“I want more,” I whisper.
His eyes flash open and stare down at me with hard concentration.
“Give it to me,” I beg.
He starts off slowly, working his hips. The pain intensifies, causing me to gasp in shock. But so does the pleasure. Whatever he did with his fingers earlier, it’s happening again.
I bite my lip, forcing my body to relax and accept it so I can come for him. It’s there somewhere, lingering beneath the tender ache as he continues to gently thrust into me.
“That’s right, Leira.” Enrique leans down to speak in my ear with a fierce whisper. “You’ve already fallen. So much for the good little nun, the good little Catholic. You’re mine now. The next sin belongs only to me. Dámelo. Give it to me.”
His words cause whatever it was that couldn’t reach the surface to not only break past it, but fly straight into the air like a damn firecracker. It pushes past the pain and erupts into my body, hitting almost every nerve ending.
A silent cry escapes my lips and I arch my back, pressing closer into Enrique above me. My hands grip his shoulders; a small part of my subconscious is still functional enough to appreciate how firm they feel in my grasp. Those muscles go just as taut under my palms as I come crashing down on the other side of what just happened.
“Tesoro mío,” he groans into my ear as he shudders in release.
Chapter Forty-Three Enrique
We’re under the covers now, me on my back with Leira’s chin resting on my chest.
“You aren’t going to ask me if I enjoyed it?”
I grin as I stare at the wall ahead, gently stroking her bare back.
“That’s one more thing you have to learn about sex. A man should never ask.”
“Because they always assume they’re good at it?” she laughs.
“In my case, that would be the truth.”
She reaches out to pinch my nipple and I wriggle under her in mild protest.
“But really, a man should know if he pleased his woman or not.”
“Do women ever ask?”
I laugh enough for my chest to vibrate, causing her head to bob up and down.
“What?” she urges.
“A woman never has to ask for altogether different reasons.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” she says in a teasingly smug voice, then laughs.
“You were alright.”
That earns me another pinch of the nipple and I laugh, taking her hand in mine. I shift my head to kiss her forehead. “You were perfect.”
The smile she returns sends a nice little surge of warmth through my veins. I could look at that smile forever.
“I do have one question,” I say.
“No,” she says with a soft smile, reading the question there. “I don’t regret it at all.”
“Diabla mía,” I tease, pinching her nose.
“As though you’re a saint,” she says, slapping my hand away.
“Apparently being bad runs in the family,” I say, thinking back to all the stories about my mother and grandfather I heard tonight.
“You have to tell him who you are while we’re here. I think he’d risk the danger for that. Life is short. You don’t want to wait until it’s too late. We all know what it’s like to lose someone.”
I continue to stroke her back as I turn my stare to the wall ahead again, thinking about that.
* * *
The next day, I’m the first to wake, as usual. I’m beginning to think Leira isn’t a morning person.
The sun has already risen past the mountains based on the light that filters in through the sides of the curtains. I slip out of bed and walk over to the drapes covering the second set of windows furthest away from the bed. I open them just enough to have a view of the vineyards outside.
Something about the parallel rows of green vines, completely uninterrupted by anything for acres, gives me a sense of calm. I haven’t fully relaxed since coming upon Leira in that lagoon. Granted, the past several days have been unusually active, even for me.
But now I see why my grandfather considers this a refuge.
Home.
I turn to find Leira still fast asleep, snoring softly. I’m too restless to go back and join her, so instead, I pull on my clothes from last night. The clothes we brought with us, along with some toiletries, are still in the car. Sebastián only invited us for the night, but I suspect we might be staying here for a while longer.
When I exit the front of the house, my eye catches Sebastián standing on the same hill that Leira and I were on last night. My favorite spot. He’s staring peacefully out at the same view I had from our bedroom. I think about leaving him alone to enjoy it, but his head turns to me and he lifts one hand in a greeting.
I detour to join him.
“I love coming here in the morning before the winery is active. It’s peaceful.”
“It is,” I say, staring out at the expanse of grapevines.
The seconds tick by, going into a full minute before the silence is broken.
“You have your mother’s eyes. Daniela, she inherited them from her mother. So big and brown you could drown in them.”
I drink that in, letting it settle somewhere in my brain that allows me to unlock everything I’ve been holding in.
“When did you first know?”
“After your second visit. A young man on his own, visiting twice? Abaroa is a very nice winery, but the tourists are mostly interested in the bigger ones with fancy buildings and tours. You also have my nose.”
I laugh softly, shaking my head. “That’s what she says, my...my friend who came with me.”
Sebastián laughs. “A friend with a very lovely voice. It’s good to have such a friend like that. A woman with a nice voice makes the inevitable spats and arguments that much more enjoyable. How can you stay mad at a woman with a beautiful voice?”
I laugh again, thinking of all the arguments Leira and I have had,
