Mariya hauls off and slaps him across the face and I smother a yelp. "Oh, screw you! I follow all the rules of the marriage agreement - as stupid and archaic as they are - because I won't disrespect the Morozov name. But you, oh, you get to fuck around all you want, don't you? Ronan and I were just dancing, he wasn't even touching me!"
Konstantin took the slap without a word, still staring down at her in fury. My feet are already moving. I won't let him hurt her. I don't care if our families are allies, I'll gut him before he can touch a hair on her head. Mariya's done more for me here than anyone, I wouldn't have made it this long without her and he can't hurt her...
Lucca's arm wraps around my waist, his hand flat against my stomach and holding me still. I'm about to dig my elbow into his solar plexus when he whispers, "Stop. Kon won't touch a hair on her head. He's not like that." Nodding, I sag back against him with relief.
"You need to remember who you're promised to, and it's not that Irish prick," Konstantin grits out.
"Oh, don't worry," Mariya's still yelling in his face, and I can tell he's not used to that. "How could I possibly forget? You're always lurking around like a creep, sneering at me."
"Then you shouldn't have come to the Ares Academy," he snarls, "we could have had four years of freedom away from each other, but you just had to show up, didn't you?"
"Did you think I would turn down being accepted here just because you'd be stinking up the place?" I know Mariya's on a roll now, there's no stopping her. "I'm the first woman in the Morozov family line to be accepted here!"
He pulls her closer, "Ronan Cox is a sleazy prick who's been sniffing after you since you came here. He'd love to get you in bed just to fuck with me."
"Of course," she scoffed, "because everything is about you, isn't it?"
Lucca’s warm, rough palm flexes on my stomach, and his other hand goes over my mouth to stifle my startled yelp. His fingers are sliding under the waistband of my jeans, instinctively, I try to move away from his hand, which ends up pressing me against his chest. There’s something hard poking me in the small of my back. Very hard. And large. Maybe it’s a really big wallet?
I am such a moron, I think, cringing, a wallet…
Sucking in a desperate gasp of oxygen when his hand loosens over my mouth, I wheeze, “What are you-”
“Shh…” his perfect, full lips are tickling my ear. “You don’t want them to see us, do you?”
Lucca Toscano’s long, calloused fingers are in my undies and I can’t seem to process this. One finger slides lightly up and down the seam between my lower lips and I can feel myself getting wet, embarrassingly, eagerly slick and he’s using it to circle my clit with the lightest, most infuriating touches.
He tightens his hand over my mouth as my hips make an executive decision and push forward against his hand. “Do you want me to stop?”
Did I? I should. I should want him to stop but the feel of his hard, roughened fingers is just… I shake my head.
I can feel his grin against my cheek. “You’re going to be quiet; I know you can do it.” The heel of his hand slides down and grinds gently against my clitoris as his fingers stroke and pinch me. “When you come, you’re not going to make a single fucking sound.”
My flailing hand somehow ends up pressing on the outside of my jeans, right over where this man is touching me. He chuckles quietly. “You’ll come when I tell you to come. You’re not going to hurry this along.”
What is happening here?
I’m trying to form some kind of logic in my brain that would make Lucca’s hand inside my undies my sense. He tolerates me at best. Oh, god this feels so good.
The warmth of his skin soaks into me and I can barely feel the chill in the air, his stubbled cheek rubs against the thin skin of my neck as he whispers something filthy-sounding in Italian.
The sound of Mariya and Kon’s squabbling fades away and my head drops back against his chest. I can feel the rumble from his silent chuckle as the heel of his hand keeps circling my clitoris, hard, then softly, not keeping a rhythm that will let me get close to coming but bozhe moy, my god, my fingers could never do this. The heat and roughness of his hand are so foreign and wildly erotic.
His palm slides from covering my mouth to resting lightly against my throat. “Not a sound, understand?” Lucca whispers, “I’ll stop if you even open your mouth and you don’t want that, do you?” He squeezes my neck lightly when I don’t answer him and I nod rapidly, pressing my lips together.
Later, when my brain has rejoined my body, I’ll think about this and most likely torture myself with guilt and question why I allowed this arrogant man with the looks of a supermodel and all the charm of a serial killer to do this to me. Later. But right now he’s unbuttoning my jeans to give himself more room and the tip of his forefinger slowly slides up into my channel and I stiffen. His movements pause for a moment, and then the finger withdraws, circling my entrance instead.
His fingers swirl and slide faster and my legs are shaking. “So close, aren’t you, baby?” he whispers diabolically and I can feel him grin against my neck before biting the skin gently. Two of his fingers pinch my clitoris and tug and then I’m flying, I’m coming, and before we can test my ability to keep my mouth shut, Lucca’s lips descend on mine, kissing me greedily, his hand sliding up from my neck to my jaw, turning my head so he can push his tongue and his breath into my mouth and he swallows the moans of my orgasm and his teeth scrape my lip.
We stand hidden in the little grove of trees, I’m shaking as Lucca buttons my jeans and then puts his wet fingers into his mouth, tasting me. It’s not until sometime later that I notice Mariya and Kon’s argument is over and they’re long gone.
Chapter Ten
In which Lucca questions his sanity and employs diversionary tactics.
Lucca…
What the fuck did I just do?
Tatiana is thankfully silent as I straighten her clothes and take her back to the steps of the student housing building. She blinks and seems to come back online, slipping off my jacket.
“Thank you. I mean, for the jacket- for keeping me warm- der'mo! Shit! I meant warm because of your jacket…” She’s so mortified that she can’t even look me in the eye. It’s a shame because I’d like to see her green eyes, the flecks of gold that make them shimmer. She licks her lips and I want to kiss her again, steal more of her breath and orgasms to live inside me.
“Well… goodnight Lucca,” she says, nodding firmly, concluding this conversation.
Leaning down, I kiss the curve of her neck. She smells like me; old leather and wintergreen, with a hint of her jasmine scent. “Goodnight.”
She hurries up the steps like I might chase her, disappearing through the doors.
Bringing up my fingers to smell her one last time, I walk in circles around the campus for the rest of the night.
“Where were you?”
Konstantin is acting especially pissy this morning, slouching on the couch, clutching a cup of coffee, and the fireplace blazing away with enough wood to build a new tree.
“How many times have you set our suite on fire?” I ask, using the fireplace poker to even out the blazing logs.
“The key clarification here is almost. I almost set the suite on fire,” he corrects me haughtily, moving his foot to cover a burn mark on the oriental rug. “So where were you? Wait. Let me guess. Dragana Stojanovic’s room? She’s been chasing you for over a year. Did she finally get her hands down your pants?”