Page 69 of Soulmate of the Mafia King
My pulse hammered in my core. I preferred my sunscreen, but I couldn’t deny him when he looked like that, when we were spending the first day of our forever together, when he was already half-hard just seeing me on our private beach. I dropped my sunscreen beside my swimsuit and walked into the ocean without another word.
He followed me. The water licked at my feet, my ankles, my shins. It was warm and welcoming, just like Killian’s arm around my bare hips.
“I could get used to this,” he said as we stopped in waist-high water.
I turned to him, and he looked like some ancient artist’s Poseidon, all stormy eyes and salt-slicked hair. “Me too.”
He kissed me, and I molded myself to him. The water coaxed me to float, so wrapping my legs around his waist came naturally. As naturally as his hands on my breasts, hungry and possessive. I ground my core against him and swallowed down a groan.
Killian kissed the column of my throat. “None of that. You never have to be quiet here.”
I moaned his name. We never had to be quiet, never had to be scared. The freedom suddenly overwhelmed me. It was almost intoxicating. I reached between us and stroked him to his full length. He groaned at my touch. When he was ready, I lined him up with my entrance and slid him inside in one sinuous motion. I barely recognized the sound that slipped from my lips with the sheer pleasure of fullness. Killian began thrusting, his mouth on my salty skin leaving a line of warmth in his wake. Nothing to hide anymore. The bikini had been a silly instinct, a game we’d left behind. There was nothing but endless love here.
Killian fucked me with the rhythm of the waves, slow and easy. We had time for the endless hunger. One orgasm rolled through me, and on the crest of the next, he clutched me closer.
“I love you,” he said as he came with me.
I grinned, and everything felt right in the world.
That night, I walked into the bedroom still naked, having finally remembered to grab my bikini off the beach. Killian pulled items out of our suitcases and set up the bathroom. I wrapped my armsaround his waist and kissed the bare expanse of his back. He pulled my birth control pills from the toiletry bag and met my gaze in the mirror.
The choice was easy. I plucked them from his fingers and dropped them in the trash, not even sure why I’d brought them. He turned to me with a smile and kissed me again as he led me toward the bed.
CHAPTER 52
TOMMASO
Despite how much I wanted Paige to keep that little black dress on, we had a few hours before the Tower officially emptied out for our use. I talked her into putting on something a little more walkable and keeping the lingerie on. As if to punish me for my restraint, she picked a pair of tiny, wide-legged shorts that showed the tops of the garters attached to her stockings every time she moved and a fitted blouse. I changed and somehow convinced myself to leave the hotel room instead of stripping everything off her and spending the hours in bed.
She took my hand as we stepped into the lobby. “I should’ve known. When you plan a surprise, it’s never just one thing. Where are we off to first?”
“So nosy.” I smiled.
“You’re right, I’ll stop asking.” She slid the room key out of her pocket and fiddled with it for a second, then dropped it. With a small smile, she bent at the waist to pick it up, exposing those garter straps again.
I grabbed her waist and hurried her the final few steps through the lobby before proximity could make me change my mind. “You’re no fun.”
“I’ll have you know I’m very fun.” She glanced at me with a flicker of worry in her eyes. “When I know what’s going on.”
I took a deep breath. Obviously, she could tell I was on edge. But why was I even nervous anymore? I knew what I wanted. I had her here. Everything was falling into place. Maybe the surprise was just for me, like I couldn’t trust her to stick around unless I unveiled the elements of the day one by one. But I could. I knew that.
“We’re going to the Museum of the History of Medicine.” I called a car as Paige squealed.
The ride disappeared in a blink, and soon, we were standing in front of the relatively small museum, paying our entry fee. Paige bounced on the balls of her feet.
“I didn’t even know this was here,” she said. “But I looked up everything I could in the car ride over. Do you know their collection includes some of the rarest early medieval surgery tools ever found?”
I chuckled. “Yes, I did. I made sure I did my homework before picking this one.”
Her smile flickered as she tried to be frustrated with me for making fun of her a little, but the siren song of weird medical history was too strong. As soon as the people at the front allowed us in, Paige took off like a shot. But, after a moment’s hesitation, she circled back for me.
“Sorry.” She grabbed my hand. “My parents were happy to take me to the one in Philly, but it grossed my mom out, and my dad stayed with her, so I basically got my own run of the place while they did something else.”
I kissed the back of her hand. “I dare you to gross me out.”
The smile that spread across her lips then should’ve scared me, but nothing could touch me today except the little velvet box back in the room.
We bobbed and wove through the collection in chronological order, and Paige really did do her best. There were some fucking nasty chapters of medical history I’d never heard about, even in the many flights she’d talked me through takeoff on. But I wasn’t here for me. I was here to watch her eyes light up as she explained the logic behind some torture device that led to modern surgical techniques, and moments like that overflowed in the weird little museum.
