Through the camera, I watched as he leaned into me, his forehead brushing my hairline. He seemed to be a step away from nuzzling into the nape of my neck or whispering in my ear, an intimate and sweet action that caught me by surprise. I couldn’t help but do the same, my gaze down as I turned into him.

  His breath grazed my lips. The closeness of them, of him, brought my need to a new level. It’d been a tender moment, and I hadn’t experienced anything like it before. It worried me. It’d been too different, and I couldn’t say whether I was afraid or willing to embrace it.

  He inched closer, the soft heat of his lips touching mine. I closed my eyes, disappearing into the sensation. Michele dug his fingers into my skin where he held me. My grip on his thigh increased.

  The phone’s shutter startled me, a loud clicking that caused me to pull back. Clearing my throat, I’d expected Michele to return to reality alongside me, the moment gone with the snap of a picture, but he hadn’t. He continued to look at me, and it didn’t seem as though he’d been bothered in the least by the picture taking.

  Michele pressed his lips together and swallowed, his focus elsewhere on my face until he dragged his gaze up to meet mine. My heart raced once again. Something had changed. Something new was bubbling beneath the surface, infecting the air between us to the point where it could’ve choked me.

  He pulled me back into the little bubble that we’d surrounded ourselves in seconds prior.

  “Basil?”

  A deep shadow encompassed my name, turning his voice into one I didn’t recognize.

  “Hmm?”

  “I would like to kiss you.”

  I flinched. The hand on the small of my back pulled me closer while his free hand rose. I had no idea he’d set my phone aside until his fingertips skated along my jaw, a gentle, sweet touch that caused me to quiver. He leaned into me, his thumb dragging across my bottom lip. It drew his eye.

  In an almost inaudible voice, he asked, “May I?”

  It’d been a rule set in stone since the beginning. I didn’t kiss anyone on the lips, and he knew that. It hadn’t been a point of contention in any regard, never debated. We’d been on the same page, but the dynamic had shifted, and I had to decide if I felt the same as he appeared to.

  “Yes.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Michele inched forward, taking my bottom lip between his. They were soft and his mouth hot, threatening to set me on fire with no effort. It lasted for a breath, but that’d been more than enough to ignite a new form of longing inside me.

  He deepened the kiss.

  I sighed when his tongue touched mine, still sweet from the fruit we’d just eaten.

  He glided his hand to the back of my head, threading his fingers through my hair. Hunger built within me, and I didn’t have the strength or desire to keep it at bay.

  Clinging to his sleeve, I fisted the fabric, hugging his body to mine until air seemed to dwindle.

  We eventually withdrew from one another, though Michele continued to place kisses along my jaw and into the nape of my neck. He let out a long breath that caused me to shiver against him.

  I cradled him close. My lips tingled, electrified as though they were given life. It’d been years since I’d kissed anyone, a heartbreaking realization that struck me harder than I’d expected it to.

  He brought me into his lap, helping me straddle him. Still cradling my face, Michele met my eyes, his lips parted and skin taking on a pink hue. Wrapping a tendril of my hair that’d come loose around his finger, he guided it behind my ear, holding my face when the offending lock had been set aside.

  The tails of my robe were long enough to accommodate, covering our immediate area in a blanket of thin cotton and leaving me bare to his jeans. The coarse fabric was rough against my sex, adding a bite of pleasure to the situation.

  He held my face in one hand, the other wrapped around my naked thigh. The air between us continued to vibrate with unsaid words and feelings unfamiliar, neither of which stopped me from untying my robe.

  The garment slid open, revealing my nakedness to him, but remaining on my shoulders, it shielded me from anyone who might shoot a glance in our direction. We were both sitting in the open, exposed to the outside world in the third-floor doorway. A wayward eye was all it would have taken for us to be discovered, and that thought meant absolutely nothing to me.

  Michele trailed his hands over my exposed body, along the slope of my waist, through the valley between my breasts and over them, kneading the heavy mounds with expertise. He watched his actions intently, as though memorizing every inch of me.

  When his gaze met mine once more, he held the back of my neck and brought me forward. It lacked the intensity of previous times and was instead filled with a silent question. I fell happily under his guidance and claimed his lips when they rose to meet mine.

  I devoured his satisfied moans, taking them into me while our tongues dueled and our grips became more desperate.

  Digging his blunt fingernails into my back, he dragged them down, causing me to break our kiss, moaning while I reveled in the sensation. The action forced my chest forward and he didn’t hesitate to take my nipple into his mouth, sucking the sensitive nub into a peak.

  So many men I’d been with claimed to be ‘boob guys’, but when it came down to it, they’d hardly give the girls their due. Michele wasn’t on that list. He knew how to touch and caress, how to tease and give pleasure, and move between the two so I didn’t grow numb to the sensation. He acted as though he worshiped them, and I benefited.

  Driving my fingers through his hair, I held him to me, grinding my hips against his lap. He made me desperate for everything at once, and I no longer needed to be coy about it.

  We eventually drew apart, and he stared at me with a level of want that enticed me further.

