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I smacked him again, but this time, my heart wasn’t into it. Because, of course, he’d said the thing. The word.
“So,” I prodded. “I am your girlfriend?”
TWENTY
MICHAEL, YOU’RE NAKED
Lea
Michael burst out laughing, the rough, joyful sound echoing around my small bedroom, thrilling my heart even as I curled into myself.
Was he laughing at me?
Was it that ridiculous?
Then he kissed me again, and all doubts evaporated.
“Are you my girlfriend?” he demanded. “Are you my…Jesus. Lea. Girlfriend doesn’t even cut it. I’ve known you for a few weeks, and you’re already the love of my life.”
That shut me up.
As quickly as it had emerged, the levity between us disappeared.
“How can you say that?” I wondered. “You barely know me.”
“How can you say you love me too?” he wondered right back as he sat back on his heels at the end of my bed to look me over.
Instinctively, I sat up too and grasped for my sheets to cover my naked body. They didn’t do much.
“How can you invite me up here?” he continued. “Sit with me, naked as the days we were born, and offer me your…what no one else has ever had from you?”
I hated the fear that crept into those deep eyes with every question he asked. It had me tossing the sheets aside so that I could scramble closer to him, wrap my arms around his neck, and let him know he was worthy of everything I had to give him.
It wasn’t much. It was only me.
But it was something.
“I said I love you because it’s the truth,” I said. “Maybe for some people, it grows gradually, like a plant. But for us, it was fire. Immediate sparks. And then we both blew on the flame, and it exploded.” I bit back a smile. “I think I loved you the second I watched you wolf down Nonna’s pasta. You were so grateful. You didn’t hold back.”
“Neither did you,” he said with a half-smile. “I probably loved you the second I saw you in the breakroom, walking around like you owned it. I wanted you to own me.”
We gazed at each other for a long time, green eyes meeting brown, reflecting wonder and love back at each other.
And then sparking with something else.
I looked down his body. Took in the twisting designs decorating his arms and torso. Toyed with the chain hanging from his neck. And then looked down at the rest of him.
“Michael,” I said. “You’re naked.”
His dark eyes gleamed. “We’re both naked, contessa.” His eyes dipped down my body and back up before he delivered a quick kiss. “And for what it’s worth, you look fuckin’ amazing without clothes on.”
My body heated as he kissed me again, this time with his tongue that had me begging for more.
Visions of what he had done to me on my family’s kitchen counter danced through my mind. My core throbbed in response.
“I can feel your—it—on my leg,” I whispered as he drifted his lips over my jaw.
His mouth curved into a smile against my neck. “You can say it out loud, you know.”
