Something danced in his eyes before he nodded.
Somehow, she managed to undo his trousers and snuck her hand inside. He was hard and hot and…big enough to startle her a little.
“Cristo, bella,” he whispered, his mouth buried in her temple.
Staring up at his stark features, she squeezed him and stroked him from root to tip. The bead of pre-cum made her mouth water.
Head thrown back, Alessandro let out a grunt and a filthy curse that pinged against her skin. She did it a few more times, fascinated by the naked yearning in his face, before he arrested her wrist. “It’s been a long while, Sameera. I would rather be inside you.”
Sam bit her lip. “Has it been a long while out of choice?”
Slowly, he took her hand in his and laced their fingers. Then he moved off her, leaning on his side. They were both half-naked, and it was how he hesitated that made it so heart-wrenchingly intimate. She scooted closer, knowing the pull between their bodies was the anchor right then.
“I discovered, at a crisis point in my life, that I have an addictive nature.” His gaze drifted away from the present. “It was either meaningless sex with strangers or…nothing. After I drowned myself in the first for a little while, I got disgusted with myself and stopped completely.”
She traced the small scar through his brow. “I’m sorry it had to come to that.”
He shrugged and kissed the back of her hand.
“Should I feel extra special, then?” she said, wriggling her brows in an exaggerated manner. Anything to chase away the dark shadows in his eyes.
Matteo had mentioned in an offhand comment once that his brother had lost the woman he had loved a long time ago. Now, all the pieces she knew about him began to form a picture that made her both like him and want to run away as far as possible.
His fingers sifted through her hair while a small smile played at his lips. The pad of his thumb traced her cheek with a reverence that filled her heart. “You’re beautiful and witty and spirited. And probably a witch.”
Pushing up, she kissed the corner of his mouth. Which he took full advantage of by devouring her mouth, again.
She was panting when she fell back against the bed, her fingers drawing doodles on his chest. The urgency to feel him inside her thrummed but this…this felt even more precious, more real. “I have to make this all very clinical by mentioning boring stuff. So much for a sophisticated summer fling.”
He stilled, then nodded.
“I have an IUD.” She cleared her throat. “Getting pregnant is dangerous for my heart condition. But when it’s peak fertility time, I like to double up, just—”
“We’ll use a condom.”
Sam buried her face in his chest. “It’s silly but—”
“Nothing about your health or your choices or your sense of safety is silly,bella. You insult me by suggesting otherwise.”
Snuggling closer, she licked the line of his throat. “Thank you.”
His fingers wrapped around her nape, before sliding into her hair, tugging her head up.
Smiling, he pressed a kiss to her temple. A hesitation danced in his eyes.
“Ask me whatever you want, Alessandro.” She swallowed against that surge of affection she felt for him.
His fingers sifted through her hair slowly as he said, “You aren’t resentful of the options that have been taken away from you?”
“Like babies? Or a long-term relationship with someone who might want the guarantee of a happy future?” she said, without missing a beat. “No.”
She took a long breath, loving the intimacy of the dark night cloaking them like this. Loving that he was curious enough to want to know things about her. If this was just a fling, what would a real relationship with this man be like? “For a long time, all I wanted was to leave the hospital. Then it was being alone for an hour or two without my mom flipping out. Then came a solo shopping trip, an outing with friends, building to this confidence to go on a trip by myself. To tangle with an Italian stud. Now it’s college and a career as an artist and traveling the world at some point.” Looking at his stark, gorgeous features filled her with that joy of simply being there, in the moment with him. “I have so much to live for,” she said, kissing the bristly underside of his jaw, “and I refuse to spend even a minute mourning the few things I can’t have.”
Nodding, he dipped his head, and this was a different kiss. It was soft and reverent and so full of promise that Sam couldn’t sift through all the feelings it evoked.
The jarring tone of his cell phone broke the spell.
She straightened her dress as Alessandro answered his phone. A volley of Italian followed, bringing an instant pall over his features. Then he pressed a hand to his neck, a gesture that betrayed his discomfiture. “I have to go.”