  I stood and offered my hand. He accepted, using it to help him up. The moment he had his feet under him, Michele pulled me to his chest and claimed my lips again. I could kiss him forever, disappear into the taste of him.

  We made our way to the bed, and the moment the mattress hit the backs of my knees, he lifted me into his arms, climbed onto the bed and laid me onto it. The desperate passion from our previous trysts was lacking in that moment and replaced with a tenderer, more deliberate tone.

  He kissed me again, lingering on my mouth before descending. He explored my body again, but it was measured and ensured that he touched me everywhere.

  Scrapes and sharp pokes of his facial hair were smoothed away by the flick of his tongue. Bites were teased, only to be soothed by a tender kiss.

  Lower and lower he sank until he guided my thighs over his shoulders. Michele cradled my ass at the perfect angle before running his tongue up the length of my slit and groaning deep within his throat.

  “I love your taste,” he whispered, not giving me the chance to take in the statement before he pierced me with his tongue.

  I cried out, arching my back off the bed while he fucked me with it and somehow stroking my clit with his nose. It was an overwhelming combination that sent me reeling.

  Oh my God, I love you. Even the voice in my head had become breathy and weak.

  I gripped his hair tight in a desperate bid for something to steady myself, but he refused to allow me to settle. Instead, he stoked my fires, building them higher and higher until I was near bursting.

  Yanking his head away, I peered into his frustrated face. He stared at me, lips glistening with my excitement and eyes black.

  “I need you.”

  As before, he moved in an instant, complying as though he’d been waiting for permission.

  Michele kissed me, and I tasted the tang of myself on his tongue. I didn’t mind. I just wanted him.

  Together we did our best to shed him of his clothes. I’d attempted to be careful, to keep from damaging his shirt when he took such care with his attire, but my hands wouldn’t stop shaking and a button suffered for it. The tiny white disk had been launched into the ether, ne’er to return.

  “I’m sorry,” I somehow managed to say.

  “It does not matter,” he replied.

  “But it’s your—”

  He sat back on his knees and, with a sharp tug, snapped the remaining buttons off, tearing open the garment without a care.

  That was pretty hot.

  He leaned into me, clasping me by the back of my head and pulling me close.

  “They’re just clothes,” he whispered against my lips. “They mean nothing.”

  With another kiss, he dissipated any worry that might have lingered.

  The rest of his outfit soon shared the same fate as his shirt—not ruined, but discarded alongside my robe, leaving nothing between us. A higher level of dexterity allowed him to slip on the condom I hadn’t noticed him retrieve with ease while he guided me onto my back.

  A growing familiarity allowed him to slide into me, though I remained unprepared. There were no words to describe how he filled me, stretched me to fit him.

  Michele rolled his hips, the action stealing my breath. He found his rhythm much sooner than I had, driving into me with long, slow, deep thrusts that ensured I felt every inch of his girth. The frantic passion of times previous had vanished and left behind something different. There was no Dom or sub. Instead, we’d become two people who wanted to be together, to make our partner feel pleasure and receive our own in the process.

  He stole kisses while I clung to him, sinking within the sweltering heat of his hard body pressed to mine. I was lost to him, fully and completely, falling to the sensation of his hands, his mouth and his cock.

  “I’ve missed you,” he whispered while his pace increased.

  Not in the mindset to understand the statement, I didn’t reply.

  He grasped my jaw and brought my mouth to his again, whispering dea mia before kissing me as passionately as before.

  The world became a swirling vortex of tactile stimulation. My brain had no control over anything my body wanted, drifting into the background where it could swim in the dopamine.

  At some point, I’d rolled onto my stomach, propping myself onto my hands and knees while Michele took his stance behind me. He picked up right where we’d left off, gripping my hips hard and fucking me from behind.

  Things were coming to a head, sensations and emotions roiling, infecting the room. I clung to the headboard, gripping the wrought iron in a weak attempt to steady myself. In truth, I needed it to remember the world was real.

  He lifted my hair off my heated neck, wrapped it around his wrist and pulled, snapping my head back. I cried out while the ache mixed with the pleasure as he braced his other hand on my shoulder, using both for leverage.

  “God, yes,” I moaned, meeting his thrusts as best I could. “Don’t stop.”

  “Never,” he replied with a growl.

  He thrust harder and harder, driving into me with dizzying power, and I was on the verge of succumbing to the moment.

  Teetering on the edge, it took nothing more than his reaching around and gripping my breast to push me over.

  The orgasm roared through my body, every nerve exploding at once, seizing my muscles while causing them to spasm at the same time. Everything had been overtaken by the pinnacle of pleasure.

  Michele wrapped his arms around me and pulled me to his chest as he followed me into oblivion.

  Heartbeat racing and breathing on its way to becoming normal once again, I held him, resting my forehead against his sweating cheek. His sweltering breath graced my skin and I found relief in it somehow.

  The two of us lingered in our embrace, content to wait until the world came into focus again.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  I was lying in bed on the phone talking to Kennia while Michele spoke to someone at the door. To my recollection, the hotel didn’t offer room service, so I assumed he was speaking to someone he knew, further proof being his attire while doing so.

