For Angelo (Full-Length Standalone Italian Billionaire Romance) (19 page)

Oh, his fingers were so close—

His fingers moved down to her waist, stopping on her hip, his grip possessive.

“Feeling better now?”

She squeaked out, “No.”

His lips curved. “Good.”

Gooooosh. She said helplessly, “
Sadist
.” But they both knew she was saying it for her sake, because she loved that he was one.

His head came down an inch closer, and her breath caught.

Another inch, and the urge to writhe was an exquisite torment to resist.

Another inch, and oh, so close now that she could feel his breath fanning her lips—

“Please,” she choked out.

His eyes gleamed, and she knew he had been waiting for her to beg.

“Sadi—mmph.”

He sucked her lower lip into his mouth, and she froze. She knew this didn’t even count as kissing, but the intimacy of the act was already overwhelming, and her fists clenched against her sides.
 

“My Lane.” The velvety possessiveness of Angelo’s tone made her whimper, and as her lips parted, his tongue immediately slipped inside.
 

Oh!

Her eyes drifted close, and her fists clenched harder.

His tongue moved softly inside her mouth, tasting, exploring, and her heartbeat went erratic. She felt Angelo shifting, and then he was clasping her head with both hands, angling her face, and the kiss suddenly deepened, his tongue pushing further inside.

She moaned against his mouth, her fingers unclenching, and she found herself clutching his shoulders. He kissed her harder, and her grip on his shoulders tightened.
 

And then it was over.

Angelo had suddenly torn his mouth off her, and he was staring down at Lane, breathing hard, his eyes glittering with need.

Confused and left aching, Lane could only stare up at him, her heartbeat filling her eardrums.

“It’s too soon.” He rolled to his back and stared up at the ceiling.
Because he had suddenly thought of Ray.
And now he couldn’t get the faceless stranger’s name out of his mind.

Lane kept herself still, feeling like an unwanted corpse next to Angelo’s hot, masculine perfection. What had she done wrong?

“I’m sorry.” He forced the words out, unable to ignore the waves of misery coming off the girl beside him.

“Because you don’t want me?”

“Impossible.” Angelo’s lips twisted at the mere thought.

“Impossible,” she echoed numbly. He was lying to her. If it was impossible for him not to want her—

Lane jerked when Angelo suddenly grasped her hand.

The next thing she knew, he had it placed on…his…cock.

Her eyes flew open.

It was scorching hot, rigid and hard, and engorged to the point that her fingers couldn’t even completely encircle it. And she had tried, an unnamed, wanton instinct making her do so.

“Like I said.” Angelo’s tone was cool. “Impossible.”

Right.

She coughed. She swallowed. But she just couldn’t make herself speak, she was too busy feeling how, err, impossibly hard he was. Unable to help it, she felt her fingers tightening to squeeze his cock—

Angelo stiffened, and his hand was suddenly imprisoning hers. “What,” he grated out, “do you think you were doing?”

This time, his harsh tone didn’t scare her at all.

It only made Lane feel all sorts of wonderful things, too many things that she could no longer make any sense of it. She only knew she wanted to—

Angelo bit back a curse when he felt Lane trying to squeeze his cock again. He tightened his hold over her hand. “Stop it.” He lifted himself up to look down at her, expecting her to let go, but she didn’t.

What the hell?

Her caramel brown eyes were filled with a mixture of wonder and longing, and his cock twitched—

Her fingers squeezed, and he saw Lane wet her lips, looking like she couldn’t wait to have his cock in her mouth.

Fuck.

He tried getting rid of her hand, but her fingers actually tightened around him.

“Let go.”

“I can’t.”
 

And to his utter incredulity, she did look like she couldn’t.
 

“Just let go.”

She gave him a helpless look. “My hand doesn’t want to.”

He glared at her, muttering, “I can’t believe you’re making me play the shy maiden here.” He wanted to kill her for forcing a reversal of roles between them, but at the same time her sheer outrageous and unpredictability made him want to…fuck her. Hard. Harder than he had fucked any woman.

“If you want me—” She wetted her lips again, and Angelo vowed grimly to himself that if she did it again, he would not be accountable for his actions, and to hell with whoever Ray was.

“Then why don’t you—”

“I told you,” he cut her off impatiently. “It’s too soon—”

Her fingers squeezed his cock, like a petulant child throwing a tantrum, and Angelo stopped speaking, thinking that this might just be the first time he’d like to date a girl who constantly threw tantrums.

He said finally, “I simply think it’s better if you take more time to think about it.” Before he could stop himself, he added grimly, “Your decision could hurt other people—”

She thought about her parents and winced.

His mood worsened at the guilt that flashed in her eyes.
So there was a Ray that would be hurt.
 

