“Don’t tempt a sinner, sweetheart.”
“Funny, I always thought you were more saint.” She was like a goddess before me, all curves and smooth skin. My eyes had trouble focusing on one general thing. Funny, how before it had been my goal to focus on just legs, or just her hips, or just her eyes, hell even her ears.
And now, it was laughable. Completely ridiculous how blind I’d been, how I hadn’t seen it sooner.
How gorgeous she was.
Because what made Val… Val… what made her beautiful — had everything to do with all of those features. By themselves, they were perfection, they painted a picture of such deep-rooted beauty that, had I looked at her, truly seen her the first day I met her.
I would have been screwed.
And most likely jumped off a building to keep myself from feeling — from taking — from following through.
“I don’t know how to do this,” she confessed in a soft voice. “Your move, Sergio.”
I wasn’t worthy of that type of trust.
“Are you sure?”
“No.”
Her answer surprised me. “You’re not sure, and yet you’re standing in front of me topless?”
“I don’t think a virgin is ever sure. That would be lying. You want truth in this marriage? You promised me your body.” She took a step forward. “Now give it to me.”
Her hands shook, it was barely noticeable. My girl was being brave. Hell, she could cry over gunfights all day long — but bravery in the bedroom? It was all I needed.
And something I never even knew I was desperate for.
Permission to be with her.
Minus the guilt of withholding the best parts of me.
Two steps and my hands connected with her lush body, pulling her against me, her breasts pressed against my chest, teasing, taunting.
I moved my hands to cup them both. Damn it, she might be young, but she was all woman.
The power she had over me was humbling and terrifying all at once. Our mouths met in a frenzied kiss. My hands dug into her hair while she gripped my ass.
Where the hell did virgins already know how to please a man before he’s even inside her?
Her nails dug into my slacks.
With a curse I pulled back and jerked my shirt over my head tossing it to the side. The plane hit a patch of turbulence sending her into my arms. I fell onto my back pulling her with me, just as we hit another bump.
The seatbelt light flicked on in the bedroom.
“What do you say?” I grinned. “Live dangerously?”
“Oh, I’ve got that covered.” Val smirked. “I married the mob.”
“Yeah, you did.” I burst out laughing.
In bed.
With my new wife.
Crazy.
Impossible.
But there it was.
She licked her lips then trailed a finger down the middle of my chest. “I want to…” She looked lower. “Please you.”
“I want that…” I grabbed both of her hands. “Later. But right now, let’s make this more about us than about me.”
Her eyes widened.
Probably like mine did.
My admission scared me.
Because I was no longer thinking in the singular — but as a team.
With a new partner.
One I’d never asked for.
One who’d been forced upon me.
Again.
Her eyes searched mine as if to say, “What now?”
I tugged her head down, our mouths meeting somewhere in the middle as I tasted her over and over again, then hooked my foot around her legs, flipping her onto her back. The plane bounced, causing her to jerk up toward me.
I was going to use the turbulence in my favor.
With a sly smirk, I kicked off my pants then crawled slowly up her body, leaving no patch of skin without attention from either my lips or my tongue.
Her eyes closed, and opened, closed again. “I feel…”
“Everything,” I said for her. “I want you to feel everything.”
My heart is true as steel. –A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Valentina
STEAL HIS BODY — his heart will follow.
The note on my wedding day, the one that came with the dress, had very specific instructions. Steal his body, his heart will follow. Along with the dress and my note was the one for Sergio.
I didn’t know what it meant. What any of it meant.
And I’d been too traumatized to think about it until the kiss.
Would I have been as brave without the encouragement? Probably not. But something about the way he was mumbling about turning the lights on and off was cute, like part of his alpha attitude had somehow taken a detour and revealed a nervousness and vulnerability I’d never seen in him before.
It set me at ease.
And had me wondering — did he want me as much as I wanted him?
Worst case scenario, he rejects me and slams the door. Been there, done that, only this time it would suck worse because I’d be half-naked.
The words from the note still haunted me.
Steal his body — his heart will follow.
So I did the only thing I knew how — after all, it worked with killers right? Flashing boob? That’s how we’d survived earlier.
I figured if it worked on those killers.
It would work on my husband.
And it did.