The Playboy Prince (Piacere Princes, Book One) (18 page)

Salvy handed her the glass of wine and sighed, letting his gaze rake her body. “You’re beautiful, Magdalena. Stunning, in fact.”

“Please.” She rolled her eyes, taking a long pull of her wine. It stained her lips ruby red and he forced himself not to lean in right then and suck them clean. “You’ve been with some of the most gorgeous women I’ve ever seen. Half of them don’t look real.”

“That’s because they’re not real.” His voice sounded raw. “There’s nothing real about any of them.”

“Then why do you like them?” Her dark eyes were curious, not reproachful. “I mean, you don’t have to tell me, I’m just…you seem different since you’ve been back.”

Because of you. Because of the pain and worry in my brother’s eyes. Because maybe I’ve just realized that I’ve been running from this moment for ten-plus years.

She walked away from him then, which not only gave him space to breathe but the chance to watch her hips sway. She curled up on the sofa underneath the other set of windows, tucking her feet primly beneath her while she studied him. The look on her face said she was still waiting for an answer.

He considered it, wanting to be honest. Maybe with himself, for the first time. “I like them because they’re there, I think. They don’t expect me to be anything more than good in the sack, and they don’t ask me for more than I want to give.”

“Except money.”

“Well, money I’ve got.”

“Is that why you avoid Cielo? Your brother and your father and the people expect things from you?”

He shrugged, pouring himself glass of wine and crossing the room to sit beside her. There was a foot of red, plush sofa between them. It felt like too much and not nearly enough space at the same time.

“Yes. Or maybe it’s the fact that no matter what they say, they don’t truly need anything from me. It’s pity asks. Like they want me to be an invested part of the family but only because it looks good. Not because they want me around.”

“I think you’re selling yourself short.”

A confident smile tugged on his lips. “I never sell myself short.”

Magdalena blushed at the suggestion in his voice and shook her head. “You don’t have to do that with me, you know. The whole overtly sexual thing.”

“I don’t know how to stop.”

She studied him, her gaze pinning him with intense scrutiny. “It’s a defense mechanism. But your body isn’t what makes you sexy, Salvy. Never has been, though I suppose it does sweeten the deal.”

The air between them charged at her words. The world around them slowed as her dark eyes clung to his face. She let him see the truth in her words, and how she wanted him. It felt like responsibility as it pressed on his chest, the kind he’d spent a decade running from, but for some reason, escape was the last thing on his mind.
 

Instead, he shifted toward her, leaving six inches between them. He needed her to come to him. “You think I’m as sexy as I was at sixteen,” he teased.

“Sexier,” she murmured, fear and disbelief flitting across her face. “And sixteen-year-old me wouldn’t have thought that possible. But you know that. You read my journal.”

“I am truly sorry for that, and for everything that came afterward,” he confessed, holding his breath as she inched closer. “I was an idiot.”

“You’re still an idiot.”

“That’s true. I’m glad you’re aware.”

“Thank you for the apology. And for teaching me that it’s not actually possible for a person to die of embarrassment.” She bit her lip and looked away, seeming like she wanted to say something more.

“You’re welcome.” Emotion swirled in his chest, tightening his muscles and making his heart pound. He stared into her eyes, drowning in their beauty, in the trust he saw there. In his own feelings.
 

He didn’t know what was happening, or what it meant, but he knew he’d never felt like this before, not ever. Like he couldn’t get enough, like he would gasp for air if he stopped touching her. The thought of the ball, creeping closer every day, turned his stomach.

Salvy wondered if this was happening, if it was real. He felt the need to remind her that she was way too good for this. For him. “Maggie…”
 

She moved closer, until her knees pressed against his thighs, and put her palms on his cheeks. “Don’t say it, Salvy. I’m a grown woman. I know that you’re committed to this ball and what you’ve promised the King. I know I’m not the sort of woman he would approve for you, even if you were interested. You and me, we’ve always been impossible.”

His heart ached at her words. They confirmed everything he had realized since she’d walked back into his life, every reason he’d given himself for staying away. Trying to be her friend. But, coming out of her mouth, they still hurt.
 

