trying to deal with that chaotic mess of feelings inside me. “You didn’t,” I whisper.
“I scared you. I said too much.”
His expression is crumbling, so I quickly grab his hand and squeeze it. “No. You didn’t scare me at all. I…that’s what I want.”
He stares at me in disbelief. “You do?”
“Yes. I don’t want you for now. Or a few months from now. Or a year from now. I want you forever.”
Claudio blinks, completely taken aback.
I put my hand on his cheek, his stubble rough against my warm palm. “Claudio. I felt myself falling and I didn’t stop myself this time. I let it happen. I let myself fall in love with you.” Hot tears prick my eyes. “I love you. I’m in love with you and it’s scary, and it’s chaotic, and it’s messy, and I don’t think I’ll ever be the same again but…I love you. In this universe, and in the next one, and the next one.”
A tear falls down Claudio’s cheek and the next thing I know, he’s pressing my face between his hands and kissing me. So hard, so passionate, rolling with such feeling that I feel my glass fall to the floor and his does the same, Prosecco spilling everywhere.
But I don’t care.
I am in love.
And as a result, my brain has deserted me.
We roll back onto the bed and he crawls over me, and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of seeing his large, tanned, muscular frame above my body.
My hands skim down the muscles of his back, pulling at his shirt.
His hands slide up my legs, bunching up my dress, pushing aside my underwear until he finds me soaked and bare and ready for him.
We don’t have words tonight because all the words have been said for now.
All we have are our hearts and we’re letting those lead the way, and make the choices, the way it always should be.
He continues to kiss me, soft lips and slick tongue that gradually turns raw and wild, and it all means so much more now. Now that I know what I’m feeling, now that I know I love him, it takes this meeting of our bodies to another plane of existence, to another level. I don’t want to just give him my body, I want to give him my heart and soul and every other piece of me.
And as he undoes his pants and pushes his cock inside of me, I know he’s taking those pieces of me, savoring them, making them meld with everything he has to give.
Give and take.
He rocks into my hips, I buck up against him.
He slowly pulls himself out, I squeeze him as he goes.
His lips suck down my neck, my nails scratch at his back.
We fuck like this, soft and slow and sweet, both of us brimming with too many feelings, occasionally looking at each other in awe, like neither of us knew it could be this good.
But it is.
We come together, my orgasm crashing down on me like a tidal wave, spinning me in all directions. He cries out my name, sharp and loud in the room, as he shudders out his breath, his hips pressing hard against mine.
All the emotions of the day suddenly come flooding back at full strength, like I had barely been keeping the water back, and now the dam has caved in.
Shit.
I’m crying.
“Musa?” he whispers to me, still inside me. I never want him to leave.
He places his thumbs below my eyes and wipes away the tears.
“I love you,” I cry out, feeling stupid.
His eyes glow with adoration as he gazes down at me. “Yes, I know. But please, don’t stop saying it.”
I pinch my eyes shut. The relief over telling Vanni, the fear that I’ll lose Jana as an agent, that my book might be in jeopardy, all these feelings are swirling around, competing against each other for my attention.
But the fact that I love him, and that I have his love, is the biggest one of all.
And my heart has never felt so full.
No matter what happens, I’m going to be okay.
We’re going to be okay.
After all, I know the ending.
Twenty-Three
Claudio
It feels good to be in my own bed.
It feels even better to have Grace beside me.
No more sneaking around. Just the pure truth. Just us.
“Good morning,” I whisper to her. She’s curled on her side, head on the pillow, hair spilling around her. Her eyes slowly blink open and I’m caught in how startlingly blue they can seem