Page 56 of When She Unravels
He looks away and scratches the side of his mouth. “Yeah.”
“I thought Ras and his team dealt with all that.”
“Most of it. But sometimes, it needs to be dealt with by me. Like tonight. To deal with violence effectively, you need to understand it. A habitually violent person generally isn’t very smart. They can’t figure out how to deal with a situation. They fail to control their emotions and lash out. When you know what to look for, nearly every act of violence can be preempted. Sometimes all it takes is a few carefully chosen words. Other times, you can only stop it with your own show of force. That’s what you did tonight.”
“I escalated things instead of stopping them.”
“You got Astrid away from him, didn’t you? You created a distraction. You made Nelo change his target.”
“To me.”
“Forget what he said to you,” Damiano says. “He’s never going to hurt you.”
I allow his words to settle over my skin and seep into my blood like a dose of a drug. It’s so tempting to believe him. “You won’t let him.”
“No. I already told you, didn’t I?” He reaches for my cheek and drags the tips of his fingers down to my lips. “I’m going to make you mine, Ale. And I always protect what’s mine.”
A wave crashes, lapping at our toes. I part my mouth and dart out my tongue. He tastes like salt and safety and desire.
I want to be drenched in it. Just for one night, I’ll allow myself to believe he’ll keep me safe.
He sees my intent before I can voice it, and he pushes his fingers into my wet hair, bringing my lips to his. God, it feels so good to kiss him.
But he cuts the kiss short and glares at me again. “Cazzo, I still can’t believe you almost drowned.”
“I’m sorry,” I say. “It was stupid.”
“Yeah, it was.”
I run my hands up his muscular chest and tangle my fingers into his dress shirt. “Make me feel alive again.”
His eyes flash with heat, and then he’s all over me, pressing my back into the sand and settling his powerful body over mine. He lets me feel the weight of him, like he knows how badly I need to be anchored to something right now. My fingers dip under his shirt and I draw long lines down his back with my nails. This earns me a pleased grunt and a tug on my bottom lip.
He pushes off me and eyes my drenched clothes. “Take your shirt off, unless you want me to rip it off you.”
A rush of heat settles inside my core. Probably best to keep our clothes intact since we still have to get back to the club.
He helps me peel the wet fabric over my head and then reaches around me to unclasp my bra. As soon as my breasts are bare, his hands turn greedy, his mouth hungry for my taste. He takes one nipple into his mouth and pulls on it with his teeth, before doing the same to the other. Electricity prickles all over my skin, and heat coils at the pit of my belly until I’m so desperate for more that I push him away and quickly pull off my underwear and shorts.
Damiano peers down at my naked form. “Fuck,” he rasps. “This body was made for me.”
Something flutters inside my chest. Why does it sound so right when he says things like that?
He lifts his eyes to meet mine, as if challenging me to protest. When I don’t, he gives me a reward.
His mouth between my legs.
I claw at the sand as he licks and sucks on my clit. How is he so good at this?
“Shit,” I pant. My vision’s blurs as the pressure between my legs builds and builds. He takes me by my thighs and hauls me onto his shoulders, as if I weight nothing. And then he looks up at me, his mouth still glued on my cunt.
Everything bursts and I cry out. No matter how I squirm, he won’t let go of me. When I start to come down, he fucks me with his tongue and the hazy pleasure of it all is unreal.
“Damiano,” I moan.
At last, he lowers me back to the ground and dips his fingers inside of me, curling them possessively. “I’ve never tasted a better pussy,” he says hoarsely.
I drag the back of my hand over my forehead.Jesus.
