Her expression softened as one finger slid slowly inside her. “I do love a confident…ohhhh…man.” Another finger made her eyes roll back. “And a man who knows how to…oh God…work with his hands.”
“Hang on.” While my fingers fucked her, my mouth fastened on her clit and I sucked softly, bringing her to the edge before easing back. I wanted this to last.
Nina’s fingers pressed hard into my shoulders just as she was about to come, but by the fourth time, I was ready to give her what she wanted. One last thrust into her made her cunt contract, and her legs buckled. I held her there as waves of pleasure rolled through her, my fingers and mouth unrelenting as she begged me to never stop.
Finally, when her legs stopped trembling and I knew she could stand on her own, I sat back on my heels and smiled up at her. “Welcome home, Ms. Edwards.”
She dropped to her knees and kissed me full on the mouth. “That’s one hell of a welcome. If I didn’t hate being away from you so much, I’d leave more often.”
I fisted my hands in her hair, pulling it loose from the bun. “No more leaving.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Nina
The room was the same as last time we’d been in Venice, but we were different. The Tristan and Nina who’d found each other then hadn’t been the real us. They’d been pretending. I’d thought I’d known him, but I’d only scratched the surface. Now I knew the man I loved more than anyone in the world was so much more than a gorgeous billionaire crazy about me. When all the money and possessions were pushed aside and it was just him and me, I saw how deep his emotions ran. The rest of the world could go on believing they knew him, but I knew the truth.
I knew the real Tristan Stone was the man who sat in front of me now. Imperfect, troubled, and bound to fuck up again, he’d bared his soul to show me the man he’d been and now had changed to be. That honesty was worth more than any amount of money.
And who was I on this second visit to Venice? I’d been pretending too—pretending that the fantasies of a teenage girl were reality. When I met Tristan, he appeared to be everything any woman could want. Gorgeous, wealthy, and confident, he was perfect. I’d never allowed the idea that he could be human with flaws like any regular man to get in the way of my fantasy of who I believed he was. Then, when I found out he wasn’t perfect, I’d run.
Months without him had shown me I didn’t want to run anymore, or so I’d thought. Then Kim’s poisonous words flooded my ears and I lazily slid back into my teenage fantasies, condemning him for a past I’d never even given him a chance to explain.
Now it was time for me to grow up, to accept the fact of who Tristan truly was. The man who would fly around the world to impress me and protect me, even though flying terrified him. The man who agreed to bare his soul in the Piazza San Marco not once but twice. The man who’d promised to give me whatever my heart desired, and never once failed.
The man who even with his flaws had proven himself time and again. Now it was time for me to prove myself.
Tristan stared down into my eyes with a look that told me he had other ideas than a discussion of how I’d been a goddamned fool. As he tenderly stroked my jaw line, a look of need sparked in his eyes. “Come with me, Nina. I want to show you something.”
His hand grasped mine, but I pulled him back. “Not yet. I want to say something first.”
Those beautiful chocolate brown eyes filled with worry, and I watched as he knitted his eyebrows. “Okay. Say whatever you need to. We’re all about truth.”
I reached up and cradled his face in my hands. “It’s nothing bad. I just need to tell you that I’ve been a childish fool. I expected you to be some perfect specimen of men, but that’s not fair. I gave you a hard time when you returned to me last week, but it’s been me who’s run away all the time. And every time I ran, you followed me. You followed me, and I believe you’d follow me if I left again.”
Smiling, he turned his head to kiss my right palm. “A good man knows when to drop the Alpha shit and chase after the woman he loves.”
“I acted like an ass, and I’m sorry. I preach about telling the truth and then I don’t give you chance to do just that.”
“Thankfully, I have a plane that allows me to fly wherever I want to find you,” he joked.
“I’m serious, Tristan. What kind of fiancée am I? I know you hate flying and I run away to a place where you have to fly to get to me. I’ve been such a terrible person. I’m so sorry.”
“I told you. I fantasized about making love to you the whole time, so not another word about it. No more apologies. From now on, we follow the truth policy. Right now, to be honest, I’m more interested in less talking and more doing. Come with me.”