Chapter Nine

Gen looked up into Matteo’s handsome face. All at once all the warnings, the paranoia and nerves evaporated in the air around her.

“So I get to see you in your dress after all,” he continued. “Do you want to come in or would you prefer the slow, agonizing death that goes along with hyperthermia?” When she didn’t say anything, his grin disappeared, replaced by a hauntingly guarded expression that reminded her of the picture she’d seen in the newspaper. “Are you okay? Did something happen?”

Gen walked by him into the foyer. She heard the soft click of the door behind her. Matteo took her purse and pulled the jacket from her shoulders.

“You could have called,” he whispered behind her.

“I threw your number out the window,” she responded.

His hands stilled along her arm before they continued their downward path to take her coat. “I suppose I can forgive you… since you’re here in the flesh instead.”

He put her coat in the closet along with her purse. He closed the door and leaned back against it. He was wearing a pair of dark jeans and a black t-shirt that hugged his body. Her breathing became shallow as the weight of her decision making settled between her legs.

“Why are you here?” he asked, his eyes full of curiosity.

“I want you,” she whispered.

His eyes widened at her boldness. “You want me?”

She nodded. “Maybe I’m feeling reckless. Maybe seeing my ex with his nine-month pregnant fiance after being split up for six at my baby sister’s wedding stirred up some unwanted emotions. Maybe I really enjoyed our night together and…”

Matteo’s hand covered her mouth and she looked up at him. He smiled down at her. He removed his hand and lowered his head until his lips fell on hers. He groaned as she stood up on her toes to return the kiss. Her arms wound around his neck. He turned them and walked her backward until she hit the wall. He broke the kiss and pulled away.

“Maybe,” he mocked. “We shouldn’t analyze it too much, yeah?” Unable to speak, Gen nodded her agreement. “Now, what is it you want from me tonight?”

“I want… I want a one-night stand. A real one,” she whispered. His eyes became hooded and he licked his bottom lip before raking his teeth over it.

He lowered his lips to her ear. “It’ll come at a cost,” he whispered before tugging her earlobe with his teeth.

Her knees wobbled and if it were not for his grip on her hip she would have fallen. He shoved his knee between her thighs as a secondary support in case he decided he needed his hands elsewhere.

“What do you want?” she asked.

His lips grazed her neck and she whimpered as the pleasure his lips brought sank to the spot where his knee kept her pinned.

“Your name,” he breathed. “Your real name.”

“Why is it important?” she asked, revealing for the first time that his hunch was correct.

He chuckled against her collarbone. “So I know what name to call out when I come inside you.”

Gen’s legs gave out only to be caught by his hard thigh. His teeth grazed the skin of her throat while his hands slid over her dress and glided over her hardened nipples.

“Gen,” she finally relented. Matteo pulled back, his eyes wild and lost. “My real name is Gen.”

“Gen,” he repeated. “Now that’s much more fitting.”

Without any more questions, Matteo hooked his hands under her ass and lifted her up. Her squeak of surprise was cut short when his mouth claimed hers again. She moaned and took his face in her hands as he started up the steps. He walked them to his room. He laid her down and crawled over her. She felt his hardened erection run up her leg and press against her sex. His lips touched hers again and suddenly all sense of patience left them.

Gen tore at his shirt while Matteo tried to unzip her dress. She used her toes to shove her heels off. She went for the button of his jeans. Her attempts stopped when she heard something rip. She pulled back in time to see him toss a knife to the wall beside the bathroom door. He peeled her now ruined dress away from her body.

She watched as his eyes darkened. His hand curled around the bruises forming along her upper arm from where Brian had gripped her. His dark eyes flicked up.

“Who did this?” he asked, his voice deadly.

“It doesn’t matter,” she breathed, trying to pull him back down.

“I beg to differ,” he growled.

“Matteo, please,” she begged, rocking her hips up against him.

The use of his name seemed to force his eyes away from the indentions of her ex’s fingerprints.

“We’ll revisit this,” he warned her.

Before she could argue, his mouth descended on one of her erect nipples. Gen gripped his hair hard and flung her head back into the pillow as his tongue swirled around the little nub. He pulled at her panties, snapping the thin string with ease.

Her nails raked at his bare back as his mouth left her nipples and left a dusting of kisses down her flat stomach. As he neared the junction of her legs, she slammed her thighs shut. He glared up at her as if denying him access there was a treasonous act.

“Sorry, I…”

“You don’t like to be eaten out?” he asked.

“No one’s ever, I mean I just don’t think…”

Memories ricocheted around her mind of the three other men she’d been with. All of whom made every excuse to not give her oral while she herself never denied them.

“No one has ever tasted you?” he asked, his voice reaching an impossibly husky level. He licked his lips and grabbed her knees before forcefully shoving them to the mattress.

“It’s just a bit uncomfortable and gross to boys, right?”

Matteo chuckled and kissed the skin of her inner thigh. “I can assure you, I’m no boy. You wanted to let go, didn’t you?”

“I mean, yes,” she stammered.

His eyes darkened and he lifted each leg and rested it over his shoulders. “Then lay your head back and let me help you do that, Gen.”

He raised an eyebrow as he waited for her to comply. Her knees shook as she did as she was told. She felt him settle down against the bed. His hot breath fanned her pussy a moment before she felt his flattened tongue smooth over her slit. Gen gasped and instinctively tried to close her knees. A sharp bite on her thigh made her release him. She looked down to find him wearing a devilish grin. The look was completely predatory, completely feral, completely out of control. Then his head lowered again and he sucked on her clit.

“Holy fuck,” Gen moaned as his tongue began to work her like he’d taken a course on the matter. He moaned against her in response and the vibration carried up her spine.

His tongue and lips continued to suck and tease her raw flesh until the pleasure had reached a painful edge. Then she felt him press a finger into her heat. He soon added a second and began thrusting wildly into her. She began to rock her hips up against his mouth and his fingers as she chased her climax. The pleasure built and built until it all crashed together in a prolonged orgasm that shook her entire body. His tongue continued to lap up her juices until she was spent and limp on the bed. He shifted his shoulders so her legs fell heavy to the mattress.

A moment later his lips crashed against hers, reviving her as if she’d been drowning and he had breathed air back into her lungs. She felt the tip of his cock rubbing through the same folds he’d spent the last few minutes working into a fever pitch. She whimpered, unsure she could handle much else.

He released her mouth and rained kisses along her bare skin. “We’re not done yet, Gen. Tonight, I’m in control and I'm just getting started. Hold onto me tight now.”

Before she could do anything he rammed into her, burying himself to the hilt.