As if he’d heard us talking about him, Ian yawned, and she shifted him against her shoulder.
My pulse raced as I looked down at him, still unable to believe he was real. That he was mine. “Can I... Can I hold him?”
“Of course.” She twisted her hands around his little body and carefully shifted him to my shoulder.
He felt tiny in my hands, and my heart thumped hard against my ribs as his warmth seeped into my chest. My fingers shook, I was so afraid I’d drop him or hurt him.
Lifting him higher so he could lay his head over my shoulder as he’d done with Natalie, I watched in utter amazement as his little mouth opened, and he yawned again as he settled against me. For just a split second, he opened his eyes and looked up at me, and I saw that his were a deep brilliant blue, just like his mother’s.
I’d only fallen in love once. And I’d fought it every step of the way because I hadn’t thought I’d deserved that love. It had taken me a long time to not only understand what I felt for Natalie, but to accept that I could be loved in return. But as I looked down at this tiny little angel she’d created—that we’d created—I didn’t question what I felt. I didn’t fight it.
And I finally understood what it meant to fall in love at first sight and to love unconditionally.
“Are you all right?” Natalie asked softly beside me, one hand gently rubbing my back and the other on our baby.
“Yeah.” I blinked back tears. Happy tears I didn’t even try to stop from sliding down my cheeks. “I’m better than all right. I’m home.”
13
Luc
Time had a way of playing tricks on the mind. Of taking forever when you wanted it to speed up. Of flying by when all you wanted it to do was crawl along.
As I stood behind Natalie an hour later and watched her place our sleepy baby in the bassinet in the sitting area of my—well, our—bedroom, I wished like hell time would just stop. That this night wouldn’t end. That tomorrow would never arrive.
She tugged the soft blanket up to Ian’s chest, then straightened and glanced over her shoulder at me, her expression shifting from content to concerned in a matter of heartbeats.
“Hey,” she whispered turning and placing her silky soft hand on my chest. “What is it?”
I blinked back the burn in my eyes, shook my head, and covered her hand against my chest, drawing her with me as I stepped back.
Part of me didn’t want to put Ian to bed. I just wanted to go on holding him in case I didn’t get the chance again. But another part of me was desperate to touch my wife. To reconnect with her. To show her just how much I’d missed her. How much everything she’d done for Ian, for me, for us meant to me.
“You,” I whispered, my voice raspy. “It’s you. It’s always you.” I slid one hand into her hair and pulled her with me around the corner so we wouldn’t wake Ian, then lowered my mouth to hers.
Her lips met mine, soft and silky and so damn perfect. She opened at the first touch, no hesitation, no regret, and I groaned as I slid my tongue into her mouth and tasted her as I’d been dying to taste her ever since I’d walked into the kitchen and seen her sitting at the table, sipping a cup of tea.
I meant for the kiss to be gentle, I really did, but as soon as her tongue flicked against mine and I tasted her, desire swamped me. My whole body grew hard and achy with the need to feel her everywhere.
“Natalie… Angioletto… Dio, I missed you.”
“Oh, Luc…” She kissed me harder. Her body trembled against mine, and her hands slipped under my t-shirt to send tingles all across my skin. “I missed you too. So much. I… I’ve been so lonely without you. I need you. God, I need you.”
I groaned again. Touched by her words. By the fervor in her kiss. I needed her too. More than I could say. Lifting both hands to her face, I kissed her deeper, frantic to get inside her, to show her how much I always needed her.
Her hands dropped to my hips, moved to the button at my waist. Electricity raced across my skin. Anticipation curled in my belly. I reached for the hem of her t-shirt, pulling away from her mouth only long enough to tug the soft cotton up and over her head.
The platinum key I’d given her that night in Italy shimmered in the low light against her tan skin, hanging from a chain around her neck. The only key on the planet that could unlock the bracelet around my wrist. My heart contracted at the sight, and all those nights alone when I’d dreamt about her wearing it filled my mind. After all this time, part of me hadn’t expected it to still be around her neck.
