"Lorenzo," Sophia says softly.
I pull her against me, burying my face in her hair.
"I just want to climb into bed and hold you," I admit against her neck. "Forget everything else exists."
She guides me toward the bed, and I follow willingly. We don't bother with clothes, just kick off our shoes and slide under the covers fully dressed. I wrap myself around her, pulling her back tight against my chest. My arm bands across her waist, anchoring her to me.
"Everything else doesn't exist," she whispers, threading her fingers through mine. "Just us."
I close my eyes and breathe her in.
Nothing else matters. Nothing else exists.
Just us.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Sophia
Iwake to Lorenzo's lips on my neck, his body pressed against mine from behind. We're still fully dressed from earlier, tangled in sheets and each other.
"Can't sleep?" I whisper into the darkness.
"Need you." His voice is raw, broken. His hand slides under my shirt, palm flat against my stomach. "Need to feel you're real."
I turn in his arms, finding his face in the dim light filtering through the curtains. His eyes are wild, desperate.
"I'm here." I cup his jaw. "I'm real."
He kisses me like he's drowning and I'm air. There's nothing gentle about it—teeth and tongue and desperate need. His hands are everywhere at once, pulling at my clothes with trembling fingers.
"Slow down," I breathe against his mouth, but he shakes his head.
"Can't." He yanks my shirt over my head. "Need to be inside you. Need to forget everything but this."
I understand. After everything he needs to lose himself. And I need to be what grounds him.
My jeans disappear along with his clothes, thrown carelessly aside. When his mouth finds my breast, I arch beneath him, fingers tangling in his hair.
"Sophia." My name is a prayer on his lips as he moves lower, kissing across my ribs, my hip bone. "Mine. You're mine."
"Yes." I pull him back up, needing his weight on me, his mouth on mine. "Yours."
He enters me in one hard thrust that steals my breath. There's no patience tonight, no careful control. Just raw need and desperate hunger.
"Look at me." His hand grips my jaw, forcing my eyes to his. "Don't close your eyes. Need to see you."
I hold his gaze as he moves inside me, each thrust deeper than the last. The headboard slams against the wall, but neither of us cares who hears.
"Harder," I gasp, nails raking down his back.
He hooks my leg over his shoulder, changing the angle, and I cry out at the intensity. His thumb finds that sensitive spot between us, circling with practiced precision.
"Come for me." It's not a request. "Now, Sophia."
My body obeys him instantly, pleasure crashing through me in waves. I bite his shoulder to muffle my scream, tasting salt and skin.
He follows immediately, my name torn from his throat as he empties himself inside me. His body shudders against mine, and I hold him through it, stroking his hair as he collapses on top of me.
