Page 52 of The Cost of Silence

He steps closer, cutting me off without touching me. “It shouldn’t have happened,” he repeats quietly. “But it did. And I didn’t leave because I wanted to. I left because I lay there all night fighting the urge to kiss my way down your body, to taste the sweetness between your legs. I fought a battle with wanting to bury my cock inside you and say forget everything else.”

My heart thuds hard. Why does hearing him say those things make me feel so elated? My body feels heavy with an aching need as his words move over me. The image of him doing all those things makes me moan low in my throat.

Nico’s eyes go hooded at the sound. He steps closer until our bodies are just a breath away.

I swallow, and before I can overthink it, before he can walk away again, I say the most reckless thing I’ve ever said. “Nico… we both know we don’t have a future together. You’ve said you don’t do relationships, God knows you’re known as the unattainable Mancini. I know it. But the way we are around each other… I’m tired of pretending I don’t feel it. That you don’t feel it.”

His breath stills.

So I push, just a little. I want to be bold, I want to feel brazen. After everything that happened this last week, I want to feel alive. “What if we stopped pretending?” I whisper. “What if it doesn’t have to be serious? Or complicated? What if it’s just… a fling? A little fun. No strings. Just sex.”

Silence.

Heavy. Thick. Electrified.

Then he moves.

One step. Another. Until I’m backed against the wall and he’s standing in front of me, his hand braced beside my head, his body radiating heat.

He lowers his head until his mouth is inches from mine.

“A fling?” he repeats, voice low enough to send a shiver down my spine. “You think you can handle that?”

“Yes.” A hope. A lie. Maybe both.

His eyes burn into mine, searching, reading, stripping defenses I didn’t know I still had.

“You’re a woman who wears her heart on her sleeve,” he murmurs. “And I…” His jaw clenches. “I break things I get too close to.”

I lift my chin. “I’m not asking for forever, Nico. Just… something real. For however long it lasts.”

His breath brushes my lips.

And then he kisses me.

Slow.

Controlled.

Devastating.

His mouth claims mine with a heat that steals thought, breath, gravity. His hand slides into my hair, guiding my head back as his tongue brushes mine, a slow, deliberate stroke that unravels every part of me. The ache between my legs is heavy and persistent. I suck in a sharp breath when he nips my bottom lip with his teeth before soothing the ache away.Fuck, why is that so hot?

By the time he pulls back, I’m trembling.

He rests his forehead against mine, breathing hard. “If we do this,” he says roughly, “it’s on my terms.”

My pulse jumps. “Okay… what terms?”

His thumb drags along my lower lip, sending sparks down my spine.

“No sneaking around. No pretending. And you don’t get to disappear to your room afterward.” He leans closer, voice a dark promise. “If I’m fucking you, Belle… you sleep in my bed. I want to be able to turn over in the night and slide my cock into your sweet pussy.”

Heat floods my entire body. I nod once. “Okay.”

“You think you can handle me, handle how much I want to fucking claim your body? How much I want to make you scream my name? I won’t give you sweet. I’ll fuck you until you pass out with pleasure, and then I’ll do it again.”

Holy fucking shit, I can’t get enough of this man’s filthy mouth and hell yes, I can handle it, and if not, I’ll die with a smile. “Yes.”