Chapter Twenty-Two

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

If a piece of clothing could shape shift into something magical, that dress would have been a Cloak of Possibility.

When I slipped into its dazzling clasp later that evening, pulling my hair off my neck and to the side before I dared a look in the mirror, I wasn’t prepared for what the evening would hold. I wasn’t prepared for the way my breath would catch when I saw my reflection, when I let my eyes trail the length of a woman who couldn’t have possibly been me but who was also the most me I’d ever felt in my life.

The gold and cream fabric draped elegantly over my bust, hugging my waist just slightly before the skirt flowed like a waterfall down the length of my legs. I turned slightly and the skirt followed with a soft whoosh, and once again I found myself silenced in awe as I took in the view of the straps framing my back, the crystals on the dress catching every glimmer of light in Theo’s massive, walk-in closet.

I wasn’t prepared for the way I’d feel slipping my feet into a pair of high heels, shoes that once scared me but suddenly felt so powerful and right . I wasn’t prepared for the way I’d feel when Theo saw me for the first time, his eyes dancing over the length of me, from where I’d asked Emma to help me curl my long brown hair and do my makeup to where my freshly painted toes showed through the beige straps of my heels.

I wasn’t prepared for the way my stomach would lurch at the sight of him , Theo Whitman, one of the youngest billionaires in the world all dressed up to take me on a date.

He wore a smoke gray suit, tailored to perfection, each thread hugging him in a way that proved that suit was made only for him to wear. He’d paired it with a classic white dress shirt and all-black tie, and everything from his slicked hair to his polished dress shoes screamed power and affluence.

I wasn’t prepared for any of it — the way my arm fit so perfectly in his as we walked the streets of San Marco, or the way his eyes seemed to strip me bare over the candlelight of our dinner. I wasn’t ready for the onslaught of questions he would ask me as we ate, how he wanted to know everything about me — even though I felt like the most boring human in the world next to him.

That was another thing I hadn’t prepared for, how special I could feel as the center of Theo’s focus, or the way just a brush of his warm fingertips on my exposed back could jolt me to another time and place, like I could see where the night would lead and the rest of our lives, too.

It was terrifying, the possibilities that dress revealed to me.

And it was addicting in the way only the best drugs are.

“What are you thinking about?” Theo asked me after dinner as we strolled arm in arm through the town.

I smiled, leaning into him. “How much of my life has changed in what feels like a millisecond.”

“A good change, I hope.”

I let out a long exhale, letting my eyes wander the length of the stone walls that surrounded us, the ivy growing up the side of those ancient buildings. “I feel like there have been two of me my entire life,” I said. “The me stuck in this body, going through the motions, doing what I thought I should be doing. And the me who watched from the outside, silently walking behind me, hoping I’d take a moment just to turn back and remember there was more to me than I realized.”

“Wow,” Theo said, his eyebrows shooting up. “That’s deep.”

“And ridiculous,” I added, shaking my head.

“No,” he said quickly. “I… relate, actually. It’s easy to get caught up in taking the steps we think we’re supposed to take. And there is joy along the way, sure, but there’s also this ache that something is missing.”

“Exactly,” I said, pausing our steps. “Although, I’m not sure what could possibly be missing in your life,” I added with a chuckle.

Theo smiled, but it fell short, his eyes crawling up the alley that stretched out behind me. “Everyone thinks that. They look at me and see the company I built, the success I’ve had, the money in my bank account. But they miss how excruciatingly lonely all that can be.”

I frowned, squeezing his hand.

“I’ve spent most of my life feeling like every conversation I have is forced, every friendship is fake, every person I involve myself with is just waiting to ask me for something. It’s been that way since I was at Harvard. Before that, I knew my relationships were real. But after…” He paused, his eyes finding mine again. “You know, that was one of the first things that drew me to you.”

“What was?”

“The way you looked at me.” He smiled, like he was remembering the first day we met. “You didn’t look at me with opportunity in your eyes. You looked at me and found something worth capturing — so much so that you took a picture,” he added with a smirk. “But when I approached you, I expected you to rattle off questions. I assumed you were a reporter or someone eager to tell me about your million-dollar idea.”

Theo stopped a moment, considering his words.

“But you hid from me,” he said softly. “It was like you were the first one to look at me and see me, and then I’d caught you, and you’d shied away like you weren’t worthy of the view. And I found a new purpose, right then and there.”

“To kick the crazy girl off your boat?”