“Luc…” She lifted her lips back to mine, drawing my attention away from the key and right back to her mouth. “Kiss me.”
I was powerless to do anything but what she demanded. Was desperate to strip her and slide inside her so I could show her what she meant to me.
Letting go of the key, I lifted my hand to the back of her head and pulled her closer, then opened to her kiss, tasting her deeply, groaning at how perfectly she filled my mouth, my heart, my body and soul.
A whimper from the sitting area was the only thing that stopped me from pushing her to the bed. I glanced over her head into the darkness toward Ian’s crib, but all I could see was the corner of his blanket lying still against the mattress.
“He’ll go back to sleep,” she whispered, fumbling with the button on my jeans. Pushing to her toes, she pressed her mouth to mine again, distracting me from Ian’s sounds, not once slowing her hurried fingers on my waistband. “Trust me. He’s a heavy sleeper. Kiss me again, Luc. Don’t stop kissing me.”
I groaned and opened to her, unable to hold back. Her fingers moved faster, working the zipper on my jeans. My body was on fire, but there were still enough synapses firing in my brain to prevent me from being a total beast—especially when I knew there was no way I could stay quiet the first time I took her again after all these months.
Closing my arms around her, I slipped my hands down to her perfect ass and lifted her off the floor. “Wrap your legs around me.”
She answered with a moan that filled my mouth as I continued to kiss her. Her shapely legs slid around my waist, and her arms wrapped around my shoulders and held on as I turned her out of the bedroom and carried her into the bathroom, quietly closing the door at my back.
I didn’t bother with the light. I did manage to flip on the fan, though, and somehow I fumbled with the controls on the shower with one hand without dropping her as she kissed me harder and rubbed the heat between her legs against my already swollen cock.
I saw stars. Water sprayed into the open tile shower stall from several shower heads, drowning out the sounds of our passion. I was fueled by months of emptiness and the feel of her familiar body finally—finally—pressed against mine. Turning to my left, I set her on the counter as steam began to fill the room.
“Luc…” Her tongue tangled with mine. Her hands swept up into my hair and fisted, pulling until pain shot across my scalp—a pain that only made me hotter. “I want you naked. Inside me. Right now. It’s been so long.”
Her words were a spark to a match. My body erupted in flames. Knowing she was as desperate for me as I was for her made every cell in my body spontaneously combust.
I dropped my lips to her shoulder and sank my teeth into her tender skin as my hands found the latch on her bra and pulled it free. I quickly tugged the garment from her arms and palmed her silky breasts. She groaned and rocked her hips against mine, the heat of her pussy making me even harder.
She grasped the fabric of my t-shirt at my back and ripped it from my body. Within seconds she’d wriggled out of her jeans and panties and was already pushing mine down my hips.
“Luc…” Her mouth found mine again, and she wrapped her legs around my bare hips, pulling me toward her.
I kissed her deeply, anxious to thrust hard and deep inside her, but I knew if I did this was going to be over in a matter of seconds. I needed her right on the edge before I let that happen because there was no way I was going to be able to last after a
ll this time without her.
I tore my mouth from hers and kissed my way down her throat. She grunted in frustration. I wanted to feast on her breasts, to tease her nipples to stiff points, to suck until she screamed. But there wasn’t time. She was too frantic and I was too hot.
Before she could grab me again, I dropped to my knees, shoved her legs apart and, buried my face in all her warm, sweet wetness I’d been dreaming about for months.
“Oh, fuck…” Her hand slapped against the wall at her side. She rocked her hips up, pressing her clit hard against my sweeping tongue.
I groaned as I licked her, as her sultry, familiar taste filled my mouth, as I felt her growing wetter against my face.
“Oh, yes…” Her voice jumped an octave as she rode my tongue faster.
This was why I’d pulled her into the bathroom. Because I knew neither of us would be able to stay quiet the first time we touched each other again.
She rocked harder against my face. I licked faster and suckled her swollen clit. Her grunts and moans echoed around me, growing higher and louder with every passing second.
“Luc… Oh, fuck, Luc… I can’t… I need…” She wriggled against my mouth. “Please, please, please… I need… you.”
