against his shoulder, as his hand covered me in calloused warmth, dipping in with skilled fingers and luring me again toward climax.
“You're never letting me leave this bed today, huh?” I groaned before gasping as he entered my body from behind in one smooth thrust.
“I told you last night, Andy,” his teeth sank into my shoulder and then he kissed the pain away, “I missed you. I feel like I've been missin' you for weeks, and now, I'm makin' up for lost time.”
***
Three times, he made love to me, and after losing count of the orgasms, we passed out sometime after feasting on each other and leftovers from Famiglia Bella.
In his arms, I had forgotten about the night with my sisters and the woman on the train. I had pushed the concerns and eerie signs from my mind, because they were wrong, and that's all there was to it. I was happy, we both were, and there was absolutely no sense in allowing outside forces to weasel in and ruin it all.
So, I slept comfortably with him in a deep, dreamless slumber, tangled up in a mess of sweaty limbs and soiled sheets that barely clung to the mattress. Hours later, when I woke up to darkness and an aching bladder, I kissed his chest, licking the salt from his skin, before climbing out of bed with a promise to come back and go for round four.
I walked to the bathroom, surprised by how quickly my arousal was returning. I giggled, thinking of what my sisters had said about him corrupting me. It wasn't as though I'd been innocent before meeting him, but my experience with men had always been bland and very vanilla. Missionary was the norm, and it was a really wild time if I ever found myself on top. But Vinnie had somehow uncovered the vixen inside me, with cigarettes and sex appeal. And while Mer and Willa seemed to think there was something wrong in being adventurous, I couldn't get enough.
After using the toilet, I looked in the mirror over the sink. Smudged makeup ringed my eyes and my tousled, knotted hair seemed to have a mind of its own. I looked like a mess. Disheveled and oversexed. And yet, I had never felt more beautiful or more confident. And what exactly was so bad about that?
I smiled at my reflection, jittering with excitement at the thought of what awaited me in bed, in this apartment where my mind could switch off and my worries left themselves at the door. I splashed water on my face, took a deep breath, and pointed at the girl in the mirror.
“You deserve this,” I told her. “Now, go get yourself thoroughly fucked.”
I giggled at my own absurdity, shaking my head and rolling my eyes. I took another deep breath before turning off the light and opening the door. Immediately, I gasped, stifling my scream behind a hand as my heart pounded wildly in my chest. Because standing on the other side of the door, as if he was waiting for me to emerge, was Vincent.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
VINNIE
At the sound of her muffled scream, I bolted out of bed and hurried to the doorway. I found Andy with her back pressed to the wall beside the bathroom door and hands clutched tightly over her heart. Her already-pale skin gleamed like paper under the hallway light, stark white and chalky, while her eyes remained wide and transfixed on the wall across from her.
“What happened?” I asked, reaching out to grab her shoulders and pulling her into my protective arms. “Andy, what's wrong?”
She blinked rapidly, shaking her head. “N-Nothing, it's nothing,” she stammered, breathing in long, labored pushes and pulls.
“You're shaking,” I stated, trying to see what she was looking at. “Tell me what happened.”
“I'm, I'm okay. I thought I saw a spider.”
“You're scared of spiders?” I asked, squinting my eyes at the wall to find the offending eight-legged fucker. “I don't see anything.”
Her lungs calmed and her breathing slowed. “I don't know if it was really there. I just ... I just came out of the bathroom and thought I saw something. I'm okay, though.”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded against my chest. “Yeah, yeah, I'm sure. Let's just go back to bed, okay?”
“O-kay,” I drawled slowly, holding her away from me and studying her face.
The color had returned to her face and now she stared back at me with amusement twinkling in her eyes. One might've thought she was laughing at her own