Page 89 of More Than Nothing
“Can I make you a tea or would you like something stronger?” she offered.
“Tea would be perfect, please.” Roman dumped his keys on the counter. He crossed to stand behind her as she filled the kettle from the faucet.
Elenie flushed, her nerve endings tingling. “I hope you don’t mind me coming here. Thea thought it would be OK.”
As she turned the dial on the stovetop, he slid his arms around her, pulling her against his chest. His mouth next to her ear triggered a sensitive shiver over her skin. “You, in my house, at the end of a very long day, wearing my shirt and smelling like heaven—you are a fucking dream come true.”
He drew in a deep breath and her stomach tightened with desire. Elenie’s eyelashes fluttered closed. A soft noise came from her lips and she felt him harden against her. “Roman.”
“This week has already felt like a month and it isn’t even over. I’ve missed you so much.” He rested his chin on the top of her head.
He’s not staying.The reminder hit her with the force of a sucker punch.
Roman will get himself steady and he’ll leave.
You won’t be enough to keep him.
Her mouth trembled. Elenie told herself it was a reaction to the evening’s violence. She sagged in the circle of Roman’s arms and he held her tighter.
They stood, pressed together, as the kettle began to sing.
Chapter 42
Roman
He’d said he wanted a drink but when it came to it, Roman couldn’t let go of her. Everything he’d craved since the gut-churning worry of the handgun and drugs episode was wrapped in the circle of his arms. He forgot the state of his clothes, his desire for a shower, his tiredness. Holding Elenie against him, Roman’s need for her eclipsed it all.
She was everything.
His body, already smoldering, began to burn. He lowered his mouth, pressing his lips to her neck just below her ear. Elenie tilted her head for him, wordlessly asking for more. He slid his hands up her thighs, expecting his fingers to find lace, cotton, elastic. Higher and higher they inched, bunching the denim, but there was nothing. Just her satin smooth skin underneath his shirt. She wasn’t wearing any underwear.
Roman froze.
“Dear God, Elenie,” he rasped. “What are you trying to do to me?”
“Everything was covered in beer—oh!” She broke off as he spun her in his grasp and his mouth fell on her lips, tasting and taking.
Her tongue slid over his. Both demanded, both gave. Her instant heat and her passion sent his own racing higher. There was desperation in the hitch of her breath.
Roman grasped Elenie’s hips and lifted her onto the countertop. His hands tugged at the buttons on the shirt she wore.
His shirt. His fucking shirt. He never wanted her to wear anything else.
Scattering kisses against the bare skin he uncovered, his lips followed the path of his fingers. When the denim hung loose from her shoulders, he drew back to take in her naked body with greedy eyes. Her curves, her stomach, the triangle of dark hair between her legs. He needed to touch and taste them all. Run his fingers over every inch of her and read her like Braille. He bent his head to her breasts. Drawing one nipple into his mouth, he teased its tightness with his tongue.
Elenie let out the most delicious breathy moan he’d ever heard and, right there, he lived only to make her do it again. She arched her back, giving him all the access he needed, and he pulled her closer to his mouth. The denim shirt fell from her shoulders into a pool of blue on the countertop. “Oh, yes... so good. I love that. Don’t stop.”
His hardness was a physical pain of the best kind. He pressed against her center, eyes closing when the steel shaft of his erection lodged blissfully between the cushion of her thighs. Roman’s mouth traveled blindly to her other nipple, flicking and sucking. One hand fisted in her damp hair while the other, fingers spread across her back, drew her even closer toward him. He reveled in her gasps. So sexy, so enticing.
Pulling back just enough to drag his shirt over his head, Roman threw it onto the floor. His gaze never leaving hers, he reached into his back pocket, pulled out his wallet and took a condom from inside the leather folds. Sliding the wallet onto the counter, Romanscooped Elenie up into his arms—her legs around his waist, her arms around his neck—and carried her to the couch.
“Fuck, I want you. I have wanted you all night.” He took her lips again, swallowing her reply, and when he felt the frame bump the back of his calves, he sat down heavily on the couch cushions. Elenie straddled him, knees on either side of his thighs. Roman groaned as she rocked against the hard bulge in his jeans, her warmth surrounding him.
He wondered when he’d be able to take her slowly, play with her body in all the ways he wanted to. The desperation to bury himself inside her grew to an unbearable level but he refused to give in to it.
Taking her mouth, he kissed her again, his hands in her hair tipping Elenie’s head to the perfect angle for him to sweep and plunder until they were both breathless. She dragged his lower lip between her teeth and traced it with her tongue. She owned him with her every touch. He worshipped her with his response.
Roman slid a hand between their bodies, dipping past her stomach and inching between her legs. He found her wet and hot around his fingers. Elenie inhaled against his mouth. She rolled over his denim-caged hardness, her chin lifting, eyes closing. He stroked her again and again. Dipping deeper, thumb skating gently across her most sensitive peak. Her thighs clenched and trembled.Histhighs clenched and trembled. He ached to give her more.
