He ran his hands up and down her back, following the line of her spine and the curve of her behind until she was groaning with need and twisting beneath his grip.
His thumbs swiped down into the heat of her and spread her inner core to his gaze. She was hot and damp and as he stroked her she moaned, “Rico, please. Touch me. Touch me.”
He did, stroking her inside and out as his own body screamed for him to enter her. To claim her as his.
Heart racing, his blood thrummed in his veins and urged him on. Teresa looked back at him again, her breath coming harder, faster, and she whispered, “Hurry.”
He grinned at her eagerness. His Teresa had never been shy about lovemaking. When they were first together, they had christened every room in his suite over the Cancún hotel and what they had done on his terrace one memorable morning still woke him up at night, wanting to do it all again.
“Please,” she muttered, bracing herself on the leather cushions and wiggling her h*ps in invitation. “Now, Rico. Do it now.”
“Now,” he agreed and pushed himself into her depths.
She cried out his name at his entry and everything in him fisted painfully. She was so hot, so tight and felt so right. He rocked in and out of her body, hating every retreat and welcoming every surge as the blessing it was.
Again and again, he pushed them both higher and higher, the rhythm they set breathtaking. The only sounds in the room were their heavy breathing and the hiss and snap of the fire.
He leaned over her, cupped her br**sts in his hands and tweaked her ni**les as his body continued to plunge into hers. She groaned and rocked back into him, doing all she could to match his movements.
She humbled him, aroused him and left him shaken to the heart of him. Desire pumped like a wildfire through his body even while his mind stood apart and realized how precious she was. How special to him. How his life would be even emptier once she was gone from it.
But Rico didn’t want to think now. Didn’t want to recognize future or past. All that existed was the present. This moment snatched out of time where he and Teresa could be who they were destined to be. Two halves of a whole.
That thought staggered him, so he pushed it aside. He gave himself over to the sensations cresting inside him. Rico looked down at her and saw her bite down on her bottom lip as she fought to claim the release that was so close to each of them.
He felt her internal muscles clench and strain around him and knew her cl**ax was only moments away. He gave her everything he had and when she shrieked his name, he buried himself as deeply as he could inside her and then joined her on that steep slide into completion.
Nine
When he could think again, when he could move, Rico gently disentangled their bodies, then helped her shift position onto his lap as he took a seat on the couch. Wrapping his arms around her, he held her carefully, as if she was fragile and likely to break.
Which, he realized, was ironic, considering what the two of them had just done. But Teresa had always brought out his protective tendencies. It seemed that had not changed. Right now she was warm and trembling in his arms, still reacting to the explosive cl**ax that had shattered them both. And though his body was sated, Rico already wanted her again.
“That was,” she said on a sigh, “incredible.”
“Yes, it was.” He let his head drop to the back of the couch. His eyes closed and a groan lodged in his throat as he realized what had just happened. What he’d done without even thinking about it. But then, that was the problem, wasn’t it? He hadn’t been thinking at all. “It was also incredibly stupid.”
“What?” She looked up at him, her hair a wild tangle around her face, her mouth puffy from his kisses and her eyes still shining with satisfaction. “What do you mean? How was any of that stupid?”
He blew out a breath and met her gaze. “I lost control.”
“I know,” she said, giving him a slow, sexy, very tempting smile. “I liked it.”
“So did I,” he admitted. He lifted his head, stared into her eyes and added, “But I didn’t stop for a condom.”
“Oh. Oh.” She bit her lip, took a breath and said, “All right, that was stupid. But this wasn’t only your fault, Rico. I wasn’t thinking either.”
“Small consolation.” Rico had never lost control like that. But then, only Teresa had ever touched him so deeply that his brain shut off and let his body take over.
“If it helps any, I’m healthy.” She laid one hand on his chest. “I haven’t been with anyone since you.”
Those words rattled around in his mind and then slipped down to center around his heart. He shouldn’t have cared, but he did. Shouldn’t have been pleased, but he was. For five years he had imagined his wife, thinking herself divorced, being with other men. Letting them kiss her, taste her. Giving to them what had been only his. To know that none of those torturous imaginings had been real was a gift he hadn’t expected.
He dropped one hand to the curve of her breast and slowly stroked his fingertips across one hard, dusky nipple. She sighed in reaction and he felt his groin leap to life again. So did she and she smiled knowingly. That small smile touched something inside him that he didn’t want to explore too closely.
It was enough that she was here. With him. For right now. He hadn’t looked to the future since the night she’d disappeared from the hotel in Mexico. Instead, his thoughts had always gone back to when she had been there beside him. Smiling, laughing, giving him a secretive look that told him she wanted him as badly as he wanted her.
Rico had never planned on giving her a confession about their time apart, but since she had been so open with him, he could do no less and still retain any sense of honor in his own mind. If he was honest with himself, he would have to say that he’d enjoyed having her think that he had moved on to other women. But now, especially with what had just happened between them and with her admission, he couldn’t let her go on believing his lie of omission.
Lie. He was only now seeing that as much as he hated being lied to himself, he was as guilty as anyone when it came to convenient untruths.
“I have not been with anyone since you, either.” He watched surprise flash in her eyes and pleasure quickly followed.
“But—” She shook her head. “All of the pictures of you with models and actresses…”
“Things are not always what they seem.” He ran one hand up and down her bare back in long, slow strokes, loving the feel of her skin beneath his palm.