— S Y L U S —
She lay beneath me like something heaven had made by mistake and given to a man like me anyway. I couldn't stop looking at her....Every inch of her pulled at something inside me towards her, that magnetic force where I couldn't look away from her, made my chest ache something dangerously close to devotion. The warm yellow light spilled across her skin in slow strokes, highlighting the soft curves of her body, the delicate lines of her face, the parts of her that had become my ruin. She was so beautiful it hurt. It was the kind of beauty that made a man greedy. Addicted. Obsessedenough to forget how to breathe between heartbeats.
I traced my eyes over every glimpse of untouched skin as if I were trying to memorize her before the world could take her from me. And maybe that was the worst part.
''The fear. Because a woman like her was never meant to belong to someone like me.''
Yet there she was, beneath me, looking like every dark prayer I had ever whispered alone.
Her eyes met mine, and the soft haze in her expression was carved so deeply into me it felt sacred. I never wanted another man to see her like this, so vulnerable in this moment, radiant under my touch. I wanted to tuck her away like a secret that was mine alone. Selfish. Possessive. Greedyfor every little bit of her. Her love. Her hand. Her mere existence. She showed me how low I would fall, how cruel I could be, to keep her by me.
The sheets were damp with sweat and a hint of her perfume, enough to make me lose myself completely. As I leaned closer to her, my lips grazing her soft skin as I held her in place pressing a slow kiss to her cleavage, letting my lips glide lower as every shaky breath she took pulled me deeper into her.
"Ella..." I whispered her name like a sacred prayer, barely able to hold a coherent thought. The jealousy burned in me still, hot and violent. I wanted to tear apart the man who had dared to lay his hands on her. But the sight of her below me undid every shred of restraint I possessed. Any sane man would have been bemused by her. I already had. My thoughts melted away as I leaned against her, hungry to taste her, to worship every inch of her as if she had no one else but me.
I wanted to hear her say it. Wanted to watch her lips tremble as she whispered my name, every expression on her face contoured by the pleasure I longed to give her. I wanted her to be completely caught up in me, so deeply bound to my touch that she could no longer think straight without it. I brushed my fingers under the hem of her loose top, gliding over the warmth of her bare skin and slipping beneath the delicate strap on her back. The second I touched her, she caught her breath. I knew it straight away how her thoughts scattered. The gentle breath that left her mouth as her legs bent closer under my palm, a soft gulp down her throat, how her eye closed as if she felt every fiber of her being grazed by my touch.
I leaned closer, my lips brushing against her ear as I smirked softly. "Careful, sweetheart. Someone seems to be unable to think straight anymore," I teased against her skin. "You are insufferable," she breathed, but the shaky edge in her voice gave her away. A low, deep chuckle left my lips as my fingers tightened slightly against her waist. " And you melt for me anyway."
I pulled away, looking at her every expression, memorizing it as my fingers worked their magic. A soft click echoed between us as the hooks came free beneath my fingers. Her eyes widened instantly, surprise flashing across her face as she looked up at me. "How were you able to do that so effortlessly?" she whispered, her voice tinged with curiosity. Like she'd already decided I'd done this a hundred times before. I leaned closer, watching the flicker of her thoughts behind her eyes before a small smirk tugged at my mouth. "Want to hear a fun fact?"
"Uh-huh?"
"I had never done this before." I trailed my fingers slowly along her waist, watching the way her breath hitched. "If that's what you thought."
Her face changed, disbelief melting into something softer. My fingers slid lazily over her skin, watching how her breath hitched beneath my touch. I ran my fingers lightly down her skin. "Cariño," I murmured,
"Just because I haven't done it before doesn't mean I haven't dreamed of it." My thumb brushed against her skin, slow enough to make her shiver. "It doesn't mean I haven't thought about you." My mouth brushed her ear; my voice was low.
" About all the ways I'd touch you, Every way I'd touch you. Kiss you. Ruin your ability to think straight, the second I get my hands on you. Have you beneath me like this..."
Her breath hitched softly as I slowly peeled the corset top from her body, discarding it to the side of the floor. Her cheeks flushed as she tore her gaze away, trying to stay calm, but her uneven breathing gave everything away in that very moment. She looked at me with those god damn innocence while it ruined every moral I had left in me. "Fuck..."
