And I’d known myself, because the second she was within reach, the second she was within touching distance, look where we were.
I was marring her, tainting her.
I knew that meant a lot to someone like her. No, she didn’t live the Roma way, but she did still live by some of the tenets.
I was making us mahrime.
Unclean.
I was sullying her.
A shudder whispered through me as I recognized how wrong this was, and when she looked at me, I knew she saw what I was thinking, feeling. But she shook her head and surged onto her feet. Within seconds, she was naked, fully, totally, eye-poppingly naked, and I’d never been more delighted or terrified.
“You don’t have to do this,” I rasped, even as my gaze ate up every piece of her, every part touched by my hungry eyes.
“Yes,” she stated formally, “I do.”
Then, I wasn’t allowed to think, I was only allowed to feel. She curved her arms around my shoulders, slipping them upward so she could cup my neck, then run her fingers through my hair. Her touch was like a siren’s song, and I sank into it, shuddering again as she forced me to look down, to stare into her eyes before she joined our mouths.
I knew I’d never be the same again.
As I carefully pushed her backward and onto the bed, I loved how she spread her legs, letting me settle in the core of her immediately.
She felt like fire, and I burned in her heat, burned in the flames that made her mine. That made me hers.
As I slipped my tongue into her mouth, thrusting mine against hers, coaxing her to respond because I knew she was new to this kind of kiss, I ground my dick into her, letting her feel me, letting my hardness rub against her softness.
She was wet, and I wanted to shout hosannas to the sky for that. I wanted to explore her and taste her and tease her and charm her, but I wasn’t sure if I could.
I had everything I’d wanted for years in my arms, and I knew I was lucky if I managed to get her off before I made a real dick of myself.
With a sigh, I pulled back, enjoying her moan of disappointment when I stopped kissing her. But I knew I had work to do.
She was a virgin, and I wanted her to think on this moment with joy. Never fear or discomfort. If I carried on grinding into her, then I wasn’t sure how she’d end up feeling—disappointed most likely. So, I started to move down, kissing her throat, sucking on the side of her neck, licking her earlobe, and making her shudder.
I started rubbing the tips of her nipples with my lips, anointing each side, loving how sensitive she was. Her tits were small, but those nubs? Sweet fuck, they were tender.
She shivered each time I sucked down hard, and I almost thought, if given enough time, she might be able to get off with just me sucking on them that way.
I bit my lip at the thought before I focused on other things. Like trailing my tongue over the muscles in her belly—she was close to a six pack—and then I pressed a kiss to the top of her pubis.
It didn’t surprise me she was bare, but it turned me the hell on to see her like that. She was a swimmer, we shaved everything, men included, but the sight blew me away.
I could no more stop myself from diving into her and feasting like a madman than I could stop myself from diving into a carb buffet the night after a meet.
That was why I’d been outside the hotel—I’d been intending on indulging the one fucking vice I had.
Instead, I was here.
Talk about epic timing.
She smelled like soap. That was my initial impression. Like some kind of soap that wasn’t heavily fragranced. Clean, I guessed. A little hint of, maybe, roses? I didn’t know, but that simple essence was enough to make my heart pound.
Her core was like the rest of her—simple, understated, elegant.
I bit my lip as I pushed my face against the hard muscles of her belly. She let her hands drag over my scalp, let her nails rake me once more.
“Adam?” she whispered.
I heard her nerves. “I love you, Thea,” I whispered back, unable to stop myself from telling her the truth. “I love you so much. You have my heart.”