Chapter Sixteen

Roman

What was supposed to be three, maybe four, days in Colombia turned into a week. A week without Tessa. There was a time before I knew Tessa, where a week might have been a normal amount of time for an assignment, but everything’s different now. The last week, I’ve been like a caged animal. Restless. Irritable. An animal who needs his mate.

I’m pissed, but less so than I was on the flight home, and now that I’m pulling into the garage, I can feel my mood shift. What a fucking relief.

Tessa…

She’s here. I feel her close. A weight lifts. I need to touch her like I need to breathe.

The elevator rises to the penthouse. The doors open. Tessa’s waiting for me in the foyer, looking like a dream. She wears a wispy silk dress that hugs her curves. Heels. Her hair is swept up in a twist, but small, delicate tendrils frame her face.

When she sees me, she shrieks because I haven’t shaved in a week. I’m dressed in black from head to foot and probably have a dangerous look in my eye. She takes a few panicked steps back, but I’m too quick. She can’t escape me. With a primitive snarl, I grab her and wrap her up in my arms.

Lifting her off the floor, I walk her back to the bedroom. She wriggles in my arms. I growl again, nipping her neck.

“Need. To. Fuck you,” I mutter.

She pounds on my shoulder. “I have to tell you something.”

“I’m listening.”

Yeah, barely. I’m about to ravish the woman I’ve missed for a whole damned week, which feels more like a decade. The room is mostly dark, but light from the closet casts enough light for me to cross the room to the bed. I lay her down and immediately she’s scrambling across the bed. I grab her foot and haul her back, which makes her sexy as fuck dress ride up her thighs.

“Roman,” she whispers. “I have to confess something.”

My brain isn’t getting a lot of blood flow right now, but I manage to mentally rewind a few messages Claire gave me. She promised Tessa was safe. Damon was busy with training a team of men heading to Dubai. I circle back to the information regarding Tessa. She was fine, Claire assured me. One of our top guys had kept an eye on her for me, and that’s all I need for now. Anything else can wait.

I run my hands down Tessa’s legs, tug her heels off and toss them over my shoulder. “Confess when you’re naked.”

She gives a soft laugh and swats my hands. Why is she acting like some shy, fragile virgin? I push her dress up and groan at the sight of her lacy panties. I stop for a moment and trace my finger down the panel. Fuck, she’s wet. When she wriggles, trying to get away, I feel a surge of lust rampaging through me like an enraged bull.

“I better confess quickly,” she blurts.

“Yes.”

“You’re not exactly being reasonable.”

“Right,” I manage to say from between gritted teeth. I’m never reasonable when it comes to Tessa. I loop my finger under the panties. “You just noticed?”

She frowns. “What?”

Her confusion makes me slow down.

I look her in the eye. “I’ve never been reasonable when it comes to you.” I give a quick tug and the panties tear as easily as if they were held by a thread.

I try to take in everything at once. Her pretty eyes. Her sexy lips. Her scent. I’ve missed everything about her.

“Roman.” Her voice is a trembling whisper.

“Tessa.”

I stroke my finger along her wet folds. Fuck, this girl could make me lose my mind. Maybe she already has. She gives a small mewl as I tease her clit with my thumb. Her thighs part. She closes her eyes and arches.

Unable to wait any longer, I prowl over her, push her thighs wider and lick her slick folds. I manage, barely, to take it slowly. Her scent wrecks me. Her taste unravels any remaining shred of my sanity. Everything but raw, molten need slips from my mind. Her breath comes in desperate pants. She threads her fingers through my hair. When she writhes beneath me, I pin her to the bed with my forearm.

My cock leaks with precum. My balls ache. But I can’t stop.

Her cries grow louder. She’s begging me. I’ve missed this. Never leaving her again. And then she screams my name and it’s like finding the promised land. Normally, I’d linger and make her give me another screaming orgasm, but not tonight.

I rip her dress from her body and suck her tits as she tries to tell me something about her ring and her friend. I grunt a few responses. Tessa’s nipples are very sensitive. She responds almost immediately. One minute she’s talking, or trying to talk and a moment later, she’s whimpering my name again.

“One day, I’m going to make you come when I tease your tits.”

“Roman,” Tessa breathes. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Her words knock me for a loop. I look down at her and see the fear in her eyes. Who made Tessa afraid?

“Did I scare you?” I ask.

She licks her lips and blinks like she’s trying to hold back tears.

