by Sofia Tate
He shakes his head at me, his eyes narrowed. But then in a split second, his face clears and he leans over to kiss me. I can still taste the sauce on his lips.
“Smart-ass,” I murmur.
Davison winks at me. “Takes one to know one.”
We smile at each other, then continue eating.
We’re sitting at his dining room table, enjoying takeout from the Chinese restaurant near Davison’s apartment. Diana Krall’s smooth voice croons from the hidden speakers.
I finish my sweet-and-sour chicken, taking a sip of my beer. I glance around at my surroundings—the lit candles in their crystal candleholders, the fine china and cutlery, the linen napkins and tablecloths.
Something is up.
“Okay, what’s going on, Harvard?”
“What do you mean?”
“We usually eat dinner sitting on your living room floor. We only eat at the table if it’s a special occasion.”
He takes a deep breath, then reaches into his jacket, placing a black velvet ring box in front of me.
My heart immediately begins to pound inside my chest.
“This isn’t it, so don’t—” he starts saying.
“I know it’s not because it’s not the Cartier box,” I interrupt him. “And it’s too soon anyway.”
I’m not freaking out because I know the ring he is going to give me when he proposes to me, if that ever happens, is in his desk drawer, information that was given inadvertently to me by his ex Ashton.
“Open it,” he insists.
I flip the box open and gasp.
It’s a key.
“Move in with me, my love.”
I freeze.
“I can’t,” I mutter.
“Why?”
I finally glance up and see his face, worried and confused.
“Look, I know it’s probably too soon,” he stammers. “If it’s your father, I’ll talk to him. I know he’s old-fashioned, and—”
I reach for his hands and hold them tightly.
“I do want to move in with you, Davison. I just can’t yet because I’m going away.”
His eyebrows furrow. “Run that by me again?”
I smile, hoping like crazy that he’ll take the news well.
“I’ve been offered an apprenticeship with La Diva at her villa in Italy. For the month of July.”
His eyes almost pop out of their sockets. “Ginevra Ventura wants to train you? The Ginevra Ventura?”
“There’s only one Ginevra Ventura.” I laugh nervously. “What do you think?”
Before I know it, Davison leaps from his chair, grabs my hands, and pulls me into his arms, swinging me around the room. I laugh with utter joy as he twirls me around again and again.
“This is fucking awesome, baby!” he shouts.
Once he puts me down, he clamps his mouth over mine, kissing me hard.
“I’m so proud of you,” he says, his breath panting. “When did you find out?”
“Two days ago. She asked me when I met with Signora Pavoni in her office.”
“I knew something was up in the car after we saw Dr. Turner. Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” he asks, tucking a stray hair behind my ear.
“I don’t know,” I pant. “I was in shock over her offer…I didn’t know how you’d react…take your pick.”
“You can be so clueless sometimes,” he says, shaking his head at me in astonishment.
He takes me by the hand and leads me to his living room. He sits down on the couch, pulling me onto his lap. “Tell me everything.”
I settle back into his chest, laying my head on his shoulder. “I don’t have many details yet. All I know is that she takes a student for one month in June, the other in July. I’m July. She has a villa in Lombardy, outside of Milan, which is where I’ll be staying. Room and board are included.”
“You’ll take my jet,” he declares.
“No, Davison,” I sigh. I know he loves to take care of me, but sometimes it can get a bit stifling. “She’s paying for my airfare.”
“I can’t go with you, but at least let me get you there safely.”
“Will it make you feel better?”
“Yes.”
“Fine.” I shake my head.
“I just might go with you to check out her household staff.”
“Why?”
“For security reasons,” he declares.
“‘Security’?”
“Yes, my security. Security of mind that you’ll be safe.”
I can’t help but smile at his protective tendencies, tendencies that I love about him.
He reaches over me for the remote to his stereo and presses a few buttons. The opening notes of our song, “Avalon,” begin to echo throughout the room.
“Dance with me, baby,” he whispers huskily.