“What are you saying, Magdalena?”

“I’m saying that you make me feel safe, and precious and cared for, and right now, I could really use a place where the rest of the world doesn’t exist.”

He reached out to smooth a piece of hair over her shoulder, reveling in the way her eyes closed at even the barest touch of his fingers.
 

“You’re too good for me, beauty. That’s why it’s always been impossible.” He breathed in, then out, and knew that he couldn’t walk away from her now. “But if you need me—however you need me—I’m here for you. The way I should have been all of this time.”

The smile she gave him was sad at the corners, her eyes moist with both pleasure and regret. She smelled like heaven, wrapping his skin with desire. Close enough to grab, to have, even for a little while—and her words, the fire in her eyes, said she wanted it, too.

Salvy didn’t waste another minute, and fuck the consequences.

He covered her mouth with his, teasing her for a minute before sliding his tongue along her lower lip. She opened up to him with a willingness that made him hard, scooting into his arms. Maggie’s legs went around his waist, her ass pressed against his dick, and she kissed him like their ship was going down.

Salvy couldn’t do anything but kiss her back. To let every rational thought disappear from his mind as her tongue, hot and probing, played with his as his hands held her tight against him.

“Salvy,” she whimpered against his lips, her hips shifting to rub his hardness.

His heart sped up at the raw need in her voice and a groan escaped in response. He had let her come to him, let her tell him she was on board for whatever this could be, so now, he was going to do things his way. It might be wrong, but this was Maggie. He wanted to please her. To make sure she didn’t regret this, because he already knew he never would.

Salvy pushed her gently away, letting his hands drop to her thighs. Her skin was warm under his palms.
 

“What are you doing?” she asked, her eyes snapping and wild.
 

He hated the fear in them, and that he suspected it was because of him, for one reason or another. “Stand up.”

“Why?”

“Just do it.” The command was lazy, but a demand all the same, and even though she narrowed her gaze at him, Maggie did as he asked. She stood in front of the couch, her breasts swollen and heaving, cheeks red, lips bruised from his, and his dick got, amazingly, harder. “Take your clothes off. Slowly.”

She startled, but then a slow smile spread across her lips. The lusty fire in her eyes burned brighter as her fingers dropped to the first button on his shirt. “Like this?”

Oh, God, she was teasing him. And damned if he didn’t like it, even though he usually had no patience for such games.
 

Instead of ordering her to go faster, to get on with it, he settled back into the cushions and gave her a nod. Pulling his gaze from where the swell of her breasts peeked from the shirt was impossible.

One button. Her fingers peeled at the thin fabric, revealing more creamy skin. Another button. The heaviness of her chest appeared, a slight shadow making him feel like a kid peering into a box on Christmas morning. He was about to burst out of his pants with need, but he would wait for his reward.
 

He wanted to see all of her, to let her say he could have it. Her. All night.

Three buttons done away with, then four and five. She finished a little more quickly, her breathing coming faster as she watched him watch her, and then the shirt hung open over the stolen white boxer shorts. Her nipples were tight, tits high and bigger than he’d expected.
 

He flicked a finger at the boxers. “Those too. I want to see you.”

He could smell the scent of her arousal even before she pushed the shorts down to the floor and stepped out of them, forward so that she was close enough to touch. His fingers explored the neatly trimmed patch between her legs, confirming what he knew—she was soaking wet. More than ready. More than turned on.

“Salvy,” she gasped at his touch. Her knees trembled.
 

“Yes?”

Maggie said nothing, recovering slightly when he took his hand away, just dropped to her knees between his legs and reached for the belt buckle at his waist. She brushed his erection with the palm of her other hand, shaking her head slightly. “You’re about to bust a seam.”

Salvy managed a chuckle, even though the lightest of touches made him want to be inside her with renewed ferocity. “You would worry about my clothes.”

Her grin grew wicked. “I mean, I’d hate to have to mend them.”

She finished with his belt, then undid the button at his waist and unzipped the fly. He helped her slide his pants, then his own boxers, down over his hips. She tossed them out of the way and stared at him the way he’d stared at her, a cross between wonder and desire flickering over her face.
 

