The Vow (House of Sin Book 4)

by Elisabeth Naughton

  “Tu sei mia, angioletto.” I tipped her face up and kissed her deeper. “Ho bisogno di te.”

  She groaned beneath my lips and dropped her hands from my hair to my shoulders, then slid them down my waist to grip my boxers. “Take these off. Hurry.”

  I jerked back from her mouth, frantic to feel every inch of her naked skin against mine. She gasped as cool air washed over her, but the second I pushed back to my knees and dropped my feet to the floor at the side of the bed, she sat up and reached for the waistband of her sleep shorts, hustling to strip them down her sexy legs.

  My pulse roared in my ears as I pushed my boxers down my legs. Her naked body filled my vision. Moonlight glinted off her plump breasts and straining nipples, making my mouth water. She kicked the shorts free, drawing my gaze to the small thatch of dark hair at the apex of her legs and the wetness already gathering at her slit.

  I wanted to memorize every dip of skin and play of bone on her x-rated body, but I ached to bury myself inside that sweet, tight, slick place even more. And right now, the need to mark her there, to fuck her and brand her as mine was so strong, so primal, it overwhelmed every other want and need and rational thought.

  In thirty-two years, I’d never been tempted to fuck without a condom. Safe sex had been stamped into my psyche from the moment I’d become sexually active, primarily because the kittens my House used—though tested regularly—were so casually passed around. But even after I’d left that depraved scene behind, I’d been careful. Only with Natalie I didn’t want to be careful anymore.

  I wanted to feel every ridge and muscle inside her slick pussy. I wanted to fuck her with my bare cock and pump my hot cum deep into her body. And then I wanted my seed leaking out of her every time she moved, reminding her I’d been there. That she was mine. That she’d always only ever be mine.

  “Don’t just stand there gawking.” Natalie scooted to the side of the bed and reached for me. “Come here.” Her hands moved around my waist. Before I realized what she was doing, her lips pressed against my belly button where I stood next to the bed, “I need your giant cock.”

  Holy fuck. I groaned and rocked toward her, unable to hold back as she dropped her hand to my ass and wrapped the other around the base of my throbbing erection as much as she could. My fingers slipped into her hair as my cock brushed her plump breast, leaving a trail of fluid over her creamy skin. My balls drew up tight as I watched, unable to look away. Sliding her hand up, she squeezed the head until I groaned, then smoothed the pre-cum down my shaft.

  “Does that feel good?”

  She pulled me closer so my dick slipped into her cleavage. I groaned at the silky feel. Releasing her hold on my shaft, she pressed her breasts together, surrounding my cock with the heat of her luscious globes.

  “How about this?” She rocked slightly back, then toward me, just enough so she could stroke my aching length. “Do you want to fuck me like this?”

  Holy hell, did I. I was on fire. Barely able to stand upright. My hips pressed forward. I gripped the back of her head, more to hold myself steady than to keep her still.

  Her breasts were soft and warm and felt so fucking good, I couldn’t help doing it again. She groaned, which only lit me up more, then dropped her chin and extended her tongue, just barely grazing the tip of my cock when it appeared between her cleavage.

  “Cazzo.” My eyes slid closed. I widened my stance, thrusting harder, loving every inch of her flesh wrapped around my throbbing erection and the way her wicked tongue drove me crazy.

  “Mm, yes,” she whispered, squeezing her breasts tighter around me on the down stroke. “You like that. You’re getting harder. Fuck my breasts just like that. I want you rock solid when you slam this monster inside me.”

  I wasn’t going to last if she kept talking like that. If she continued to squeeze my dick so tightly.

  Holding her face to my belly, I thrust again and again, thundering toward a climax I was frantic to reach. But just before it claimed me, she released her breasts, tugged her head from my hand, and wrapped her silky fingers around my shaft.

  She stroked me once, base to tip, until I groaned. A tearing sound echoed through the room. I looked down, wondering what she was doing, then felt her soft fingers rolling a condom down my length.

