Luca's shirt was gone, but I only caught a glimpse of the broad shoulders and muscular form I'd already seen but hadn't fully appreciated before his lips were on mine again, his hard body pressing me down into the bed, holding in the pain that threatened to burst through the numbness at any moment. I ran my hands over his back, feeling the muscle shift beneath my palms as he held himself over me. Then he was moving, nipping at my bottom lip, my jaw, working his way over to my ear where he whispered, "I've wanted to touch you like this since the moment I first saw you."
I could only whimper in response as he trailed gentle kisses down my throat, pausing when he came to the bruises he'd left. There, he lingered, and although I knew he would never say it, I got the impression he didn't like seeing the evidence of what he'd done.
Pulling the shirt I was wearing aside, he moved down over my collarbone and tried to go lower. Then, with a sound of impatience, he rose over me and pulled my shirt up and off with quick, impatient jerks.
I wasn't wearing a bra. I only had the one I was wearing when he'd brought me here, and I had no idea what he'd done with the clothes I'd had on that night. As he sat back on his heels and looked at me as though he was seeing me for the first time, I held my breath, my body trembling, my focus completely on him.
Luca's tongue wet his bottom lip as he stared at me, then he cupped one of my breasts, his palm rough with calluses. He squeezed, hefting the weight in his hand before pinching the nipple and releasing it to do the same on the other side. Bending over me, he sucked my nipple into his mouth, hot and wet and demanding as he teased the nub until it was painfully hard and I was squirming on the bed beneath him.
Streaks of pleasure shot through my body, filling the emptiness, replacing the pain. My blood roared in my ears, telling me I was alive, that I was still here. And right now, I wanted to be here. I wanted to feel everything Luca demanded of me.
His teeth were sharp as he played with my breasts, biting the tender skin, and then laving the wound with his warm, wet tongue until they were overly sensitized and straining toward him for more. Only then did he begin to kiss his way down over my stomach. Lower and lower, until the waistband of my shorts stopped him.
I lifted my hips, my pulse racing and my breath coming in gasps, begging him with my body to keep going. I wanted to feel his mouth on me more than I wanted my next breath.
Luca untied my shorts, sliding them down over my hips and ass and dropping them off the side of the bed. Then he stood to take off his pants, his blue eyes never leaving me.
As the raw need of his stare hit me, I drew in on myself, feeling suddenly vulnerable. But I couldn't keep my eyes from him as he slowly unzipped his pants and pushed them down over his narrow hips and lean, powerful thighs and stepped out of them, leaving him wearing only black boxer briefs. My eyes dropped down to the bulge there. He was long and thick and hard, the wide head of his cock poking out of the waistband of his briefs.
"Open your legs for me, Veda."
My heart sped up in my chest, and I glanced toward the lamp he'd turned on. But it was on the other side of the bed. I was too exposed. A rabbit laid out for a lion.
"Veda." There was a warning in his voice.
But as much as I wanted this, I couldn't do it. I don't know why. I've never been shy about my body or sex, but being with Luca was different. I didn't want to just give in to him. Not about this. I needed this to be on my terms. He left me with so little control when it came to anything about my life since he'd brought me here, but this, giving him my body, was something I could have control over.
But I was so wrong.