Theo shook his head. “To show the crazy girl that she was worthy. Of everything.”

As sweet as it was, I laughed, arching a brow at Theo. “You really are a smooth talker.”

“I mean it,” he said earnestly. “I watched you at dinner that night, the way you listened to everyone else speak, the way you observed every behavior unfolding around you. I’d never been around someone like you before — someone not eager for the spotlight, someone who would rather disappear than have a moment of attention. It was… refreshing, I admit. But it also fueled me. Because for the first time, I saw someone deserving of the spotlight, and she wanted nothing to do with it.”

I chuckled. “I’m just me.”

“You’re the most talented photographer I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing, and I am friends with men who frequent the pages of The New York Times and Vogue magazine.”

“Theo…”

“I’m serious. You see the world in the most real, raw way. You don’t have a desire to filter it, or embellish it, to make it more or less than exactly what it is. Instead, you strive to capture the beauty in the everyday, the extraordinary in the mundane. And what’s more impressive, you achieve it.”

I was speechless, and Theo seemed to know the way he smirked down at me.

“More than all that, you are kind. And humble. You’re completely unaware of how powerful your presence is, how breathtakingly beautiful you are, and how you have this light about you that shines so bright you can only have one of two reactions from those around you. Either they want to bathe in your light, or they want to dim it so it doesn’t outshine their own.”

My lips parted, heart pounding in my chest from being so seen.

“I was drawn to you from the start, Aspen, but when we went to breakfast that morning in Nice? When you talked to me like you knew nothing about me, like you wanted nothing from me, like I was just a man you were intrigued by? It flipped my world upside down. It showed me something I hadn’t realized I’d been starving for.” He shrugged. “And dammit if I haven’t been able to let go of you since.”

I shook my head, resting my hands on his chest as I watched the soft lamp posts from above us twinkle in his eyes. “You are the voice I’ve always been afraid to have.”

Theo held me closer. “And you are the life I’ve been waiting to live.”

Emotion surged in my chest, and Theo pressed his lips to mine, inhaling a deep breath as he did so. It was as if he were breathing me in, the whole of who I had been up until that moment and everything I would be thereafter.

I pressed onto my tip toes, deepening the kiss, begging for more, when suddenly, music started playing.

It was soft at first, and Theo paused our kiss, both of us searching for the source of the sound.

“It sounds like a band,” I said.

Theo grabbed my hand, already starting to walk toward the music. “Let’s find out.”

We walked at first, but the more we weaved in and out of the alleyways and streets in search of the music, the quicker our steps became. Before long, we were running and laughing, dodging this way and that, finding ourselves in a maze of cobblestone and ivy until we stumbled into a square full of life.

Lights hung crisscrossed above us, their orange glow filtering down like star dust over the fountain in the middle of the square. Every side of it was protected by tall buildings, as if it was a secret oasis that we created ourselves. There was a band of three women by the fountain — one playing a guitar and singing, one playing a cajón, and the other tapping a tambourine against her palm. They looked like sisters, all dark blonde hair and olive skin and warm brown eyes. They smiled a little wider when we bounced into the square, giving each other a knowing look before the song they were playing slowly faded into a softer, more romantic tune.

“Are we in a fairy tale?” I asked, still catching my breath as I clung onto Theo’s arm. “There’s no one else here.”

Theo looked around at the empty square, his smile growing more and more as his eyes trailed the scene. “Perhaps the Roman gods carved out this little crumb of paradise just for us.”

I grinned, holding onto Theo’s arm as I lifted one foot and then the other, peeling off the straps of my high heels. “Then we better make the most of it.”

I pulled back from Theo’s grasp, watching the confusion on his face as I backed up more and more toward the fountain. An arch of my brow and a head nod toward the water was all he needed to understand, and he smirked, shaking his head before he started following me. I watched him pause each step long enough to take his own shoes off, and then I turned, sprinting the rest of the way.

Theo chased after me, catching my hips just as I launched myself into the fountain. The water was absolutely freezing, and I squealed as Theo picked me up and spun me around, sending a magical spray of water from the hem of my crystal-covered dress over the marble and stone that surrounded us.

When he lowered me back down, easing my feet into the water once more, we were chest to chest, face to face, our laughter fading into heavy breaths as we took each other in. Theo’s silver eyes flicked between mine, one hand wrapping around my waist, and then he swallowed, taking my hand in his other and waltzing me around in the fountain.

