out from the covers, hovering over her. She was still too dazed and dazzled to do anything but lie beneath him and pant, and she was surprised when she felt a wet cool between her legs, pushing at her slit. He’d gotten the condom on without her noticing.
But now he waited, watching her. When she was able to focus, she saw him looking down at her with raw need. “I wanted to do more for you first, but, babe, you’re so fucking hot I’m gonna die.”
Lia smiled, feeling a burst of power despite her lack of experience, and lifted her legs to hook around his waist. He’d shown her he liked that their first time.
With a sigh like she’d offered him water after a trek through a desert, Alex sank slowly into her.
She was ready for it to hurt again, but it didn’t. All she felt was fullness, and the sweet strum of nerves already excited to their full capacity. By the time she had taken all of him she could, already she was halfway to another explosion.
The tendons in Alex’s neck stood out with his effort to go slow. “Okay?”
“Perfect,” Lia said and rocked her hips.
With a groan, Alex accepted that invitation and began to move.
His strokes were steady and firm but not rough. Each one came a bit harder, a bit faster. His breath grew more harsh, and he lowered himself onto her body completely so that his thrusts made them rock together in tandem. His head dropped to her shoulder, and his gasping groans filled her ear.
Their shared movements got wilder and his breaths became howling winds. Lia lost herself in the feelings inside her, surrounding her, the incredible intimacy of having his body wound with hers so tightly they were hardly two anymore.
Alex shifted then, and she felt one of his hands push into the tight space between their bodies. That hand found her clit. His fingers brushed over it, and she came—just like that. First, lost in burgeoning ecstasy and wonder, and then caught in the rictus of its eruption.
Vaguely, she heard Alex make a sound of agonized exertion and felt him go still and hard, filling her so full she thought he’d planted himself inside her forever.
Lia held him tightly and hoped it was true.
~ 13 ~
Alex pulled the marinade dish from the fridge and set it on the counter beside the range. The rich tang of garlic, oregano, and red pepper in white wine vinegar lofted up, and he took a nice, deep breath. When his mother taught him how to cook, one of her most-repeated pearls of wisdom was to ‘be messy’—in the kitchen and in the food. Don’t stress about the cleanup until after, and don’t be shy about playing around with ingredients until you make something truly your taste and style. Even if it turns out to taste awful, you’ll have learned something.
He wasn’t quite as messy a cook as she was—she always managed to wear a bit of everything she was cooking with—but he loved to experiment. He’d made some horrific disasters and some great successes. Some of the successes had become family favorites, like his grilled chicken marinade.
He and his mom had never had much money, but they’d always eaten well.
As he began laying marinated chicken breasts on the heated grill in the middle of the range top, his mother came up alongside him to watch.
She sniffed deeply. “Oh, that’s nice. D’you do somethin’ different?”
He shrugged as he said, “Not really. Just sort of dumped stuff in until it looked and smelled right, like usual.”
“I thought maybe you’d get fancy for your girl.”
“Fancy food isn’t the way to her heart.”
“Huh. I’d think a Pagano princess would have champagne and caviar tastes.”
With a furtive glance toward the doorway—Lia was in the bathroom down the hall—Alex said, “Lia isn’t a princess. She has pretty simple tastes. Also, Ma, be nice.”
She did have simple tastes, in food, at least—especially with her watching her weight so obsessively. In fact, when, at his mother’s request, he’d invited Lia to have dinner at his house, he’d worried what kind of meal would be nice enough without making pressure on her to eat more than she wanted or making it obvious that she wasn’t eating. Grilled chicken seemed safe—it was something he’d seen her eat several times and was on just about every accepted diet in the history of the world, and his marinade didn’t add too much to it, calorie-wise. Roasted green beans seemed