by CR Robertson
Ash stared at his feet for a few seconds. “I put you in the guestroom beside mine.”
I either claimed my courage or climbed into bed alone. “I’m sleeping in your bed.”
“Lucrezia…” he growled in a low warning.
I shook my head and pushed him onto the sofa, climbing onto his lap to straddle his waist. “I’m sleeping in your bed while I live here. It’s the safest place in the house and you promised to keep me safe.”
“It’s the least safe place in this house for your virtue.”
“Hmmm.” I pressed a soft kiss to his lips.
“Your papa would kill me or be standing waiting for me with a shotgun.”
I stole another kiss. This time his mouth followed mine when I moved back. “You got a portfolio?”
“I have several.”
“I think you’re safe enough then.”
“Lucrezia…”
“Ash…”
“Ah, fuck it!” His fingers gripped my hair and hauled me against him as his mouth devoured me. I pushed forward until my breasts were pressed into his chest.
“I don’t want you to fuck it,” I taunted. “I need you to fuck me.”
“You should be careful what you wish for,” he grated out.
I kissed him one last time before climbing off his lap and holding my hand out. “Time for bed.”
His fingers wrapped around mine. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
I stared up at him fearlessly. “Not a clue. The banana lessons didn’t extend to this part.”
A smile curved his lips and he grabbed me to throw me over his shoulder. “You are the road to sin and debauchery,” he muttered.
I moved my legs to circle his waist and hold on for dear life.
I’d dreamed about this moment for so long that I never thought it would happen. I would deal with the obstacles he’d throw in my path tomorrow, but tonight belonged only to us.
***
Chapter Sixteen
Lucrezia
My back hit the mattress and Ash settled himself between my legs, his eyes boring holes into my soul.
“My moral compass is broken right now, Angel. Tell me to stop.”
I couldn’t because he was the one man I’d always wanted. Now that I knew him as a person, I couldn’t resist the attraction between us anymore. Ash was more than I ever imagined and I was falling harder for him every single day.
“I can’t,” I whispered. “There’s nothing wrong with your compass.”
His hands pinned my wrists beside my head as he glared down at me. “I’ll hurt you.”
I may not be able to move my arms, but I could move my legs. So, I wrapped them around him. He wanted me to push him away, and I was beginning to understand that was what had happened to him in the past. I refused to do that because I knew what it felt like to be the odd one out in your family and to be judged by your name instead of your talents.
He groaned, his forehead pressing to mine. “You need to let me go.”
“You need to stay with me.” His sapphire gaze bored into mine, confliction in his depths. “Please, Ash, I know you feel what I do.”
This was the crossroad that could take us in two different directions. One would lead us back where we’d been, nothing more than passing acquaintances bound together by mutual friendships. The other would forge a new path that only we could travel. The stakes were high, but the rewards were higher.
I sucked his bottom lip into my mouth and gently bit down. He swallowed and heat gathered in his eyes, burning away all his resistance until the Ash from that morning in my room reappeared. He was the Ash who chatted to me on the phone and sent me texts with photographs he took in nature that I could use for my designs.
My Ash.
His hands released my wrists to cup my face, his lips parted mine as he took control, and I flopped back onto the bed and dragged him with me. From resisting me, it now felt like his hands couldn’t touch me enough. They skimmed over my skin and activated pleasure zones I didn’t know existed. He trailed my top over my head and I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to pop up earlier and put on the sexy lingerie I brought with me. My normal attire wasn’t what the models wore in the magazine or the women wore in books to seduce men.
Ash’s laugh vibrated against my skin. “This is really inappropriate, but should I really have an erection right now?”
My bra was red silk with white polka dots on it and a black lace trim. Three little pom-poms in the middle created the head and ears of the famous female mouse, a tiny red bow between her ears.
Ash’s amused gaze slid down from my bra over my stomach to the waistband of my jeans. “Do the panties match?”
I froze. “I need to get changed,” I muttered, trying to push my way up.
“Not a fucking chance, Angel. This is a present I get to unwrap.” He pressed a quick, hard kiss to my lips before unbuttoning my jeans.
If my cheeks got any redder, they were going to combust. He tugged my jeans over my ass and stopped, his laughter making my eyes close.
The panties didn’t match because I tended to wear cotton shorts for comfort. My pale pink panties with a pussy cat head on the front with a tiara above it was my final humiliation. Princess Pussy was written on the back above a furry tail. Please, God, don’t let him see the back.
“Fucking perfect.” My gaze flew to his. “Do you always wear this type of underwear?”
I groaned and threw myself back and covered my face with my hands. “I like to be comfortable. Your ass does not enjoy being scrubbed with a serrated edge. Have you ever tried to wear a lace thong?”
“Not lately,” he replied, amusement lacing his tone.
“You’re making fun of me,” I accused.
“I’m really not. You intrigue me in more ways that I can admit. Women throw themselves at the three of us for status because we have power and money. I can’t remember when someone has ever wanted me for me. Now you’re in my bed with your pussy panties and polka dot bra and I don’t think I’ve ever been so aroused in my life.” His finger traced the edge of the lace on my bra. “Mickey is a lucky mouse.”
