There was no turning back. He wanted more and so did she. Andin leaned forward and pressed her open mouth to the hollow of his throat. He tasted warm and musky, his skin damps from the rain. Her hard nipples raked his hot naked chest, and he moaned. Then she kissed him again, to let him know she loved the feel of his touch on her ribcage but held on to him tightly when that same touch, those same hands caressed their way to her breasts.
Before she lost all reason, she said close to his ear, "You taste wonderful, Mister Summers."
"So do you, Miss Williams." He slid his other hand up and filled his palm with her soft breast. "And I want you, you have no idea. I could not think past all the parts I wanted and in what order I want them."
Feeling empowered, she slid her hands up his sides and chest. "Oh, really? Then which part do you want first?"
His voice was low gravel across her skin. "These parts." She had not the smallest objection to make when he unfastened her bra, the better to caress her. His thumbs brushed her nipples, sensitive fingers traced over the hardened peaks of her breasts, and sensitive palms supported and molded the swollen globes, forcing a soft moan from her lips. Andin placed her hands on his shoulders, dizzy with the riot of emotions he was creating in her.
"Oh," she cried in a panic this time as she realized that she was purely naked. She swiftly placed her hands over her breasts to hide them from his view. As she looked at his body, with beads of sweat and droplets from the rain, her mouth went dry. "I want to touch you," she gasped.
"Be my guest, Miss Williams," he invited. "Or is it too soon to say, be my lover?"
In the spell of the powerful emotions he had awakened in her, she forgot that her hands were the only cover to her breasts and stretched out both her hands. One to stroke and caress the silken hair on his chest, which intriguingly formed a line down to the waistband of his trousers, the other to investigate his nipples.
Sebastian pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. Color rioted through her face, and she realized that it was for her, and not him, that he pulled her close and hid her breasts from his view. He kissed her again, gently at first, then all at once there was a new kind of element in his kiss, a passion that was building and building. And as that passion fired him to draw her against him, so the feel of her naked breast against his naked skin seemed to inflame him to a yet deeper passion.
Andin slid her hand down slowly until she reached his erection. She inhaled, sucking his breath from him, and he was gone. Gone to the hot lust whipping through his body and grasping his testicles in a fiery squeeze. Her mouth opened, and she kissed him. A sweet liquid warmth. Like the sweet liquid warmth that waited for him inside her body. Their slick tongues touched, and he slid his palms over her breasts, her belly, her thighs. Once more, he slipped his hand between her legs and he felt her where she was warm and wet and waiting for him to thrust inside of her. He pushed his erection into her hand, in and out, simulating the ultimate act. Her thumb spread a bead of moisture in the cleft of his head, and he groaned long and loud, in pain as he sank to the floor, taking her with him. He kissed her mouth and when his lips left hers it was only so he could bend and touch his lips to the throbbing pink nub of her left breast while one hand teased and tormented the other. Sebastian reached for the wallet in his back pocket. He rolled the condom down his shaft to the base and he was ready.
Her legs parted of their own volition to give him comfort, and he slid between the welcoming warmth of her thighs, his eyes holding hers as he tenderly stroked down the side of her face. "Andin, I do not want to hurt you," his voice husky with need.
"I don't think you will hurt me, Tian," she replied, her voice filled with lust, desire, and affection.
"You are a virgin. I heard the first time always hurt but I will try my best to make it less hurtful for you. I will try—" He stopped himself from cursing because he did not want to scare her but he had never been with a virgin before and he did not want to make empty promises. "We will take it slowly. It might hurt but soon it will go away and it will not pain you next time, okay?"
Andin gazed at his face. He looked so concerned for her, his eyebrows furrowed and his eyes a softer blue than she had ever seen them. "I trust you, Tian," she said softly, reaching up to put her arms around him.
