If Ever I Fall (Rhode Island Romance #1) (17 page)

He came to stand in
front of her again. “You are so damn beautiful,” he breathed, his half-lidded
eyes burning over her body.

Her smile was
tremulous. “So are you.”

He ran his hands
down her inner thighs and up again, his fingernails scraping deliciously over
her skin. “I wanted to take this slow. This first time with you. But I don’t
think I’m going to last very long once I’m inside you.”

“That’s okay. We
have all night.”

His smile matched
the eager gleam in his dark eyes. “The first of many,” he promised, his words
thickening into a groan as his gaze lowered to the yearning place between her
legs. “You are so ready for me.”

“Hurry.”

Her whisper turned
into a frenzied gasp of need when he palmed between her legs with one hot hand,
capturing the moisture there; he rubbed it over the head of his erection. He
stepped between her outspread legs, lifting them up and hooking them over his
arms. Then he grabbed her hips and entered her in one long, smooth thrust, a
grunt of pleasure and possession bursting from his chest as he buried himself
to the hilt.

Willa arched her
back and pressed her hands into the mattress, her eyes wide with sensual
delight. He felt so thick inside of her, touching places that no other man had
reached before. She felt herself stretching and clasping around him,
accommodating his length and girth, luring him in farther, deeper.

“Holy… God…
Willa
.”

He pulled her legs
around his hips. “Lock your legs around me, baby,” he said, half plea, half
command.

As she eagerly
complied, he leaned forward, this new angle allowing him to press even deeper
inside of her. He brought his hands to hers, intertwining their fingers and
bringing their clasped hands to either side of her head. His face hovered
closer to hers, glistening with the sweat of his exertion, his sharp, staccato
breaths like hot kisses against her skin. His pupils dilated, pulsing with the
beat of his heart.

Willa felt another
climax building. She sucked in a deep breath, undulating her hips, pushing
forward so that his pubic bone rubbed against her clitoris with every down
stroke. She gasped his name over and over, her voice rising along with the
pounding of her heart.

This was Joe inside
of her.
Joe
. She marveled at how well they fit together: two pieces
making a perfect whole; two lonely hearts finding their home in each other.

This time, she did
hear her own scream. It seemed to echo off the walls, reverberating in her
core. Her inner walls squeezed around his erection, pulling a deep, frenzied
groan from him. He buried his face in her neck. He gave several quick thrusts,
holding himself still on the final stroke as his climax pulsed deep inside of
her.

His chest, hot and
damp with sweat, settled over hers. She felt the heavy thud of his heart
against her breast. For a few moments he lay still, panting against her neck.
Then he slid his mouth slowly upwards, pressing lingering kisses against her
skin. He lifted his head, his eyes finding hers, searching, asking.

“Are you okay?” he
whispered.

She could only
smile, tremulous, replete.

He smiled back and
then he kissed her.

She
melted into his kisses, opening her mouth to the heat and the taste and the
thrust of him. Their tongues tangled in a long, lazy exploratory dance.
When she sucked the tip of his tongue between her
lips, he groaned and laughed at the same time.

“Minx,” he breathed
against her mouth.

He pulled back, carefully
slipping out of her. He released her hands. He took her by the waist, scooting
her on her back across the bed until she was on it fully, her head on a pillow.
She watched him dispose of the condom before crawling after her, lying on his
side to face her. He hooked one arm beneath her head, the other across her
hips, and dragged her against him, belly to belly.

“You are so
lovely,” he whispered.

He kissed her
again.

She kissed him back
ardently, running her palms across his chest and shoulders, delighting in the
freedom to touch him. He had a gorgeous physique, lean but muscular in all the
right places. She especially liked that place on his chest where she felt the
heavy thud of his heart. She rested one palm there as her other hand drifted
down to his stomach. She twirled a teasing finger in his concave belly button
before sliding her hand lower to touch his burgeoning erection. She rubbed her
thumb across the damp tip, then wrapped her fingers around him and squeezed,
loving the way he twitched and grew in her hand.

She drew back from
his mouth to whisper, “Ready for more?” She delighted in the lilting, teasing
sound of her own voice. She’d never spoken that way out loud before.

His surprised laugh
ended on a moan. “
God
, Willa. I’ve never recovered this fast. See what
you do to me?”

He reached for
another condom, rolling it on quickly before turning back towards her. His hand
traveled from her waist to her thigh and lifted her right leg to drape across
his hip. He thrust his pelvis against her. “Put me inside you,” he demanded.

She brought him to
her opening and sighed her delight as he slowly buried himself inside her. She
slid her hand from between their bodies and grabbed his flexing buttocks,
digging her fingers into his firm flesh, urging his body to meld completely
with hers.

