His eyes flicked in her direction and in them, for the first time, she saw a lie. Despite everything she’d said, despite her attempts to reassure him, he no longer believed her.
That crushed her. Absolutely crushed her.
But she smiled anyway. “Okay.”
Nico turned as if he couldn’t bear to look at her anymore. He jerked his thumb toward the bedroom door. “I, um…I’m gonna go sleep in your old room. Gotta rest up for the flight tomorrow.”
“But it’s our last night. I figured with a month apart, we would...”
The look he shot her bordered on disgust. Another first. She never thought she’d see that on his face.
“Dani, you asked for time. I need time too. I know it’s the last night, but this was a lot. It’s not every day I propose to someone and get my ass handed to me,” he said. His eyes were shiny and tinged pink.
“That’s not what I ---. You know what? It’s okay. If that’s what you need,” she said with a nod. She held back from mentioning this was the second time this year he’d considered proposing to someone, but she kept that to herself. The connection they still had was too brittle and easily broken. A joke like that would cut too deep. “But the door to that room is locked. Please stay. We don’t have to do anything. We can just hold each other—"
“It’s okay. I’ll sleep outside.”
She watched, helpless, as he retrieved an extra blanket and pillow from the top shelf of the armoire and let himself out into the garden, closing the door firmly between them.
27
SILENT LIGHTNING
NICO
Sometime later,a little past midnight, Nico was restless on the lounger under the pergola. His eyes were fixed on the glass doors behind which Daniela lay. The string lights were off, and so were the lamps in the bedroom. He couldn’t see her but figured she was probably sleeping like a baby. Surely, the turmoil that gripped him wasn’t keeping her from slumber the way it did him.
Despite what she’d said at the end of their talk about needing “more time,” what had just happened was a breakup. A break down. She’s said no to marriage, no to living together, no to all his hopes for them, only she’d been too afraid to come out and say what this was. Another rejection, like all the others.
Only this one…this one cut deep. Flayed him to the bone.
There was a slow, continuous building of a wild urge to give in, to go to her and tell her he was sorry for everything he’d said and didn’t say. Tell her he’d wait as long as he had to if she would be his in the end. He’d prove he loved her, give her his all, until she felt sure of him.
But he didn’t go to her. Couldn’t.
Nature tried forcing him into giving in. A jagged white bolt zigzagged over the bay, followed by a boom. Another bolt illuminated the bushes, the trees in their terra cotta anchors, and the huddled shape he could now make out sitting up on the bed. Dani was awake. When the noise and flashing light were followed by a torrent of rain, stubbornly, Nico didn’t move.
He wouldn’t go to her.Couldn’t.
Something must have compelled her to rescue him from his own stubbornness, by some desire to shelter him from the storm raging inside him. The doors opened, and she came outside with her robe on, crossing the garden to him. Her face was hidden by the darkness, but when lightning revealed it, the tender, teasing smile had been replaced by an expression of infinite sadness. Her eyes beseeched him, and he understood the silent message. Need, for one final taste of what could have been if they’d been different people, not the two who’d fumbled the ball and fucked up what should have been a lifetime in under two weeks.
In the crashing thunder, neither spoke. He reached up to splay his fingers across her waist and pulled her down on his lap to make her straddle him, suddenly hungry, ravaging her with a hard, angry kiss. He plundered her mouth as his fingers greedily ripped open her night shirt, then turned his attention to her breasts, licking and biting, swallowing beads of rainwater off her nipples until they were rigid. Head thrown back, she moaned when it hurt too good.
The wood shifted perilously and creaked under their weight when Nico pushed her down onto the lounge cushion. He dropped the pillow and blanket, then shrugged out of his wet dress shirt, slacks, and everything he wore. His hair dripped rain onto her face when he stripped her bottom layers off and pressed into her.
It was dangerous, doing this out here under the merciless sky. They could be struck by the next spear of energy. The knowledge of that sent a frisson of an almost demented thrill rocketing through him. He didn’t care. If they burned, at least they’d burn together.
Memories of the first time they’d lain together on this cushion assaulted him at the same time he spread her legs wide and plunged in; she wasn’t getting a nice, slow buildup from him tonight. He was the one in control now, and they’d play on his terms this one last time. She moaned when he thrust his way in, setting a hard, driving pace and feeling her grow wetter with each stroke, drawing from her and claiming every last gasp of pleasure she had to give.
Chilly water pelted his shoulders and her face, and lightning momentarily blinded her. Nico stared down at her, his breath ragged, then got up on his knees to press her legs higher and wider, leaving her completely open and at his mercy. He bent to watch himself slide in and out, a fucking glorious sight he’d miss so much. Then he pumped, hard, banging her into the cushions with his chest hitching.
Her spread pussy was so hot compared to that rain, and he reveled in it, in her slickness and the way she enveloped him. Like a glove, tailor-made for him. His balls tightened every time they slapped her ass, and his cock throbbed in that heat; he knew he couldn’t last much longer. He dreaded this encounter coming to an end, but the need to release in her was too great.
Nico pushed his thumb in her mouth, mirroring what his cock was doing to this perfect pussy, then rubbed that digit over her clit, and she cried out, seeming blindsided by the swiftness and the strength of her climax. He soon followed her with a shout of satisfaction as he slowed, then drove deep into her with one final thrust. The rapture that tore through him utterly broke him.
When he collapsed on top of her, she wrapped her limbs around him and held him until his heartbeat could slow, until his cock could stop jerking and bathing her walls in his cum. Until he could stop wishing that all of it could have lasted a little longer.
But it was over.