“Always, Harvard.”
I rise from his lap, waiting for him. He takes my hand and walks us over to the center of the room. He wraps me in his embrace as we start to sway to Bryan Ferry’s sultry voice. I inhale his scent, the spicy cologne mixed with his sweat that intoxicates me every time.
“Allegra,” he murmurs into my ear, “I asked you to move in with me because I wanted you to know that I would never leave you. You mean everything to me.”
“But what happens if I’m in Italy and—”
“Nothing is going to happen. Trust me.”
“I do, Davison. I do trust you. I’m just scared, that’s all.”
He pulls back, running one hand softly over my cheek. “Don’t be.”
An intense look crosses over Davison’s face. “I love you, Allegra.” He leans in and begins to kiss me, his hands moving to the back of my head, holding me tight. I pull his tongue into my mouth, desperate for the taste of him, grateful for his unconditional love.
When we stop, I look into his eyes, reflecting his love for me back at me.
“Make love to me, Harvard.”
“At your service, Venus.”
He picks me up, carrying me in his arms down the hallway, the sound of Bryan Ferry’s voice singing the last notes of our song wafting behind us.
Once we reach his bedroom, Davison sets me down on my feet. He tucks a stray hair behind my ear, stroking my jaw with his fingers.
“Tonight, my love, whatever you want, however you want it, it’s all yours. I’m yours. You own me,” he tells me in that rumble that makes me wet at the sound of it.
My heart rate starts to quicken. “Then take me, because you own me, Davison Berkeley. Body and soul.”
His eyes stare back at me, afire with lust. Without warning, he pulls my T-shirt from the bottom hem. I swiftly throw my arms in the air, watching him hurl the shirt across the room once he’s swiped it off me. I unhook my bra, letting it drop to the floor. He yanks me to him, clamping his mouth over one breast, and begins to suck on it hard before biting the nipple. I moan in pain, but then mewl in ecstasy when he laves it to ease the sting.
I need to feel him against me. “Off,” I demand of him, and he obeys, pulling his shirt open as buttons go flying through the air. I draw his rock-hard chest to me so I can reciprocate, licking his pebbled nipples, then sucking on them.
His hands grip my head steady. “Oh God…fuck yes, baby.” He groans, the rough sound bouncing off the walls of his spacious bedroom.
I switch to his other nipple, devoting as much attention to it as the other. I press him tighter to me, running my hands along the corded muscles in his back, making me even wetter for him.
Suddenly, his raw voice interrupts my ministrations. “Enough, Venus. Need to be inside you now.”
Davison turns me around so I’m facing the bed. He tugs down my sweats, followed by my thong. “The bed, baby. Now. Get on all fours,” he commands me.
With my pulse racing at his request, I do as he asks. I wait for him, and when I look back, he’s rising onto the bed, his engorged cock jutting into the air. I start taking deep breaths to prepare myself for what’s about to happen.
As he positions himself over me, his body heat radiates onto my back. He searches for the opening to my cleft, then drives himself inside me as we gasp in the joy of him inside me, clenching him tightly.
“So beautiful, Allegra,” he proclaims in a rasp. “Your creamy skin, your elegant back, your silky hair falling all around you. You are a goddess.”
I shut my eyes as they moisten from the beauty of his words.
And then they fly open, widening from the impact of his hard body as he starts to pound me, grunting with each thrust.
“Yes, Davison. Harder,” I beg.
“Allegra…” he growls between thrusts. “You are mine. Only mine.”
I push myself back to absorb as much of him as I can. I’m being torn apart. And it is glorious. He is a god, commanding me, taking me. I revel in the feel of him inside me, the heat from his chest hovering above me. This is what I will remember when we are apart.
He starts to move faster, echoes of skin slapping against skin drenching my pussy. We pant in unison, desperate for the release from the heated coil growing inside us.
