I take a deep breath. He's obviously telling the truth, and I feel a little guilty that I doubted him yesterday. How could I believe that bitch over him?
"And we never fucked, if that's what's on your mind right now," he continues, getting up and taking a seat in front of me. "Laura was running after me since the day we first met, and she tries to seduce me each time she sees me, but women like that really scare me, to be honest."
He laughs and I smile.
Did he just admit some women scare him?
"To be honest, I never even had sex with an Italian woman before you," he continues, pulling the pillow away and getting closer, reducing the distance between us.
"What?" I give him the are you kidding me? look.
"Well, you know that I don’t visit Italy that often, and when I do it’s mostly for my family, so I have no time for women in Florence." He grabs a blanket and starts pulling it, so it falls down, exposing my naked body.
I don’t protest this time. I'm the one who enjoys his gaze wandering my body.
"Don't you have any friends here?" I ask, licking my lips.
When he looks at me that way, I feel like the most beautiful woman in the world.
"Sometimes I go out with my cousin Stefano. We were very close when we were younger; he’s like a brother to me. He's four years older, and he was always my opposite: tall and handsome, a real womanizer at high school while I was just a bookish nerd, so he taught me everything."
"You were the sexiest nerd in school," I say with a smile.
He doesn't say anything, and I can see on his face that he doesn’t believe me.
It's actually true: I always thought Ricardo was handsome, even when we were just kids. He was never just a nerd to me. He was my best friend, and maybe I wasn't in love with him when we were younger, but I definitely loved him all my life.
"So, are you telling me that when you meet your cousin, women don't get in line?" I ask with a sly smile on my face. I don't know what Stefano looks like, but I can't imagine Ricardo can pass through a bar unnoticed. I'm sure women flirt with him all the time.
"We don't go to clubs or bars anymore." Ricardo shakes his head. "Sometimes we have dinner with his friends, but when women hint to me to take them home, I always pretend I didn't understand the hint because the next time it's gonna feel awkward."
I raise my eyebrow in a silent request for him to continue.
"Well, it's like I have to apologize that I didn't call or text, which I never promised to do but still, you know, I don't want to lie that 'I wanted to call but been busy' because it's evident that I didn't. I usually don't even remember their names…"
He stops, pressing his lips together as if he just blurted out something he didn't plan to tell me.
I laugh at him.
"You're such a…" I begin but stop. I don't know what to call him. He's only telling me the truth.
"Asshole?" He ends the sentence instead of me with a smile. "Maybe I am."
He leans closer, slowly, his fingers brushing my legs, starting from my knees and getting higher, to my hips, my inner thighs and my belly, his gaze not leaving mine for a second all the way. He does it until his face is so close to mine that he touches my nose with his.
"I might be an asshole," he whispers huskily into my mouth, and I hold my breath, "but I’m your asshole."
His palms reach my breasts, and his thumbs start making circles around my nipples.
I'm sitting naked in front of him as he strokes my body with his hands under the bright daylight. This would make me uncomfortable before, maybe a little shy, perhaps a little embarrassed: sitting in front of an incredibly beautiful man, who still has a blanket covering half his body, while I'm completely naked for his gaze.
But it's not what happens now, not with this man. I’m not getting nervous or shy or embarrassed. With Ricardo, I feel confident and satisfied. I feel…loved.
His hands go higher, stroking my neck, moving my hair to the back, exposing me for him even more.
As he finally kisses me, I open my lips for him.
Slowly, gently, holding my face in his hands, stroking my lips tenderly with his, he penetrates my mouth, sucking me and making me moan.
I extend my hands and put them on his chest, brushing my fingers all over it until I finally find his nipples, which I so desperately wanted to touch all this time. I squeeze them between my fingers and moan loudly.
Ricardo bites my lip, breaking the kiss.
"If you want to end this conversation, don't make that sound again," he warns with a smile, still holding my face in his palms.
"Don't kiss me then." I smile back, squeezing his nipples harder. I hope he likes what I do with his nipples just as much as I enjoy when he touches mine, because it turns me on.
"I can't," he whispers and leans in for another kiss.
This time he opens my lips with his tongue, faster and rougher, entering as if he was waiting to do this for too long and can’t wait a second more. He's devouring me, his intensity building with each move, sucking my mouth harder and pressing his body to mine.
My fingers wander all over his body as we kiss, until they stop at his head, digging my fingers into his hair, as I press my breasts to his soft skin.
He grabs me by the waist and puts me on his lap. The blanket between us doesn't stop my pussy lips from wrapping around his erection.
I start riding him, rubbing my clit against the blanket.
I moan more and more as his hands lower down my body, stroking every part of it, squeezing my ass, making me move faster.
I know we have to stop doing this; we haven't finished our conversation yet. It was just the beginning, and by having sex, we’re only postponing our discussion.
But I can't stop, letting him pull the sheets away and place me carefully on my back with his body on top of mine as we continue kissing.
"I love you," he whispers between kisses.
The words hit me like ice-cold water amid the desert heat.
We're not gonna have sex.
We're gonna make love.
Chapter Eleven
Ricardo
Telling her that I love her is so easy this time. It feels so natural, as if I've told her a thousand times before. She doesn't freak out, she doesn't get scared, she accepts those words with gratitude and opens her body and her soul for me to take.
And I love it. I love Angie hearing what I say without overthinking it, without worrying about where it's going to lead and how we're going to manage this complicated thing we call a relationship.
I love that now it's only the two of us in the whole world, in the entire universe, and nothing else matters as she whispers back, "I love you too."
She lets me put her on her back, allows me to spread her legs and place myself between them. I don’t enter her, not yet. I don't want to rush this time. Instead, I gently stroke my dick against her soft, wet pussy lips, and she moans quietly in response.
I take her hair carefully and turn her head to the side to get a better angle of her long, silky neck as I put my lips on her velvet skin to have a taste, while my fingers caress up and down her body.
Her skin is sweet and salty like caramel popcorn as I lick it, making circles with my tongue close to her ear, lowering down to her collarbone and cupping one of her breasts in my palm and squeezing just a little.