Resist: To Love is To Suffer

Chapter Nine

I crashed my lips against hers, greedy and ravenous. I poured years of pent-up frustration, of yearning and infallible devotion, into the most desperate kiss of my life. I drank from her until my lungs ached, until the moment just before drowning in the most exquisite death, until my lips parted to gasp. But air, I didn't need it. Only the sensation of her lips touching mine, only the taste of her melting like candy on my tongue, only the feeling that I could know her as intimately as I'd always desired.

She pulled away, looking down to watch her fingers brush across her lips before her gaze fluttered back to meet mine. She cycled through countless emotions, all the reasons we shouldn't have done it written so plainly on her face, but then it changed and I knew she saw me. Not her son's friend, not the boy she'd known for years, but finally the man I'd become. And when she smiled, dear lord, the way she smiled at me returned me to life.

My hands moved to her calves, tracing across her knees and parting the hem of her robe as they traveled toward her thighs. The cool silk shifted across my wrists, such a stark contrast to the warmth of her skin. I kissed along the phantom trails left by my hands, smiling against her with each tremble of her legs. "Tell me to stop," I grazed my teeth across her inner thigh, dizzy with the need to taste her, "If you don't want me, tell me to stop now."

She shifted her hips in response, her delicate fingers untying the belt of her robe to reveal a seductive strip of skin from her neck down to the neatly manicured garden between her thighs.

My eyes grew wide, taking in every inch of her exposed skin before landing on her brilliant green eyes. She was a serene landscape of rolling hills. An ancient goddess carved from marble. And when she stood, when the robe slid from her shoulders and she laid herself bare before me, I knew in that moment was it was like to kneel before the benevolence of God.

"Fuck, one night is not enough. I will want you until the day I die."

She leaned forward and held out her hands, curling her fingers around mine as I offered them to her. "Vengas." I let her drag me to my feet. I let her drag me toward the bed. I'd let her drag me to the ends of the Earth if it meant I didn't have to let her go. Her hands released mine as we stood face to face, impossibly close, the swell of her heavy breasts one deep breath from brushing against my chest. She hooked her fingers beneath the waistband of my shorts and pulled me to her, our bodies flush. I groaned from the contact. Never in my wildest dreams, never in my most haunting nightmares, had her body felt so perfectly made to fit against mine. "Take them off."

I had never felt as self-conscious as I did in the moment I removed my board shorts, feeling her gaze trailing across my physique like bolts of lightning. She stepped back, her thumb resting below her chin as her fingers curled across her mouth. I caught a glimpse of her face before she walked to my side, the corners of her lips curling seductively. Her hand touched my hip before sliding across my lower back as she circled around me, goosebumps exploding across my skin as I trembled at her touch.

"You wanted to be seen. How does it feel?" She whispered, her breathy words sending a shiver down my spine.

"That depends."

"On what?" Her lips grazed my ear, and my knees almost buckled.

"If you like it."

She stood before me again, her hands now on my chest. She slid them down my abs before dragging her nails up my sides. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. My universe began and ended with her touch.

"You are shy like this. You want approval?" Her nails scraped up my neck and through my beard, her fingers curling around my chin, tilting my head down until she could stare through my soul.