re for real?”

He flushed. “I had a girlfriend, but we didn’t do anything. After that, I was…” He paused and licked his lips, heart doing a drum solo. “I was waiting for it to be with someone special.”

Vanessa sobered at that. She pulled her hand away, shaking her head back and forth on the pillow. “Then you should keep waiting. I’m not —”

“No,” he murmured, shaking his head. “You are. It’s you.”

She took a deep breath, then, after a moment of him kissing her again, touching and stroking her again, she shivered.

He pressed his mouth on the spot he’d discovered under her ear, and her shivering increased.

She nodded, then, widening her legs and grasping his cock to guide him in.

And as he slid inside a woman for the first time, not just any woman but this woman, his mind reeled.

When he was finally all the way in, so deeply connected, he grinned, breathless and full of wonder at her wet heat and her fast heartbeat against his and the look in her eyes.

“This is really virgin dick, huh?” she asked with a gasp as he began stroking in and out. Those dark eyes staring up at him with such tenderness made him want to explode, but he somehow held back.

“Not anymore, I guess,” he said, and she laughed, and he laughed too before the joy melted into moans and more wet, glorious, hip-slapping pleasure.

He tried holding out as long as possible, but he came suddenly, spurted hard and fast, with a deep groan tearing from his throat.

But it was mind blowing and beautiful, and he knew he’d been right to wait for this, to wait for her.

Panting, he collapsed in her arms, and she held him and kissed his sweaty face.

If she was disappointed about anything, it didn’t last long; he was ready to go again and again, giving it to her harder and faster the way she wanted it, until she shouted his name, until she turned in him completely inside out, until the morning sun’s sleepy face greeted them through her window.

Vanessa was dozing, exhausted and happy. Before she could completely drift off, he prodded her. “Hey.”

“Mm... what?”

Quietly, he told her, “I love you.”

“Oh, Lord,” she drawled with a sleepy giggle. “That’s just dopamine talking. Or serotonin. Or oxytocin. One of them.”

“It’s not hormones. It’s for real. I love you.” He toyed with a loose strand of her hair, and she snuggled closer, her eyes drifting closed.

“I love you, too,” she whispered.

Joy leapt in his heart. He held his breath, then released it, saying, “Vanessa.”

“What?”

“I’m gonna marry you.”

“Mm-hm. Okay.”

She was essentially already asleep and most likely in the early stages of dreaming, but he was going to take that as a yes.