A deep chuckle escaped my lips as I pulled away, one hand pushing back my hair while I watched her try to steady her breathing. The room pulsed with clear tension. It was thick enough to feel in every lingering glance, every shallow breath, and every inch of space between us that neither of us seemed willing to close or escape from.
She looked timeless in that moment, the only goddess I would ever choose to kneel for.
Her fingers curled around my pendant, pulling it gently toward her as her gaze held mine. "You know," she whispered,
"Your naked body should belong only to someone who loves your naked soul…"
She paused, her lips parting slightly. "Are you willing to fall in, or…"
"Shhh." I brushed my thumb against her cheek, stopping her before she could finish. "I already have Cariño."
My voice was clear as if I was confessing words I never thought I would ever say in this very moment, "In every version of you. Every shade. Every broken, soft, reckless piece." A quiet breath escaped me, almost like a confession I could no longer keep hidden.
"Like an obsessed man who keeps drowning willingly because every time you look at me, you pull me deeper into a place I never want to leave."
A soft smile touched her lips. "You know," she murmured, "when I first heard that Charlie Chaplin quote, I thought it sounded absurd. Impossible, even. How could someone give themselves to another person like that?"
Her fingers traced lightly against my chest, gliding up, curving into my nape, her fingers curling into my hair.
"But when you trust someone enough to give them something so sacred, something no one else has ever touched before, it starts to sound poetic instead."
Her words settled deep inside me, somewhere dangerous, somewhere in a place I didn't know existed in my heart. I rested my forehead against hers, my hand gliding slowly along her waist as silence enveloped us. It wasn't awkward or empty. It was the kind of silence that happens when two people feel too much at once.
"You make it sound beautiful," I murmured.
"Maybe it is." I lifted my gaze to hers again. God....Those eyes. Soft enough to ruin me without effort. "You know what scares me?" I admitted quietly. Her fingers stilled against my chest. "What?"
"That I don't think I can go back after this." A faint laugh escaped me, low and breathless. "Before you, everything felt temporary. Replaceable. But you…" I swallowed hard, my thumb brushing her jaw gently.
"You feel terrifyingly permanent. Like someone I never want to let go." She looked at me as if she could hear every unspoken thing buried in the back of my mind.
"And that should scare me, too," she whispered. A tiny smile curved her lips as she shook her head. "It does...Sometimes...Feeling what if the only happiness I have will be taken away too?" Her fingers intertwined with mine slowly. "For the first time, being loved doesn't feel suffocating." She held my gaze. "It feels safe."
That word nearly destroyed me.
"Safe"
Not feared. Not tolerated. Not desired for a fleeting moment.
Safe...
I closed my eyes briefly, pressing a kiss against her forehead. I needed those few seconds to endure the weight of what she had just given me. People don't realize how dangerous tenderness becomes when it reaches someone who has spent their whole life starving for it. I kissed her passionately and deeply, catching every soft sound that escaped her lips. My hands roamed over her body, as if I were discovering something sacred by touch. She melted beneath me, surrendering herself while my marks grew darker on her skin. Her fingers tangled in my hair as I moved lower, placing lingering kisses along the curve of her stomach.
My hands gently gripped her thighs, but then I paused. I leaned back slightly to look at her. I knelt between her legs, brushing my thumb softly over her inner thigh.
"Tell me, cariño," I said in a quieter voice, free of teasing. "It's your first time. What would make you feel safe with me?"
Her breathing slowed as she looked down at me. "What do you need from me tonight?" I asked gently. "Tell me how I can make this beautiful for you. Something you'll remember with a smile, not with a pain you might feel." I pressed a slow kiss against the side of her inner thigh, keeping my eyes locked on hers.
"Because the way I touch you tonight," I whispered against her skin, "is something I want you longing for long after this moment is over. I want every kiss, every mark, every second of me between your thighs to feel like something you chose, wanted, and begged for with your whole heart."
Her eyes met mine, lingering for only a moment before her hands wrapped even tighter around the sheets. She leaned forward, shaking slightly, and she drew me back towards her once more, pulling me in for a sharp, snarling kiss.
"Fuck-," I murmured. "Because from tonight on, cariño …"
The expression in those eyes just before my lips found hers again told me that I would not survive this woman without sacrificing my sanity in the process.
"From now on, you will never hear my voice again without remembering how I left you feeling beneath me."