Page 71 of Secret Seduction

“Nicole said that anyone linked to you would be protected, so when you refused to hook up with me so I could get rid of my virginity, I came up with the plan to marry you. But I was scared that if anyone knew I was still a virgin, Eric would come after me. So, I lied about us having sex.”

It takes Lorenzo a moment to wrap his brain around what I just admitted, but once he does, his brows kiss his forehead.

“Wild Card …” He chuckles. “Are you saying that you’re still a virgin?”

“Drugging and conning you into marrying me were fucked up enough,” I say with a mirthless laugh. “I would never rape you. And to be honest, I preferred the idea of faking it to actually having sex.”

Lorenzo chuckles. “The thought of having sex with me was that appalling?”

“No!” I scrub my hands down my face. “That didn’t come out right. My mom has always used her body to get male attention, and I never wanted to be like that, so I was waiting for marriage to have sex. I wanted to be in love with the man I gave myself to.”

I frame Lorenzo’s face with my hands and look into his bright blue eyes. “I wanted it to mean something and be special. At the time, I didn’t know you the way I do now. So, I pretended we had sex to save my life. And I’m glad I did because had we had sex that night, it wouldn’t have meant anything to either of us. Not that it would’ve happened once I spiked your drink … I had to pay a guy to help me get you up to your room.”

Lorenzo huffs a laugh.

“And now?” he asks, his features turning serious.

“And now I know that being with you would be meaningful. Maybe we won’t be together forever, and once I’m no longer in danger, we’ll divorce. I’ll move back to Seattle to finish my degree, and you’ll stay here with your adorable son, ruling the real estate world …”

I smirk playfully, but he doesn’t crack a smile.

“Maybe I should wait for whoever it is that I’ll one day marry for real, but right now, being with you feels right.”

Lorenzo nods and lifts me into his arms.

Wordlessly, he carries me downstairs and into his bedroom, laying me in the center of his king-size bed.

“There’s so much I want to say”—he reaches down and yanks his shirt over his head—“and I’m going to say it all, but right now, the only thing I want to do is make love to my wife.”

He crawls up the bed and between my legs and captures my mouth with his. And as his lips caress mine, our tongues tangle in an erotic dance that I never want to end.

“Fuck, baby,” he murmurs against my lips. “The way you taste …” He trails kisses along my jaw and then inhales deeply. “The way you smell … I can’t get enough.”

He sucks on my earlobe, and I moan, wanting more.

“I’m addicted to everything about you,” he says, placing open-mouthed kisses along my heated flesh. “And once I’m inside of you, it’s only going to get worse.”

He peppers kisses across the tops of my breasts while I grab the zipper holding my dress together and yank it down. The material opens from the side, and Lorenzo stops kissing me so he can pull the dress the rest of the way down.

Then he sits on his haunches and rakes his gaze down my body.

Because the dress had a built-in bra, my breasts are on full display, my nipples hard from being turned on, and I’m wearing a plain black cotton thong.

There’s nothing special about me, but you wouldn’t know it by the way Lorenzo admires me, like I’m a priceless treasure.

He leans over and gives each of my nipples a soft kiss and then moves down to my pussy. He slowly lowers my panties down my legs and then brings them to his nose, inhaling the scent.

Watching a man sniff my underwear shouldn’t be such a turn-on, yet it totally is. Because he’s not doing it for show. He’s doing it because he genuinely craves everything about me. And I know how he feels because when I’m with him, I feel the same way.

“You waxed,” he says when he tosses the panties to the side and glances at my pussy.

“Well, since you were paying”—I smirk playfully—“I figured a Brazilian couldn’t hurt.”

“I like this.” He tugs on the thin strip of hair between my legs and then slides down the bed until he’s on his stomach with my pussy in his face.

He parts my folds and licks up my slit, his eyes closing and a moan escaping as he gets his first taste.

I briefly wonder if all men are this passionate or if, one day, when we’ve moved on and I’m with someone else, I’ll be disappointed because he’s not as obsessed with me as Lorenzo is.