an attempt to not look as though I’d just been blown sideways. “You should give a girl warning before you make love to her from three feet away.”
He inhaled through his nose. “Is that what I’m doing?”
I set my wine down, licking my lips. Uncrossing and crossing my legs, I shifted in my seat. A move that didn’t go unnoticed by Xavier. “It’s definitely what it feels like,” I admitted. Just the way he said my name sometimes made my stomach free fall.
Cristo took that moment to materialize, and quietly, as if he could sense the change in atmosphere, cleared up our dishes. He whispered to Xavier.
“Dessert?” Xavier asked me.
I shook my head. I was full and was sure it would be delicious, but I just wanted to be alone with Xavier.
As soon as Cristo left and the dumbwaiter rattled its way down below, we were left in candlelit silence. The strains of soft classical guitar had faded between pieces and now slowly came back to life.
“There’s so much I still want to know about you,” I said. “Two days doesn’t feel like enough.”
“Maybe it will be. We are still at the beginning.”
I didn’t bother to disagree. Instead I nodded, shoving down the odd feeling of sadness that bubbled through my happiness.
“We won’t be disturbed again.” He slid his chair back and lifted a beckoning hand. “Viens ici?”
Come here?
As if I could resist.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Back at the boat, all was dark. Only Paco was apparently on board, and even he had retired for the night.
After Xavier had beckoned me over to his side of the table, I’d ended up on his lap, our arms wrapped around each other, talking for ages and making out like teenagers. We’d stopped short of getting to any indecent behavior out of respect for Cristo and his establishment, but before long it was clear that not even our surroundings might stop us if we didn’t get out of there. We stumbled giddily down the stairs, saying swift and jovial goodbyes. In the cobbled streets, Xavier held me close, tucked under his arm, pausing occasionally in darkened doorways to kiss my neck and whisper French things in my ear. My skin was a conduit for his desire, every cell lit up with electrical fire.
I was giddy, breathless, and utterly seduced.
I guided Xavier down to my cabin where we barely made it through the door before our clothing was discarded. Only the mooring lights from the boat and dock filtered through my tiny window as I cradled his body between my open thighs and he slid into me, filling the seemingly endless ache I had for him. His face and eyes were barely visible in the shadows.
Our lovemaking started off slow and deliberate.
He lifted my leg, finding his way deeper, and I cried out at the new angle. “There’s no one to hear you,” he whispered, moving in and out of me languidly, making me feel every slow inch as he dragged out and pushed back in. “Tell me what you want. Let me hear you.”
“This,” I’d gasped. “You. You feel so good inside me.”
He grunted and mumbled something back to me in French. Then switched to English. “Faster?” he asked as he thrust in hard and fast.
I cried out again.
“Oui, like this,” he answered for me. “You make me crazy. Hungry. I will finish and need more. How is it possible?”
Then his whispers quieted and it was just the sound of our labored breaths and my cries as he brought me closer and closer to the edge. The sudden silence from him was disconcerting, but, oh God, he was just in the right spot.
“Xavier. Yes.” I wrapped my other leg around his firm butt, urging him faster, deeper. Lightning shot up and down my skin.
His body grew tense and strained and we both struggled against and toward the rush to the edge. I got there first, my eyes squeezing closed and my head going back as I gave myself up to the fall.
Then I held his head in my hands, watching his shadowed features as he came apart, wishing I could see what was going on behind his tightly closed eyelids.
He collapsed on me, his heart pounding against mine, and then slid off to the side. Cool air whispered over my sweat-slicked skin as I caught my breath.
I disentangled myself without resistance and crept out of bed to clean up. When I re-emerged, I found Xavier already sleeping, hand thrown up over his head, the other on