Several slow, sultry beats ticked by.

Rosa was in the nude. Cristiano was fully dressed. There was something very naughty about their discrepancy in clothing. There was something even naughtier about what Cristano uttered to her mere seconds ago.

Allow me to help you... clean up... your mess.

His words echoed between them, thick with the promise of a saint about to sin. A blaze of desire shot through Rosa as she stared at Cristiano.

In breathy tones, she cooed, "You... wish to help me?"

Cristiano smiled and nodded.

Without removing his gaze from her face, he began to move down the mattress in gradual, intentional increments. She watched him with bated breath. The man appeared to have a clear destination in mind. As his chest brushed past her naked breasts, the fabric of his shirt grazed her skin like a caress. He leaned over to kiss the peaks of her nipples, stopping to swirl his tongue around both of the sensitive, pebbled tips. Rosa moaned at the sweet, wicked sensations that his mouth and tongue coaxed from her body.

How far was he planning to go with this sublime foreplay?

Had she finally cracked the stubborn bastard's dogged diligence?

Rosa tried to suss him out, "I thought... you were not interested in... fucking... me?"

"Who said anything about fucking?"

Quoi?

What?

She frowned. "But you—"

Cristiano insisted, "I am not going to fuck you."

"Non?" she challenged through narrowed eyes.

"No, I want this," he asserted, nipping lightly at the swell of her breast with his teeth, "to be for you and your enjoyment."

"You do not think that," Rosa grunted as he began kissing his way down her belly and downwards still, "one thing will lead to another?"

Cristiano dipped his head between her legs and murmured with a low chuckle, "Is that what you think will happen? Or what you hope will happen?"

"I think," she grumbled, "you are enjoying this too much, you bastard."

Amusement flickered in his eyes. "In what way?"

"Fucking with my peace of mind."

Cristiano planted a barely-there kiss upon her inner thigh. "Do you want me to stop?"

Her sex throbbed in anticipation. "I—"

"Do you?"

"Non, do not stop," Rosa whispered in surrender. "Drive me crazy, mon beau."

His deep voice rumbled towards her, "Are you sure?"

She nodded with a heated expression. "I welcome it."

A look of male possessiveness passed over Cristiano's handsome features. He didn't waste another second. He placed a firm, unrelenting kiss directly onto Rosa's clit, causing her to gasp as he suckled the little nub into his mouth for a brief, tantalizing moment. Rosa's heart began to pound. Her senses flooded with sheer lust.

Then, the fucker had the audacity to pull away.

"More," she pleaded, "give me more."

"We are only getting started," Cristiano assured her through hooded eyes. "I cannot get enough of you, either. Hai un sapore così maturo e dolce. Come una fottuta pesca."

Fucking Italian!

"What did you say?" she gasped.

He didn't translate for her. Instead, he plucked the egg from the mattress, clicked the switch back on, and slid the device inside her silken folds. It hummed and vibrated temptingly within her pussy. Want and need roared back to life, rendering Rosa powerless and panting in a state of mounting excitement.

Cristiano then dragged the flat side of his tongue from the bottom of her slit back up to her clit. Like a large feline lapping at a treat, he did it again. And again. And again. Until her hips began to squirm and writhe from the pleasure of it all. The sinful slip and slide of his tongue. The sweet suction from his mouth. The merciless vibration of the toy. Altogether, these sensations were so conflicting. They were too much. They weren't enough. One moment, Rosa wanted to get closer. To grind herself into his face. The next moment, she wanted to get away. Before she drowned in this sea of ecstasy.

Immediately, Cristiano hooked his arms around Rosa's thighs to hold her in place, pulling her wet, pulsing pussy even closer to his face. It seemed he had read her mind. He used the tip of his tongue to trace her outer folds. He used it to learn her inner folds. Cristiano's talented tongue soon teased its way back to her clit, swirling and flicking delicious, devious patterns around and around this most delicate and responsive spot upon her sex until she grew utterly breathless and lightheaded from his euphoric onslaught.

He pleasured her with such patience. As though they had all the time in the world. As though nothing else mattered except this moment of perfect intimacy between them. He pleasured her with such intensity and concentration, too. As though she was the only woman in his world. As though he existed only to serve her needy sex.

On and on, he continued to play with her in this way, sucking on her small, tender pearl, kissing it, licking and lapping at her slick, sensitive folds while the egg pulsated within her core, until stars exploded before her eyes, and she lost herself again to the toe-curling tide of a second and even more powerful climax. Rosa's legs trembled from the force of her pleasure. Her inner walls convulsed over and over again as surge after surge of bliss pumped through her veins. No man had ever eaten her out in this way. No man had ever pushed her over the edge into such blindingly beautiful chaos.

