Chapter 32

Dimitri grinned hard as Lauren’s startled gaze met his. She acted like she was this remote, untouchable woman, unwilling and unable to be moved by any man. But he knew differently, had known it since the first time he’d seen her. She wasn’t made for the neat little men in their tidy suits and expensive cologne that he suspected adorned all of her boyfriends in the past. She wasn’t made for someone willing to toady to her and give into her every imperious request.

She was made to be met halfway—more than halfway. And then taken completely over the cliff.

And he was just the demigod to do it.

Beneath him, Lauren trembled, but only a little bit. He was kissing her face, her mouth, barely willing to let her breathe, to let her talk, but he heard the “yes” she managed as she tangled up her hands in his shirt. Heard the sigh of relief as he pulled her roughly into his body, scooping her up in his arms and carrying her inside. She wanted him to take control. He was more than happy to oblige.

Dimitri didn’t stop this time at the living room. His long strides ate up the distance to the stairs, and when Lauren made to regain her own feet at the steps, he growled, bending down to find her mouth again with his. His kiss was fierce and brooked no argument. She didn’t give any. He bounded up the rest of the stairs to the room—his room. The room she’d slept in two nights before, the bed now hotel-neat, the place spotless, as if no one had been in there. But she had. And now she would be again.

Dimitri hit the bed in three more steps, dropping her on it and immediately covering her body with his. Lauren wrapped her arms around him and pulled him to her fiercely, her legs going around his hips and her hand at the back of his neck, as if she could crawl inside his body. Sounded good to him. He kissed her roughly, tasting, demanding, and the harsh, desperate breath of her response drove him to higher and higher need.

He pulled away from her, then reached over his shoulder to pull off his shirt. Her eyes widened as she stared at him, then out the window. Dimitri knew what she’d noticed, but it couldn’t be helped.

“What’s happening outside?” she asked, lifting up on one elbow as the room darkened with the sudden onrush of heavy clouds. “Was there supposed to be a storm today?”

“It happens. You have other clothes?”

“Clothes? What—yes.” She frowned as his hand moved to the neckline of her loose tank. “These are—they weren’t expensive, they’re just?—”

“Good.” He dipped his hand into the neckline and yanked, the thin material giving way, exposing the lace of her bra. It buckled in front, and he snapped the clasp easily. With a guttural growl, he leaned forward to take her bared breast in his mouth, reveling in the way Lauren shifted and writhed beneath him, her hands now in his hair, her body arched. She was made for sex, but now he decided it was more than that. She was made for sex with him.

The crack of thunder boomed across the sky, loud enough to shake the house.

“Seriously?” Lauren gasped, but he didn’t hesitate as rain started pelting the villa. Instead, he lifted again long enough to shred the rest of her shirt open, the soft curve of her belly begging for his mouth, his hands, and he gave into the compulsion. Curling his hands beneath her ass, he scorched a trail of kisses down her stomach and over the thin linen of her pants, quieting her squirming as he felt the heat swell up from her and envelope him. The rush was intense, and when she struggled to reach her waistband with her own hands, he batted her hands away, instead ripping open the cheap placket and revealing the soft cotton panties beneath.

“You lie there,” he ordered, his voice a harsh rasp.

He ripped down Lauren’s trousers and her panties with it, then licked and kissed his way down to the most intimate part of her, the soft folds already full and ready for him. Lauren hissed out a curse as he drew his tongue down the very center of her sex, teasing and tasting, pressing into her while she buried her hands in his hair, asking him things incoherently, to stop, to not stop, to go, to keep going. Her body trembled with adrenaline and desire, and he could feel her climax building by the raggedness of her breath, the looseness of her thighs, the way she pressed his head first one way, then another, unconscious that she was doing it but unable to stop, unable to do anything but lose herself in the pleasure he was giving her.

His own cock throbbed so hard, he thought it was going to burst, but he pulled away from Lauren, hesitated briefly as she cried out in alarm, then lowered his head again and returned to the most sensitive part of her, the nub he had been teasing and brushing. Now he licked into her like a starving man granted a meal, and she clamped her hands on his shoulders, arching back as she convulsed with a gasp of surprise and pleasure. That cry turned to confusion as he lifted himself off her, ridding himself of his own cargo pants in a quick jerk and reaching for the condom to sheathe himself.

A crack of lightning illuminated Lauren instinctively curling away from him, lost in her own reaction, but he wasn’t going to let her evade him now. He reached for her wrists, pinning her to the bed, and pressed himself into her body again, her legs falling open naturally to accept the intrusion of him.

Her eyes fluttered open as he slid his cock along her already sensitized skin, setting off another wave of involuntary shudders.

“Yes—now,” she gasped. “I want you inside me.”

“I want that too, princess,” he gritted out. He slipped his shaft into her without hesitation, and she drew in a sharp breath as her body clamped down on him. “I’d say I want that more than you do.”

He thrust once, twice, filling her to the brim before pulling out again, then burying himself inside her once more. His own need to explode was pulling him apart at the seams, but he was enjoying watching her too much. Her mouth open, her breath coming fitfully between her lips. Her eyes half-lidded, unseeing. Her hair wild around her head, ground into the covers in a helpless tumble. Her clothes hanging off her, exposing her full breasts, her pink, smooth skin. As the wind howled around the villa, he leaned forward and inhaled the essence of her, his face in the crook of her neck, his lips tracing a line up the curve above her collarbone to rest beside her ear. He nipped at her earlobe, then traced along the delicate arc of her ear, reveling in the way she shuddered.

“You’re—a demigod.” Her words were little more than a groan. “You really are.”

He grinned against her neck. If she hadn’t been sure before, this little display would’ve convinced her.

“You knew that the moment we met, princess.”

She laughed deep in her throat, the sound powerful and free, and for another few mindless minutes, they made love beneath the crashing storm. For right this second, in each other’s arms, they needed nothing more than that.

But when Lauren cried out again in unrestrained pleasure, Dimitri knew he still wanted more. He suspected he would never get enough of this beautiful, vibrant woman, so like a goddess in every way but real—vital—human.

Another roaring boom of thunder rocked the villa around them.

“I want to fuck you every way there is,” he hissed into her ear, and if anything, she went more liquid in his arms. “Till there’s nothing else you can imagine but me inside you, making you wet with need, making you come.”

“Yes,” Lauren said, and the broken desire in her voice cranked him up another notch.

He pulled all the way out, leaving her gasping. “Turn over.”

Surprise flared in her eyes, and he held up a hand, grinning into her face. “My way, remember.”

She didn’t need much convincing. She turned over, and the sight of her made any other action moot. Grabbing her waist, he slid into her again, the unfamiliar angle and pressure drawing her up short, making it that much easier to shift his hands up to cup her beautiful breasts as he pressed farther into her, spreading her wide, his questing fingers then dropping from her breasts to the sensitive vee?—

“Oh!” she gasped as her body bucked. “I can’t?—”

“You can. My way.” He placed his fingers over her quivering sex and seated himself inside her again. He pulsed inside her as he touched her intimately, shifting his fingers and body in tune to the vibrations of her body, the urgency of her sighs, the staccato need of her groans. When she came apart in his arms a second time, he was ready, surging forward as she cried out incoherently until he triggered his own release, and his sight went whiteout blind for a second as the rush of need and desire and possession swept over him, taking him into oblivion. Another maelstrom of pounding rain blasted from the skies, filling up the world and he growled, pulling free of Lauren and rolling away to rid himself of the condom. He returned to the bed immediately, pulling her into his arms, cradling her close, as she shook and trembled, reaching for him, finding him.

Finding them both.