  “There,” she said, releasing me. Twisting around so she was braced on her hands and knees on the bed in front of me, she shot a coy look over her shoulder. “Now fuck me with that throbbing monster already. Right now. Fuck me hard and make me scream.”

  I swayed, hypnotized by the power she held over me and desperate to give her exactly what she was begging for. But as I moved closer to the bed and reached for her hips, something in my brain kicked into gear, making this whole seduction scene feel... wrong.

  Yes, she’d kissed me, but only to get me to release her so I couldn’t take control and kiss her again. She was still avoiding looking me in the eye. She was still avoiding the intimacy I hungered for. She was seducing me into that hard, fast fuck she’d come for, and I was falling right into her trap.

  That fervor inside me was consumed by a firestorm of passion and anger and a frenzied determination to prove to her she was wrong. She was wrong about everything.

  I grasped her by the waist and tossed her to her back. She hit the mattress and bounced, grunting in the darkness. Hooking my arms under her thighs, I jerked her toward me. She pushed up to her hands, but I lowered one knee to the edge of the bed, and before she could try to take control again, I positioned my cock at her entrance and thrust hard inside her.

  Whatever fight had been in her completely disintegrated. She gasped at the tight fit and dropped back on the mattress, arching her hips to take me deeper.

  Her hot, slick channel contracted around me, holding me tight, but I didn’t give her long to adjust to my size. I drew my hips back, sliding along her sensitive walls until I was almost free, then gripped her legs to my chest and slammed deep all over again.

  “Oh, fuck, yes,” she moaned. “More.”

  I did it again, watching the pleasure darken her features as I drew nearly all the way out of her slick pussy before ramming home once more. “Like that?”

  She groaned and nodded vigorously.

  I fucked into her harder, faster, almost violently, both hating and loving that she was begging for this. “You like getting fucked like this?”

  “Oh my God.” She fisted the comforter until her knuckles turned white. “Yes, yes. Don’t stop. Just like that. Fuck me harder with that beast. I want to be sore.”

  I planned to keep fucking her. I had no intention of stopping. But not like this.

  With a growl, I released her legs. She gasped, and her eyes shot open. Shoving her thighs wide, I lowered my body to hers until we were connected from chest to hips and I was buried so deep inside her, I knew I was stretching her wider than she’d ever been and reaching places inside her I’d never touched.

  I grasped her face as I held still inside her, preventing that hot fast friction she wanted. “Look at me. You need me. Say it.”

  Her hands landed against my shoulders, and she lifted her hips, rocking up, trying to get me to move faster, to distract me with the heat of her tight pussy. “Let go of my face.”

  “Not a chance.” I drew back gradually and slid in deep just as slow, striking her G-spot at the perfect angle. “Tell me you need me. Say it, Natalie.”

  She slammed her eyes shut. “No.”

  “Yes.” I did it again.

  It was torture for both of us, but I was unwilling to let this go. I didn’t kiss her. I didn’t force her to kiss me. But I didn’t let her turn away either. I held her tight beneath me, making achingly slow love to her, desperate for that connection I knew still burned hot between us.

  “Say it. Say you need me, not just my cock.”

  Her fingernails dug into my shoulders, sending pain across my spine. She struggled beneath me, frantic for the climax only I could give her.

  “Say it,
angioletto.” My muscles contracted. Sweat slicked my skin as I continued to torment that perfect spot slowly and deeply so far inside. “Say you need me as much as I need you. I know you do. I know you’re crazy for me. Give in and tell me. Tell me you only want me.”

  “Oh fuck, Luc.” She arched her back. “Please. Faster.”

  My lips slid to her jaw, and I bit down, just enough to cause a jolt of sensation to permeate her mind. “Say it, angioletto. Say you can’t live without me.”

  “Ah, God, I can’t. I...”

  “Yes, you can.” I kissed the pulse at her throat, her jaw, the corner of her luscious mouth. “Say you can’t live without me the way I can’t live without you.”

  “Dammit.” Her fingernails curled into my sides. “I do need you. I only need you. Please stop torturing me and—”

  My willpower shattered. I closed my mouth over hers and kissed her, and she opened at the first contact, drawing me into a scorching kiss that detonated in my veins.

