Page 45 of Burn for You

I nod frantically as I close my eyes, blocking out everything but his voice and the feeling of an orgasm rolling through me.

“Eyes on me.”

My eyes fly open, and I buck my hips as I watch Rafael reach up and rest his hands against the doorframe, and the sight of him sends another wave of pleasure surging through my veins. Moans spill from my lips as sparks flicker along my nerve endings, my eyes never leaving his as my release pulses through me. He looks mesmerized, his body tense and his eyes bordering somewhere between deadly dark and admiring.

My eyes flutter closed as my body relaxes, coming down from the high. I let my body melt back against my pillows as I pull deep breaths into my lungs. Giving myself time before I open my eyes as I hesitantly pull the sheet up over myself, giving myself the illusion of privacy, and they connect with Rafael’s. I can’t read the look in them.

“I thought you didn’t want to hear my moans,” I say. Because that’s the most important part here.

“I think I said that I didn’t want to hear you moaning another man’s name.” He readjusts his pants as I pull the vibrator out of me under the sheets and put it aside. His eyes lock on it where I’ve placed it on the bed. I don’t look, not wanting to see what he does. What I know it looks like.

“Feel better now?” he asks. I nod, not having the words to answer him.

“Good,” he nods before the corner of his mouth tips in a smirk. “Sleep well then.” He slinks out the door, shutting it behind him.

What the fuck just happened?

chapter eighteen

MAY

“Two gin and tonics?”I place the glasses down on the table in front of me and clear the empty ones from where the two women at this table left them aside for me.

This is my third week finally back at Marina’s. It feels like I’ve been away for months, not just a couple of weeks. I finally feel useful again. I don’t think I could ever stand being a housewife. I’d go crazy.

The bell above the door jingles, and my eyes catch on Leo as he walks in.

“Ciao, bella!” He says across the room to me. I give him a little wave as I weave my way back to the bar.

“Long time no see,” I say.

“Has Rafael had you locked up like Rapunzel?”

“He wishes.”

“I take it that staying at his place isn’t going so well then?”

“To put it mildly.” In all fairness, I’ve stayed in worse places, but I’ve always had better roommates.

Better roommates being Isla.

I’m an only child, so the only other person I’ve lived with is her, and she was much friendlier than the local grump I’m nowstuck with. I refrain from mentioning that when he’s not being a grump, he’s watching me get myself off without invitation.

I’ve thought a lot about that night. It’s been over a week since then, but the images won’t stop playing over and over in my mind, like my subconscious is still trying to decipher if it was all just a figment of my imagination.

I wish it was. I imagine Rafael wishes it was too, as he hasn’t said more than two words to me since it happened. Back to avoiding me like he was when I first moved in a month ago.

“You probably remind him of Marisol.”

“His sister, right?”

He nods. “She was like wildfire, like you.”

“And that’s a bad thing?”

“No, she was perfect,” he says wistfully. “But she left after their nonna died, and she hasn’t been back since. It’s something that feels like a punch in the gut for Raf, her leaving when he needed her the most.”

I’ve only heard her name in passing conversation. I’ve certainly never heard Rafael talk about her, but just the way Leo is speaking about it makes me think they’re not on the best of terms.

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