Every last shred of self-control that he possessed snapped at that very moment and he surged forward. She let out a soft cry at the rending of her maidenhead but found that the pain was quite minimal and was soon replaced by the luxurious pleasure of his insistent lovemaking. Out of instinct, she rose, and he lifted his hips and shoved into her hard. He pushed deeper, the head of his penis pressed against her cervix, stretching and filling her up. Within a few short thrusts, the first pulse of her orgasm squeezed him hard, milking him, and he set his teeth to keep from coming. With every stroke, she felt an urgent warmth shoot through her body until suddenly it all became too much, and her entire body tensed and almost froze. She could not move, she could not breathe, and then finally her entire world exploded, and she collapsed, purely and utterly spent.
The sound of his name was drowned out by the boom of thunder, and he finally let the intense pleasure curl his gut and sweep across his flesh. It grabbed him hard and harder as her vaginal walls convulsed around him. He heard his own deep groan as he felt his own orgasm ripped from his groin. Ripped from his soul, almost as violent as the storm outside. Over and over until he was so spent he could hardly breathe as if he had just finished a three hours marathon. He lowered his forehead to the floor next to her ear. He had had a lot of sex in his life, but this felt different. Bigger, better, more primal.
Andin heard him cry out at the moment of his release, felt him collapse atop her, and as she drifted down from her own climax, she thought that she had never before felt so completely content. "Are you okay?" she asked carefully.
Sebastian chuckled as he rolled off of her. "I'm more than okay, Andin. I don't think I've ever felt this good." He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her forehead. "You're special, Andin. One of a kind."
Andin snuggled closer to him at his tender words. Surely now he would tell her he loved her. But he did not. She sighed. She was too happy to worry about it just yet. She knew she wanted this to happen on the basis that she loved him but she could not help but hope that he would reciprocate her feelings. He could not have made love to her like he just had without loving her a little, could he?
* * * * * * *
Later, she lay in his arms, in the warmth of his embrace and the soft glow of good sex and soothing heat from the fireplace. If someone had told her a month ago whether she would end up in a stranded cabin in a wood somewhere in Sicily, naked with her boss's body — also naked— pressed against hers as if they were lovers, she would have laughed out loud. Yet here she was. Would she regret it? In all honesty, she did not know. She was probably going to regret it in the morning when this dreamy reality would lose the word dream and become nothing more than just a reality — something she had to face head-on. What if he was going to leave her in the morning? What if when the sun rose up, he would tell her that this had been a mistake? What would she do then? Her brain wanted her to rethink all of this but her heart was tired of being pushed aside for so long. Her being her, she would worry but not now. Not when his body was close to hers, not when he snuggled up and asked her if she was feeling cold. Not when he was being this caring —and loving?
With her back pressed into his chest, he ran his hand down her smooth arm to her wrist. Then he linked his fingers with hers as he said softly to her ear, "Something happened yesterday."
"When?" She was not sure what he was referring to and asked again, "Do you mean when you were going to your brother's house?"
"Yeah. Similar thing as what had happened earlier today."
Andin's body froze. "You had an accident yesterday?!" Her voice filled with worried, it felt as if an electric shock had run through her whole body and not in a kind way.
"Nearly," he answered quietly.
"Why did you not tell me?" She moved so that she could face him while their hands still entwined. "Is that why you did not want to drive to Roberto's place?"
"One of the reasons." He shook his head and then focused his baby blues on her. "Look, that is not important. What is important is that at that split second, as silly as this may sound, all I could think about is how I would never see you again."
Confused, she stared at him dumbfoundedly. "What are you saying?"
"Andin, I do not think I will ever love anyone so do not get your hopes up but," he let out a deep sigh as if saying all of this took a lot of his energy, before continuing, "all I know is that you are so damn important and I do not ever want to lose you."
Her eyes met his and she smiled. It was not exactly an 'I love you' but for now, for her, it was enough.
