Bound by Duty (Born in Blood Mafia Chronicles #2)(28)

Any thought fled my mind when Dante guided his erection toward my center and nudged my opening. He felt hard and big, but I’d been waiting long enough for this. I was ready. Dante propped himself up on his arms, then shifted his hips and slid in a few inches until I tensed and cried out. I squeezed my eyes shut, and drew in a few harsh breaths through my nose to calm my racing pulse. The pain was already fading but he wasn’t all the way in yet. After another deep breath, I opened my eyes and found Dante staring down at me. His jaw was tight. For once he didn’t seem quite so calm and in control. I could tell how much he was struggling to keep still. I raised my arms and grabbed his shoulders, then I gave a small nod. Dante rocked his hips and pushed all the way in. I arched up, clamping my mouth shut to keep any sound in. I breathed out through my nose, as I forced my body to relax.

Dante peered down at me, his brows drawn together and a muscle in his cheek twitching. “Tell me when I can move,” he gritted out, surprising me with that show of compassion.

I wiggled, impatient, desperate to have Dante move in me. There was still a slight discomfort but that too was getting better. “It’s okay.”

He nodded, then pulled almost all the way out before sliding back in. My muscles gripped his cock tightly, still trying to get used to the invasion, but I could feel a hint of pleasure behind the soreness as Dante fell into a slow rhythm. I wished he would come down on his forearms so we could be closer but he braced himself on his palms. I guessed I shouldn’t have expected anything else. He’d warned me, but at least he was careful and hadn’t pounced on me.

I let out a small moan as he hit a delicious spot deep inside me. Dante sped up, his thrusts becoming more forceful. His face was filled with concentration. He didn’t make loud noises, but his panting was coming quicker. I loved watching him, loves seeing the small twitches and flickers in his cold mask when his pleasure spiked.

“It’s been a while for me,” he warned in a rough voice. “I don’t know how long I can last.” I was surprised by his admittance. I didn’t think he was a man who readily admitted to anything resembling weakness in his mind. I was glad for that small flicker of humanness.

“It’s okay.” It wasn’t as if I was going to come again. I could tell that I was close to the limit of what I could take.

His movements became even faster and less restrained, almost jerky and unhinged. And then he finally lowered himself to his forearms, bringing us closer than we’d ever been, our bodies pressed against each other as if we were one, and he really started to pound into me, hard and fast, and my soreness turned into an insistent twinge, but I didn’t even care. I could feel his heat through his clothes. His vest rubbed my sensitive nipples, and yet I wished I could have felt his skin, but even that wasn’t important right now. All that mattered was that Dante was finally making me a woman, finally allowing closeness. Maybe this was a new beginning, the real start of our marriage. I clung to his back and buried my face in the crook of his neck as Dante thrust into me a few more times.

He groaned, his body tensing and then I felt his erection expand in me, followed by the strange sensation of him coming in me. I pulled back, wanting to see his face. For once the mask was gone. He looked disheveled, approachable, less unforgiving somehow. He shuddered once more before he lowered his face and brushed his lips against mine, his tongue sliding over my lips lightly. I eagerly opened my mouth for him. Our tongues met and I was in heaven. I’d waited for our first real kiss for so long and now it was happening. He tasted perfect, and I loved the feeling of his weight on top of me, and the sensation of his softening cock inside me. Maybe everything would change now. I slipped my hands under his shirt and ran them up and down his back, my fingers finding every scar, mapping his body. He felt so warm and strong. He felt like he was mine.

Dante stopped kissing me, and our eyes met, and suddenly his walls went back up. I could see it happening. Like the curtains closing at the end of a play. He raised himself up to his palms. “Are you okay?” he asked, already pulling out of me in a swift motion. I gasped at the brief pain and Dante hovered over me for a moment, a hint of hesitation in his expression, but it was gone quickly and he straightened, holding up his shirt so it didn’t get dirty. “I need to get cleaned up,” he said matter-of-factly as if he was telling me the weather forecast, as if we hadn’t just slept together. He watched me an instant longer, then he disappeared in the bathroom. A couple of minutes later, the water started running.

I didn’t move from my spot in the middle of the bed, desperately trying to sort out my emotions. There was relief over finally having gotten rid of my virginity, but there was also a strange sense of sadness. I wasn’t someone who needed to be coddled but I wished Dante would have stayed with me a bit longer after he was done.

Disappointment washed over me and I closed my eyes against the rising emotion. I wasn’t sure how long I lay like that but I was startled by Dante’s cool voice above me. “Here.”

My eyes fluttered open. He stood beside the bed, already dressed in his briefs again and was holding a washcloth out for me.

I took it from him and pressed it against my sore flesh, ignoring the blush that crept up into my face. Wouldn’t he lie down with me for a little while at least? I really wanted him to hold me, even if he had to pretend to care for me, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask him.

“Would you like me to touch you, so you can come too?”