Our moves were sloppy and slow, the water resisting the dance, but still we moved and laughed and splashed around as the band of women played on. The singer elevated her voice, winking at me as Theo twirled me past, and I let my head fall back in a full fit of laughter as the moment settled in on me.

I was dancing with Theo Whitman.

I was dancing with Theo Whitman in a fountain in Italy on the most magical night of my life.

It was too good to be true, too beautiful to be real, and yet it was. My heart pumped blood faster, as if to whisper to me yes, this is life, this is what it’s all about . Every inch of my body was alive with nerves, as if I’d never felt water before, or a warm hand on my hip, or a breezy summer night, or the eyes of a man who wanted me.

Everything was new. Everything was grand. Everything was in its place, like all the stars in the universe had aligned themselves for this very moment.

Theo spun me around twice, and I lost my footing, slipping and nearly tumbling out of the fountain before Theo caught me in his steady arms. He made the dip dramatic, as if we’d planned it, and I laughed so hard tears pricked the corners of my eyes.

But when the laughter faded and I looked up into those soul-searing eyes, the music faded, and the lights dimmed, and everything that existed seemed to evaporate like steam into the night air.

Theo lowered his lips to mine, the kiss tender and punishing in tandem. It sent chills cascading over the skin of my neck, down my spine, all the way to my toes. I gripped his arms tight where they held me, and when his tongue danced with mine, I couldn’t help the little moan that escaped the back of my throat.

“Theo…” I begged, and it was all I needed to say. No demand or desire that I could give words to would have compared to the power of just breathing his name.

Theo fished his wallet out of his pocket, leaving a generous tip for the band before he swooped me into his arms effortlessly, carrying me out of the fountain with his eyes cast down on me. They seemed to transport me through time and space, because everything around us blacked out like the beginning of a dream until the moment he sat my feet down on the plush carpet in his suite.

I didn’t know how we’d gotten back, couldn’t remember walking the streets or riding in the tender back to the boat. All I knew was that it didn’t matter now, and I dropped the heels I didn’t realize I’d been carrying in my fingertips, the sound of them hitting the floor like the gun shot that kicked off a high-stakes race.

Theo met me in a crash of limbs and moans, our hands seeking, roaming, gripping and clawing. He met every desperate touch of mine with one even more anguished of his own. It was like finally being together killed us as much as it brought us both to life, like we were breathing our last sip of air and our first gulp all at once.

Theo bruised my lips with his, slipping his fingertips under the straps of my dress and gently pulling them over each shoulder. My naked breasts flowered under his eyes, nipples hardening, goosebumps pebbling every centimeter of my skin. He palmed me first, feeling the weight of each breast in his hand before he groaned and bent to lower his mouth to my left peak.

I gasped at the sensation of his hot mouth covering the cool skin, my back arching of its own accord as I chased the feeling. My hands tangled in his hair, destroying the gel that held each strand perfectly in place.

I wanted him messy. I wanted him to unravel just like me.

“If you only knew,” Theo breathed against my chest, sucking my nipple hard between his teeth before letting it go with a pop. “The things I have done to you in my dreams.”

“Show me,” I begged, tugging back on his hair until his mouth was turned up toward mine. I kissed him hard, sealing the plea.

Theo groaned, gripping my waist so hard I winced as he backed me up to his bookshelf. We slammed into it hard enough to steal my breath and knock a few books and knick knacks to the floor, but Theo stayed on course, shoving my arms up over my head and locking my wrists together with one hand.

“You have been the source of my madness for months now,” he husked, dragging his tongue along my arched neck as his free hand trailed down my body. The only thing holding the bottom of my dress to me now was the elastic at my waist, and Theo slipped his fingertips under it, easily dragging it down until it pooled at my feet. “And I’ll be the source of yours tonight.”

I whimpered, chills racing down my spine again just from his promise. Now that the dress was gone, nothing but a scrap of lace shielded me from his view — but not for long. Theo kept me pinned as he ripped my panties down to my knees, then he backed up just enough to take in the scenery.

“ Fuck me , Aspen,” he breathed, the hand that held my wrists gripping even tighter. I hissed in a breath, but Theo was too busy raking his eyes over every inch of me to let up. “You’re a masterpiece.”

His eyes met mine, and he moved in again, his mouth catching my next exhale. His free hand swept over each of my breasts, twisting my left nipple and then my right, as if he were testing which one was more sensitive.

“I want to touch you,” I said, fighting against his restraint.

“In time.”

