Page 21 of The Don

“Don’t you want that? Haven’t you been dreaming about it? About cooking me dinner and then crawling into bed with me? All those things we didn’t have time to do?”

“And more,” I say, my voice so hoarse it scratches my throat.

She kisses me on the tops of my cheeks, cradling my head in her hands, pulling my face close before moving so we can look one another in the eyes. “Then come to bed with me. Please.”

“I don’t know how you do it.”

Her eyebrows bunch together adorably. “Do what?”

“Be vulnerable.” That was the thing that drew me to her all those months ago, her nervous smiles and bright eyes and all that damn innocence. I wanted her then with every fiber of my body, and somehow, tonight, I want her even more.

“I wish I was like this all the time. I wish it was easier to tell people what I need, but I—” She shakes her head, her eyes shifting away from mine. “It’s not. I learned really quickly with Steve not to…bother.”

I hate the pained frown on her face. I’ve never met this man, but I could kill him. I probably will if I get the chance.

“He didn’t make it easy for me to be vulnerable. And since he was the only person I ever dated…” She cuts herself off again with a shrug. I doubt she even realizes that’s what she’s doing, but I do. Even just mentioning his name made her tense in my arms when she had just been so soft, practically melting against me.

“Shae,” I whisper, squeezing her waist again.

Her eyes shift back to mine. Her smile is small and nervous again. My heart aches. “It’s different with you,” she says softly. “I don’t know why, but it is.”

She looks so fragile in that moment, her voice so brittle, her eyes watery with doubt.

I don’t want her to ever doubt me. “I am also different with you,” I admit. “Let’s go to bed.”

She takes my mouth with a hunger that matches my own. I lift her into my arms and carry her from the kitchen. I don’t break our kiss. I know this floorplan by heart — it’s easier to escape an attempt on your life if you don’t have to turn on the lights to find a door. I never imagined using that knowledge in this way, however. Everything is better than I could have hoped with Shae.

By the time we make it into the bedroom, I can hardly keep ahold of her. She’s wrapped her legs around my waist and is squirming in my arms, scraping her teeth over my lips and tongue and grinding the cleft between her legs against my stomach.

“I want you inside me,” she moans into my mouth before sucking my tongue into hers, making it impossible for me to tell her that I feel like I’ve been waiting all my life for her, that I’m just as desperate as she is. That I don’t understand it either, but I never want to let her go.

So, I tell her all of that and more with my hands. I touch her everywhere I can; her back, her hips, her ass, my fingers between her legs.

When she grinds into me with a breathy moan, I suck that exhalation from her tongue. She tastes like tomatoes and olive oil and my future.

“Please,” she begs softly, shredding me to the core just as she has been since the moment we met.

As gently as either of us will allow, I pull her from me. She whines when her feet hit the floor. Her fingers twist together behind my neck, and she licks into my mouth. I kiss her back even as I move my hands to hers and gently pull them apart, holding them to my chest.

“No,” she breathes when I break our kiss.

“How can I give you what you want if you never stop kissing me, bella?”

“You’ll figure it out,” she replies, smiling against my mouth.

I laugh dryly. Unfortunately, she is not wrong. “For you, I would,” I say, grabbing her face and tilting her head back so I can kiss her deeper.

She’s bouncing from foot to foot excitedly when I pull away.

“Were you this impatient when we met?”

“Yes. You couldn’t tell?”

“I thought you were nervous. I wanted to set you at ease, but I also wanted to devour you whole.”

She shivers. “I remember. Get naked,” she demands in a voice as unstable as the rest of her body. “I-I’m sick of waiting.”

I could laugh. “Waiting for what, bella?” I ask incredulously.

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