"Oh, Cristiano," she panted helplessly, wildly, mindlessly, "Cristiano, Cristiano..."

Hearing his name on her lips seemed to please him to no end.

With dark glittering eyes, he growled smugly, "That is right. Say my fucking name. Only my fucking name. Never forget that I was the one who made you come this way. Never forget that you always deserve to come this way."

The fierceness of his tone aroused her to no end. Every time Rosa thought that she was nearing the upper limits of her mind-blowing orgasm, the egg would spur her pussy on just a little more, and his tongue and mouth would tease her folds and suck on her clit to prolong her delirium. This fiery passion stretched onwards for the longest time before slowly waning and fading to a warm, cozy, serene state of being. When, at last, Rosa's body had been drained of every possible drop of pleasure, she felt as weak as a newborn kitten. Yet, her heart felt so stupidly, foolishly full of light and happiness.

God, what was this man doing to her?

Rosa no longer felt like herself anymore, and, frighteningly enough, she didn't seem to mind it at all.

Cristiano crawled back up the bed to lay down beside her. He draped his arm around her waist to draw her towards him, gently removing the toy from her sex in the process. Her back was now leaning flush against his chest. She could feel his rock-hard cock poking into her ass. Rosa reached behind her to grasp him. Over the wool of his trousers, her fingers closed around his shaft as she offered him a few light, teasing tugs.

With closed eyes, she mumbled sleepily, "Poor, selfless baby. I promise I will take care of you in a minute."

Cristiano laughed quietly and, to her surprise, brushed her hand aside. "No, you do not have to take care of anything for me. Like I said, this was all for you. And your enjoyment."

"Oh, mon beau," Rosa sighed with a soft, giddy giggle, "I absolutely enjoyed myself! You certainly know your way around a woman's body."

"I was studying carefully," he replied in humble tones, "while you... played... with your toy. I tried to please you in a similar way."

Her heart sang with delight.

"For a man who claims that he does not want to fuck me or have a future with me," she mused, part in jest, part in seriousness, "your actions seem too fucking sweet and thoughtful to match your words."

A hard, strained look passed over his face, replacing the softness from a moment ago. "I see."

Rosa teased, "Keep this up, and I might fall in love with you."

"You are too smart of a woman," he shot back pointedly, "to fall for a man like me."

Yet, she felt like a bit of a fool as the following words escaped her better judgment, "What if I am already half in love with you?"

Rosa was teasing him again, of course, but she also couldn't help wondering if there might be a speck of truth in her pointed question. His kindness was breathing life back into her cold, dead heart. It made her feel exposed. Weak. Like she had a crack in her armor.

Suddenly, his grip tightened around her waist. He flipped her body towards him until they were lying face to face on the bed.

"Do not expect more than I can give you," Cristiano chided gruffly, "you will be disappointed."

His pragmatic response jolted her back to reality. It wasn't a pleasant feeling. It felt like being doused in a bucket of ice water after a hot, sensual bath.

But Cristiano was right.

He was only meant to be her employer.

Maybe her friend.

But nothing more.

There was too much fuckery standing in their way. Their pasts were drenched in darkness. At present, they weren't allowed to lead normal lives. They couldn't fall in love as normal people fell in love. He was like a general out for revenge, and she was to be an instrument of destruction on his battlefield.

Rosa grimaced unhappily. "Thank you for the reminder. It will not slip my mind again."

Concern flashed in his eyes. "Rosa..."

She turned away from him and muttered, "You have shown me enough kindness in one day. Don't you have more important things to do?"

He placed his hand on her shoulder and tried to beckon her to him. "Come here."

Rosa shrugged away from his grasp and rose from the bed. "I need to shower."

"Rosa!"

Rosa pretended not to hear him. Her footsteps quickened on the floor as she made a mad dash away from him, away from the feelings he stirred inside her, away from the future that could never be.

She was an imbécile for letting down her guard. For daring to hope.

"Do not be late tonight," Cristiano called after her with a defeated sigh. His tone became all business. "I will be expecting you around 10:30 pm."

She neared the doorway to the bathroom.

Coolly, Rosa tossed over her shoulder, "Do not worry, mon beau. Unlike some people, I do not intend to disappoint anyone. I will be there tonight at 10:30 pm. Sharp."

❧

Hai un sapore così maturo e dolce. Come una fottuta pesca.

You taste so ripe and sweet. Like a fucking peach.