That was the only answer he gave before he separated my thighs with his knee, pressing his whole body against mine. My already throbbing clit met the fabric of his dress pants, his thigh giving me just the right friction and just where I wanted it. I moaned at the sensation, and Theo dropped his grip on my wrists to grab my ass, instead. He pulled me to him, rocking my hips so that I dragged my clit up his thigh.

My entire body trembled so fiercely I thought I might fall, and I gripped onto his shoulders to steady myself.

“I’m not even inside you yet,” Theo mused with a smirk, and he used his hands on my ass to pull me back before rolling me against him once again. Then, he sucked my ear lobe between his teeth, biting gently before he whispered, “Do you want me to be?”

I choked on my next breath of air, stars circling my vision as I let my eyelids flutter closed.

Theo kissed my neck with a knowing grin before dragging my hands up and over my head again. This time, instead of pinning my wrists, he turned my palms until they were on the bookshelf behind me. My fingers clamped down over the wood automatically, holding on for dear life.

“Keep these here,” he commanded. “Understand?”

I think I nodded. I think I wet my lips and sold my soul to the devil just to see what would happen next.

Theo grinned at my compliance, kissing me hard before his voice rumbled against my lips. “Good girl.”

Those words sent another chill down my spine, and then Theo descended upon me, his hands sliding down the length of my rib cage to grip my hips. He kissed a trail across my collarbone, sucking each pebbled nipple between his teeth, tracing a line with his tongue from the three freckles on my chest down my navel until he was on his knees with his eyes cast up at me.

He grinned, devilish and sexy as hell, and then he hiked my leg up to rest on his shoulder.

My breaths accelerated, and I gripped the bookshelf harder, praying it would keep me steady now that I was balanced on one leg. Even so, Theo seemed to hold all my weight, and he kept his eyes on me as he dragged his tongue over my mound and down to my clit.

“Oh, God ,” I cried, body shaking so violently I thought my knee would give out.

Theo answered by holding me even more steady, then he buried his face between my thighs, sucking and licking my clit in a rhythm set to kill.

It was unlike anything I’d ever felt before, the expert way his tongue lashed against the most sensitive part of me. It was as if he’d crawled inside my head, as if he could hear every thought. A little softer, a little harder, down more, yes, yes, right there.

Theo took his time discovering every part of me, what drove me crazy and what made my legs quake around him. When it was too much to bear and I was on the edge of coming, I let go of the shelf behind me, reaching down to run my hands through his hair and pull his mouth closer.

As soon as I did, Theo pulled back, letting a cool sweep of air wash over my hot clit.

I hissed, convulsing at the loss, and Theo stood abruptly, grabbing my hands in his. He spun me until I faced the shelf, slamming me into it again as more books fell to the floor.

“I told you to keep these here,” he said, peeling my arms up overhead until my fingers wrapped around the shelf again.

I whimpered, and Theo grinned against my neck, kissing me soft at first as his hands trailed down my back. Those kisses became harder and harder, little nips and bites between tender licks and sucks, and then his hand slipped between my butt cheeks, index finger swiping through the wet desire he’d created.

My orgasm rushed back to me, ready to ignite, just with that one brush of skin.

“Please,” I begged, and Theo sucked my ear, sliding his fingers a little farther up to brush my clit.

“Please what?”

“Touch me.”

“I already am.”

“Inside,” I breathed. “Finger me, Theo. Show me what you’ve wanted to do to me all summer.”

Theo growled at my confidence, biting my neck so hard I winced, but he immediately plunged a finger inside me in the next breath and all the pain was replaced by a hot, searing pleasure.

I gasped, sucking in what I didn’t realize was my last full breath of oxygen. Theo wrapped his free hand around my waist, reaching down and flattening his palm against my clit. He didn’t circle it, didn’t rub it — he just placed his warm palm there so that every time he thrust his finger into me from behind, my pelvis rocked, rubbing my clit against his hand.

“Theo,” I cried, panting, meeting his finger thrust for thrust where he penetrated me.

“Yes.”

It was one simple word, permission and a command all at once. My body obliged the request, and in a trembling siege of fire, stars blacking out my vision as I let go.

I moaned so loud I knew the whole crew could hear, but I didn’t care. It was like every ounce of pent-up desire I’d been holding onto since the moment I laid eyes on Theo erupted out of me in a violent volcano. I gripped the shelf hard, trying to hold myself up while my hips rocked, Theo’s hand rubbing my clit while the other fingered me mercilessly.

