Indulge: Second Chance Romance

13 – Indulge Me

Ellie



“You were made for me, Dove, and I plan to make you admit it. Agree to be with me and only me while you are here.”

His eyes burned into mine as his arms pulled me up, strong and unyielding. Still leaning against the pillows, he guided me to straddle him.

There was no way I had another round in me after what he had done in the shower. My body said otherwise the moment he flipped me onto my back, growling against my throat.

My last thought before his mouth silenced me was that I might not survive him—and worse, I wasn’t sure I wanted to.

DJ was back on top of me, the heat of his skin searing against mine as he hardened once more. His breath, hot and ragged, stirred the loose strands of my hair while his chest pressed down with just enough weight to make my heart race.

The anticipation crackled between us like a live wire, every nerve in my body tingling with the promise of what was to come.

The way his thumbs flicked my n*****s and his mouth suckled and licked at my neck—I didn’t need to see how hungry, how sincere, and how wanton his golden-brown eyes were.

Answers fell from me as quickly as thoughts, lost like a scarf in the wind. Since when did I need attention more than air? Maybe I’d always been the person who needed someone. Always hated being alone.

Still, everything he was saying unnerved and excited every fiber of my being in the same instant.

I knew it was foolish. I also knew I couldn’t possibly take another round, yet here I was, winding my body with his, begging without words for him to keep going.

Until this moment, I’d chalked up the romance novels I read to fantasy. Ludicrous notions of perfection that no one could achieve outside their dreams.

There’s always something. A cough, a fart, even hair in the worst possible place—something jarring the all-consuming sensations back to realism.

But this? This wasn’t that. He wasn’t that.

DJ was impossibly perfect. Like he found and read a manual I didn’t know existed on how to please every part of me.

“That’s it, Dove, slide on this d**k and ride it ‘til you cum.”

Those words, etched in his brandy voice, had me ignoring every limit.

The hurt-so-good kind of stretch, where a little pain was nothing compared to the pleasure waiting on the other side.

The smirk on the Italian’s face was one of sheer victory when I gasped at how quickly my body tensed.

DJ pinched my n****e ever so lightly with his teeth, setting off a chain reaction through my nerve endings that made my very soul shiver on impact.

“That’s it, baby. Open for me.”

Suddenly I felt him going deeper, and curiosity filtered through as I reached between our bodies.

He wasn’t even all the way in, and I couldn’t help the head-to-toe blush that had me burying my face in his neck and curling my knees up.

“You’re getting better. This is the most you’ve taken yet,” he soothed, keeping his hands and mouth moving with small, still manly groans.

“Don’t stop, Dove. I need heaven a bit longer.”

It was sweet and sincere.

I looked at his face—the glowing gold of his eyes and the determination in his features. He wanted to make me feel good. To take all my pain away.

I leaned in to kiss him passionately, letting all my walls down.

For that moment, I bared my heart and let go of all the emptiness that had consumed me.

My Italian lover was there, like the sun—firing hot and brilliant into the darkness.

It was more. So much more than just s*x. I could feel him reaching for me the same way I reached for him.

We were like magnets—drawn and unable to escape each other.

His chest pressed to mine as he drove in and out of me, and just as I was teetering on the edge, DJ pushed us both over, cumming with me.

After grabbing a rag to clean us both up, DJ settled beside me in bed, holding a menu between us before asking,

“What would you like for breakfast?”

“Probably the breakfast burrito.” I’d seen it the previous morning and found myself saying, “I need the protein.”

If the words themselves weren’t enough to make me blush, his response was.

“You most certainly will.”

The words hung like a knowing promise. A tease, saying we hadn’t even started yet—and I couldn’t help but wonder if he took that as my agreeing to his proposition.

“Um,” I pulled back a bit, securing the covers around me despite the fact he’d seen—and felt—it all.

Once again, it hit me just how much I’d shared with a stranger and how deeply he’d already seeded his attentions inside me.

“I have to work today and promised to meet some friends for lunch.”

