He blinked up at me, confused, until I held my hand out and inclined my head toward my bedroom.
“Come with me.”
32
RAFAEL
IFOLLOWED ALESSIO down the hall and into a room full of shadows, and when he let go of my hand and moved away from me, I made my way to the window.
The view was similar to that in the living room: St. Andrews’s spier, its gardens and the rectory. But where I thought I might experience some lingering feelings of guilt attached to my former life, all I felt was peace.
“You don’t know how many nights I’ve stood in that very spot wishing you were up here with me,” Alessio said in a wistful tone that wound its way around my heart. “It’s hard to believe you’re really here.”
A soft light illuminated the room, and I turned to see him standing on the opposite side of an enormous king-sized bed.
“Believe it,” I said, and walked over to the end of the mattress. “Because it’s real.” I reached for the back of my sweater and pulled it over my head, then dropped it on the floor. “I’mreal.”
Alessio sucked in a breath, his eyes slowly roving over the skin I’d just revealed to him. But he didn’t move, didn’t come closer. He stood exactly where he was drinking in the sight of me in his bedroom, the wonder and awe evident in his dark eyes.
“Where do you want me?” he asked.
“Wheredon’tI want you?” His lips tilted into a smile so warm, so full of love, it made me feel like the boy I once was—the boy totally, unequivocally in love withthisbeautiful boy.
“I love you,” he said, mirroring my thoughts. “I don’t think there’s ever been a time I didn’t. But seeing you here, knowing all we’ve been through to get back to each other?” He put a hand over his heart and patted it. “It makes me love you,us, even more.”
I was the one moving then, no longer able to be so far away from him, not when he was speaking to my very soul.
I needed to touch him, needed him to feel me.
We met halfway, and when we were finally within touching distance, we both reached for the other. My hand on his cheek, his on my heart, eyes locked, and hearts beating in time. We were two halves of a whole, and for the first time since I’d walked away from him, I felt I was back where I belonged.
“Alessio—”
“I know,” he whispered, but I shook my head.
I needed to make sure he heard me. “I choose you. Always. Forever. There will never be a moment that I don’t ever choose you again.”
He caught my lips in a kiss so sweet, so full of love, that I felt it through my entire being. Then he trailed his fingers down to the waist of my pants and flicked open the button.
“I want to love you,” he said, nipping at my lower lip, then pulling back to look me in the eye. “I want to lay you out on my bed, kiss you from head to toe, then love you the way I always imagined I would if I had you here.”
I nodded, hooked my thumbs into my pants and briefs, then shoved them to the floor. “Tell me where.”
Alessio looked to the bed, then back to me, a seductive smile curving his luscious lips as he reached for my erection and gave it a slow stroke.
“Middle of the bed, on your stomach.”
I licked along my lower lip, and he moved in to follow the path with his tongue before slipping it inside my mouth and taking a thorough taste of me. He brushed his thumb over the head of my cock, spreading the pre-cum all over. Then he began to work me, pumping and flexing his hand, as he destroyed any and all thoughts I had beyond getting on that bed.
“Go,” he urged me when he finally tore his mouth from mine. “Lie down for me.”
I’d never wanted to follow an order more, and as I climbed onto his bed and lay down, I finally understood the appeal of being the one who obeyed. I’d handed over my pleasure to him for the night, and I knew without a doubt that Alessio would make sure to look after my body and heart.
I rested my cheek on a pillow and caught his scent, then nuzzled into the pillowcase and automatically ground my hips on the covers below.
A low growl filled the silence, and I stopped and glanced back over my shoulder to see Alessio naked at the end of the bed with a bottle of lube in his hand.
“Sorry, I?—”