 He scraped his
fingernails lightly up and down her thigh as he captured her mouth; his delving
tongue matched the thrust and pull of his hips. Their breathing escalated until
the point where he had to break away, burying his face between her breasts, his
entire body quaking with the force of his release.

Her own, quieter
orgasm chased his. She cradled him against her, pressing her face into his
hair, her fingers caressing his temple, the shell of his ear. His body relaxed
completely against her.

They slumbered, his
erection still hard inside of her.

She drifted awake a
short while later to the feel of him slowly withdrawing from her body. He
kissed her forehead. “I’ll be right back.”

She propped herself
up against the headboard and stretched her arms above her head. She felt a
pleasant ache inside of her and in her thighs and lower back. She felt
deliciously used and sated.

Joe returned with a
glass of water. He set it on the nightstand and climbed into bed, sitting
beside her. He pulled the comforter up to their waists. He reached for the
water.

“Thirsty?” he
asked.

“A little.”

He offered her the
glass, watching as she took a few sips. He drank some too, and then set the
glass back on the nightstand. He put his right arm around her shoulders,
drawing her close, cupping her head against his chest. She draped her arm
across his stomach.

“This isn’t going
to be easy,” he said after a while, his voice rough.

She didn’t have to
ask what he meant. “When will you tell her?”

“Tomorrow. No point
in delaying.”

She brought her hand
to his chest, resting her palm over her favorite place. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. You
haven’t done anything wrong. This was inevitable. I was stupid to think that if
I stayed away from you my feelings would go away. They only grew stronger.”

“It was the same
for me.”

“That breakfast was
torture. Sitting there with both of you. I knew then that I was on the verge of
breaking her heart. But I still fought against doing that. Today, when I saw
you fall into the water… The thought that I might have lost you… I knew for
sure there would be no turning my back on this.”

“Do you think she senses
that something’s wrong?”

“I don’t know.
Maybe. I haven’t slept with her since I met you. Actually, a while longer than
that.” He sighed. “Everything felt right when I proposed to her. She was so
happy. Her parents were thrilled. Sylvie and Tony were supportive. In my head,
I thought I was just putting an official stamp on something that had already
been in place for years. But—just a few days after I proposed—I felt like walls
were closing in on me. I began to wonder if maybe I’d allowed myself to get
caught up in the magic of the holidays. I’d been feeling sentimental about my
mother. She and Julia’s mother had talked of Julia and me getting married since
we were kids. They’d planted the idea in our heads.” His tone turned grim. “Breaking
Julia’s heart is cruel. But to keep things as they are, to marry her in spite
of the way I feel, would be crueler. I’m an asshole. I shouldn’t have asked her
to marry me in the first place.”

“You’ve said that
she’s your best friend.”

“And that’s what
tears me apart. I’ve felt so guilty for not sharing her excitement about the
wedding and guilty for wishing for things that I thought I’d put behind me—those
lonely, hungry feelings I thought I’d buried a long time ago.” He shuddered. “I’m
about to shatter every dream she’s ever had about me and her. Tomorrow is going
to be brutal.”

Willa cleared her
throat. “When you told me about Julia…and when I met her… At first I felt
guilty, too. I saw how much you cared for her. But then I thought about the
things Tony shared with me, about how much you’ve sacrificed for him and your
sister, putting them first in everything.”

She sat up so she
could look him straight in the eye. Her voice was fierce. “Don’t get me wrong.
I admire what you’ve done for the sake of your family. But you can only do so
much, Joe. You’re not a goddamn saint or martyr.”

He frowned back at
her, looking startled. And then he threw his head back and laughed, loud and
long. He wrapped both his arms around her, hugging her close as his laughter
faded into chortles. “Oh, Willa,” he said, catching his breath. “You should see
your face. You look like you’re ready to fight someone.”

She pulled out of
his arms, but only so she could crawl on top of him, straddling his lap. She
grabbed his face between her hands and brought her face close to his. “
Listen
to me. For most of my life, I let my father dictate my every direction. Since I
moved here, I’ve learned that it’s okay to be selfish sometimes. It’s okay to
do what
you
want, not what others expect from you. It’s time to put
yourself first, Joe Rossetti. To live
your
dreams for a change. I won’t
allow you to feel guilty about that.”

He tightened his
arms around her waist. His smile was sweet. “I’m listening. And
you’re
living up to your name.”

“What do you mean?”

“Wilhelmina. I
looked it up. It means ‘strong willed warrior’ and ‘resolute protector’. Are
you going to protect me, Wilhelmina, my strong, fierce warrior?”

She nestled into
him, smiling against his neck. “You’re going to try and make me like my name,
aren’t you.”

