Page 16 of The Cost of Corruption
I wanted more.
More of his kiss. More of his touch. More of his body against mine.
Without thinking—without really knowing what I was doing—I slid my hands down his chest. Over the crisp cotton of his Oxford shirt and the smooth bone buttons. Down to the finely tailored waist of his bespoke pants.
A part of me wanted to believe it was the devil guiding my hands as I gripped the material of his shirt and tugged the tails free—but no.
It was me.
Just me and my aching desire to feelmoreof Matteo. To press my palms against his bare skin and finallyfeelhim.
He made a sound as I pushed his shirt up, exposing the hard-muscled plain of his belly. An animal-like sound—low and growly. The reverberations ignited something in me. Some kind of primal fire that took root deep in my core and threatened to spread through every inch of my body.
Beneath my touch, Matteo laughed—a wickedly tempting sound that made me bite into my lower lip as I prayed for restraint.
“Careful, Chastity,” he said, even as he leaned back against the couch cushions, giving me plenty of room to pluck his shirt buttons free. “You’re going down a road it’s hard to come back from.”
The road to hell, no doubt.
A road paved with the sweetest temptations a tragically repressed girl like me could ever want.
And damn, if I didn’twanthim.
So much so that I couldn’t help licking my lips as I finally popped the last button on Matteo’s shirt and pushed the edges apart.
Oh. My. God.
In all of my dreams, in all of my fantasies, I’d never pictured him looking so...soperfect.
His chest was tight and tanned. Not thin and elegantly sculpted like the leading men in movies—but thick and strong. Robust. Powerful.
Real.
And right in front of me.
For a moment, I was too overwhelmed by the sight of him to move. But as I lifted my head and locked eyes with his obsidian gaze, the fear in me began to melt away, replaced by burning need.
“Can I touch you?” I asked hesitantly, feeling painfully ignorant of how these interactions usually went.
Instead of answering, he reached out, took my hand, and placed it palm down in the center of his chest.
I closed my eyes as I felt the hard and constant pounding of his heartbeat.
I didn’t wait for any more permission before laying my other hand down flat against the lower reaches of his belly and slowly sliding it up to his chest.
For a moment, I just sat there, the skirt of my habit pushed up just high enough to allow my legs to straddle his, my fingers spread wide against the heated expanse of his skin. Our eyes locked; our breathing in synch.
It was perfect.
All I’d ever dreamed of.
…and still, it wasn’t enough.
A seemingly unquenchable need rose up inside me. A hunger so powerful it threatened to consume me whole. The pounding desire formore.
“Can…Can I kiss you again?” I asked, now even more self-conscious than before. “Not on the mouth this time, but…lower.”
I didn’t think it was possible, but the unfathomable depths of his brown eyes darkened ever further.
