He unclasped her bra and let it fall. Standing back, he took one moment just to drink her in, and all the things he’d beencarrying for years—the guilt and pain…it loosened all at once. Like a knot giving way. Like a door he’d been leaning against finally opening.
Or one closing behind him as he stepped into a new chapter with the woman he loved.
He reached out and ran his thumb along her collarbone just to watch her shiver.
They sank to the bed in each other’s arms, hands exploring and lips fused in a never-ending kiss. When he cupped her breasts, she made a sound low in her throat that settled into him like a brand.
“I’m going to spend a considerable amount of time drawing that sound out of you again,” he gritted out.
“Angelo.” Her murmur was as soft as her hands on his spine.
He traced her collarbone with his lips, moving to the curve of her shoulder and back up to the silky skin below her ear. She shivered under every point of contact and she cradled his face. Her fingers dug into him when he found a spot that made her breath catch.
He filed that away for future knowledge and worked his way down, skimming her sides until he reached the waistband of her pants. With a pause, he glanced up at her.
She was watching him with an expression he’d never seen on her before—open and undone and completely, entirely his.
Holding her stare, he pulled her pants down and off, and then he took his time coming back up, tasting the hollow of her hipbone, the smooth skin of her stomach, the curve of her ribs—until he was moving over her again with his hands braced on either side of her head.
She was panting.
Good.
As he kissed her deep and slow, she went to work on his shirt, fingers trembling with impatience and want. When she pushed his jeans down and looked at him, the hunger on her face hit him like a fist.
He claimed her mouth until his name was breaking apart in syllables.
“I know.” He shed his clothes and gripped her hips, tugging her underneath him in one smooth motion. Staring into her eyes, he rumbled, “I know exactly what you need.”
As he buried himself to the root, he drank in the image of her just like this, her hair loose around her face, her eyes burning, her lips swollen from his mouth, her skin flushed.
And felt the full impact of those four words cemented themselves in his soul.
I love you, Angelo.
“Tell me again,” he said against her mouth.
She did.
And he showed her exactly what it did to him.
* * * * *
In one solid thrust, he filled her completely. She stopped breathing, suspended in the moment. She clung to his shoulders and her forehead tipped against his while her body adjusted to the stretch of his cock.
His breath came in ragged spurts against her mouth.
“Angelo,” she moaned.
“Fuck, Trouble. I know. You’re…so…damn…tight.”
She rolled her hips and felt him tense all over, every muscle going rigid as if he battled to hold still. Her inner walls flexed around his thickness.
“Ellory.” He said her name like a warning.
“Then move.”
He issued a sound low in his chest and slowly withdrew. So slowly she felt every inch of him. As he drove into her again, she arched with a sharp cry.
