His big, warm hands came up to frame her face, tilting her head this way and that, but never breaking the rhythm of his tongue as it stroked and played andlearnedher.
Seriously, she’d never experienced a more devastatinglythoroughkiss in her life. And when she groaned her pleasure? Because she just couldn’t help herself? It was like she flipped a switch inside him.
His devastatingly thorough,achingly tender kiss became ravenous.Nowhe was all animal aggression and primal need. All hungry, searching lips and hot, probing tongue. All fiery passion and mindless desire. With one arm around her back, he pulled her to him until her nipples brushed against the heated wall of his chest.
She heard herself whimper.
It was a whimper of desire. A whimper of need. A whimper of longing for him to keep kissing her. To never stop kissing her. Because his kiss alone was better than any sex she’d ever had, except...
She ached. She ached so badly. And his kiss alone wasn’t going to assuage that ache.
She wasn’t sure how he knew she needed more, but somehow he did.
Murmuring something against her lips, something she couldn’t understand because it was in Spanish, he hooked a hand behind her knee. Before she knew it, he’d lifted her onto him until she straddled his lap.
One large hand tunneled through her hair, holding her head so he could continue to savage her mouth. His other hand splayed warm across her back, keeping her pressed tight against him.
He was huge and powerful. A hot, immovable mountain of muscle. She felt herself going soft and submissive in response. If she could’ve melted into his skin, she would have.
“I want you, Mia.” His voice was thick with urgency as he breathed the words against her lips. “I need you.” The hand at her back slid down to her hip. His grip was a little rough as he rocked her pelvis against the merciless hardness of his throbbing erection. “Can you feel how much I need you?”
This is what real lust feels like,she thought a little giddily. Before, she’d only grazed the surface of passion. Only dipped her toe into the pool of desire. Only skirted along the edges of physical hunger.
She knew that was true because never,neverhad she felt this way with any of her previous lovers. Never had her entire body tingled with arousal, with awareness of her partner as a man, with the need to beonewith him in every way.
This is what the poets write about, the crooners sing about, the artists try to capture in their work. This is raw and rough and basic and lewd. But it’s also luscious and delicious and decadent and it feels so...right.
Her eyes flew wide when she realized the sensations bombarding her might be more than carnal pleasures.
They might be—
Oh god! Is that what it feels like to fall in love?
No,she assured herself in the next breath.I want him. And when you addwantinghim on top of liking him and respecting him and feeling safe around him, it’s easy to mistake all of that for love.
Even though they were inside her own head, the words still rang false.
Okay, so what if shewasfalling in love?
It didn’t change who she was.
It didn’t change whohewas.
It didn’t change...anything.
If it was love, she would love him. And then, when the time came, she would leave him. If it was love, he’d be with her always, like a fingerprint on her heart.
And that would be enough.
It would have to be enough.
Chapter 17
6:59 PM...
The feel of Mia’s body clinging so tightly to his own was a tender kind of torture.
Romeo could sense the sultry heat of her sex even through both sets of clothes. And the way she rubbed herself against him? The way she rode the hard ridge of flesh that pulsed hungrily inside his jeans?
