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“For now.” Blue eyes met mine, happiness shining from somewhere deep inside her. “I’ve been known to consume a large cheese and pepperoni pizza by myself, followed by a pint of Chunky Monkey ice cream.”
“That sounds horrid.” I straightened her dress and licked her juices from my fingers. “But I’m relieved you are a woman who feasts with gusto. It seems we’re well matched.”
Curving my arm around her waist, I pulled Elle to my side and brushed a kiss over her temple. She wiggled, angling closer, resting her hand on my chest. A profound calm settled over me. My mind wasn’t racing with calculations and strategic decisions. My muscles weren’t rigid with tension, and my nerves weren’t on high alert. When a wayward thought about my father surfaced, there wasn’t the usual surge of acid in my stomach.
Elle truly was a witch. She had some kind of magic that grounded me, made me feel like I was exactly where I was meant to be, doing what I was meant to do, with the person I was meant to do it with.Papàand I had been at odds for months, neither of us giving an inch, neither of us progressing an inch. But in this moment, the possibilities seemed not only limitless, but destined for success. I was on the brink of something amazing. Something bigger and grander than anything I’d imagined awaited within reach.
“Where were we?” I whispered.
“Your fingers were in my—”
“Food,cara. I promised you—”
“No promises, Alessio.” She extricated herself from beneath my arm, furrows creasing her brow. “I’m a little skittish since my fiancé broke his vow. People make promises with the best of intentions, but then…you meet a hot dental hygienist and ten years of scooping the litterbox and beige walls mean nothing.”
I did not understandlitterboxorbeige walls, but I recognized a heart that had been trampled on. Maybe it was the tiniest bit similar to how my father’s actions made me feel.La famiglia. We were family. That carried an inherent promise of trust and respect. His refusal to consider my ideas felt like a betrayal. Elle’s observation made me wonder if my insistence to transformPapà’sfamily vineyard into an international winery felt the same to him.
“Dinner, then. Just dinner.”
“Okay, just Alessio.” The worry lines vanished, but she remained a few inches away.
It was like I was standing at the edge of the ocean. Just when it felt solid, a wave could roll in and shift the sand beneath my feet. My initial attraction to Elle was purely physical. Now there was an emotional connection. Would that complicate things or make our two-week affair sweeter?
Chapter Eight - Elle
“Wake up,bella.”
Alessio’s seductive baritone vibrated through layers of sleep, capturing me between the ephemeral weightlessness of my dream and the tactile sensations grounding me to reality. The cotton sheet barely covering my breasts. Alessio’s warm breath skimming my cheek. His possessive grip on my wrists.
I came fully awake, registering more details. His erection pressing against my belly. His thighs straddling my hips. My arms stretched overhead, wrists manacled in his grasp. His face inches above mine, the predatory expression triggering a shiver of anticipation.
Every day for the past week, Alessio had awakened me in such a manner, the hour that followed a leisurely exploration of bodies and pleasure. From there, we would shower together, sometimes in my tiny, blue-tiled stall, more often in the huge, freestanding marble tub in his bathroom suite at the villa. We breakfasted together and then pursued our own interests until early afternoon when we shared a light meal and decided how to spend the rest of the day.
Thus far, he’d respected all of my boundaries: Complete transparency. No promises. Taking each moment as it came and immersing ourselves in the pure joy of life. Asserting my choices, setting the rules, having a man cater to my whims was heady stuff. I forced myself to speak up when I preferred something different and discovered that negotiations—when done right—weren’t a power play where one person won and the other lost, but a means of truly understanding another person’s priorities, values, needs, and desires.
My Italian lover did his best to keep things light, but Alessio Venturi was intense. His passion, his energy—he lived life full bore. For every excess, there was discipline. For every indulgence, there was restraint. It was obvious he’d been holding back—what, I wasn’t sure—but this morning, something had been unleashed.
“Every morning, we fuck.” His eyes glowed like ebony coals, his words rumbled from deep in his chest, rough, his accent more pronounced. “I lick you and touch you until you come. This is nothing but play. Two adults barely skimming the surface of desire. It is not enough,strega. Today, I make love to you. I show you what it is to burn for a woman. To need her touch even more desperately that just seconds ago, despite satisfying that longing again and again.Si, amore mio?”
He wanted to possess me, every inch, yet he’d still asked permission.
Henry had owned me, lock, stock, and barrel. Not because he’d demanded ownership, but because I’d forfeited it. I’d given it up without him even having to ask. This holiday fling was supposed to have been an opportunity to reclaim my independence, a chance to learn to assert myself, time to rediscover who I was and what I wanted.
Alessio wanted me, but unlike Henry, Alessio knew who I was and what I wanted. He’d given me so much of himself, and now I was being invited to do the same.
My lids fluttered closed as I melted beneath him, submitting, a swell of lust bearing down on me so strongly it ripped a groan from the bottom of my soul.
“Si,Alessio.Io sono tua.”
I was his, in whatever way he wanted me.
He released my wrists. Instinctively I reached for him.
“No, no, no.” His mouth curved in a wicked smile. He scanned the room, then leaned over to tug free the belt from my robe. Recapturing my wrists, he wound the strip of fabric around them, securing them loosely to the wrought-iron bedframe.
The sheet shifted with our movement, revealing the eager jut of my nipples. Already aroused, they tightened into painful, sensitive nubs, both from the ferocity of Alessio’s gaze and the brisk morning air wafting through a half-open window.
“Ah,la stregalikes that.” Eyes locked on mine, his fingers found my nipples. He pinched them, the burn a tortuous combination of pleasure and pain.
