That was close. Close enough. I gave up and thrust into her. With one hard, long drive, I pushed my raging erection home. All the way to the hilt. She mewled, letting her head loll to the side. Her breath hitched as I pulled out. And as I slid in again, I wasn’t sure who was growling louder, me or her.
Fucking her hard against the shower stall, I dismissed the fatigue and aches in my body from the fight at the restaurant.
She was all that mattered, squeezing me tightly as she came so soon.
Sofia was the center of my world as I plowed into her, pumping several more times until my balls pulled up and I shot rope after rope of cum into her womb.
This was what I needed.
This was all I wanted to come home to, each time.
Her. Only her, and this sweet submission to soar with me like this until nothing could hurt us.
So long as she would be here for me, and as much as she would submit and surrender to me, she would belong to me. No one else. Nothing else could stand between us.
When we caught our breath and I lowered her so she could stand, she still cast her gaze down. She still avoided direct eye contact, weighed down once more by whatever was clogging her thoughts and dragging her into this aloofness. This vacancy.
The glow of fucking hard had passed, and she was slinking away again.
What is it?
What are you hiding?
And why can’t you share your burdens with me, goddammit?
If she asked, I’d give her the fucking world or burn it down for her so she could rise from the ashes of whatever plagued her mind.
20
SOFIA
Anew pattern began in the days after Andre’s failed meeting with the Rossis.
He was gone. Often. And for long spells.
These weeks I’d spent with him, almost two months now, had passed in limbo. I was here to spy, but I couldn’t do it well with nothing to find and then my reluctance to betray the man I was starting to fall for.
He’d been present, day in and out. From the initial pestering and sneaking after me in his home to steal kisses, then submitting to him in bed, he’d been available and always here to justbewith me. His “excuse” was that he was recovering. Claire had unofficially advised that he be on light duty and give his wounds a chance to heal.
That arrangement no longer applied. After the ambush and unexpected violence at that restaurant, he dove into his former role for his family.
Dressed in suits in work mode, he was done with his vacation. Finished with his sabbatical. The new schedule was him leaving in the morning, checking in with me during the day when he could, and coming home in the evening. Gone to look into the matter of that attack, he left me with less of a purpose.
I didn’t go into his office, seeing no point to act like his “assistant” when there was nothing to assist on.
I didn’t resume being a maid since Susana came back—bored with her retirement and sick of seeing her also-retired husband day in and out.
No one assumed I’d leave, though. If they all looked upon me as a kept woman, then that was that. Andre made it clear that I wasn’t going anywhere. Each night, he reminded me that I belonged to him. That he needed me.
Stuck in limbo wasn’t a good feeling, though. I couldn’t go “home” when this building felt more like one. I couldn’t return to my uncle when I was actively wanting to stand with his rivals.
Esmeralda was the variable in the middle that I couldn’t let go of, and that was what I spent my free time on.
“That’s correct,” the representative from one of the long-term hospice facilities said. “Once the financial assessment is complete, your eligibility for the different tiers of payment plans will be determined.”
Oof.
I cringed at the sweet but pointed tone she used. I’d be going into debt to cover Esmeralda’s care, but knowing she was not in pain would make it worth it.