The wave crests, and I scream as I milk his cock. My arms start to shudder, threatening to give out from under me. But I stay upright, waiting for Davison…
He follows my release with his own, bellowing raw and rough from deep in his throat. I fall onto the linen sheets, spent and sated. Davison’s body collapses to my side, his arms outstretched with one flopping across my back.
“Look at me, baby,” I hear his voice whisper between pants.
I pivot my head to see his emerald eyes blazing back at me.
“You okay?” he asks.
I nod. “I’m perfect.”
He nudges his head closer to me, a worried look on his face. “That wasn’t too…”
“No, Davison. That was exactly what I wanted and what I needed,” I reassure him.
A satisfied smile crosses his face. “Love you, Venus.”
I grin in return, then lean in to give him a slow, deep kiss. “Love you, Harvard.”
Completely exhausted, we drift into sleep lying on our chests, our arms entwined.
* * *
Davison
I dig the heels of my hands into my eyes, rubbing them back and forth. For two hours, I’ve been sitting at the desk in my office at Berkeley Holdings, reading reports of various companies that my company’s research analysts had compiled on potential investment opportunities in Eastern Europe while doing my own research on the Internet. The fonts were getting smaller in size as I was getting more cross-eyed by the minute.
I open a desk drawer, looking for the ever-present bottle of Advil to take a preventive strike against a headache. As I chase the pills with a bottle of water, I glance over at the photo of Allegra that sits on my desk.
I’d taken it on the balcony of the palazzo where we stayed in Venice. It was the morning after we’d arrived. She was wearing the white silk robe I’d bought for her at La Perla. We’d just woken up. She was looking out at the traffic below on the Grand Canal, smiling at our view, listening to the sounds of the city. Her hair was falling down the front of her robe, still rumpled from our round of early morning sex. I had my phone with me, so I said her name, and clicked a shot of her when she turned to me. She looked so serene, so content, her eyes shining in the sunlight. The Italian Masters would’ve given their eyeteeth to paint someone as beautiful as my Allegra.
I check my watch and realize I’m going to be late to meet her at my apartment for dinner. Since she’s leaving for Italy soon, I want to spend as much time as I can with her. Thankfully, my office is a twenty-minute walk from my apartment in Battery Park City, and Charles is picking up Allegra at her apartment. I start shoving the reports in my briefcase when someone knocks on my door.
“Come in.”
“Do you have a minute?”
It’s Ian Parker, an associate in our finance department. He reports to the CFO of Berkeley Holdings, Dominic Craig. Ian’s been with the company for two years. He’s bright, smart, and ambitious. He’s also a Bulldog, and my blood runs Crimson, so whoever wins the annual Harvard-Yale game every year has bragging rights for twenty-four hours the following Monday after the game.
“What’s up, Ian? I’m in a bit of a rush.”
“This won’t take long, Mr. Berkeley. I’m looking over the rough draft of the quarterly report that Mr. Craig gave me, and his numbers are way off from mine.”
I glance up from my desk. “Aren’t you the one who compiles the numbers for him?”
“Yes, but his are over, by a lot I might add.”
“Did you talk to him about the discrepancy?”
“Not yet. I wanted to come to you first.”
He hands me both drafts. He was right. Dominic’s numbers for our net profits are almost double Ian’s. I pass the papers back to him. “It’s probably just human error. Someone put in the wrong data. Talk to him about it. E-mail me both of the reports. And keep me posted. But don’t tell him you came to me first. It’ll look like you stepped on his toes, and he wouldn’t appreciate that.”
“Of course, sir. I didn’t mean—”
I shake my head at him dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure it’s nothing.”
“I will. Thank you. Have a good night, Mr. Berkeley.”
“You’re welcome. See you tomorrow, Ian.”
After Ian leaves, I sit down in my chair, mentally reviewing what Ian just showed me.
Even if he is a Yale man, at least I know where Ian’s loyalties lie.
Allegra’s photo catches my eye.
I grab my jacket and briefcase. My love is waiting for me.
Chapter Five
Allegra
Did you enjoy her, Rafaele? I told you she was beautiful.”