I don’t think I’ve ever sounded so sheepish in my life. I wasn’t saying no. I don’t think I wanted to say no. I just needed a little more time out of the high to think about what he was offering.

“Well, food should be here by the time you get dressed, and we can look over your list.”

The comment came with a little tap to my backside, and I felt that full-body blush all over again.

I didn’t think it was embarrassment. I wasn’t ashamed… I just felt so…

“You’re going to work on vacation?”

Whether he saw through my attempts to stall or just took it as a given that I’d agreed, DJ laid comfortably. One cut arm behind his head, full sculpted body on display, watching me.

“I could never consider time with you anything but a pleasure, Dove. Besides, I have a pretty keen eye for real estate and know this island better than most.”

“Are you sure?” I twisted my lips, leaning forward with the sheet over my chest, but leaving my back bare while I looked over my shoulder at him.

“I really don’t want to…”

“You want me,” he said with absolute confidence.

He needed nothing more than his eyes roaming my bare skin for me to feel the shivers that came with his touch.

“I want you.”

The confession seemed as simple as it did loaded.

“Seems like me pitching in allows us more time to explore that, doesn’t it?”

The faintest play of his dimple captured me—winning me over with a common sense I couldn’t refute, even if it entangled us further in whatever this was.

It’s just a fling, Ellie. You’re just enjoying a man’s company—however that may happen. It’ll be over in a week either way. No sane woman would give up what this man was offering.

“So what does this arrangement entail, exactly?”

The dimple turned into a full-spread grin, offering a strange sense of relief. While confident I’d agree, DJ didn’t take what we’d just done as a given.

It still felt like a choice I could take or leave, rather than something being decided for me. Refreshing.

“Think of it like dating exclusively,” he clarified when I asked what he wanted out of the arrangement.

“No one else touches you without my permission—and vice versa. If you want a partner to join us, we talk about it beforehand, and I offer the same courtesy.”

It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear. Imagining he’d talk another woman up to me that he wanted to sleep with…

Like I said, I understood poly and swapping on an intellectual level, but I was far too jealous a person to be okay with that.

The fact that I was already feeling a sense of hurt and insecurity over a practical stranger being with someone else said this wasn’t just physical.

I was setting myself up for a hard fall at the end of this.

“You will always be open and honest with me. Speak your mind and tell me if you want or need anything. ‘Red’ is your safe word. You say red, and it all stops—no questions, no hesitation. Just the sound of that single word, and everything shifts.”

I swallowed hard, surprised by the weight those few syllables suddenly held.

Relief flickered in my chest, tangled with curiosity and something sharp and warm—trust.

The fact that he gave me that kind of control, even in surrender, sent a pulse of unexpected reassurance through me.

“You may also say ‘red’ if you are in trouble or uncomfortable, and I will take care of it.”

That part wasn’t so bad. New and different, but encouraging.

“You will obey my commands and share a bed with me every night. I will be with you, no matter where you go—outside of bathroom breaks—or if you ask for time alone.”

I wiggled a bit more at that. I didn’t know what it meant. Not really.

What kind of commands are we talking about? Is this about to get weird, like I have to lick his shoes or something?

As if DJ could read my mind, he scooted closer, letting his powerful thighs fall on either side of mine.

“It’s more or less what we’ve been doing since I took you snorkeling, Ellie.”

His arms wrapped around my center, and I felt so delicate. A small and treasured thing.

The feeling of his chest on my back. Being able to lean into his heat, appreciate his even breath and steady heartbeat…

“Okay…” I whispered, the word catching on a breath I didn’t realize I was holding.

A flutter of nerves sparked in my belly, mingling with a surprising jolt of excitement.

Something about the way he held me—solid, safe, and scorching hot—made it feel less like surrender and more like choosing to trust someone for the first time in forever.

Apparently, the breathless, if not obsessive, agreement made DJ think twice.

“Indulge me,” he urged. “Just try it out for today, and we’ll talk again tonight…”