Page 65 of Devil's Vows
“Looks like you’ve been thinking about it, haven’t you?” he murmurs as his fingers run along my temple, gathering stray strands and gently hooking them behind my ear.
Like every touch, this one leaves a rush of desire in its wake.
“Thinking about what?” I breathe as he keeps on caressing a delicate line down my temple, lower, to the sensitive skin on my neck. My nipples harden under his featherlight touch, and I push my breasts out, wanting his hand to slip down all the way and touch me there.
Feeling like this is totally normal…if you haven’t been caught in the trap of Catholic religion where anything physical outside of marriage is sin. And even then, some acts are blasphemy.
“Your first kiss, and how you’d like it to be.” He dips his head so the tip of his nose follows in his finger’s path, retracingevery sensual line he’s already drawn on my skin, lower, and even lower.
I want more. I need more. And can’t stop myself from dropping my head to the side as I open up for him, for his warm breath to flow over me, to spread a wildfire of goosebumps over my chest, pebbling my nipples even more, having me press myself to him.
He groans as our bodies connect, the curve of my belly settling against the hard ridge in his pants, and I stop breathing. This?—
My eyes are long closed, but now, I hold my breath as his lips close over the place where my shoulder slopes up into my neck.
“Breathe,moya ptichka,” he whispers as he kisses me again and again. “Just breathe.”
I drag in slow, shaky breaths, my mind focused only on his mouth. His kisses. Soft, warm, and utterly arousing as he retraces the route his fingertip took earlier, exploring, tasting, licking and nipping, and I lean even deeper into him as he grounds me with his hands on my hips, my hand snaking up his chest and around his neck to anchor him to me.
I don’t want him to stop, and he is taking his delicious time, making my knees weak as he kisses his way up to a spot right below my ear, culminating his voyage up my neck in such a hot spark of deep desire that I brush my body up against his, seeking friction.
And then his fingers dig into my hair, angling my head as he hugs me to him, engulfing me in his arms. His mouth homes in, tender, sweet, full as he presses soft lips against mine, and I’m already opening for him, my body no longer mine to command with stern thoughts, warning me how wrong this is. No, everything is happening as if part of me has split off, taking just what it needs as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.
I moan into his mouth as his tongue sweeps over mine, a wanton sound that startles me as much as it turns me on, and then…and then he closes off the kiss and pulls away.
He cups my head and presses me closer to him in a hug that’s so comforting, his lips pressed to my hair, but between us we have trapped all the evidence that he wants more. If he’d just slip a hand between my legs, he’d find me wet and wanting, but with every reminder of why I dread and beg for this at the same time intact.
I can’t do this again, not when I lose all control like I did just now.
Ivan gently lets me go, in full control of himself and this situation. “Sweet dreams, Gabriella,” he whispers as he steps away from me, before turning me in the direction of his bedroom door. “Sleep in my bed. If I find you sleeping on the sofa, there’ll be repercussions.”
The loss of his strength and warmth as he steps away is almost too much, but his words—his words tempt and warn me at the same time. I’m playing with a man fifteen years older than me, who has all the experience in the world and who clearly can do just as he pleases and have me succumb to him.
And yet, he didn’t. He could have had me, and all the evidence is there that he wants me, as much as I want him, and yet he backed off. I’ve never encountered a man with this level of self-restraint and something else blooms in me for Ivan, trust laced with the sweet perfume of respect.
I’m dumbstruck and can only watch in the dark as he strides to the gate. He opens and closes it, not looking back.
With a sigh I head into his bedroom and ease quietly onto the bed beside the two sleeping girls, need pulsing along every nerve I have. What has he done to me?
He has shown me how it could be, how it should be, and left me hanging, begging for more.
Oh, Chiara…if you could see me now.The rabbit hole to lust is just an optical illusion; it really has the shape and scent, the words and whispers, the lips and kisses of Ivan Petrov, and once you’ve slipped and tumbled, it’s a free fall to heaven.
33
IVAN
Fuck.
Those lips were so sweet, her body so hungry, her trust so complete, that walking out of my own bedroom was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Leaving Gabriella standing, ripe and ready for more, breathlessly anticipating what would happen next, isn’t just control, it’s strategy: I don’t only want her needy for me, I want her willing, eager and needy, dripping wet with desire by the time I make her mine. I’ll make it so fucking good for her, she’ll beg for more. She’s going to want me of her own accord and not only because it’s part of the marriage contract.
I pause, my hand still on the gate where I’ve just locked it, a barrier between me and her. Thank fuck for that, because my cock is pulsing with my need for release. What’s sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander. I won’t get off until it’s with my wife.
Everything she’s disclosed tonight hits me in the gut again. It’s so easy to overpower a woman and force her, but that’s never been a game plan for me or any of the men in my employ. If you want to be culled, fuck with women in this way.
Fact is, Gabriella will always have fears around sex untilsomeone takes time with her, shows her how it should be. She might not have been abused and raped, but I bet whatever she witnessed in that cellar haunts her. Nightmares I can only reverse her out of by showing her the exact opposite of what she’s experienced. I can take my time—I want to take my time—and treasure her innocence. Isn’t it supposedly a gift to a husband? I wouldn’t know. The first time round, there was nothing new for either of us.
I want—no, Ineedthis to work. This marriage. This new alliance withIl Consiglio. Her happiness is key to my long-term plans.
