skin that never goes away. Leo puts one hand on the inside of each of my thighs and spreads my legs again. I have one hand curled around the spine of a book and the other gripping a handful of pages. I’m trying to be careful. I might hurt them, too.
“Christ, you’re sweet.” This, he says so softly that I’m not sure he means to say it to me. I was expecting a fast, hard fuck, but Leo leans down and kisses my clit, swirling his tongue over it until I come. He shifts positions to lick me while the pleasure rolls over. I can’t hear him over the pounding of my heart, but I can feel the vibrations of his voice on my pussy. Like I’m the best thing he’s ever tasted. Like this one thing lets the world hurt less.
He straightens up when my orgasm is finished and wipes his mouth on his sleeve, his eyes hard on mine. “I’m going to fuck you now. Make you bleed. It’s going to hurt, and I’m going to love that. It’s going to sting, and ache, and stretch. You’re going to cry. I’m going to love that, too. And I promise you, darling, I won’t take my cock away and stop hurting you until you come.” A pause that seems weighted with meaning and the harsh pull of my breath. “That’s the deal.”
If I weren’t already lying down, I’d fall. I’d swoon right to the ground. Because even with his hands on my thighs, even with his body barring me from closing my legs, Leo is asking permission.
It’s permission he doesn’t need.
He could have taken me the night I stepped foot in his house. He has my name on a contract. He owns me, and he owns my family, and this dark-suited devil is giving me an out.
“Please.” My dry mouth doesn’t help. “Please hurt me.”
A curt nod. He’s coiled tight, too. I see it now in the set of his shoulders and the tension in his jaw. Leo’s hands make fast work of his belt.
His cock has been down my throat, but I’m shocked at the sight of it. How thick and wanting it is. A bead of precum catches the lamplight. I never thought I’d be in the position of admitting that a Morelli is perfect, but there’s no other word for him. Beautiful and terrifying and perfect.
He drags his crown through my folds, getting it slick. At the pressure against my opening, I want to close my eyes. But I can’t look away.
Leo braces his hands on my hips, stroking me with the full width of his palms, and I don’t fully process how much it calms me until he makes the first thrust.
My scream bounces back at both of us, off the ceiling, and Leo curses under his breath.
I can’t move. He’s so big. I can’t—I can’t do anything. He’s splitting me in two. My mind struggles with it, tries to make the pain into pleasure, but it’s like speaking a foreign language. I don’t know pain the way he does. Pages crumple in my fist. Leo works his way in another inch, his whole body fighting him. I can tell how much he wants to fuck me. It’s obvious, it’s obvious. Tears leak from the corners of my eyes. He sweeps one of them away with the pad of his thumb.
His cock pulses inside me, and his chest heaves with big breaths. He was not lying when he said he would love my tears and my pain. He does love it. But it’s not simple, no, no, no. It’s not simple at all. He wrestles with it. I can see that struggle in his eyes.
With another curse, Leo gathers me up in strong arms, keeping himself inside me. There’s a rug on the floor, an oval of light on it, and he takes us there. Lowers us to the floor. I’m on top of him now. Being on top gives me no more control. He puts one hand on the floor to steady him and uses the other to arrange me. My knees touch the floor, but barely, my thighs aching with the effort of keeping myself hovering above his thick cock.
“I can’t take anymore,” I sob. “It won’t fit.”
He makes a shushing sound, his face a picture of need. Leo lifts one hand to brush my hair away from my cheek. “I always keep my promises, and now you’re going to help me. Be