Page 41 of Forbidden Until Midnight

She raised her backside from the counter so that he could draw her underwear from beneath her and away from her body.

And then, with Eleanor open before him, the smile dropped from his mouth. Because she was incredible. Exquisite. She was it for him. There was no other option or possibility or future. It was all her.

There was nothing holding him back now. All he could do was let the fire consume them both. And that was the last thought he had as he bent his head to the juncture of her thighs and pressed open-mouthed kisses to her core, the taste of heaven he had fantasised about for years entering his bloodstream like a drug he would never quit.

Eleanor fell back against the wall, her hands fisting the edge of the table, knuckles white, trying to hold on, while Santo thrust her into a pleasure so acute she thought she’d break apart if she took another breath.

Curses filled her mouth and she thought, impossibly, that she could tell Santo was smiling as he pressed yet another open-mouthed kiss against her. His hands pressed her thighs open to him, his thumbs massaging gentle circles as his tongue laved over her clit in lazy sweeps that sent shivers across her entire body.

Oxygen battled against pleasure in her lungs and if she could survive on bliss alone she would happily do so, but couldn’t, so gasped for breath as he pushed her closer and closer to the edge.

She writhed against him and he growled against her delicate flesh, nearly splitting her apart with desire. He did it again, and she cried out from the sensation alone. He circled his finger around her entrance, the feeling exquisitely new, teasing, making her want him there more than she could have possibly imagined.

‘Cara?’

‘Yes, please. Please, Santo...’

The words tripped over themselves as they fell from her lips. She would beg if she had to, but he would never let her do that because he was already where she needed him and then he thrust into her with clever, knowing fingers that filled her, the palm of his hand pressing against the rest of her as his tongue teased her clitoris to the point of near madness.

‘Oh, God,’ she hissed out. ‘Santo, I...’

‘Breathe,’ he whispered. ‘Breathe into it, let it fill you,’ he guided. ‘Let yourself come.’

He didn’t push her further than what she could handle but instead deepened her experience for her, letting it sweep at her feet like the tide rather than a tsunami, letting her sink into it rather than drown, as if it were something to luxuriate in.

Breath after breath, swallowing down pleasure in a way she’d never known, never experienced, as her orgasm built from the ground up, from where he pressed his tongue to her, from where he added a second finger to fill her, from where he held her so securely against him. Her orgasm was like Santo himself, slow, inexorable; it stalked her like prey, closing in on her with a fatefulness that she couldn’t escape, that she didn’t want to escape.

He whispered words of encouragement against her, unintelligible to her overstimulated mind, but known instinctively by her body. She unfurled for him, she opened to him, wanting more, like an insatiable being hunting her own pleasure even as it stalked her, until finally her body couldn’t take it any more.

With one final sweep of his tongue she exploded like the fireworks filling the night sky.

CHAPTER TEN

New Year’s Eve last year, Venice

INHERMINDshe was distantly aware that Santo had gathered her into his arms and gently pulled her from the countertop, carrying her over to the large, soft leather sofa that looked out at the Venetian night sky, where stars vied with fireworks above waterways that reflected it all over again on shifting silken waves.

He lay back against the head of the sofa, pulling her onto him, keeping her in his arms.

‘Did we miss New Year?’ she asked when she found her voice again. He shook his head, his lips resting against the top of her head, ruffling her hair a little, and she didn’t mind it a single bit. ‘We’ve never done that.’

‘That?No, I’d most definitely remember if we’d done that before,’ he insisted.

‘No,’ she said, laughing and slapping the hand that was secured around her waist as if he never wanted to let her go. ‘Seen the New Year in together.’

They’d either been with other people or they’d been pulled apart by other people. Even this moment felt stolen. As if, at some point, reality would come crashing down to take it away from her, just like everything else she’d thought she’d had in her life.

Eleanor turned her head to burrow against his chest as if he could ward off her fears. Her hand slipped beneath his shirt, where it had come open at his neck, and relished the hot skin, the texture of the swirls of hair that dusted his chest. And just like that, her curiosity was ignited, desire curling up like a flame from the ashes. She twisted in his lap, unbuttoning his shirt with curious fingers, before his hand came down around them.

‘Cara,’he said, shaking his head, ‘we can stop here. We can take it as slow as you want or need.’

But they couldn’t. She didn’t know what it was, waiting there on the horizon, she didn’t know how it would happen, but she felt that this was it for them. That theydidn’thave all the time in the world. Whether it was because of the past or because of how it always was between her and Santo, something would happen to take this from her, and she wouldn’t waste a single moment she had with him.

‘This is what I want, Santo,’ she said and meant it truly. ‘You. I want you so much that I...’ She stopped herself, but saw the questions in his eyes. ‘I can’t explain it...words don’t explain it...’ She shrugged. So she crawled up to take his lips in hers and poured every inexplicable, complicated, messy, passionate, desperate feeling she had for him into her kiss.

She wound her fingers into his hair and rose onto her knees, straddling his hips, before pressing herself down into his lap. He lurched forward to meet her, feeding off her passion, increasing it, multiplying it exponentially, his arms around her waist, holding her in the way that only he ever had, as if she were both incredibly precious and strong enough to take it—to takehim.

This was what had been missing from her life, this was who she could love with unrestrained abandon, not without fear, and not without caution, butwiththose things, making it so much greater than anything she could have imagined. And it scared her witless.

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