“Sì, Carlo,” he said, zipping up his filthy, torn jeans. “You weren’t lying. She was a good fuck. I can’t wait to have her again.”
“Don’t worry, mio amico. You will. Now it’s my turn.”
Once his pig friend left, Carlo laid his fat body over mine. His stale scent made me want to vomit, but I had something more important to focus on.
“Allegra! Wake up! WAKE UP!”
I open my eyes. Davison is holding me by the shoulders, his eyes widened in fear.
I’m covered in sweat. My throat is parched, as my heart pounds and I pant, not able to catch a breath.
“It’s okay. It’s me, baby. You’re with me, safe in my apartment. You had a nightmare. You were shaking and saying things in your sleep,” he says to me, firmly and calmly.
I nod in understanding, still not able to speak.
“Just focus on me, okay? Keep your eyes on mine and breathe.”
He keeps a steady hand on me, never wavering. I take in the beauty of his face. His piercing emerald eyes. The strength of his jaw. His lush lips, which are curved down in concern for me.
As my heart rate regulates, he begins to push aside the hair that’s plastered to my forehead from the sweat.
“That’s better. Would you like to take a shower?”
I nod again.
Davison rises from the bed, gently pulling me with him. He takes my hand, leading me into the bathroom. I watch as he turns on the water, testing it to make sure it’s just right.
“Go ahead, my love. It’s ready.”
He takes a step away from me.
“Stay,” I whisper.
He runs a finger down my cheek. “I’m not going anywhere. I was just getting you something to drink.”
He turns back to the sink, returning with a glass of ice-cold water that I swallow in three gulps.
I hand him the glass and step into the shower. He’s right behind me.
Davison positions me, placing one hand at the small of my back, the other on the back of my head as I lean into the hot spray of water. I close my eyes, letting the water fall over me, cleansing my slicked skin, ridding me of the sweat that had latched on to me.
I lift my head, staring into
his questioning eyes.
“Was it the same nightmare?” he asks carefully.
“Yes.”
“The one where you’re with Carlo?”
I nod silently. I place my hands on his shoulders, pulling him closer to me. I’m nose to nose with him, the man I love more than anything, whose love for me is constant. His strength carries me, keeps me safe, and makes me whole.
“Please, Davison,” I ask of him.
He leans in, softly licking my lips. I open my mouth to let him in, tangling my tongue with his. I tug on his hair, bringing him as close as I can to me. We kiss and kiss, savoring the taste of each other. I don’t want to stop. I need more. I need to feel his love for me. I need his love to wash away the pain of my past. I want his love to make my past dissipate so that nothing is left but us and our love for each other.
I trail my right hand down his chest to his cock, rubbing it back and forth.
I break away from his mouth, long enough for him to see the desire and longing in my eyes.
He moves me to the side wall and spreads my legs. He inserts his fingers into my pussy, and we both moan at the feel of them inside my soaked cleft. He quickly removes them, then takes his cock in his hand and plunges into me.
Pressing me to the wall, he lifts me as I wrap my legs around his waist. He starts to piston me, groaning with each thrust.
Our grunts reverberate throughout the bathroom, bouncing off the tiled shower walls. I want to come for him, more than anything.
I coil my arms around his shoulders, trying to bring him into me as close as I can. I want to feel everything—his hot breath, his pounding heartbeat, his hard muscles holding me up.
I’m so close. My ankles lock as the backs of my feet bounce off his firm ass with every thrust.
“You feel so good, Davison…I need you so much. So fucking much. Make me forget,” I pant.
“Look at me, baby,” he commands. “Let me see your gorgeous eyes when you come all over me.”
Just as my orgasm crests, I open them in time to see the look of desire in his eyes burning back at me. I feel my cream pooling on his taut torso. I clench his cock tighter, desperate for him to share the wave with me.
His body begins to shudder as his head falls back, the muscles and veins in his neck straining against the skin. He shouts in release, a raw, primal cry of ecstasy.