He was utterly infuriated when, as he ate at my lips, he paused to say, “You happy now? You tease and torment me, and there is only so much I can take. I’ve spent more time with my hand on my cock in the past two months than I have in my entire fucking life. I am only a man, Tori.” He nipped at my lips. “What the fuck are you doing to me? You’re like a goddamn drug.” Our mouths melded in a hot, wet kiss that smacked loudly when he pulled back to confess, “I can’t stop kissing you.”

I wasn’t the drug. He was. And I smiled happily as I snorted him up, basking on the high.

“So don’t,” was my throaty reply.

“I couldn’t even if I tried.”

The raw honesty between us was refreshing.

When he spun us, the feel of the cool refrigerator door on my back had my entire body breaking out in goosebumps. Using the stainless-steel surface as leverage, he watched my face as he pulled out slowly and pressed back in, and I felt an electrical current spark in the bundle of nerves between my legs.

I’d been dreaming of this for weeks. He was my biggest fantasy come to life.

He pulled out then pushed back in, harder this time, and I whined softly, loving the feel of my body stretching to accommodate him. In and out, over and over, gaining traction until Ettore fucked me slowly but steadily as his eyes searched my face. Gradually, I drowned in desire. And he didn’t stop. He worshipped me. He pressed his face into the side of my own and huffed, “You’re so fucking beautiful it makes my heart ache.”

Holy shit.

How was I to resist him when he said things like that?

Our brief history of violence meant I was resistant and I don’t think I fell in love with Ettore at that moment, but it was the closest I’d ever been to it. I had never felt more connected to a person than I did right then.

He demanded of me, “Tell me your mine.”

And I gave, “I’m yours.”

He placed his forehead against my temple and grated, “You belong to me.”

Was there ever a question?

I felt zero trepidation when I said the words. “I belong to you.”

The way he flinched as our bodies slid apart then together again told me he belonged to me too.

“‘Til death and beyond.”

“Always, baby,” I breathed against his mouth and this time, when our lips connected, it felt deeper than lust. Deeper than anything I was used to.

It felt like coming home.