His words were almost the equivalent of his mouth between my legs.

I wanted him. I wanted him so much I was struck mute with the fear that if I spoke I’d deny myself.

Marco took my silence as acquiescence.

His thumb stroked my cheek in tenderness, his eyes dropping to my mouth.

Breathless, I waited.

His head dipped, crossing the minute distance between our lips, and my eyes fluttered closed at the brush of his mouth over mine. My lips tingled, and I sighed, excited for more.

His kiss continued in gentle seduction, a touch of lips against lips, the pressure increasing in increments as my skin grew hotter and hotter.

I’d never been kissed like this. No guy had ever taken such sweet time with me, as if needing to sample every last inch of my mouth. Every time I thought he was going to deepen the kiss, he pulled back, dusting butterfly touches against the corner of my mouth or nibbling on my lower lip.

The tingling was delicious. “Only yours,” I pulled back a little to say softly, sounding almost desolate and wondering if in amongst the lust there wasn’t some truth to that tone.

Marco watched me as if he were trying to read me. Tenderly, he tucked my hair behind my ear. “Only mine what, Hannah?”

“Your kiss. My lips tingle when you kiss me.” I smiled sadly. “Real, honest-to-God tingling. No one else has ever made me feel that.”

A dark triumph entered Marco’s eyes. “Good,” he answered gruffly, before lowering his mouth to recapture mine.

My breathing grew steadily more and more out of control as he returned to torturing me with slow, seductive kisses. I longed for him to touch his tongue to mine so I could taste him. I remembered the taste of him. There was nothing quite like it. I needed that back.

Pushing up off the floor, I reached for him, my hands gripping his shoulders when the sudden movement pressed our mouths harder against each other. I moaned in need and Marco crushed me to him, his other hand in my hair holding me to him as I opened my mouth against his. My lower belly dipped as his tongue moved against mine, as his heat and taste filled me.

Yes.

This is what I’ve been missing.

CHAPTER 14

“Put your legs around my waist,” Marco ordered, his voice thick with need.

I immediately did as he asked, my arms encircling his shoulders as he held me fast and stood with ease. I gasped at the feel of his hard-on, our eyes locking and creating imaginary sparks of molten embers at the collision. Marco carried me, our breaths mingling as we panted in anticipation.

I was barely aware of moving through the flat until he was lowering me onto the soft duvet on my bed, his body sliding over mine.

He held himself up, his hands braced at either side of my head. “No turning back,” he murmured.

Pushing his shirt up, feeling his hot, smooth muscle under my hands, I shivered with excitement. “No turning back,” I agreed, completely taken over by the sexual promise in his eyes.

Marco tugged his shirt up over his head and tossed it somewhere behind me.

“Oh, my God,” I whispered before I could stop myself, immediately reaching for him, needing to touch all that glorious skin. He was powerfully built, sculpted. “You’re beautiful.”

The words were almost muffled because Marco was peeling my own sweater off me, throwing it in the same direction as his own. “No, but you are,” he answered quietly, his hands skimming up my waist to cup my breasts over my bra.

I arched my back, pushing them into his hands.

Marco accepted my offer.

He kissed me, deep and hard, as he deftly unclipped my bra at the back.

My hands traced every inch of his chest while we kissed, reluctantly letting go when he gently pushed me back on the bed and slipped my bra straps down my arms.

The bra disappeared.

Marco’s gaze drifted from my face to my naked breasts and the heat in them made my breasts swell, my nipples tightening. I felt that roller-coaster dip in my lower belly and knew that if he slipped his hand between my legs he’d find me wet and ready for him.

He touched me, cupping my breasts again, squeezing them gently, thumbs rubbing over my nipples as he learned the shape of me. His breathing had grown heavier and I could feel the hard press of him through his jeans.

I arched again, silently asking for his mouth.

He didn’t deny me.

I sighed at the gentle brush of his lips against first my right breast and then my left. He tormented me, kissing near my nipples. And just when I thought I’d have to beg out loud, he licked my right nipple before closing his mouth around it and sucking it.

A larger ripple moved through my belly and I cried out softly, throwing my head back against my pillow.

Marco lavished attention on both nipples until they were swollen, until I was desperate for him.