  I drew back and shoved in deep, unable to hold back any longer, giving us both exactly what she’d begged for, fucking her hard and fast as she devoured my mouth and heart and soul.

  “Oh yes, Luc. There. Right theeeeeere...”

  I only managed a handful of thrusts before she threw her head back and screamed. And I was glad, because my orgasm was already streaking down my spine and exploding in my balls, triggered not from the sound of her pleasure but from her admission that I was all she needed. That I was all she ever needed.

  I slammed deep and groaned as my release erupted and devoured me, letting her words and sweet submission drag me down into a blinding bliss that—for the first time in weeks—gave me peace.

  I wasn’t sure how much time passed. I’m pretty sure I blacked out. When I came to, I was lying on my side on the bed with Natalie still curled around me, both of us slicked with sweat and breathing heavily, her face hidden in my chest and my hands buried in her hair.

  My eyes driftted shut as my heart slowed its maddening rush.

  This was what I wanted. Just this for the rest of my life. I breathed in her sweet scent and pressed my lips to her temple, loving that she’d come to me. Loving that she’d given in to me. Loving most of all that she was still mine.

  Her hand slowly lifted to my chest, and she drew back just a bit and inhaled deeply. “I...I need to use the restroom.”

  “Okay.” I released her. Cool air washed over me as she scooted back. I couldn’t see her face in the dim light, but my gaze immediately rushed down her curves as she stood and stepped away on wobbly legs. “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll...be right out.”

  She crossed the room in the moonlight, her hair a messy tangle hanging down her back, and closed the bathroom door behind her. Alone, I sat up and looked over the room, seeing my boxers and her sleep shorts scattered on the floor.

  I rose, got rid of the condom, and pulled on my boxers. After folding Natalie’s shorts, I set them on her dresser, then I tugged the comforter back and climbed onto the bed, bracing a hand behind my head as I reclined in the pillows and waited for her.

  We still had so many things we needed to talk about, but I didn’t want to get into them tonight. Tonight, I just wanted to hold her and kiss her and reconnect the way we should have done weeks ago. And then I wanted to make love to her all over again, this time so slowly, there was no question in her mind about what she meant to me.

  Long minutes passed. I glanced toward the bathroom door, expecting it to open at any moment. Silence filled the room. I could hear nothing coming from the other side—no water running, no toilet flushing, nothing but an eerie silence that made the hair on my nape tingle as five minutes turned to ten and ten crept toward fifteen.

  I climbed off the bed and quietly crossed to the carved folding doors that separated the bathroom from the bedroom, listening for the shower in case she’d decided to jump in, but still heard nothing. I seriously didn’t want to interrupt her if she was on the toilet, but the flutter of unease in my gut told me that wasn’t the case.

  Cautiously, I knocked. “Natalie? Are you okay in there?”

  “I-I’m fine,” she called in a weak voice. A sniffling sound echoed from beyond the doors. “Don’t come in.”

  Don’t come in shifted my unease to full-on worry. I reached for both door handles and jiggled, finding them locked. “Open the door, Natalie.”

  “No.” That sniffling sound met my ears again. “Go away, Luc. I’m fine. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

  She didn’t sound fine. Her voice was raspy as hell. And I didn’t like her telling me to go away after what had just happened in that bed.

  My adrenaline surged, and I stepped back, ready to kick the door in if I had to. On the top of the bathroom doorjamb I spotted a small hooklike key.

  I grabbed the key and flicked the lock open. Then pushed the doors apart and froze when I spotted Natalie sitting on the floor in the bathroom with her back against the clawfoot tub.

  She was still naked, her legs pulled up to her chest, her arms wrapped around her knees, her hair a wild mess of curls around her face. But one look was all it took for me to see she’d been crying. Tear tracks marred her cheeks, and her bloodshot eyes were swollen and red-rimmed when they met mine for the briefest second before darting away.

  She turned her back to me and pressed her face to her knees. “I told you to leave me alone. Just go.”

