heading to the bar to claim my free drink when my hand was clasped in a much larger one. Now, I towered over Jaz, Roxy, and Gia with or without heels. But I still had to crane my neck to look up at Nico—he was that close. So close that when he spoke to the rest of the group, his lips grazed mine.
“We’re taking the next round to go,” he announced without looking away from me. “We’ll see everyone on Sunday.”
We didn’t get very far through the bar before a guy, probably around my age, stepped in front of us. He only had eyes for me, and didn’t even spare Nico a glance. “Hey, aren’t you Alexia Kozlov? The model?”
I opened my mouth as Nico glared and bit out, “No.”
He swiped up my hand and shoved past the other man, dragging me toward the exit.
Words failed me as he pulled me behind him into the dark night, the noises of the bustling city whirring around us. With nothing but a tight grip on my hand, he led us into an underground parking garage. It must have been some kind of reserved parking because there were few cars taking up the spaces and no other people around as far as I could see. He eventually stopped at a sleek silver sports car with suicide doors.
“Which car is this?”
“The Pagani Huayra,” he answered in a clipped tone.
The what? Was that even English?
Yanking me forward, he pushed me against the passenger door. My breath got stuck in my throat as he pressed himself against me, roughly, brazenly. Gnashing his teeth, he slapped his palms on top of the car and grinded against my center.
I gasped. “Wh-what are you doing?”
His head lowered over my neck. “It’s more like what I’m not doing, legs. And what I’m not doing is keeping my dick away from you like I should be. I’m not ignoring the way you smell or the way you lick those red lips…” He dragged the tip of his tongue across my jaw. “Or the way you taste. I’m paying a fuck ton of attention to all of it when I shouldn’t be.”
I felt a persistent tugging inside me at his confession. He’d been thinking about me? Imagining things? Maybe even…fantasizing?
I released a dry laugh, feeling bold. “Why shouldn’t you? We are married, aren’t we?”
He grunted. “But we won’t be forever. And the higher we bring ourselves now, the harder we’ll crash in the aftermath.”
Did he mean sexually? Emotionally?
“Back to my original question, then.” My head fell back against the car when his tongue snaked along my collarbone. “What are you doing?”
His hands slid off the roof and trailed down my back, lowering until he was grasping me around the waist. “I’m sure not keeping my hands off,” he rasped, gaze locked on where his fingers nearly touched. “Am I, legs? Though neither were you in the bar.”
Was he expecting an apology or something? “I was just—”
“I liked it,” he interrupted. “A whole fucking lot.”
A primal growl was ripped from him just before his mouth took ownership of my neck. It was a blatant display of possession if ever I’d seen one. Just like in the club in Rovinj. It was as if his goal was to lay claim to every inch of my body with his mouth. To mark me.
Except for my own mouth, apparently. He hadn’t attempted to kiss me. In fact, he seemed determined to avoid the act altogether. Afraid of extending the intimacy, perhaps?
Oh, who cares about the consequences?
My core was throbbing too intensely to concern myself with anything outside of relieving the pain, satisfying the itch. Fulfilling the craving.
My fingers slid through his hair and pulled. “You want more?”
A guttural groan rumbled from deep within his chest. “I don’t want more. I need more.”
Did that mean this was merely his inability to resist his own body’s needs? That he didn’t actually want it? If he had it in his mind to play some sort of hot and cold game with me, that was definitely not going to work. He either wanted this or he didn’t. He was either in or he was out.
“What’s happening here, Nico? I need you to tell me before it goes any further.”
His grip on my waist tightened. “I don’t fucking know, Lexi. All I know is that it hurts. Whatever this is, it hurts. And I need it to stop.”
Sympathy wriggled its way through me. I knew he’d been hard ever since I’d