“You’ve seen my panties, now I’ll go and change.”
His eyes narrowed. “What are you hiding?”
“Nothing,” I said in as normal a voice as I could muster.
The guy was super strong and had me rolled onto my tummy in an instant. I cringed as I felt him tug my cute furry tail that, until this moment, had been one of my favourites. I groaned and buried my head into the mattress.
His body pressed into mine and his erection dug into my ass. “Is it wrong that I want to fuck you in that tail?”
“You leave my pussy alone!”
Ash roared in laughter and I groaned again when I realised what I said. “Don’t you want me to stroke your pussy?”
I pushed myself up to turn around and glare at him. “You’re twisting my words.”
He tugged my tail and arched an eyebrow. “I promise to make her purr.”
“You better or my pussy will get feral.”
Those sensual lips curved into a salacious smile. “She gonna bring out her teeth and claws?”
I pursed my lips for a moment. “Maybe.”
He grinned and winked. “I think I can handle it.” Ash rolled me onto my back. “You are a breath of fresh air in my stale existence.”
His lips found mine and I was lost. He peeled my clothes off, his falling into a heap on top of them. Nothing prepared me for the sensation of his warm skin sliding against mine. Ash’s lips trailed a path of seduction down my throat until they reached my breasts. My spine arched when his mouth closed over my nipple, his tongue flicking a tribal beat on the delicate flesh. His thumb teased my other nipple until I was writhing under him.
Those hands of his must contain magic because they created heat and tingles everywhere they travelled, activating nerve ends and goosebumps that rose to meet his touch. His lips finally finished their journey a
nd came to the juncture between my thighs. His eyes met mine and my mouth fell open when his tongue slipped between my lower lips the same way it did into my mouth. My head fell back but I jolted up when he slapped my ass.
“Eyes on me,” he commanded.
That head between my legs was not a sight I thought I’d ever see. He spread me wide and devoured me until I was panting, my legs widening voluntarily to try and get more attention from that devilish tongue. Divine pressure built low in my stomach with every lick and caress. Tingles radiated through my body to concentrate between my legs. My hands gripped the bedclothes as my pelvis tilted. Ash rubbed first one and then two fingers inside me until I squirmed under his touch.
Suddenly and without warning, everything combined in the perfect storm of sensation and emotion. My entire body arched as pleasure detonated from my core to flood through my muscles until they went rigid before my body collapsed back onto the bed and my eyes fluttered closed.
It was so much more than I experienced the last time and it left me speechless.
Ash’s hand cleared my hair from around my face, his lips kissing my temple. “You doing okay?”
“Yeah, all this is new to me.”
His hard body rested on mine and I wanted everything from him. I’d heard all the tales of lost virginity at school, the stories of pain and bloody sheets. Yet, with Ash, all the fears I’d cultivated disappeared. My hand found his cock and slowly stroked him.
He would never hurt me because deep down we were the same.
“I need to get a condom,” he muttered, pulling back.
Part of me wanted to tell him that I wanted no barriers between us, but another voice screamed that we weren’t on anything to prevent pregnancy because celibacy was the best type of birth control.
He rolled the latex over his cock and I couldn’t stop staring at the size of it. My mouth was wide and it stretched me earlier. It was bigger than a banana.
“We don’t have to do this, Lucrezia.” He rested back on his knees, his massive erection straining toward me.
I finally met his eyes. “I want to, Ash, but no offence, that thing is massive. Are you sure it’s going to fit down there?” I discreetly pointed to my pussy.
He crawled over me until my head rested on the pillows and he lay in the cradle of my thighs. “I promise you that I’ll fit.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “Ready?”
My legs widened and I took a deep breath and nodded. The tip of his cock prodded at my entrance but Ash never once took his eyes from mine. “Keep breathing, Angel.” His hands gripped my hips and he began to push into me.
The stretching hurt as my body struggled to accommodate him. I wanted to wiggle to release the tension of that painful pinch.
“Breathe,” he said into my mouth, his lips teasing mine until my focus shifted as he deepened our kiss. He stopped pushing forward, but his fingers dug into my flesh and he thrust forward, tearing my insides as pain pierced deep into my centre. I gasped, but his mouth swallowed it, even as a tear rolled down my cheek.
I lay there stunned while Ash stroked me, his words soothing and his lips coaxing. The pain morphed into something different, the stretching turning to fullness. Ash’s body relaxed when he sensed me returning his kiss, my arms coming up to grip his shoulders.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered, his thumbs rubbing circles on my hips.
My legs widened and I tried to tilt my pelvis to alleviate the pressure of that massive cock inside me. Ash’s hands landed on either side of me and he slowly pulled out of me before pushing back inside. It wasn’t painful like that initial thrust, the movement easing my discomfort. He kissed me again and I spiralled into the abyss of sensation. He rocked into me until my body learnt the rhythm and began to move with him in that ancient dance of life.
His thrusts changed tempo and were harder, impossibly deeper, until I was gasping, my body covered in perspiration. His grunts echoed my moans, and my nails dug deep into his back to anchor myself. We were no longer two people, but one entity moving together, our bodies creating their own symphony of flesh sliding against flesh.
