Page 72 of Royally Roma
She shouldn’t be doing this. She shouldn’t be sliding her hands into his hair, clutching him to her breasts. She shouldn’t be imagining what it would feel like to have him moving inside her. She most definitely shouldn’t be hearing the things he was saying. Things about his family that she had no business knowing, especially now that she was aware of his true identity.
She remembered when his mother had died, her elegant image on the covers of all the magazines. She remembered the sea of flowers.
She needed to tell him that she knew who he was. Now, before things went too far.
“Wait,” she breathed, even as his hands slid over her hips to cradle her bottom and press her more firmly against him.
She could feel everything, see everything. And this first glorious glimpse of him, naked and hard—hard forher—was too much to bear. Desire flooded her every nerve. She was drunk with it. Drunk with wanting. So much so that her head spun.
A shiver coursed through her, and she pleaded again, “Wait.”
But it was the weakest of protests. She knew it, and so did he. She was too far gone, too inflamed with need to even remember why they needed to wait.
“No more waiting,” he growled, lifting her nightie over her head and tossing it aside. It landed on the floor in a seductive puddle of discarded silk.
Niccolo’s hands moved up her thighs, leaving a delicious trail of tingles in their wake. She began to tremble and shake, mesmerized by the sight of his fingertips moving closer and closer to her core.
She strained to slow the quickening of her breath. “But I need...”I need to tell you something. I know. I know who you are.
“This is what you need, isn’t it, darling?” he whispered against her lips, kissing her as he pushed his fingers inside her, thrusting gently in and out.
And yes, oh yes, that was exactly what she needed. She needed the honeyed touch of his devotion.
Her precarious balance began to slip, and she felt herself start to fall over the edge. What was it about him that made her act this way? When he kissed her, when he touched her, she became someone else. The carefully crafted walls she’d built around her heart crumbled to the ground. All her defenses slipped away. And what was revealed was a woman that she hadn’t even known existed. If she’d been watching, she wouldn’t have even recognized herself. Who was this stranger he’d liberated with the audacity of his desire? The real her.
Decadent.
Wild.
Vulnerable.
Even her body seemed different. All he had to do was look at her, and her nerves lit with fire, and her body moved in ways it had never moved before. The way he looked at her, she’d never felt more beautiful. Surely even the Roman goddesses had never been so desired.
“Oh, Julia,” he said in a voice so wistful it made her heart hurt. “Do you have any idea how much pleasure it gives me to see you like this? How absolutely ravishing you look right now?”
She smiled down at him, glowing from the inside out. “I love pleasing you.”
She wanted to see him come apart as she’d done the night before. She wanted to hear him cry her name and empty himself inside her. She’d never wanted anything, or anyone, as much.
Her breath came faster and faster. She was losing what little control she still had over herself. Without even making a conscious decision to do so, she began stroking him. A low sound of masculine pleasure escaped him, and she thought it was maybe the loveliest sound she’d ever heard. Like music. A sensual symphony.
Wait... wait... wait.
This wasn’t right. She couldn’t go through with this without telling him what she knew. But everything was happening so fast. She wasn’t capable of stopping. They’d gone too far. What they’d begun the night before refused to be ignored. They were on the verge of finishing what they’d started. And even though she knew it was wrong, Julia couldn’t seem to stop what was happening.
She was lost in a whirl of sensation and blinding light. Every touch bathed her in white-hot heat, pleasure so intense it was almost unbearable.
She was desperate for him. The promise of release had gathered so tightly in her core that she didn’t think she could wait another second.
And then he took hold of her wrist and used her own grip to guide him to her entrance. He pushed inside her ever so slowly, whispering soothing words, giving her time to adjust. But no amount of time could have prepared her for the exquisite perfection of being filled. At last. She felt as if she’d been waiting for this—for him—her entire life.
His eyes met hers, and neither one of them moved. She just wanted to hold him inside, to freeze time so it would always be like this.
A world of silent communication passed between them, all the words they could never say. In the eloquence of their stillness, Julia felt like she could see inside his soul. And what she saw was beautiful beyond her wildest imaginings.
She began to rock against him, like the brazen siren she’d become. An enchantress created by their mutual desire. His hands slid to the small of her back, holding her in place, guiding her movements and controlling the pace, forcing her to slow down, to make it last. The more she moved, the more luminous she felt, until her core became filled with stardust. There was a galaxy inside her. Another world, where he was king and she was his queen.
“Let go,” he whispered. “It’s time. Come with me.”
