I’d been riding horses, lifting boxes, and riding and lifting my wife any chance I got. “I’m fine.”
“You think you’re invincible, but you’re not, Cristiano.” She turned onto her stomach. “If I’m going to stay here with you, then I need you to stick around.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I promised as my eyes jumped to the perfect curve of her ass under the white sheet.
She shut her eyes and moved her cheek against the pillow. After a few moments, she said, “Cristiano?”
“¿Sí, mi amor?”
“Did you bring your gun to bed?”
Ah, the one cocked, loaded, and prodding into her hip. “I don’t control when the rooster crows.”
“I meant what I said.” She heaved a sweet sigh. “You’ve wrecked me. I literally cannot move.”
“You don’t have to. In fact, it would be better if you don’t.”
“Why?” she asked.
I slid the sheet down to her thighs, then linked a leg through one of hers and drew it open. Salivating at the sight of her smooth, taut ass, I said, “I can break you in just as you are now . . .”
She laughed softly. “You’re like a dog with a bone.”
“Indeed.” I slid down in the bed to get closer to her, ran my hand up her back, and whispered in her ear. “I have to get it out of my system. This overwhelming need to fuck you raw. Then we’ll make love, I promise.”
“Cristiano, my sun, moon, and stars,” she said, her eyes still shut. “We have already made love.”
“I know. But I mean in a way that changes us each to our cores. I’m holding back so I don’t scare you.”
Her lids fluttered open. “You already scare me. Don’t you see how I reacted to the idea of you putting yourself in danger again? What if I let myself . . . and then I lose you?”
I inhaled and tried not to read too much into what she hadn’t said. “What if I lose you now that I finally have you?” I said. “Does that mean I shouldn’t even try?”
“Try what?”
“To love you or anyone. Nobody in my life is safe. Nobody ever will be.” I traced the faint tan lines on her ass cheeks from our afternoon at the beach. “Do you think your father regrets loving Bianca? He doesn’t.”
Her shudder, and the look of satisfaction on her face, nearly set off the gun between us. That was my cue to go.
Slowly, I withdrew from her and stood.
She lifted her head. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to shower and jerk off, or else I won’t be able to sleep.”
“What about me?”
“You’re sore. And tired—I hear it in your voice. Get some rest. If I wear you out, I may not be able to enjoy you in the morning. I’ll finish you off then.”
She rested her cheek back on the pillow as I went and flipped on the shower. Seconds from now, in my fantasies, I’d be balls deep in Natalia’s asshole.
But as I stepped under the stream of water and took my dick in hand, that wasn’t where my mind went. Instead, I saw Natalia pregnant with my child. No question I was a sick fuck for getting hard over that, but El Gallo wanted what El Gallo wanted. God help her when she really was expecting—I already knew I’d be an overprotective mess.
It was everything I wanted.
I flattened a hand against the tile wall and was about to stroke myself to Heaven when a small, tentative hand beat me to it. I looked over my shoulder. Natalia placed her cheek against my biceps and smiled up at me. My body shielded her from the water, but her wet palm glided along my shaft.
“I thought you couldn’t move,” I said.
She stroked me gently, almost as if offering comfort. “You have already changed me to my core, Cristiano. And I love you.”
Something broke loose in my chest. I hadn’t expected . . . not yet. Even though I already knew she loved me, there was nothing like hearing it. Even though I’d kept the faith that she one day would, I almost couldn’t come to terms with my luck.
Warmth coursed through me. Warmth, and gratitude. I turned and took her face in my hands, suddenly overwhelmed. “You . . . I love you, too, my Natalia.”
I couldn’t express the magnitude of it with words beyond that, so I told her with my kiss—and she responded, her soft, plush lips taking every firm peck I had to give.
19
Natalia
As water soaked my hair, Cristiano backed me up against the shower wall and slipped a hand under my thigh to lift my leg. He slid inside me and rooted himself there, stilling as we kissed, becoming a part of me in irrevocable ways. His fingers curled into my hair. With my arms wrapped around his neck, I pulled him closer.