Page 53 of The Forbidden Husband

“I never thought I would love someone, either.” His head rested on my chest as his shoulders rose and fell softly. It was soothing in a way. “But how could I not fall for you?”

He jerked his face upward, and my heart pounded so hard in my ears I wasn’t sure I had heard his reply. But I didn’t need to hear anything as he grabbed my face and pulled my mouth back to his.

This time, the kiss scorched through me, straight to my core. Straight past every wall I had tried to build against him. I couldn’t put my finger on a reason. Maybe it was how fiercely he loved his family or the way he had been protective over me even when I had been no more than a stranger.

Maybe I loved him because he helped the people who worked for him rather than using and lying to them.

But I didn’t think any of those things were synonymous with the way I felt for him. It was all of them and then some. The way he smelled and the way he presented himself as completely put together, no matter the situation.

His hands traced every line of my body as he pulled me from the counter and lifted me. I straddled his hips and held on as he marched us toward his room.

“From now on, you won’t be sleeping in your own room,” he told me. “You’re moving into mine.”

“What happened to wanting space?” I teased.

He deadpanned. “I will never want space from you.”

I wrapped my hands around the back of his neck and ran my fingers through the longer strands of hair on top of his head. The gel that held them in place parted beneath my touch. I wanted to tease him for the sentiment in his words, but I couldn’t bring myself to do anything more than trail my lips across the stubble of his cheeks and neck, the meticulous hairline, and the smooth lines on his forehead.

As he sat me on the bed, I realized that this was a future I wanted and that my choices would allow me to have it. I didn’t have to suffer beneath my father forever. I had been so jealous of Noemi and her ability to get away with Anton. I had never considered that I had the same opportunity.

I had Enzo, and he wanted me.

It wasn’t just an arrangement anymore.

“You’re sure?” he asked as he grabbed my foot and removed a sandal from my foot. The slow way he moved his dexterous fingers was a gesture that should have been mundane, but instead, it aroused me more than I wanted to admit.

“I have never been so sure of anything in my life.”

He tossed my other shoe aside before he tugged my pants down my legs quickly enough that it sent me sprawling on my back. The bed cradled me in its clutches as he leaned down and lay one gentle kiss on my lips, then down the valley of my breasts and in a line down my stomach.

And when he reached my lacy panties, he ripped them with his teeth and pulled them downward.

God, my chest rose and fell uncontrollably as he stood over me and looked over my entire body as if it were a canvas that he would do with as he pleased.

“So fucking sexy,” he growled as he slid over me.

He gripped both of my hands and wove our fingers together with a firm grip before planting them to the bed above my head. His mouth fell to the side of my throat where he licked and peppered nipping kisses.

“Lemons and lavender,” he said with a sharp inhale. “It’s intoxicating. It’s not a soap. It’s just you. Fuck, you don’t know what you do to me.”

“I’m the only one who isn’t wearing pants right now,” I whispered against his skin. “But if you take off yours, you will figure out exactly what you do to me.”

My need and his frantic excitement seemed to coincide and create an impenetrable aura around us as he slid off his clothes and settled above me. His warm body seemed to settlethe last missing piece inside of me. It acted as the super glue that repaired a damaged fragment that my family had long ago shattered.

There were so many more pieces left to fix, but the one that came together was engrained in an ability to love. To trust. To believe in Enzo in a way I never had before.

My mind reeled as he filled me. I opened my mouth, but I couldn’t hear what came from my lips. Maybe his name or a shout for more. All I knew was the pressure that built within me so fast that I shattered beneath him.

When I focused on his face, I found him staring intently down at me.

“You’re all I ever dreamed I’d have,” I said as my body took every ounce of him and loosened. Heat filled every part of me, and my eyes rolled back into my head.

“Look at me when you cum,” he demanded.

I didn’t listen, unable to fully ground myself in the moment. I was so close. So damn close, and—

Both of my hands slid into one of his, and no amount of tugging could remove them from above my head as he gripped my hair and tugged it back enough that I gasped.

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