everything else. Over reserve, over fear.
She slowly peeled her top over her head, leaving her breasts bare for him. She shivered, nerves and the chill in the air raising goose bumps on her skin, arousal making her nipples pucker.
She pushed her pants down her legs, and her panties with them. “Just for you,” she said. And she meant it. This part of her, this woman who would make love in a box at the opera, she was just for Alik. Somehow, he made her different.
Later, she would worry about it. She might even regret it. But not now.
“I am a lucky man.” He crossed to her, cupping her cheek, the gesture tender, at odds with the heat and intent burning in his eyes.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his body against hers, pulled him in for a kiss. Skin to skin. She needed it. Needed him, his touch. Needed him to push her past the point of reason, past the point of thought.
He’d done it before, with such ease, and she needed it again.
He gripped her thighs and lifted her so that her legs were wrapped around his waist and he was supporting all of her weight. It brought the heart of her against the hard ridge of his erection, sending a spark of pleasure through her, deep and all-consuming.
And she was there. Beyond thought. Beyond anything other than feeling.
He kissed her neck, whispered things in her ear. Husky, dark words. Some she understood, some she didn’t, but the intent didn’t need translation.
“Take me,” she whispered, broken, needy. Alik would fix her. He would answer the ache inside of her body. The one that went deeper than the physical.
He lay down on the bed, bringing her down on top of him. She started to adjust her position, to take him inside of her body. His hands tightened at her hips. “Stop.”
“What?” she panted.
“Condom.”
“Where?” she asked.
“Drawer.”
“Oh.” She hadn’t looked in her nightstand drawer since arriving in Paris. And there they were. She might feel weird about it later, might feel bad that Alik had protection everywhere, because clearly he was the sort of man who did what he wished when the mood hit. But for now, she was just grateful.
She handed the protection to him and he applied it, then she moved back where she’d been and lowered herself onto him. Slowly, as slowly as she could manage, enjoying the tease. Enjoying the pained look on his face.
She liked that she had the power to torture him. To make him sweat and shake. It made her feel strong. It made her feel beautiful. Like a woman. A woman who was enough for the man she was with. A man who felt no inhibition, no issues with himself or who he was, or his ability to satisfy her.
Being with Alik was like waking up. Like bursting through the surface of the water after being under for too long. She hadn’t even realized she was suffocating.
He gripped her hips tightly, thrust up inside of her. Her head fell back and she put her hands on his shoulders, rode him, found the rhythm that worked for both of them.
She looked down at Alik’s face, the intensity, the focus. She bent down and kissed his mouth, sliding her tongue against his and he stiffened beneath her, shuddering out his orgasm. He swore and turned her over, reversing their positions and then pressing a kiss to her breasts, sucking on a nipple deep inside his mouth, continuing down her body.
He gripped her legs and hooked them over his shoulders, gripping her buttocks tight in his palms and pulling her up to his mouth, burying his face between her thighs before she had a chance to catch her breath.
“Alik…” She shuddered, his tongue tracing a streak of fire over her damp flesh.
He pushed two fingers inside of her, working them in time with his lips and tongue, pushing her higher, farther than she imagined possible.
Nothing had ever felt this good. Ever. Alik knew her body, knew just what she needed. Knew when she needed more, knew when to bring her down just so he could push her back to the edge again.
He kept it going until she was sure she would die from the pleasure. She opened her mouth to beg him to stop, to beg him to end it and let her come, but the words died on her lips, incoherent moans taking their place.
Still holding her lower body tightly with one hand,