  When he’d finished, he returned to me wearing his jeans unbuttoned, low on his hips, and the shirt we’d both had a hand in destroying hanging open. He couldn’t have been doing less, yet the sight of him was enough to remind me how lucky I was to get that call about a job.

  And to think I’d nearly turned it down.

  He seemed pensive when he slid onto the bed behind me.

  I didn’t like how distressed he appeared and shifted to look at him.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s nothing,” he said with a heavy smile. “Just some issues with some business partners. Things seem to be getting contentious.”

  “I’m sorry.” Even though I had no reason to apologize, it felt like the sort of situation where something like it was necessary.

  It still didn’t feel as though I had the right to push into his personal life, however. No matter how much I wanted to ask about the specifics, my upbringing and willful ignorance made it nearly impossible. His personal life was just that…personal.

  Or was I his personal life and that was the professional?

  Either way, I was uncomfortable with prying.

  The clipped beep of my phone’s text notification drew my eye. Kennia had texted me back. While I shifted once again to read the message, Michele leaned in, resting his forehead on the back of my shoulder. He kissed it, a tender action that gave me a shiver.

  “Are you making plans with your friends?” he asked, running his lips over my skin.

  “I’m trying, but Kennia keeps telling me there’s no rush.”

  “What does that mean?”

  A blush took my cheeks and embarrassment trickled in. Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I reluctantly replied.

  “She knows about everything.”

  I peered at him over my shoulder, sure I would find him upset or annoyed that I’d divulged anything to someone else, but instead there was nothing. Michele simply waited for me to continue. Unsure of what else to do, I kept speaking.

  “Kennia knows I don’t connect with people very easily, so she keeps telling me that I should stay here…with you.”

  His eyes softened as he looked me over. “What do you say?”

  My answer was immediate, but I held off so as not to appear too eager, giving myself two solid breaths beforehand.

  “I agree with her.”

  His eyes sparkled with a smile much brighter than the one he allowed to show. It was a strange phenomenon but told me quite a bit.

  “If that’s the case,” he said, snaking his hand around my waist, “perhaps I can show you the city—at least until things have been settled between you.”

  I rolled onto my back, tucking myself beneath him. He remained as he was until I’d relaxed, then once again placed an arm protectively around me. I was in danger of falling in love with his caring touch.

  “You’d do that for me?”

  He nodded. “Of course.”

  “But…don’t you have a job or something? You said business associates. I don’t want to keep you away from work.”

  He let out a breath and shook his head. “This is more pressing.”

  I stared at him with growing disbelief. He was perfect.

  “Okay,” I said with a nod. “I’d like that.”

  Michele smiled and placed another in a long line of kisses to my lips.

  * * * *

  As promised, we spent the day exploring the numerous landmarks and spots he deemed ‘absolutely essential’ to a visit. I stayed in a daze, my mind clouded. Nothing seemed real, yet everything was. But regardless of how fantastical it may have been, Kennia’s words continued to play in the back of my mind.

  Enjoy everything.

  The mid-afternoon sun shone high overhead, beautiful and bright, and lacking the intense heat from back home. I didn’t feel the need to run under cover when it touched my skin.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked, pulling my attention away from the incredible architecture of the Piazza San Marco.

  Until he’d asked, I hadn’t realized it’d been hours since breakfast, and the meal, while delicious, had been far from filling.

  “Yeah.”

  “Would you like to have lunch at my villa?”

  “You mean the island?”

  I would have liked to explore it during the day to see how beautiful it really was.

  Michele shook his head. “We have a home not far from the city.”

  “Of course you do.”

  He chuckled. “Is that a yes?”

  Shoving the embarrassment of the blurted statement away, I agreed.

  Interlacing his fingers with mine, Michele guided me away from the hustle and bustle of the main city and toward an area where cars were allowed to travel. I’d done my best to focus on it, but the beauty of the city refused to be ignored, my head swiveling from side to side in a weak attempt to memorize it all.

  While ogling and gawking at the scenery and continuing to struggle with the realization that it was my life, I spotted a pair of men standing a few yards behind us.

  They were dressed in black clothing, not inconspicuous but not average, either. One had a head shaved closer than Mr. Clean and the other a mop of blond locks. They were looking around, too, but I had the impression that neither of them was interested in architecture. In fact, one looked familiar.

  Hard to forget a bald head.

  “Is something wrong?”

  “Those men,” I said, forcing him to spot the pair. “They’re following us.”

  “Martin and Tomas,” he said. I looked at him. The stern expression returned.

  “They part of your security?” I asked. He nodded, lips drawn tight. “The bald one, I think I’ve seen him before.”

  “Martin,” he said. “He’s been my personal security for many years.”

  Years?

  “Do they bother you?”

  “N-no.”

  “Try to ignore them,” he said with a comforting smile. “And think only of lunch.”

  He seemed to be doing his best to reassure me, so I forced a smile and let him think it’d worked. But it hadn’t. How could it? I didn’t come from a life where that sort of thing was normal.