“Ash,” I gasped, that familiar pressure developing in my abdomen. My pussy was on fire from the friction, my stomach a molten mass of sensations ready to erupt. He tilted his hips to rub that magical place inside that his fingers found earlier.
Everything was too much and yet not enough. My nails trailed down his back and he hissed, his hips changing to a punishing rhythm. I wrapped my legs around him, my heels digging into him. All it took was for him to angle his hips just right and I spiralled out of control. My body spasmed and my teeth sank into his shoulder. Ash thickened inside me and thrust hard another few times before he collapsed on top of me.
Neither of us could breathe properly and I held him tightly because I never wanted to let him go.
“You okay?” Ash asked, his lips skimming my ear.
“Hmmm.” I tightened my arms around him.
We lay for a few minutes until Ash pushed himself onto his arms. “I need to pull out or that condom was for nothing.”
I watched his sculpted ass wander across the room into the toilet. His back was marred with scratch marks that heated my cheeks. When he came back, he stopped, his horrified gaze moving to between my legs. Blood smeared my inner thighs.
His walls started to build around him, so I stood on shaky legs. “Why don’t we have a bath?” I suggested, moving into his arms that enveloped around me automatically.
“I never wanted to hurt you.”
I leaned back to stare up into his face. “You do realise that female anatomy means that you have to break the seal the first time?”
He gave me the don’t be a smartass look.
“Come on, mister. Run me a bath and you can wash my back. Shit!” My fingers found the bite on his shoulder. “Look what I did!”
His hand covered mine, lifting it to kiss the pulse at my wrist. “I enjoy pain during pleasure.”
He tugged me into the bathroom and climbed into the bath first when it had filled, helping me sit between his legs. The pads of his fingers caressed me, his lips kissing trails over my shoulders until I relaxed into him.
Ash was silent so long that dread unfurled in my stomach.
“Please don’t regret this, Ash,” I whispered.
“I don’t regret it, Angel. I’m trying to work out what to do about us.”
I leaned back into his strength. “Is there an us?” It was needy and pathetic, but right now I was insecure because he held all the cards.
His growl against my neck made the hairs there stand to attention. “Do you think I would let another man touch you?”
I had hoped he wouldn’t, but as this was my first relationship, and I had no idea of what I was doing. “I don’t want any other man to touch me.”
“We need to be careful,” he said, pressing a kiss to the side of my throat. “I live in a world filled with enemies. Your papa hides behind his walls in Tuscany with a private army around him, but we live in the middle of the war here. Emotions make you weak, relationships give our enemies a target.”
I was beginning to see the world through his eyes and it wasn’t a pleasant place.
“Xavier keeps Cassandra hidden by staying at her apartment, so no one knows she exists.”
“Is Xavier dating someone?” I asked and stretched to make myself comfortable. His cock thickened under my ass.
“Yeah, but it’s early days and he’s keeping it private.”
“I’m family,” I pointed out.
“Are you going to ring him and tell him that I just took your virginity?”
“No, why would I?”
His silence spoke louder than words. Xavier and I weren’t that close. I saw him at holidays or when Papa sent for him. He wasn’t the one who helped me when I asked him, Ash did.
“Does that make me your dirty secret?” I asked.
“Technically, since we’re in the bath, you’re my clean secret.”
I laughed and clung to his arm as I sunk further into the bubbles.
I closed my eyes and allowed myself to enjoy this moment together. Ash was my future, I was as sure of it as I was of my own name. The only problem was that I needed Ash to realise that we belonged together. Every time he got lost in his own head, he rationalised everything until he decided he wasn’t good enough for me. I needed to stay close enough to him so that he didn’t descend into the darkness of his own personal Hell.
***
Chapter Seventeen
Ash
I waited for the regrets to appear and my conscience to chastise me. It didn’t happen. The woman sleeping on top of me had silenced all my demons. We woke a few hours ago and had slow, sleepy sex until she dug those nails into my ass when she climaxed.
Xavier, Jordan, and I were Doms in the Twilight Rooms and no subs there would ever dare to mark my skin, never mind claw at me with her nails or bite me. Lucrezia gave herself to pleasure, abandoning all her inhibitions to sacrifice herself at the altar of desire.
She’d blown my mind and that was a hard thing to do with someone who’d experienced a lifetime of pleasure across the globe. I’d thought there was nothing new to experience, but last night I discovered my boredom was nothing to do with sex but the people involved.
Lucrezia had reached inside my chest, found my cold hard heart, and made it feel again. She was the virgin, but she’d taught me a lesson last night.
I smiled at the ceiling at the thought of her ridiculous underwear. Even in the Midnight Rooms where you could see nothing, the women arrived in designer silk and lace. Lucrezia had wandered into my life in pussy panties. Sexy wasn’t the body or the underwear, but the person wearing them. She was slowly wrapping me around her little finger and I wasn’t sure if I loved it or hated it.
“You’re thinking too hard,” Lucrezia said huskily from beside me.
“What makes you say that?”