When she lowered her lips to his dick, Salvy closed his eyes and groaned.
 

Her mouth sucked at the tip, then lowered over his shaft again and again until he knew that if he didn’t make her stop, they wouldn’t get any further tonight.
 

And Jesus, he wanted inside of her. Wanted to make her his, finally. To be the one to make her life better amid everything that was making it worse.

She stopped, as though sensing the shift in his demeanor, and lifted her gaze to his face. “Condom?”

“In the bathroom, I think,” he rasped, unable to think of anything but feeling her, now. Tasting her.

Magdalena found the condom and unwrapped it, sliding it into place with expert fingers. He almost stopped her as she moved to climb on top of him—he preferred to be in control, and he was already so aroused he wasn’t sure letting her take the lead would be the best idea.

But she put a hand on his chest and covered his lips with hers, her mouth and her tongue silencing any protests as she lowered her soaked center onto him. They shuddered together at the feeling of their bodies meeting and she sat still, kissing him as they adjusted to the intensity of what they’d been leading up to for the past twenty minutes. Ten years.
 

Salvy couldn’t wait any more. His hands went to her breasts, testing the weight of them in his hands as his fingers toyed with her nipples, rolling them and pinching until he found the pressure that made her tighten around him with pleasure. They both moaned.

Maggie started to rock on him, back and forth, a lazy pace that stoked a fire in Salvy’s center. He was both impatient for more and delirious with the sensation of the moment, and allowed her to keep the steady motion while he broke away from her mouth and dipped his head, closing his lips around one nipple as he toyed with the other in his hand.
 

Her rocking increased until she was fucking him like their lives depended on it. His hands were on her thighs now and her hands were on the couch behind him. They moved together without thinking, as if they’d been doing it for years. Her tits were gorgeous as they bounced in his face, then smashed against his chest as she kissed him again, her tongue in his mouth mirroring the fullness of his dick inside her body.
 

When she came, she whimpered his name against his lips, over and over and over. The way the inside of her rippled with pleasure made it impossible for him to hold out another minute and he answered her pleasure with his own, groaning into her mouth as he held tight to her legs.
 

She collapsed against his chest, still trying to catch her breath. Salvy put his arms around her and held on tight, their hearts thudding against each other as they came down from the high. He thought he might have blacked out for a moment or two, because it felt like a blur of sensory overload.
 

He’d had a lot of orgasms in his life, but that was something else.
 

Maggie sighed into his throat, the tickle of her breath stirring his dick, still inside her. She clenched around him and raised her head, her smile a little loopy but still wicked at heart. “Already?”

He smoothed her hair back from her face and leaned down to kiss the tip of her nose. “If you want me, anytime.”

“You’re such a ham,” she complained, but didn’t make a move to get off him.

“You bring it out in me.”

“Stop it.” Something chased away the happy clouds in her eyes.
 

Salvy frowned. “I refuse to refrain from telling you the truth.”

“You just don’t have to say that, that’s all.”

“I don’t
have
to do anything. I’m royalty.”

She said nothing more about it, just sat up, then climbed off his lap, snagged his shirt off the floor, and headed back into the bathroom. Salvy frowned, hating the fact that he couldn’t read her mind. He needed to clean up, too, but gave her a couple of minutes of privacy before striding naked into his bathroom.

“What are you doing?” she asked, his shirt hanging open over her naked body as she stared into the mirror. He hated the frown on her face. Hated that she couldn’t see how fucking amazing she was, how smart, how funny, how sexy. Despised the people trying to buy her father’s house, the disease that had stolen her dreams for the future.

“This,” he growled, crossing to the counter and spinning her around to face him. He grabbed a fresh condom from the drawer and made quick work of it, then yanked the shirt off her shoulders and lifted her, sliding her ass onto the counter. Salvy grabbed her hand and put it on the hard length of him, already stiff and ready again after seeing her still undressed in his bathroom. “I’m not doing you a favor, Maggie. I want you. Can’t you tell?”