Delgano: A Dark Contemporary Interracial Romance

She set the platter on the bedside table and returned to her spot. “I want something else.”

“Anything.”

She reached out and wrapped an arm around his neck, pulling until she was on her back with him perched above her. Hoping he would understand her body language, she parted her legs for him to situate himself between them; the words were having trouble finding their way from her brain to her vocal cords.

He kissed her neck.

She arched into him.

“You have truly never done this before?” he asked. “You’re very responsive.”

“To you,” she clarified. “I’m responsive to you. I’ve never felt the things you make me feel when you touch or kiss me.”

“You’re saying that for my ego.”

“No, it’s true.”

“Hmm.” He kissed the other side of her neck. “You still haven’t told me what you want, Sayeda.”

She rolled her hips, pressing her pelvis to his, and he hissed, their foreheads connecting. From that brief contact alone, her nipples were harder than rocks, and she didn’t know what it was about this man. She was convinced that, experienced or not, the way she responded to him wouldn’t have been any different.

Hannah used to receive a lot of flack from their older relatives for confidently announcing that she needed physical attraction in order to pursue a relationship. They’d balked at her for not relying solely on compatible personalities, but this had to be what happened when both existed.

“I want you to make love to me,” she said.

His hands bracketed her face, and she got the sense that if there had been so much as a touch of moonlight, she would find him staring into her eyes.

“Strangely,” he traced her left eyebrow, “I feel as if I can see you.”

“Is the dark a dealbreaker?”

“No, but in the beginning, it wasn’t important. Now,” he kissed the same eyebrow, moved to her ear, “I want to see you.” He moved lower, lifted her shirt, and kissed her nipple. “I want to see you here,” he continued, to her belly button, “and here.”

He tucked his fingers into her panties, and she raised her hips. Then she heard when he tossed them just before she felt his mouth on her inner thigh.

“And here.”

She held her breath.

He flicked her clit with his tongue, once, before she felt him return to his previous position, poised over her, caressing her brow.

“I feel like this is better,” she insisted. “Once you’re finished with training, you’ll have to leave. When you leave, you might not come back. We probably won’t ever see each other again.”

“Which would make more sense for us to see each other now.”

“Not for me.”

“You want to hide from me, Sayeda?”

“Yes.”

He licked the corner of her mouth. “Why?”

“I don’t know how to explain it.”

She’d gotten herself and her emotions caught up in this man, and she wanted it to be that should they ever run into each other again, she could create distance. She would know it was him, but he wouldn’t know it was her. He wouldn’t be able to look for her, not that he would, and she preferred not to dissolve into nothingness once she was replaced with the many lovers she knew would come after her. This way, to him, she barely existed.

“Christ, querida. The way I want you…”