That was it. As much as I could take. If she climaxed, I knew I was going to come just from the sound of her pleasure, and I wanted to be inside her when that happened. Needed it the way I needed air to breathe.
I let go of her clit, pushed to my feet, and found her lips with my own as I wrapped my hand around her back and pulled her toward my pulsing cock.
She groaned into my mouth and held on to my shoulders as I gripped my shaft, pressed against her wet slit, then thrust deep. We both gasped as I filled her steamy channel and bottomed out. As the head struck her G-spot and her pussy clamped hard around my cock like a vise.
Fuck, she was tight. Tighter than I remembered. And so damn perfect all I wanted was more.
“Oh, yes, Luc… There.” She rocked up against me. “Fuck me… Please. Fast…”
“Natalie…” My fingers dug into her ass as I drew back then thrust in even harder, unable to stop my hips from moving now that she was pulsing around me.
“Yes, yes, yes…”
“I’m not going to be able to last,” I mumbled against her lips. “Dio, you feel so damn good.” I shoved in deeper. My thrusts picked up speed. “So much better than I remember. Cazzo, I’m about to come…”
“Yes, yes, do it. Come…” She threw her head back against the mirror, digging her fingertips into my shoulders as she met every one of my pounding thrusts, rubbing her clit against me as I pummeled her G-spot. “Come, Luc… I want to feel you explode deep inside me. Come now…right now…”
I was unable to hold back. The friction was too much. Her steamy pussy clenching my throbbing cock was too intense. And her words… They were a command, an order, a wicked fantasy I’d been imagining in my head for so damn long…
The orgasm slammed into me like a bolt of lightning, so fast, so hard, so powerful, it was as if every moment we’d been apart had been building to this crescendo. To consuming not just my body, but my heart and soul at the same time. To proving that she, this… us… was the reason for everything.
Faintly, I heard her scream my name. Her pussy spasmed, and I felt another shockwave of pleasure as she milked me of my release, drawing out every drop until I was left trembling and limp.
I might have blacked out. I wasn’t sure. But when I finally tore my eyes open, I realized the shower was still running behind me, my face was pressed against her damp shoulder, her silky fingers were in my hair, and she was whispering sweet, tender words in my ear that made me want to melt all over again.
My heart swelled. Grew so big I thought it might burst right there in my chest.
Sweaty and breathless, I lifted my head and looked at her. At the sweet smile on her lips, at her glazed and damp eyes locked on mine. At this beautiful woman who hadn’t just rocked the world right out from under me, she’d proven all over again that she was mine, even though I would never deserve her.
“Sorry,” I managed. “That… wasn’t what I planned for the first time.”
Her smile widened. “Sorry? For what? That was…” She lifted her lips to mine. “Mm… That was amazing.”
I couldn’t help myself. I smiled myself as she kissed me because it had been amazing. Every time with her was amazing. But I could do better.
“Eight seconds wasn’t what I had planned,” I mumbled against her lips. “A year and a half of celibacy has left me out of shape. Plus, you’re so damn hot, I couldn’t stop myself.”
“Mm… I like that.” She lifted her hands to my face and kissed me deeply. “I really like that. I promise I’ll do everything I can to get you back in prime fucking shape.”
I chuckled, loving that she knew exactly what to say to relax me. But then, this incredible woman always knew what I needed, even when I didn’t. Even after all this time.
She drew back and gazed at me, and as I looked into her soft blue eyes, all I saw was love. So much, it filled my soul. So much, it pushed out all the emptiness I’d been feeling all these months without her and made me whole again.
“I love you,” I managed, my throat thick, my eyes growing wet once more. “Dio, I love you desperately.”
“Show me.” She drew my mouth back to hers, and her tempting tongue skimmed mine, making my cock jerk inside her. “Take me into that shower and show me all over again, Luc. I need more of you. I need all of you.”
I groaned and sank into her kiss.
She already had all of me. She owned me, body and soul. She was the only woman in the world who ever would.
