He runs his fingers down my arm. Goosebumps flare on my skin and I shiver.
"You’re cold." He shifts his weight under me, and I shake my head.
"Don’t go."
"I wasn’t…" he hesitates. "I was going to run you a bath."
"A bath?" I swallow to clear the scratchiness in my throat.
"Thought that would help ease the soreness."
"Soreness?" Oh, he means…. Right. My cheeks heat, which is stupid, considering everything he’s done to my body already. I’ve never felt this naked, and not just in the physical sense.
I bury my face deeper into his chest.
He chuckles, "Don’t go all shy on me now."
I shake my head. I will not speak. If I do, it will only reveal how, embarrassed I am by my outburst. He rises to his feet, steps out of the shower stall, and walks over to the sunken bath tub. He lowers me to the edge of the tub, keeps a hold of me. Then bends down to open the faucets. Water pours into the tub and steam rises, warm against my back. He wraps my arms around his waist and his thick dick nudges against my neck. If I turn my head, I can open my mouth and take him in, and— He cups my cheek, "There’s time for that later."
Jesus. What? He can read my mind now? Heat flushes my cheeks again. This is not me…really—blushing, crying, collapsing at his feet like a complete idiot. God! The hell is wrong with me? I tip my chin up, "Don’t think that you have broken me."
His lips curve, "Oh! Trust me, you will, and when you do." He kisses my forehead, "I'm going to enjoy building you up again."
I swallow. The warmth in his gaze, OMG... my heart stutters, my core pulses. All the pores on my skin seem to pop.
He whispers his knuckles across my jawline, "You’re one heck of a woman. Has anyone told you that, Gigi?"
I flush even more. My cheeks must be scarlet by now. He has a habit of reducing me to a puddle of gooiness, a trembling mess who has no idea whether she is coming or going, or what the hell her life is all about. Before I met him, it had been easy. I mean, besides losing my best friend to the Mafia.
I had set out to save my friend and had landed directly in his grasp; one I am in no hurry to evade. Not yet. Just for a few hours, a few days, can’t I pretend that all this is real? The way he regards me with tenderness in his eyes, how he scans my features as if to make sure that I am okay. How he rubs his thumb across my lower lip, then bends to kiss me. A brush of his lips—soft, barely there, a feather-light whisper of emotion that dances over my skin, sinks into my blood, warms the space around my heart, melting the barriers I’d built up against him, against the world, against anything that could hurt me. "Saint… I need to tell you something."
"Shh!" He deepens the kiss. Nips on my lower lip, swipes his tongue across my mouth with such intensity that I melt… I ooze into a puddle at his feet.
He leans back and I sway toward him.
"Later," he chuckles. Then leans past me to empty a bottle of something into the tub. The scent of roses, lavender, and something spicy fills the air. I sniff it.
"That’s a very feminine bath product you have there."
"It’s for you."
"Oh?" I squint up at him. "Were you that sure that I’d end up here in your suite?’
He hesitates, then reaches for my left hand. He twines his fingers with mine, rubs his thumb across the wedding ring…my wedding ring, the one he gave me. Which belonged to his mother. My heart stutters. A warmth coils against my rib cage. The pressure builds again behind my eyes and I sniffle.
"Hey." He places his other knuckle under my chin. "Waterworks again?"
"No one’s more surprised about this than me." I swallow down the lump that crowds my throat. "I’ve never once, not in the past many years, broken down like this."
Silence descends. I glance up, survey his features. His face is expressionless.
"You don’t believe me?" I wipe the back of my hand over my nose.
"Oh, but I do." He frowns. "You have a strong will behind that fragile exterior. It’s what attracted me to you from the beginning."
"Because I was a challenge?"
"Not only." He scans my flushed face, my hard nipples, down to the triangle between my legs. "You were a riddle I wanted to solve. Tough, yet hurting; sensitive, yet so prickly. Soft skin that hides a myriad of conflicting emotions." He places his hand over my heart. "That push-pull inside of you, Gigi, it’s a fucking potent force. It makes me want to pull you apart, piece by fucking piece to find out everything about you… Taking my time over it as I tease multiple orgasms out of you, and have you trembling, shivering, pleading with me to stop, and even then I won’t…not until you forget about everything except us; except for the lust that strums between us, the sensations that spark between us when we are together, the pull that ties us when we are apart—when—"
I place my hand on his mouth. "Stop," I whisper, "I can’t…take more of this; it’s…too soon, Saint."
He takes in my features, peers into my eyes, then nods.
"Later, then." He lowers his head and brushes his lips over my forehead. "For now, let’s enjoy our bath, shall we?"
He holds out his hand, so gentlemanly, the gesture so different from how he's acted so far with me that I blink. And, hold on, had he kissed me earlier, on my forehead? A peck, with something resembling affection? My head spins. I grab at his hip.
"You okay?" He scoops me up in his arms again, bridal style. "Gigi?"
I blink, stare
