Page 20 of One Filthy Kiss

I nod and lead the way.

We sit facing each other on the couch. Her knee brushes mine, and a thrill of excitement shoots down my spine.

“Thank you … for today. Amber loved it.” She pauses. “I did too.”

“It was the least I could do.”

She turns away and gazes at the pool. “I didn’t think about him today. Amber’s father. After I told you about him, it felt as if I could let go, just for a little while, and pretend that we’re like other people. Normal people.”

I place my glass of wine down on the low coffee table and shift closer to her. When I smooth her hair away from her face, and my knuckles brush her cheek, it feels natural, as though we’ve been doing this all our lives. And she doesn’t pull away.

“There is no fun in being normal, Meggie.” I move my lipscloser to hers and hold her gaze. “If you were normal, I would not have kissed you this morning.”

“Was it only this morning?” Her voice is husky. “It feels like a lifetime ago.”

“I meant everything I said. I will protect you, Meggie.” My lips brush hers. “You and Amber. I will protect you both with my life.”

“Why?” Her breath mingles with mine. “Why would you do that for us?”

I ask myself the same question.

I wind her warm honey hair around my fingers and pull her to me.

Then I kiss her.

Meggie kisses me back. She doesn’t fight it. She doesn’t tense up with surprise the way she did the first time around. Her tongue meets mine, and nothing has ever tasted sweeter.

Her kisses go straight to my head like the bubbles in a champagne glass. I can think about nothing else.

I want her.

I desire her.

I need to make her mine.

So, when she straddles me on the couch, her hands gently cupping my face, I reach for the hook at the back of her dress and snap it open. The straps come loose. I tug them down, exposing her breasts, the delicate pale skin, the pink areolas, the nipples that are soft and pliable between my fingers.

I pull my lips awayfrom Meggie’s.

I want to explore every part of her. Placing both hands over her breasts, I feel the nipples hardening beneath my palms, and my cock twitches in response. I suck on one nipple, teasing it between my teeth until it is dark and swollen. Then the other.

Without realizing it, I have made it my mission to taste every part of her. Inside and out. To claim her, brand her, to bind her to me with unbreakable knots of desire and passion. I want everyone to see in her eyes how much she wants me when we’re together. Because that is how desperate, how all-consuming my desire is for her.

Meggie arches her spine, thrusting her nipple deeper into my mouth, and tilts her head back to stare at the night sky. “It’s so beautiful,” she breathes.

“Sei bellissima.” I trace my tongue between her breasts and upwards to her neck that smells of delicate dewy flowers in the early morning sunshine. “You are beautiful.”

I nibble her earlobe. My tongue slides inside her ear, and it is like coaxing a tune from an unused musical instrument.

But she pulls away from me, her arms instinctively crossing to cover her nakedness.

She doesn’t believe me.

Worse. She thinks that they are just words to me. Sentiments uttered in the moment to get what I want.

Her stepfather did more than murder her mother. He destroyed her faith in humanity, or rather, he obliterated any trust she might otherwise have had in men.

“We can stop if that’s what you want.”