Page 22 of Not In Love

“That’s the point, Preciosa.” When he leaned up to kiss her mouth, she turned her head away. She regretted the juvenile impulse almost immediately. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t kissed once already. But with how desperately she wanted to lose herself in him, it was better this way.

His sigh brushed her collarbone before he kissed his way back down, lips trailing heat along her ribs, her belly. Then, voice rough and low, he murmured against her skin. “You know, it’s not just you who’s floundering a little at all this.”

“Please,” she said, heavy on sarcasm. “Have you seen yourself?”

“Have you?” he retorted. “You know very well that looks or confidence have nothing to do with all this.”

Suddenly, all the preconceptions she’d held on to about him for self-preservation fell away. She sank trembling fingers into his hair and pulled at the thick strands, fighting the tenderness that threatened to overwhelm her. “What did you mean then?”

He sighed and pushed his head up, asking for a deeper touch. Heart thundering, she relented and tugged harder. His mouth trailed warm kisses over her pelvis before he said, “Been a long while for me.”

She swallowed, her pulse hammering. “Long while since what?”

“Since it’s been more than my hand.”

“How long a while?” she asked, quieter now. Even as a different kind of hunger, yearning if she dared to name it, roared under her skin.

He kissed the hollow of her hip, his breath hot. “Four, almost five years.”

The words landed slowly, making her mind whir, taking her out of the present.

It was around the time his ankle had been shattered. Only months before that, Kat had brought him back permanently into their lives, claiming Tia needed him as more than just a guest in her life. Until then, with his busy schedule, he had only visited with Tia here and there.

Had losing soccer thrown him off? Or had he abstained because he’d wanted to get back with Kat? The thought of him with her sister like this, sent ants crawling over her skin, inside her head. But it wasn’t shame as much as it was pure jealousy.

A hot rush of possessiveness had her raking her nails down the nape of his neck.

“Fuck, are you getting hot at the idea of getting my full load?” Diego teased, eyes dark and wicked. “You like knowing that I haven’t fucked anyone in a long while, don’t you?” His long fingers dug into her hips, leaving dimply divots. Then he dragged his mouth lower, lingering right over her pussy. Kash squirmed at his warm breath coasting over her folds. “You like it that it’s this pussy, these tits, these long legs that I’ve been panting over? You like it that you’ve got me twisted inside out all these months, don’t you?”

Every word landed like a soothing rain drop on parched earth.

Kash clutched his shoulders and dragged herself up. She clasped his jaw, her heart a thundering drumbeat in her chest. “And you know that only you could take me apart, Diego,” she whispered, something cracking open in her chest. She placed a soft kiss at the corner of his mouth. “Please, give me more. Fuck me into oblivion. Use me thoroughly.”

Brown eyes held hers and for once, she didn’t flinch or pull away.

It felt like a rite of fire she had to go through tonight.

First her body, her mind, and now her heart. Although she wished she could keep the latter enclosed in a steel cage.

Kat wasn’t here. Whether Diego had wanted to get back with her was irrelevant. As was Simon.

The past was gone, done. Only the smoky fingers of grief remained and always would. But she couldn’t breathe anymore under its weight, couldn’t let it drag her down. And not just for the little girl she loved as her own.

This wonderful man had brought her back to life, and she was more than thankful for him. For this new awareness. Leaning in, she rubbed her cheek against his. “Take whatever you need, Diego. I’m all yours.”

CHAPTER7

Kash rolled him onto his back and straddled his hips, palms skimming over heated skin and solid muscle.

Slowly, as those arresting brown eyes watched, she pushed her hands through her hair, the curls catching in her fingers, and stretched. Her breasts bounced with the movement, her plump nipples peaking.

All she wanted to do was to lean down and run her hands, tongue and lips all over him. To kiss and lick every inch of the hard muscle and velvet-soft heated skin. To bite and nip and leave a trail of marks that whispered her name all over him.

But there had to be some self-preservation. Already, there were too many wondrous, laughing moments that she would never let go from this night. She needed more of him, but it had to be limited to pleasure.

Still, she couldn’t help dragging her bare breasts down his chest and rub her pussy over the corded muscles of his stomach, before she undid his jeans.

Diego’s breath came rough, his hands swatting hers away as he lifted his hips and kicked off his jeans. Kash glided down, opening herself wide over his engorged cock. Their mingled groans ripped the air around them as she trapped it between their bodies and glided herself up and down its length.

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