  My heart dropped like a stone into my gut. I’d known I’d hurt her. I’d known she was mad at me and that she had every right to be. But until this moment, I hadn’t realized just how much I’d damaged her.

  In that bathroom, I didn’t see the headstrong, challenging, never-take-no-for-an-answer woman who’d turned my world upside down. I saw a broken angel who’d all but given up. One I’d finally pushed too far.

  “Merda.” I reached for a towel from the bar with shaking hands and crossed the floor in two strides.

  She tensed as I knelt at her side and wrapped the plush burgundy bath sheet around her body, but she didn’t lift her head, and from her muffled sobs, I could tell she was still crying. Which was my fault as well.

  My chest contracted, and pain stabbed as deep as a dagger plunging to the hilt in my chest. Sitting next to her on the floor, I scooped her up and pulled her onto my lap.

  She didn’t fight me, and I had a sinking feeling it wasn’t because she wanted my touch but that she had no more fight left inside her. And that knowledge sent that dagger stabbing deep again and again because there wasn’t a thing I could do or say to make this better.

  So I just held her. Leaning back against the tub, I rubbed my hand down her back and my fingers through her hair, and I did what little I could to comfort her while she cried against my shoulder.

  And the whole time, I tried like hell to figure out what the fuck I should do next.

  Or even if there was anywhere for us to go from here.

  4

  Natalie

  Rolling to my back on the plush mattress, I stared up at the beamed ceiling as the warm light of morning shone over the bed.

  A good crying jag had a way of leaving a person feeling wrecked, and I was wrecked. Completely wrung out. At the end of my metaphorical rope.

  I raked my fingers through my messy hair, inwardly cringing at the scene I’d made last night. I hadn’t planned to let the waterworks loose, but once the tears had started, I hadn’t been able to stop them. Not even when Luc had come barging into the bathroom.

  I hated that he’d seen me like that. I hated even more that I’d let myself get to that point.

  Sighing, I dropped my hand against the comforter and glanced across the empty bed. At some point, Luc had carried me here, tugged one of his big cotton T-shirts over my head, and tucked me underneath the covers.

  He’d stayed with me last night—probably because I’d freaked him out with my emotional breakdown and he hadn’t been sure what I’d do next—and though he’d wrapped h
is arms around me and held me, he hadn’t spoken. He hadn’t apologized or reassured me everything was going to be okay or even told me he loved me. He’d simply stroked my arms and hair and any parts of me he could reach until I’d drifted to sleep.

  Pain lanced my chest—so much pain, I closed my eyes and breathed through the worst of it so it wouldn’t trigger another waterfall of tears.

  God, I hated this. I hated being this emotional, messy girl. I wasn’t a crier. Before meeting Luc, I could count on one hand the number of times I’d cried in my entire life. I was on the verge of crying again right now, dammit, and I had no idea why.

  “Stop,” I snapped at myself, throwing back the covers. So big whoop. Your life pretty much sucks right now. I crossed the floor and jerked my dresser drawer open. Stop moping and deal with it.

  I yanked a pair of shorts free and shoved the drawer closed with my hip. Then stilled because... I had no clue how to deal with this mess.

  Luc had kept so much from me. Yesterday, it was clear he was still keeping things from me. I couldn’t make him include me in his life if he didn’t want to. And I couldn’t—I wouldn’t—stay with a man who didn’t view me as a true partner in every sense of the word.

  My gaze strayed to the thick diamond band on my left hand, and my eyes burned all over again.

  I loved him. Madly. Without reason. But something inside me was terrified that love was not going to be enough. Something kept holding me back. Something I didn’t understand. Something I had no idea how to fix.

  I pulled on the shorts and crossed into the bathroom with limbs that were heavy and slow. Somehow, I managed to brush my teeth, but my stomach was a mass of nerves, and I was afraid it might revolt at any second.

  I didn’t want to face Luc. Didn’t want to instigate the conversation we needed to have. Didn’t want to hear what he would say. But I couldn’t wait any longer. I couldn’t stand who I was becoming. I was making both of us miserable.