Page 118 of Effortless

No matter how much she pretended to like sleep.

This would always be better.

Again, his tongue flicked out to lap at her skin when he kissed just above the hood of her clit. Camilla let out a slow exhale, and steeled herself. She wasn’t going to show a damn thing to Tommaso.

It didn’t matter how good his blue gaze looked as he stared up from between her thighs with a sexy little grin, his eyebrow cocked in challenge, and …

“Why do you have to be like this?” she asked him.

Tommaso’s grin deepened. “Like what?”

“I don’t know … sweet, patient, sexy as hell, gorgeous, and there’s more but my brain is really just focused on how close your mouth is to my pussy right now. So, it’s basically fucking useless at the moment.”

His chuckle rocked them both on the bed.

“I mean, do you want to pretend like it’s a bad thing where my mouth is right now?” he asked.

Camilla glanced up at the ceiling, and sent a silent prayer to the God she had been taught to revere and trust. A deity she gave all her faith to because everyone needed something to believe in—something good and beautiful.

Tommaso was kind of like that for her, too.

Finally, she peered back at Tommaso, and waved a hand at him. “Who do I have to blame for all of this, huh? Your mother, or father? Some person who took you under their wing and taught you how to be this amazing, perfect man, or what?”

“Uh.”

That was all she got.

Uh.

Camilla stared at Tommaso, and waited for a response. “Well?”

“I’m confused, Cam. You act as though it’s a bad thing I’m a decent guy.”

He dropped his upper body down, rested between her legs, and set his chin to her stomach. Like that, the two looked at one another until she felt like she was capable of making full sentences that made sense.

“It’s not a bad thing—it’s just not something I’m used to. Yeah, that works.”

She mentally patted herself on the back.

Tommaso shook his head. “Yeah, well, that’s a shame.”

“Maybe you’re not perfect at all.”

“Ouch.”

Camilla laughed, and reached down to stroke his unshaven cheek with her palm. “No, I mean … maybe you’re just perfect for me. Every little thing about you seems to break down my walls, right? Things about you that would usually send me running for the hills actually draws me back in. I don’t know. I’m rambling.”

Wordlessly, Tommaso pushed up from the bed, and rested on his hands. He hovered over Camilla with a smile that was still sexy, but also soft and knowing.

Like he knew exactly what she was scared to say.

Tommaso bent down, and grazed his nose along Camilla’s cheek. She tipped her head back, and answered his soft touch with a kiss. A sweet, slow kiss that burned through her body. From her toes, to her fingertips, she was on fire.

It wasn’t so devastating, though.

It wasn’t frightening.

It soothed and reassured and protected. It wrapped around her like invisible tendrils holding tight, and refusing to let go.