Chapter 68: Can you move?

The pleasure built again....for both of them.

Eve was shaking beneath him, overwhelmed, tears streaming down her face from the intensity.

"One more," he demanded. "Give me one more, Eve. Come with me."

"I can’t...."

"Yes, you can. You’re my strong, fierce queen. You can take anything I give you." He reached between them, found her oversensitized clit. "Now come."

She shattered.

Screaming his name, her entire body convulsing, clenching around him so hard he saw stars.

Dimitri followed her over the edge, roaring her name as he spilled inside her again, marking her, claiming her, making her his in every way that mattered.

They collapsed together, hearts pounding, breath sawing, completely wrecked.

This time, Dimitri pulled out carefully, watching his release spill from her body with dark satisfaction.

Marked. Claimed. His.

"Can you move?" he asked gently, brushing sweat-dampened hair from her face.

"No," Eve mumbled. "Everything hurts. In the best way. But also I might die."

He laughed, pure and joyful, and gathered her against his chest.

"Bath first. Then food. Then I’m putting you to bed and you’re sleeping for twelve hours."

"Can’t argue," she murmured. "Too fucked out to form words."

"Good. That’s exactly how I want you." He pressed a kiss to her temple. "I love you, Eve Thorne. More than I thought it was possible to love anyone."

"Love you too," she whispered. "Even though you just ruined me for all other men."

"That was the point."

He carried her to the bathroom, ran a bath hot enough to soothe aching muscles, and settled them both in the water.

Eve melted against him with a sigh of relief.

"Worth it?" he asked quietly, echoing her earlier question.

"So worth it," she confirmed. "Though Isabella was wrong about one thing."

"What’s that?"

"You weren’t using me. You were cherishing me. Making me wait because you wanted it to be perfect." She tilted her head back to look at him. "Thank you for that. Even if the wait was torture."

"The wait was torture for both of us," he admitted. "But God, Eve...when you finally took all of me, when I watched you come apart on my cock...." He groaned. "Best moment of my entire life."

"Even better than becoming the Don?"

"Not even close." He kissed her softly. "Power means nothing compared to this. Compared to you."

They soaked until the water cooled, then Dimitri dried her off with gentle hands, massaged lotion into her sore muscles, and carried her back to bed.

Nonna had left a tray of food outside the bedroom door....bless that woman....and they ate naked in bed, feeding each other and laughing like teenagers.

"So," Eve said, stealing a piece of his bruschetta. "How many rounds do you think we can manage in one night?"

Dimitri’s eyes darkened. "Are you challenging me, cara mia?"

"Maybe." She grinned, wicked and satisfied. "We’ve got seven weeks of denial to make up for. Might as well start now."

"You’re insatiable."

"You made me this way." She straddled his lap, feeling him already hardening beneath her. "Now deal with the consequences."

"With pleasure," he growled, and pulled her down into another kiss.

****

POV: EVE

Three hours later, Eve lay sprawled across Dimitri’s chest, both of them thoroughly exhausted, the sheets a disaster, her body aching in the most delicious ways.

"I can’t move," she mumbled against his skin. "Ever again. I’m just going to live right here."

"Fine by me." His hand stroked lazily up and down her spine. "Though at some point we should probably change the sheets."

"Why? We’re just going to mess them up again."

He laughed, the sound rumbling through his chest. "Fair point."

Eve’s phone buzzed on the nightstand. She ignored it.

It buzzed again. And again.

"Someone really wants your attention," Dimitri said.

"Don’t care." She burrowed closer. "The world can wait."

But he reached over, grabbed her phone, glanced at the screen.

His expression darkened.

"What?" Eve pushed up on her elbows. "What is it?"

"Isabella." He handed her the phone. "She’s been texting you."

Eve read the messages, her jaw tightening with each one.

I hope you enjoyed your little tantrum.

Running to Dimitri the second I challenged you just proves you’re not strong enough for this world.

When he gets bored of you....and he will....don’t come crying to me.

You’re temporary. I’m forever. Remember that.

"Ignore her," Dimitri said, plucking the phone from her hands. "She’s just trying to get under your skin."

"I know." Eve settled back against him. "But she’s wrong about one thing."

"What’s that?"

"I’m not temporary." Eve pressed a kiss over his heart. "I’m forever too. You’re stuck with me, Valentino."

His arms tightened around her. "Promise?"

"Promise." She looked up at him, her eyes serious. "No matter what Isabella does, what your father does, what anyone does....I’m not going anywhere. You’re mine and I’m yours, and that’s final."

"Final," he repeated, and something in his voice made her heart clench. "I like the sound of that."

"Good. Because in about six months when this ridiculous contract is up, I expect you to ask me to marry you properly."

He went very still beneath her.

"Is that so?"

"Yes." She propped her chin on his chest, meeting his eyes. "And I expect a ring. A big one. Something Isabella will see from across a room and know she lost."

Dimitri’s smile was slow and devastating. "Competitive much?"

"Only when it comes to you." She kissed him softly. "So? Think you can manage that?"

"Cara mia," he said, rolling her beneath him, "I’m going to give you the most obscenely large diamond this city has ever seen. I’m going to marry you in a ceremony so lavish it makes tabloid headlines. And then I’m going to spend every day for the rest of our lives making sure you never regret choosing the Devil."

"I won’t," she promised. "I couldn’t. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me."

His eyes went suspiciously bright. "Even better than building Phoenix from nothing?"

"Even better than that."