He pressed a sweet kiss to the outer curve of my breast and sat up.

I swear to God I almost came just at the sight of him straddling me with that dark hunger in his eyes – a hunger that would make any woman in the world feel combustible.

Our eyes locked, with thick, heady silence between us. Marco hooked his hands into the waistband of my leggings and underwear and he tugged. I lifted my lower body, giving him better access, and he raised my legs to peel the garments off. Once he’d divested me of them, slowly, gently, caressing my calves and outer thighs, he lowered my legs, spreading them as he did so. I’d never felt so exposed, or, to my surprise, so turned on as I felt with him looking at me.

With jerky movements, his jaw taut with dwindling control, Marco unsnapped his belt buckle and drew down the zip on his jeans. Every inch of me was on fire, my inner thighs were trembling, and I couldn’t control my breathing as my inexperienced body screamed for his much more experienced one.

He pushed his jeans and boxer briefs down and I was faced with his huge, raging, throbbing hard-on. He was perfectly in proportion to his size but… I found myself tensing, my back stiffening against the bed.

Marco removed his jeans, pushing them to the side before moving into me, nudging my legs even farther apart as he lowered his torso over mine. He kissed me gently, trailing his fingertips up my outer thigh in a way that caused renewed shivers and my body to relax a little.

“I’m checked out,” he whispered against my mouth. “I’m guessing you are too. You on the pill or do we need a condom?”

I hesitated, thrown by the question.

“Hannah?” He nibbled my earlobe as his hand continued up over my belly until it found its destination at my breast. He squeezed it, his thumb rubbing my swollen nipple. I found my eyes fluttering closed.

“I’m on the pill,” I whispered back in a daze, coming out of it only when his hand disappeared from my breast and found a new, even better location between my legs.

My hips jerked at the first touch of his thumb on my clit, and he made deep, soothing noises from the back of his throat. And then he was kissing me, wet and drugging kisses as he played with my clit. I touched him too, caressing his shoulders, his back, his abs, strumming at his nipples in a way that made him growl into my mouth and press hard on my clit.

When he slipped two fingers inside me, I broke the kiss, moaning as my neck arched.

“Baby…” He peppered kisses along my jaw as he thrust his fingers in and out. “God, babe, you’re fucking soaked.”

I made whimpering sounds, my eyes fluttering open to meet his.

“You want me?” he murmured darkly against my mouth.

I nodded, jerking my hips against his fingers, needing more.

“Say it, Hannah.”

Mindless, I dug my fingers into his back, urging him closer, the sound of my panting filling the room. “I need you,” I admitted breathlessly. “I want you inside me.”

Just like that, I watched his control snap.

His fingers slipped out of me, he gripped my thigh as he braced his other hand at the side of my head. Looking deeply into my eyes, he moved. I felt him hot and hard against my center and then suddenly there was pressure as he pushed inside.

I stiffened, the feeling not quite as uncomfortable as I remembered it from the first time.

Marco wasn’t even all the way inside me when something new entered his eyes, an incredulous question. His jaw clenched with control, he slowed to a stop. “Babe…?”

I shook my head, not understanding what was wrong.

“Babe…” He dipped his head closer, his hand cupping my face. “You’re tight as a virgin,” he whispered hoarsely.

Oh, no. No, no, no!

I swallowed hard, the arousal slowly dissipating as reality intruded. “It’s just been a while.” I pushed absentmindedly at his shoulders.

Marco’s answer to that was to thrust deeper into me. I gripped his shoulders instead, my hips jerking up for more.

“How long is a while?” he asked, the muscle in his jaw flexing with tension.

I sought for a plausible lie. “First year, uni,” I panted. “I’ve been busy since then.”

Marco stilled. “You’ve not had a man in four years?”

Five, actually.

I shook my head again.

He suddenly shuttered his expression so I couldn’t read his reaction. And then I didn’t care about reading him because he pushed all the way inside me before pulling back and then slowly thrusting in again.

The discomfort melted away as my inner muscles clamped around his cock. “Oh, God, Marco!” I tried to pull him in deeper.

“Yeah?” He thrust a little harder and I cried out his name again.