* * *
Andin searched the cupboard, trying to decide which of the tins to use. Sebastian went darting out into the rain, a newspaper he had found carried over his head. She decided to start with one of the tins of soup followed by a tin of ham and asparagus. She was about to open them, sighing over the lack of choice, when Sebastian came back, carrying a bundle of wood under one arm, a garden trug under the other. He grinned at her, his face triumphant. "Look what I found. Eggs," he announced, depositing the basket on the range.
She peered incredulously at the heaped eggs. "Wow, where did you find them?"
"You know how my brother loves nature, right? Well, he also happens to have chickens," he explained cheerfully. "They have a run up at the end of the garden under some trees. I took a look in their nesting boxes and found some of them were sitting on them, and I suspect no one has been near them for several days. We can have them for dinner, right?"
"Yes!" she said delightedly. "I am thinking perhaps lobster bisque followed by asparagus omelet?'
His brows rose. "Damn. I knew you were efficient, Miss Williams, but I don't know you can create miracles as well!"
"Courtesy of your brother's cupboard," she grinned. "The eggs will be much nicer than ham and asparagus, don't you think?'
His eyes were restlessly moving down her body. "You are still wearing the same clothes. You should change to something dry," he said thickly, sounding worried.
She glanced down at herself and flushed hotly, realizing how her saturated top revealed what lay underneath. "What am I supposed to change into?"
"My brother must have some clothes upstairs," he said. "I will light a fire in the other room and you can hang your wet clothes in front of it to dry."
"You should change too," she pointed out. "Yours is as wet as mine."
"I will. After you, Miss Williams." He winked and she laughed and went upstairs.
His brother was obviously big, she thought in dismay, eyeing the clothes hanging there. They were all much too big for her. She picked one tee shirt and stripped then put it on. Due to its length, it looked like she was wearing a dress instead but it was so loosely cut that it would at least cover her. It only stretched to her thigh just above her knee.
On the point of going back downstairs, she found a room that Sebastian's brother might have used as a studio. Her eyes rolled over the room. If she had time she would restore it to some sort of tidiness. Curiously, she flicked over a stack of canvases against one wall. Most of them were paintings of flowers or fruit, but one of them had made her pause, her heart thudding.
There was a post it on one corner with Sebastian's name on it so out of curiosity, she pulled the painting out and leaned it against the wall. For a few minutes, she simply stared at it with fascination. It was a painting of young Sebastian — or at least what she had thought he would look like when he was in his late teens. He had a boyish smile on his face, there was joy in his baby blues. In the painting, behind him was a beautiful garden, and further back was a big country house. In the exception of his boyish smile, Piers had captured Sebastian's characteristics. Hard, forceful yet strangely vulnerable, the features had been drawn with understanding and love, even a kind of pity which Andin felt reflected the way she herself felt towards him.
"Andin, did you find any clothes?" His voice made her jump guiltily, catching her staring at his picture with her feelings in her eyes.
She turned and gave him a small smile. "I did. I will come and meet you in a bit!"
Sebastian saw what she had been looking at, and came slowly into the room, staring at it
too. "I have never seen that before," he said in surprise. He lifted it and stood it perched on top of the stack of others, inspecting it with a frown. "Piers does not usually paint people, he loves nature too much," he said, dismissively.
Andin said nothing, wondering if he resented that betraying look about the eyes and mouth which had struck her so much in the picture.
He glanced at her, his eyes defensive. "It is not very good, is it?"
"I think it is beautiful," she said gently.
His cheeks flushed and he turned away. "I know you want me to chase down the chicken and get some eggs but you need not lie," he said.
She let out a small giggle then rose to the balls of her feet and planted a kiss on his cheek. "I was not lying."
Andin pointed at the post-it note and he took it off and then turned it around. Right behind it, there was a happy birthday note.
"This must be my birthday present. My birthday was last month." Sebastian looked at it frowning. "So he did not forget," he stared at her as if he needed confirmation, anything to convince him that this was real and not just his mindless dreaming.
"Tian, I don't think your brother has ever forgotten you."