Page 65 of No Darker Temptation

He drags his hands up the length of my body, fingers catching on the hem of my nightgown before he pulls the garment over my head. The split second it takes for him to pull his mouth away from mine, I lift my hips to meet his, thrust for thrust, and he groans, grip tightening in my hair and my braid loosens. I do it again and he loses focus, movements becoming quick and erratic, the slick sound of flesh meeting flesh filling the room. He leans down and catches my nipple between his teeth, sucking until my scalp tingles with pleasure.

As much as I enjoy our more heated, aggressive bedroom escapades, it’s moments like these that brand my soul. Before us, I hadn’t understood the difference between having sex and making love. One is not lesser than the other—the act done for pleasure versus the act done through emotion—but I understand now I could never have this with anyone else.

The need to have him everywhere all at once is visceral. With each thrust inside me he rearranges the fabric of my DNA, fills the cracks in my soul, and takes all the parts of myself that have always longed to belong and makes them his. When he kisses me it’s with more than desire and something stronger than lust. He kisses me until I can’t breathe, until the walls of my sex contract around him, until we’re both panting and dizzy and close to release.

He pulls away at the last minute to tell me he loves me and I come so hard I see stars.

My whole body is sizzling and buzzing with tension when I flip us over. He hasn’t finished yet and I want to make sure he does.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispers to me. “Mi amor, mi vida. My Dahlia.”

I lower myself slowly, taking him in inch by delicious inch, skin practically tingling with how good it feels to have him inside me. I can’t always take all of him but tonight, I bottom out with each thrust of my hips, rising and falling until I can practically feel him in my womb. Skin slick with sweat and breaths labored, we move together and I already feel another climax building at the base of spine. Alejandro merely watches, both hands cupping my cheeks, content to watch me ride out another orgasm but this isn’t what I want.

I pick up the pace, rolling my hips until the bed creaks beneath us, and he lets out a sound that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. He drops a hand to my hip where his nails dig into the flesh there, holding me steady as he thrusts upwards, hard enough that I have to arch my back to take him all the way. Just as I think we’re about to finish together, he dips his other hand between us and finds my sex where he rubs soft circles around the bundle of nerves there. It takes less than a minute before pleasure bolts down my spine and I collapse against him, letting out a cry that might otherwise embarrass me if I wasn’t so far gone.

He wraps his arms around me and holds me flush against his chest as I wait for the aftershocks to fade. Once my mind clears I realize he didn’t finish that time either.

I pull away and one look at his face tells me everything I need to know.

He wasn’t in the same place as me. While I was here, present in the moment, his thoughts were elsewhere. It takes everything in me not to be upset but I’m more hurt than anything else when he carefully pulls out of me and lays me down beside him.

“Wait.” I sit up and push back the blankets. “Do you want me to do something else?”

I hold back my now ruined braid but he puts his hands on my shoulders before I can take him into my mouth. “Dee, go to bed.”

The rejection stings, more so given what we shared together. Or rather, what I partook in alone. I want to address it but don’t know how. Too many emotions fight for dominance inside me and I struggle to sort through them.

Alejandro turns and swings his legs over the edge of the bed. I make a last-ditch attempt and wrap my arms around him from behind, hoping that’ll be enough to get him to stay.

“Alex?” I press a kiss against his shoulder and then the side of his neck. “I’d rather you didn’t leave right this second.”

He covers my hands with his and brushes his lips against my arm. “I’m going to get some air. I don’t want to keep you up.”

“Did…did I do something wrong?”

He swings around. “What?”

“I just…I feel like you’re rejecting me. We were fine a second ago and then you didn’t…you know. That’s never happened before.”

I wish I didn’t feel this overwhelming urge to cry. Somehow, I can’t help it the moment he takes my face into his hands and kisses me all over. “It isn’t you. I promise. It’s…my mind’s somewhere else.”

“Well, it didn’t feel very good. To do that and know you weren’t here with me.” I swallow against the tightness in my throat. “If you needed a distraction that’s fine. But I’d rather you tell me first so I don’t…so that I don’t give too much…”

“I’m sorry.” He kisses the top of my head and pulls me in for an embrace I eagerly accept. I melt against him, soaking up every ounce of affection he gives me. “Perdóname, mi amor.”

“Dimitrio told you something to upset you. No, don’t interrupt me. Let me say this,” I tell him gently. “I know you can’t always tell me what’s weighing on you but at least let me help you carry it. I need you to lean on me and I need you to need me. Otherwise, what’s the point in being together? We’re supposed to be partners and it doesn’t feel that way right now.”

There’s a long stretch of silence before he says, “Manuel is dead.”

My breath catches. “What?”

“I had to call his family and tell them. That’s why I disappeared for a while.” He takes my hand and kisses the inside of my palm. “I’m sorry I took time away from you tonight. Leaving you alone at your party wasn’t my intention, but his family is very important to ours and he was a good kid. I wanted to make sure arrangements were being made.”

“Of course, I’m not upset. Only sorry to hear it.”

Manuel wasn’t a guard I had much interaction with until recently. Oscar and Pedro haven’t been at their usual posts for the last month and so Manuel and Rodrigo have been at the house instead. I wish I’d known him better. I feel awful for his family.

I almost ask how he died but have the good sense not to. It’s not an answer I think I could live with.