Page 67 of Stolen Vows
Fuck, she feels it, too?
“I can’t explain why I’m here with you right now, doing this.” Her nails lightly burrow into my skin, and I release the sheets to grab her hips, urging her to ride me harder. “The nerdy part of my brain wants to say biology is, obviously, winning out, and I’m just horny. But I could’ve said no to you last night, or the nightbefore, or even back when we got married and I was afraid being your wife was going to be my only identity.”
“Yet you didn’t. You stayed,stellina, and now you’re using my cock to get off.”
Her cunt tightens around me, and she lets out a soft moan. “Yeah, exactly. That has to be fate, right? No matter where I’ve gone or what I’ve done over the last seven years, you’ve been a constant thought in my mind. Something I knew all along I wouldn’t be able to fight if it came down to that. I could never deny this, and you could never mess it up, because it was an inevitability. Statistically, I don’t know what the odds are, but even if the data doesn’t necessarily support my theory, that’s my educated guess.”
I groan, clawing at her, guiding her movements on top of me. Each undulation of her hips is met by an upward thrust of my own, and I drag her face to mine. She keeps grinding, her cunt squelching lewdly in the silent room, even as I press a brutal kiss to her mouth, wishing there were a way for me to capture her intelligence, her faith, and fuse it into my being.
“You learn fast,” I mutter against her mouth, recognizing the signs of climax as she bears down, then shoves a hand between us to play with her clit.
“I have an okay teacher,” she says, and when we come, I black out a little from the rush of blinding pleasure.
Moments later, my cock softens inside her, warm and snug, and I do nothing to alter the situation. She heaves a stuttered breath as her high wanes, though she doesn’t make a move to get off me.
Eventually, she slumps, resting her head on my shoulder.
My fingers shake slightly as I stroke her back, exhaustion finally catching up with me. Or maybe it’s my nerves, frayed from all the overthinking I’ve been doing.
“So,” I venture, brushing the hair from her back and reveling in its length, “what does Stella Ricci’s future look like now?”
“Oh.” I feel her blink, but she remains still. “What do you mean?”
“Well, you’ve done everything you told me you wanted to seven years ago. Save for curing cancer, but I’ll give you a pass on that one, since you’re far from the first person to not achieve that particular feat in their lifetime. But everything else—you’ve managed to check off an impressive list, you know? You graduated with honors despite your circumstances, you were president of at least two student organizations, and you published severalofficialpapers on stem cells and the future of genetics in esteemed journals. Now, you work as an assistant at a lab, and you’re spending yourcurrentfree time with me.”
“It’s kind of creepy how you know all that.”
I smirk, listening to her heart beating, feeling it pump steadily against my chest. “What comes next for you?”
“I…” Her fingers curl in, and she tucks her face into me as if hiding something. “Well, I guess I don’t really know. I came here to get that orchid, but now…”
Now, I wouldn’t mind staying with you.
The flower doesn’t matter, Leo. I just want to be here, in this moment, for as long as possible.
Those words don’t come, though, and I do my best not to take it personally. It’s never been about me anyway; my question wasn’t either, and that’s what I remind myself as I gently push her onto the bed beside me, sitting up with a heavy sigh.
“You fulfilled your end of the deal,” I tell her. “I’ll help you get the flower.”
25
STELLA
How do you know you’re in love?
I watch Leo as he crouches, shoving his hand beneath the bed to look for my discarded high heels. Since neither of us bothered to grab anything from our rooms after the auction, we’re dressed in our clothes from last night, preparing to go back downstairs to find the orchid.
He hasn’t said how he plans on securing it for me, but I have no doubt he’ll be able to either way. If I’ve learned anything about this man, it’s that there’s nothing he can’t achieve once he sets his mind to it.
I can’t help wondering if that’sallI need to know. Do you have to be aware of a person’s deepest secrets, their childhood backgrounds, and all their future plans before you can fall in love with them?
Or do you just have to be open to learning all that?
Maybe love isn’tknowingbutfeeling.
Maybe that’s what’s been here all along, as completely impractical as that sounds, and that’s why I ran. Because how do you keep a hold of yourself, your identity, and at the same time hand it over to someone else?
Maybe you’re just naive, Stella.
