Page 39 of Broken Bonds

Without responding, I gently caress his face with the tips of my fingers, memorizing each of his features with my fingertips. His forehead, his beautiful brown eyes, flanked by those long lashes, his elegant straight nose, and his mouth… that sweet temptation that I’m dying to kiss again.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he whispers, his lips a short distance from mine—mixed temptation and torture.

“How?” I ask, moistening my lips with the tip of my tongue.

“When you and I are finally together, I’m going to give you more than a quick fuck on the floor,” he tells me and a flame inside me lights up. “I’m going to give you everything you want, and then some.”

I’m already regretting telling him I want to go slow.

“And in the meantime…” His lips finally touch mine again.

The flame grows bigger, threatening to burn down the house around us. I can’t say that I don’t know the man in front of me, because at this moment, letting myself be carried away by passion, I don’t even recognize myself.

A need that I had never felt before consumes me. I want to smell him, touch him, and taste him, all at the same time. So overwhelming, it’s so new and at the same time as comforting as being back home, all because he somehow makes me feel safe.

“God, I love how you smell,” he says, his mouth running down my neck, toward the edge of the shirt I’m wearing.

“Lionel…” I tell him and he stops.

“My head knows it,” he admits. “But that doesn’t mean that my body understands it.”

After a couple more kisses, he gets up and extends his right hand to help me do the same.

“I need to call my mother,” I say, abruptly changing the subject, putting distance between us.

“And I’m going to warm up the pie again.”

Before leaving the room, he puts his phone in my hands. A new one, of course, because he lost the old one the day he was attacked. I would have taken the opportunity to go through his phone, but two things come to mind. The first, as I said before, the phone is new, I won’t find more than calls from his mother and work. The other, he’s offering me privacy, I should have the same courtesy.

“You think you can get used to that life?” my mother asks after I’ve told her everything that has happened since we left the hospital. “Lionel is a important man, and with that comes many ties. Do you think you’re ready for that?”

I think about it for a moment and decide to answer her truthfully.

“We’re taking things slowly,” I explain. “We have a lot to work out before we take on those commitments. And Lionel isn’t like those millionaires in the movies, Mom, he’s quiet and likes to be at home. Deep down I think we have a lot in common.” Saying that, I feel a little silly, but she’s my mother, she isn’t going to judge me for that.

The truth is that we still have a lot to discover.

“He’s your husband, and your place is next to him.” I know how she thinks. My mother doesn’t believe in the word divorce, for her it’s an abomination. “But I fear you will lose yourself and never be able to find your way back.”

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take,” I tell her. I don’t know how I would survive another disappointment, though.

???

“Hadley, my assistant, is going to bring me some paperwork I need to review,” Lionel tells me as he takes a good bite out of his pie and licks some crumbs off his lips. How I want to be the one to do that for him. Somehow, I manage to contain myself, focusing on what I have on the plate in front of me.

The truth is that it is very good, the pie, I mean—and with cheese—it makes a delicious combination.

I had never seen white cheddar cheese, for me it was always yellowish, but every day you can experience something new.

“I’ve asked her to get you a phone and a computer too, I think you need both.”

Nope, I don’t need any of that. He better get that idea out of his head before we have another fight of epic proportions.

“I don’t need a new phone, just a charger. Nor a computer, I can manage with the notebooks and the phone.”

It doesn’t feel right to start receiving gifts, especially when they’re expensive ones. That would make me feel like I’m selling myself.

“The computer will make it easier for you to study for the test. Remember that you must look things up on the internet, and maybe get an online tutor. Those things can’t be done from a phone, much less using such an archaic model.”

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