“It’s a pretty
name. But so is Willa, my little mouse. How about I just use the full version
when I’m trying to prove a point.”

She laughed. “Only
if I can do the same. What’s your full name?”

“Joseph Francis
Rossetti.”

“Mm. I like it.”
She tweaked one of his flat, penny-brown nipples. “Maybe I’ll call you Francis
when I’m mad at you.”

He smacked her bare
bottom. “Only if you want to get spanked.”

She drew back, her
eyes wide as she searched his teasing expression. “You’re into that kind of
thing?”

“I might be. I
don’t know. I’ve never tried it.” He wiggled his hips, drawing her attention to
his lengthening erection. “I’m finding I want to try all kinds of things with
you, Willa.”

She
discovered that he loved to be touched. Everywhere. His body quivered as she
tracked her fingernails across his nipples, trembled as she flicked her tongue
under his armpits, shook as she licked a trail along his groin. He was vocal in
his appreciation of her mouth and hands, his groans escalating in volume, her
name a shout on his lips as he reached his peak.

And he loved
touching her in return. It was a rare moment that he didn’t have his hands on
her, caressing the slender arch of her neck, the lobe of her ear, the swelling
mounds of her breasts, the curve of her stomach, the damp, hungry places
between her legs. He wasn’t shy about exploring every nook and cranny of her
body, the promise of future sinful delights in his eyes as he watched myriad
colors of pleasure flush across her face and neck.

She also discovered
that he liked to call the shots in bed, his dark, intense voice commanding she
turn this way or move that way, hands guiding, directing. She didn’t mind this
at all. She craved it, was enthralled by it. It was rapturous not having to
think or to analyze or to observe things from a cold distance. This was one
place where she didn’t want to think at all, only feel. She surrendered body
and soul to pure emotion, moving solely on instinct and the whims of her lover.

They loved. They
dozed. They loved some more. He was insatiable, his energy unflagging. “I can’t
get enough of you,” he groaned in her ear in the dark hours of the evening,
pounding into her from behind as the heavy rain pounded on the roof. “I’ll
never get enough of you.”

She took him into
her mouth, a new experience for her. He showed her how he liked to be touched,
murmured dirty, searing words of encouragement as she found his pleasure spots.

He took her in the
shower, lifting her up and onto him, her legs anchored around his back.

They returned to
bed and slept for a while.

It was long past
midnight when Willa slipped out of bed and threw her robe on. After using the
bathroom, she padded into the kitchen and pulled a pizza from the freezer.

Joe walked in a
half hour later, jeans hanging loose on his hips, the top button undone. He
scratched his bare chest, sniffing the air. “Pizza?”

“Sausage, mushroom
and cheese.” She turned back to the oven, feeling a momentary, inexplicable
bout of shyness. He was just so damn handsome and virile; the last few hours
suddenly seemed like a crazy dream.

He came up behind
her and wrapped his arms around her waist. One hand found its way between the
folds of her robe and gently cupped between her legs. “How do you feel?” he
asked, his warm breath wafting across her cheek. He smelled of peppermint. He’d
brushed his teeth.

She smiled at his
thoughtfulness. Her body relaxed against his. “Just a little sore.”

“I’m sorry, baby. I
got a little carried away that last time.”

She turned to face
him and wrapped her arms around his neck. She kissed his chin. “You’re not
really sorry.”

He grinned
wolfishly. “No.”

She giggled at the
sound of male pride in his voice.

“Mmm. I love it
when you laugh like that,” he said. He reached between her legs again and
rubbed his thumb over her clitoris in gentle exploration. His cheek—slightly
rough with the growth of new beard—brushed against hers. “This belongs to me
now,” he whispered in her ear. “I’m going to take good care of it.”

She shivered with
delight and buried her blushing face in his neck. “You’ve taken very good care
of it so far.”

“I wish you had a
bathtub. I want to pamper you in a bubble bath.”

“My new house will
have a bath.”

“Mmm, yes. A huge
tub. Big enough for two.”

She smiled at the
vision of sharing a bath with Joe in the bathroom he’d designed for her.

After a while, he
reluctantly withdrew his hand from between her legs. He brought both his arms
around her waist, pressing her even closer and rested his cheek on top of her
head. His chest moved in slow, deep breaths.

Willa played with
the comma of hair at his nape with one hand while the other made soothing
circles on his naked back.

“Tell me this isn’t
just a dream,” he pleaded gruffly.

“It’s not a dream.”

His embrace
tightened. He slid one hand upwards, grasping her nape as he angled his head to
kiss her deeply.

Joe.
Joe
.

The sound of the
oven buzzer eventually pulled them apart.