My relief is palpable. I know my dog is well-behaved, and it’s why I take him so many places with me, but I also know not everybody is a dog person. Marina seems to be, though, and that’s yet another tick in the Win column.
She gives Reggie a scratch as she passes the chair and moves to the couch, sits, and looks my way with an expectant arch of a dark eyebrow.
I sit next to her, and she hands me my wine.
“To our first meal together not at a restaurant,” she says and holds up her glass.
“And what a meal it was.” I touch my glass to hers. “You have ruined me for all pasta.”
“My plan all along.” She sits back and stretches her legs out, crosses them at the ankle on the coffee table. Then she raises her arm, making a cozy spot for me.
I snuggle against her warmth, her softness, and it feels like it’s exactly where I’m supposed to be. A long breath releases from my lungs, clearly conveying my comfort. “This is nice,” I say quietly.
“Yeah?”
“Definitely.” I take a moment to look around her flat once again. “I really like your place. How long have you been here?”
She scrunches up her perfect nose. “Three years? They finally put in dryers this year.”
I remember the story Serena told me about how Italians have always hung their wet clothes outside, and I fill Marina in. “Still not sure I believe it,” I say with a laugh.
“I swear to you, she was telling you the truth. Now dryers are selling like—what’s the phrase?—hot cake?”
“Hotcakes.”
“What are hotcakes?”
I pause for a moment, then shake my head. “Pancakes? I’m honestly not sure.”
“Why would something sell like pancakes?”
We’re both laughing now, and I say, “Listen, the English language is ridiculous. Things don’t make sense. The same combination of letters makes seven different sounds. I don’t know how anybody learns it.” I meet her gaze. “Your English is excellent, though.”
“We are required to learn at least a little, and we can go on if we choose.”
“And you chose.”
“Yes. I thought it would serve me well.”
“And has it?”
She tightens her arm around me. “It has allowed me to talk to you, hasn’t it?”
Our gazes hold, and we’re so close, the tips of our noses are nearly touching. Which means it only takes the slightest tip ofmy head, and my lips meet Marina’s.
This kiss starts off slow and soft but doesn’t stay that way. I’m not sure if it’s because we feel we’ve waited so long or what, but a mere instant passes before we are full-on making out. Marina’s arm is tight around my shoulders, and I have my hand gripping the side of her head, pulling her in closer, even if she’s as close as she can be. I want more, and she must realize it, because she presses her tongue into my mouth, and I moan.
Kissing Marina is like…God, I don’t even have a proper description. Probably because it feels like my brain is short-circuiting, cutting off the power to rational thought in order to focus on the physical pleasure of it all. And pleasure it is. Marina kisses me like we’ve been kissing for years, and she knows just what I like. It’s the push and pull, the hard and soft, the giving and demanding. It’s the dichotomy that turns me on, and Marina seems to have a master’s degree in it. She lulls me into sensuous relaxation with the softness of her mouth, the pliability of her lips, and just when I’m about to melt, she shifts things. Increases pressure, swirls her tongue, tugs my hair.
I’m nearly on my back on her sofa, though I barely remember getting that way. Having Marina’s gorgeous body on me is a turn-on all on its own, and I halt our kissing just so I can look at her, above me, her face flushed, her lips glistening and full, her hair hanging down like an elegant sexy curtain enclosing us. I push it out of the way so I can see her more clearly.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” I whisper.
She responds by crushing her mouth to mine, and I am lost once again.
While part of me feels like I could make out with Marina just like this, on her sofa, another—more insistent—part of me wants more. So much more. I wrench my mouth away and wait until she looks me in the eye.
“You got a bedroom in this place?” I ask, surprised by howbreathless I am.