“Hey.” Natalie’s soft voice brought my head around where I sat on the footstool I’d dragged to the side of Ian’s crib set up in the sitting area of our room. “What are you doing?”
“Watching him sleep.”
She climbed onto the ottoman behind me, wrapped her arms around my waist, and perched her chin on my shoulder. “You have to be tired.”
I was. Deliciously so. After I’d had my way with her on the counter in the bathroom, I’d dragged Natalie into the shower as she’d wanted and washed every trace of Giovanni from both of us. Then I’d loved each inch of her body the way I should have been loving her these last eighteen months.
“I just can’t stop looking at him.” I closed my hand over hers at my waist, pulling her closer, loving her heat and that grapefruit and honey scent of her skin I’d missed so much. “He’s so... perfect.”
She laughed softly in my ear. “You would not be saying that if you heard one of his high pitched shrieks. The kid has lungs.”
I smiled. “He clearly gets that trait from his mother.”
“How do you figure?”
“You’re the screamer, not me.”
She pressed her fingers into my ribs, making me wiggle away from her.
“Careful,” I whispered. “You’re gonna wake him.”
She sank her teeth into my ear then climbed around me until she was sitting on my lap with her legs stretched out on one side so we could both watch him.
I wrapped my arms around her and held her close as she rested her head on my shoulder.
“I was right, wasn’t I?” she asked quietly. “This changes everything.”
My heart squeezed tight, and I turned my lips against her temple. “Yeah, it does.” My eyes slid closed. “I can’t take you back with me now.”
“I know.” She held me tighter.
We sat in silence for several minutes, both of us thinking about the danger Ian could be in if anyone from my House found out about him. Here, where no one paid attention to him, he was safe. If we took him to Italy, they’d never buy the adoption story.
“I don’t know how I’m going to let you go again,” she whispered.
“I’ve been thinking about that all night. I have to go back, but, there’s a chance maybe it won’t be forever.”
&nb
sp; “What do you mean?” She lifted her head and looked at me.
I didn’t want to get her hopes up, but I wouldn’t leave her in the dark again. “If I can find Dante, if I can talk him into it, there’s a possibility I could abdicate rule to him.”
“How?” Excitement lit her eyes. “Is that really an option? Would they let you just walk away?”
“It’s a long shot. I won’t lie to you. I don’t know if I can find Dante or even what state of mind he’s in right now. But... I told you before that bloodlines are important to them. If I can’t produce children, they’ll be more than happy to let me abdicate to Dante who can.”
“But...” Her gaze drifted to Ian asleep on his belly in his crib. “You aren’t sterile like you thought.”
“I know. I’d need to have the vasectomy repeated in secret. Before I approached Dante. I might be the Grand Duke now, but even I have to follow the rules. They won’t just take my word. They’ll want proof.”
I watched her eyes in the dim light. Tried to gauge her reaction as she realized that would mean no more kids, ever.
“Is there a chance they could find out? Hurt you?”
“I don’t think so. I mean, there’s always a chance. Forced sterilization among the nobility is forbidden. But I did it before in secret, and they never knew.”
She looked back at me. “Then do it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure. It’s not even a question. We need you, here with us. Do you think the Grande Cavaliere will agree to let Dante take your spot? And what about your House, all the changes you’re making? Won’t that all fall apart if you leave?”
“Not if I can convince Dante to keep it going. And Marco’s a Knight now. He has say in House matters. Between the two of them and the others helping to make change, I know they can carry on without me. As for the Grande Cavaliere... I don’t want you to worry, but there’s already a plan in place for him.”
“That does make me worry.”
I brushed the hair back from her beautiful face. “The last eighteen months have been pure torture for me, Natalie. A thousand times worse than that beating they gave me after we were married. Every day I was away from you, I wanted to die. The only thing that kept me going was the belief that as soon as Giovanni was gone, we could be together again. I won’t last much longer without you. I need you the way I need air to breathe. I need to be here with you and Ian or I’m going to waste away into nothing. I’ll do whatever I can to make that happen. I can’t lose you again. Never ever again.”
The Choice (House of Sin Book 6) Page 14