Chapter 33
1232 Words
Chapter Thirty-Three
“I never thought I’d see the day you’d prefer to spend time in close company with me, but I’ll take it as a blessing.” I smile to Angelo as he enters the sitting room of my chambers all alone and closes the door behind himself, leaning there.
There’s a light, a fire, gleaming in his baby-blue eyes and I am unsure if he wants to get me out of his house or if he wants to get in my bed.
“A blessing? To be with me?”
He asks it like a little boy who can barely believe such a thing and my throat feels tight.
“I’ve been dying to have some time alone with you,” I opt for an easy way out for both of us. “Come. Sit by me.”
“Okay. Sure. I’d love to. If it’s okay…”
And his voice. Dieu, his voice. It’s not like Enzo’s, a deep tenor, non. Angelo’s voice is rough and low, primal and raw, all the way to my heart.
It shimmers through the air and brushes over my skin like velvet, that voice. We’re not touching in any place, we’re not even close to each other, a few feet between us, but I can feel him just the same.
“S’il te plaît?” Please, I ask him sweetly, patting the place beside me on the sofa when he continues to lean on the door.
He stays there, pensive for a long moment, before he walks in my direction, sitting on the same sofa I am sitting on but we are not even close to touching. “I like you.”
“You have a funny way of showing how much you like me.” I scoot near to him, so near our knees and shoulders are touching. When he doesn’t move back, I relax and put my hand on his thigh.
One of his fingertips touches the back of my hand in a fluttering caress. “What do you mean?”
“You grumble. You frown. You stomp around whenever I’m near and then as soon as you can, you flee the premises.” My hand squeezes his muscular, rock-hard thigh. “Today is the first time you’ve actually touched me.”
“I’d like to touch you,” he whispers, his breath brushing against my temple. “Like my brothers touch you.”
“I see.” I shake my head. “This is so weird. It’s weird, n’est ce pas?”
He laughs a little, embarrassed, too, and shrugs in the same way Enzo does. “Sì, it’s weird. But I…kind of like the idea of it. Do you?”
I take a breath and nod. I’m ready to take the leashes off this unusual relationship and make it work. “Yeah, I do, too. It’s…exciting.”
“So, think you…we can…make it work?”
“I think so.” My breath hitches. “And you can touch me, if you want.”
“Where?”
I am about to answer him, but he’s already touching me.
Angelo is touching me, and the feeling is heady.
He doesn’t start with my breasts or even my ass. Not the obvious places, the so-called pleasurable ones.
He starts with one hand at the back of my neck, fingers entwined in my hair.
My heart drums heavily in my chest, almost bursting free.
I can’t get enough air.
And suddenly this seems like an important place after all, so vulnerable. So small within the careful hold of his large, calloused hand.
“Tu sei bella,” he breathes more to himself than to me. “Molto bella.”
Then he’s pulling me into his arms. Into a hug.
My throat closes and pinpricks burn my eyelids.
Yes, because it is a simple hug. Affectionate.
Mon Dieu. How long has it been since a man—besides Salvatore, I mean—hugged me? Just that, without touching anywhere else, without his d**k inside me? Just for the simple pleasure of being held.
A long, long time.
If ever.
I feel a hot throb in my throat like I’m about to explode from the sensations overwhelming me. He is offering me so much affection I have to blink away the tears threatening to fall.
He slides his other hand under my chin, lifting my face. And stares me in the eye. Even if I want to, I can’t look away.
Without another word, he kisses me, sweet and slow.
It’s not like his older brothers. They are all fire and passion. There has ever been a lustful implication behind their kisses.
But Angelo?
It feels like we should have kissed sooner.
His kiss is simple. It’s all there was: a kiss. Two mouths touching, testing new boundaries; A man and a woman learning themselves for the first time.
It feels good, right.
It’s new.
A thought strikes me: it’s a youthful kiss. Not as if we are teenagers, there’s no fumbling, no hesitation. But it’s pure, it has a happiness in it.
And, oh, mon Dieu! It feels kind of like kissing my past self. As if I could walk into a mirror and reach to a different Chloé who is quietly waiting inside it for release.
He pulls me tighter against his enormous, muscular body, engulfing me, kissing me deep, deeper, before he breaks the kiss.
His baby-blue eyes are suddenly dark and bottomless, the light glinting in them like distant stars.
“I…I have never been with a woman before, but I am a man, just like my brothers are,” he asserts, almost defiantly.
“I know you are,” I say soothingly, trying to inspire confidence in him. “Maybe even more than them.”
He resists a smile, but I see the light in his eyes. He needs to hear that from a woman. And it might just be the truth.
He slides his hand around to the back of my head again, running his fingers through my hair.
I lean forward and kiss him softly, then pull back. I do not want to take the lead, but to break the ice, to let him know he can kiss me, and do more.
I can see that Angelo is nervous and excited. He continues to caress my hair, my face, taking rapid, shallow breaths.
I have given him consent, but he’s still not ready to jump in with both feet.
I loosen the tie of my robe, pulling the top part open. I have seen the way he looks at my breasts. Maybe this will push his desire over the edge and spur him to take me.
Angelo’s hand goes to his chest and it seems for a moment he can’t breathe. I don’t know if I should worry or not. I have wanted him since I have arrived and he has kept me at arm’s length. I know why now and it makes me even more horny to be responsible for showing this perfect, beautiful man, who thinks himself unworthy, how good s*x can be.
There’s a knock at the door and then it swings open.
Salvatore and Enzo. Smiling like wolves.
Angelo jumps up and I stand up very slowly, taking his hand in mine.
“Mind if we join you, or is this a private conversation?” Enzo asks.
“Come in. Please,” I answer after a brief glance at Angelo to gauge his reaction. Now is as good a time as any to act on what we’ve spoken of.
There’s a whisper inside of me, telling me that what I am about to do is wrong…but I just push it to the back of my mind.
Because being with a young man is something which has been stolen from me and being with a young woman was stolen from him.
If for that to happen we need it to be with his brothers, so be it.
There will be a time for only the two of us, I am sure.
Here I am now…and there’s no going back.
- Writer