I cup her jaw. “I frightened you.”

Shaking her head slowly, she sets her hand on mine. “I pawned the ring.”

It takes me a moment to understand her words. “The ring? The one I gave you?”

“Yes. Chelsea was in trouble. She was hurt. I gave her the money to get away from Brendon’s family.”

I stroke her cheek with my thumb. As much as my lust burned a moment before, now I’m just thinking about the look in my girl’s eyes.

“I felt awful that I’d given away the ring you gave me. I thought you’d be… angry.”

She’s afraid that I’m going to lose my shit over this? A ring? The only thing that pisses me off is that she needed me, and I was gone. “S’all right, Tessa. I’ll buy you ten more.”

A tear rolls from her eye and down her temple. She’s crying. It kills me that she’s crying. I lower to kiss her there and trace my tongue over the wet trail the tear left behind. I brush my lips over her ear, kissing the shell. “Rings, vases, it’s just stuff. I can always go out and get you more stuff. But there’s only one of you, Tessa. Nothing else matters. It’s you I love.”

She nods but somehow my words make more tears pool in her eyes.

“I missed you,” I whisper as I drop kisses across her face.

“I missed you too. I made you dinner, your favorite dish.”

I kiss her mouth with a deep, hard indecent kiss, one that’s meant to change the topic completely. She moans and wraps her arms around my shoulders. She’s already given me one orgasm because I practically pounced on her the moment I walked in. Now I want to show her how much I need her and never want to be apart from her again, not even for a night.

“You’re my favorite dish,” I tell her as I strip down. “So many ways I love to have you.”

She gasps as I set her on her hands and knees and settle behind her. “This is new. I haven’t had you this way, have I, Tessa?”

I stroke the head of my cock against her sensitive core. A shudder rolls up her spine. She draws a long breath that ends with a soft cry.

“Look how gorgeous you are.” I run my hands across her heart-shaped ass and along the length of her back. “Next time I fuck you from behind, I want the room filled with burning candles, so I can see how beautiful you are.”

Her hair has fallen loose. I wrap a swathe of her hair around my hand and give her a slight tug to pull her head back. She draws a sharp breath.

“Easy,” I tell her. “I’m not going to go rough. Not tonight.” I tease her pussy with the head of my cock, which aches with the need to be inside her. I want to grab her lush hips and bury myself balls-deep into her sweet, wet heat, but I’m trying my damnedest to slow things down a little. There’s a beast inside me, snarling and tearing at his restraints, seething to be unleashed.

“Please, Roman,” she begs. “I want you.”

Jesus.

“I want you inside me,” she says, her voice a breathy whisper.

And that’s it. My control snaps. Gripping her hair in one hand, and her hip with the other, I sink into her. Not in one single thrust. She’s so tight, I can’t impale her on my cock all at once. I groan with each thrust, reveling in the way her pussy grips my cock. She arches her back, offering herself to me. She has no idea how much she shreds my self-control.

By the time I’m buried deeply inside her, a sheen of sweat covers my chest. I’m sucking air between clenched jaws. She’s writhing in my grasp, taking every inch of my cock. I let go of her hair and grip her hips. She makes a small sound of surprise when I dig my fingers into her soft skin.

I lean over, covering her, pressing my chest against her back as I reach around with one hand. She shivers beneath me. I bite her shoulder, cup her breast and drive into her mercilessly.

“Fuck, I can’t be away from you, Tessa,” I grind out.

She whimpers beneath me. I skim my fingers down her chest, across her torso to her pussy and stroke her. Her clit is a fat little pearl. She gasps as I brush my fingers across. She twists and battles for breath, but I won’t stop. I strum my fingers across her arousal. She arches in my arms and lets out a desperate plea just before she breaks apart in my arms.

“So fucking gorgeous,” I hiss. “You own me.”

I hold her as she spasms and loses control. It’s all I can do to hold it together until her pleasure soars and I follow her over. A shout tears from my chest. My cock thickens as I give her everything I have. Both of us fall to the bed, me on top of her, and I immediately roll with her in my arms, keeping her pinned to my chest.

A few moments pass, maybe more. “Baby,” I mutter.

“Mmm, yes. Roman.”

“I need to be close to you, always.”

“Yes.” She’s drowsy. “If you stayed away from me again, I don’t think I’d be safe.”

I wrap my arms around her and kiss the back of her head. “You wouldn’t be safe. Not at all.”