She said haltingly, “They don’t have to know—” The fury in Angelo’s gaze made her backtrack hastily, and she said lamely, “Or they could also know.” She was confused and surprised, never imagining Angelo was the old-fashioned type who’d want an introduction to a girl’s parents before dating her.
 

“Yes,” he said flatly. “
They
should know.” His lip curled.
They?
Who was she kidding? Both of them knew this was Ray he was talking about.

“I’ll tell them tomorrow, I promise.” She made a mental note to call Nellie first thing in the morning. No matter how embarrassing, she would tell Nellie the truth. She unconsciously squared her shoulders at the thought. She would tell Nellie that she had met the one for her, and she knew it was true even though they had only been speaking to each other for a few days.
 

Angelo’s gaze narrowed on her face, but he couldn’t detect any hint of deception. She really did mean it. The thought allowed him to gradually relax. “Good girl.”

The smile Angelo gave her was dazzling, and Lane could only smile back, properly dazzled.
 

He lay on his side, and she did the same, facing him, while her fingers remained around his cock. She honestly didn’t think she could let go. It was just so…addictive to hold.
 

“Tell me once you’ve made the call,” he murmured.

She nodded obediently.

“And then we can continue where we left off.”

Oh.
Lane tried to hide her dismay. She thought they would be—

She stole a look at Angelo’s face, and his expression of disbelief made her cringe. Oh my gosh, this was so embarrassing. Was she the only one looking forward to—

Almost as if he had read her mind, Angelo said disapprovingly, “I cannot believe you would think I am that easy.”

Lane turned red.

“I am not without principles.”

She stammered miserably, “I didn’t m-mean—”

He cut her off with a short hard kiss, murmuring against her lips, “I’m kidding, my Lane.” He kissed her again, biting her lip this time. “It’s punishment for thinking I’d take you while you have not yet told, err,
them
about us.”

Oh.

He fell back to his side.

“
Sadist
,” she threw at him feelingly.

Angelo only laughed…before closing his eyes.

He was going to sleep just like that?

When his eyes didn’t drift open, and his gaze remained still, she found herself staring at him and thinking,
Maybe this isn’t so bad.

 
She could stare at him forever—

“I can feel you ogling me, my Lane.”

She choked. “Ogling?
Really
?” Couldn’t he say she was just…staring?

His lips curved, but his eyes remained closed.
 

She blurted out, “How do you do it?”

He smirked. “Read your mind?”
 

Oh! He just did it again, and it was like he was showing off.

Biting her lip, she asked uncomfortably, “Were you like this, too…before?”
 

“No.”

She sighed in relief, and her fingers tightened around him reflexively.

Biting back a groan of pleasure, Angelo murmured, “Or maybe I’m lying.”

“Angelo!” Her fingers loosened.

He grimaced, wondering if she realized that she was unconsciously punishing him at the same time. “You know I’m only teasing you,
tesoro
.” As he spoke, he placed his hand over hers and he pressed down, forcing her fingers to tighten around his cock. He pushed harder, and her fingers squeezed him.

Pleasure rocked his body, and he swallowed back a groan.

Fascinated at the look on Angelo’s face, she tried squeezing his cock again and found Angelo’s piercing stare settled on her face.

Oops.

“Make the damn call so we can finish this.”

Oh.
 

They stared at each other, the sound of their uneven breathing filling the room.

She heard herself say, “You know, I’ve never told anyone about my mom and grandfather. Josh knows, but not all—”

“I would rather you not speak another man’s name when you’re in bed with me, tesoro,” Angelo interrupted her coolly.

Oh. He was jealous. Again.

But because she had learned her lesson, she only said meekly, “I’m sorry.”

He smirked. “Liar.”

She couldn’t stop herself from smiling because it was true. She was
glad
he was jealous. The kind of man that Angelo Valencia was, she would definitely welcome every little bit of proof that she meant something to him.

“It’s the same for me,” he murmured. She frowned, not understanding what he meant until he continued, “I have never told anyone about my uncle.”

Her eyes widened. “But your ex—” It hurt to say the words, but she felt she would be childish if she kept calling the girl as, well, the girl.

His lips twisted. “I only told her because my honor demanded it. But with you, I simply wanted to. I wanted there to be no secrets between us.”

“And there’s none.”

He thought about Ray, but out loud, all he said was, “I’m glad to hear that.” Just as he closed his eyes, he heard her murmur his name uncertainly.

He pretended to sleep.

“I know you’re just pretending.”

Still not opening his eyes, he said, “Then just say what you want to say.”

She took a deep breath. “I was wondering…what if the reason we’re being so honest with each other—”

His eyes flew open. Surely she wouldn’t think—

“Is because we lo—”

She did.

Angelo abruptly cut her off, saying with an unusual lack of tact, “Not a chance.”

Lane winced.
Not a chance?
Why was he being so pessimistic? Didn’t she even have a .01 chance of making him fall for her?

“I know where this is going, Lane.”