“And you kept the house empty? All this time?”
Hector nodded. “I couldn’t bear to sell it. Doing so would have been like admitting I was giving up on us, and I never did. Not even when I tried to convince myself it was over. In the back of my mind, I always knew that I’d come back once your career was established, once I could be in your life without simultaneously destroying it.”
He had been right last night when he’d asked whether I wouldn’t have done the same thing he had. I was starting to understand the sacrifice of his restraint. He waited seven years for me to make a name for myself and risked me moving on with someone else. It would have killed me, but I couldn’t lie to myself; I would have done the same thing if I’d thought I was ruining everything he had ever worked for.
It wasn’t like he stayed away so I could keep a job. He loved medicine as much as I did and understood that losing a love like that would have all but killed me. Because he was right. I would have chosen him at the risk of my career, and if I had lost the ability to conduct research, it would have slowly killed me and taken its own particular toll on our relationship.
I dropped the sheets from my body and pulled them away from both of us. The contrast of his tanned skin on the white linens was astounding in the morning light, and I couldn’t stop myself from fucking him with my eyes as I raked my gaze up and down his body.
So much had been missing last night in the dark. He had fucked me hard, with hunger and desire and longing, but it was all touch and sounds. The glory of his body was missing from the limited senses lacking vision in the night.
I smirked when his erection made its presence known, but then my pussy contracted. I was sore and swollen from what we had done not too many hours ago. He looked bigger in the clarity of daylight, and I winced.
“As much as I love you devouring me with your eyes,” Hector said, “I was hoping you’d actually touch me.”
“We have the rest of our lives. What’s the rush?” I threw his words at him and bent over his body.
I gripped the shaft of his cock and moved to make him think I was going to have him in my mouth. But this was payback for all the teasing from earlier. He would pay.
I leaned to kiss his inner thigh and dragged my tongue from his knee to his thigh on one leg, then the other, stopping each time before reaching the spot where he wanted me.
“I shouldn’t have teased you last night, should I?” Hector asked.
“No, darling. Youreallyshouldn’t have.” I was mainly teasing him as he had done, but I was also exploring his body again, this time with my eyes. I scooted up, and my tongue trailed the thin strip of hair that led to his bellybutton, and I nipped at the skin of his stomach.
“Damn it, Carolina,” Hector said, his voice hoarse. “I swear I’ll never tease you again if you stop.”
I withdrew from him and studied his expression as I licked my lips. “You want me to stop?”
“No! Agh! That’s not what I meant.Pleasestop teasing me.”
I understood now why he had done it. Him begging, saying my name, pleading drawn-outpleases,was like a prayer for me. It was so goddamned empowering and so fucking hot.
Rewarding the prayer offering, I bent again and gripped his shaft, pumping once, then twice. Still, I wanted to savor him, so I only licked, first along his shaft from root to head. I let my tongue linger there and circle the head, finding the saltiness of us from the night before.
Hector was still half-sitting up against the headboard, and he gathered my hair in his hand so he could watch me—I wanted him to see what I was doing to him. I drew the tip of his cock into my mouth and sucked only there, at the very edge, and he bucked his hips, trying to go deeper, but I was in control now.
“Tsk, tsk,” I said as I let him out of my mouth. “This is my show now.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Pleaseget back here.”
“Are you going to be good?” I sat up, giving him a full view of my body, and circled my nipple with my finger. I drew my hand down, tracing a zig-zag pattern from my breast down to my clit.
“Yes, I’ll stay still, justplease—”He tried reaching for me, but I was just out of grasp. I moaned as I toyed with my clit, high on the look in his eyes as he watched.
“Please,Carolina. You’ve made your point. This is cruel.”
I bent over him again and kept my balance on one hand so I could keep playing with myself with the other while I sucked him. I took him deeper into my mouth the second time, and he growled—he actuallygrowled—and I etched the sound in my mind so I could take it with me for the rest of my days.
“Stop, Carolina,” he ordered, and I couldn’t stop myself from obeying, his power over me from last night lingering somewhere in the recesses of my brain.
I crawled up toward him and found his mouth, letting him taste what had been on my tongue, morning breath be damned, because this was so hot. I used his shoulders for support as I came up over him and slid down over his cock slowly—so slowly.
The girth of him sent a stretch of pain to my core as I slid down around his length. My mouth parted from his. I gulped some air to ebb the pain away, but he noticed my wince.
“Are you in pain, baby? We don’t have to, we can stop if you are too sore.” His body stilled like he wouldn’t dare move a muscle lest he hurt me.
I shook my head.