And in the next breath, I fell still, collapsing in his arms.

Theo chuckled, kissing my messy hair. “That’s my girl,” he whispered.

I wanted to laugh, too, but Theo turned me quickly, finally releasing my hands as he met my eager kisses. My orgasm was still floating through me, like earthquake tremors warning of another impending danger, and I used the adrenaline to hold my hands steady as I tugged at his tie, the buttons of his dress shirt, shoving his jacket over his shoulders and hastily ripping at the belt around his waist as he shrugged the jacket the rest of the way off.

We were all hands and mouths and moans as I stripped him, and the only time we broke contact was for him to kick out of his shoes and step out of the pants and briefs I’d stripped down to his ankles.

Then, he stood before me, all mountains of muscles and valleys of hard, toned, tanned skin. He stood tall and powerful, shoulders square and back, those steel eyes watching me over the slightly crooked bridge of his nose as he stroked his thick, pulsing cock.

It was the wrong time to be thinking of Joel. I knew it, but I couldn’t help it when I saw the beast Theo unleashed. I’d seen one penis in real life before, and it was Joel’s.

And compared to Theo’s, Joel’s member was a joke.

Theo Whitman might as well have walked off a porn set, the way the veins lined his beautiful, perfectly shaped cock. The mushroom head was thick and beaded with pre-cum, and he swiped his thumb over the drop, moaning as he coated himself with it.

I was still staring, still trying to comprehend how it would fit inside me when he quickly made his way to the bedside table. He pulled out a condom and rolled it over himself before making his way back to me at the bookshelf.

“You look scared,” he mused with an arched brow.

I shook my head, even though he wasn’t far from the truth. “I just want you.”

“How?” he asked, palming my breasts and pushing my back against the shelves again. I hissed at the bruising kiss he gave me next, gasping as his tongue massaged mine.

“Here,” I said, grabbing his muscular ass and pulling him closer. “Now.”

Theo growled, hiking my thigh up just like he had when he went down on me. Only this time, he lifted my ass until it sat mostly in his hands and half on one of the bookshelves. Then, he lowered his hips, reached down between us, and positioned himself at my entrance.

One look. One breath. One fiery, all-consuming kiss.

And he filled me.

A shocked moan left my mouth, but it was quickly silenced by Theo’s kiss. He groaned with me as he withdrew and slipped in again, stretching me open, his body trembling just as mine had.

“Jesus Christ , Aspen,” he breathed, pressing his forehead to mine as he looked down to watch himself entering me. He pulled back slowly, flexing even deeper, and I held onto his shoulders for dear life.

Theo pressed my hips into the bookshelf, pinning me there as he picked up the pace. Every new thrust went deeper and deeper until I was certain he was penetrating the very depths of my soul. I clawed at his back, moaning and crying out at the rush of sensations overcoming me.

I didn’t even realize it was possible, but another orgasm quickly snaked its way through my bloodstream, and I locked eyes with Theo just in time to tell him I was coming before my head dropped back, body shaking in Theo’s grasp.

That seemed to be the catalyst for his own release.

Theo growled, biting my neck and squeezing my hips so tight I knew they’d actually bruise as he fucked me harder, faster, slamming me against the bookshelf over and over again. Books flew off onto the floor. A vase of flowers broke and sent glass and water everywhere, but Theo didn’t relent. He kissed me hard, one hand coming up to wrap around my neck as the other held my hips to his. A shudder of a groan ripped through him, and I felt him pulsing inside me, the condom filling just as I started to get warmed up for another orgasm myself.

For a long moment, Theo just held me there, his damp forehead pressed against mine, breath labored, body stiff until a wave of chills rushed over him.

“Fuck,” he groaned, smirking when his eyes found mine again. “You,” he said, kissing my lips. “Are.” Another kiss. “ Sensational. ”

I blushed, shaking my head and laughing as he peppered me with kisses all over my neck, my chest, until his lips were on mine again.

“How do you feel?” he asked, gently lowering me to the ground. He swept my hair out of my face, cupping my jaw in his massive hands.

I bit my lip. “Like I want to do that again.”

Theo’s brow arched, and then he let his head fall back with a booming laugh erupting from his chest. When he looked at me again, his eyes glazed, hair mussed, body slick with sweat — he just shook his head.

“Oh, baby. Trust me,” he said, sweeping me into his arms and carrying me over to the bed. “We’re not getting any sleep tonight.”