in the middle of the night, I've tangled myself around him. My eyes float open, and my movement as I slide off his warm chest makes him stir, roll over to face me. He tugs me softly back towards him and now he's awake too.

And God knows what time it is but just his skin on mine makes heat rush everywhere, and, taken over by a flood of energy and desire I press myself into him and he rests me onto my back and we have each other once more, moans and whimpers escaping into the darkness of the night that surrounds us.

We finish together and, in seconds after he lies back beside me, we fall asleep in a pile of sweaty limbs, blankets a messy heap and the earth still spinning, impossibly.

•§•

light streaming through his windows behind my closed eyelids, which flutter open to brightness. The first thing I feel after a strange sense of ease is the ache between my legs. Mhhm. Images of yesterday flash through my mind—Nero on top of me, in me, me on top of him, his face between my legs, his fingers.

I flush when I remember us waking up to each other in the middle of the night, still wanting.

I nestle closer to him, watching the rise and fall of his golden chest. His face is so peaceful, so calm, slack with sleep.

Our bodies fill the space under the duvet with heat, and at the back of my mind I tell myself to go get some plan B today. A slight panic rises in my chest. I've never had unprotected sex, without the pill or condoms. Certainly not... I try to count the number of orgasms, the number of times we came together with him inside me. Ohh. 5? 7?

As my eyes drift over the tanned, perfect god that lies next to me, I don't regret a single thing.

What next?

Part of me is waiting for our bubble to burst.

My fingers rest against his hot skin, my lips pressing softly against his shoulder. In his sleep, he leans into me, rough hands drifting to my hips, holding me close. The flutter in my chest, the lightness, the affection, should worry me but doesn't.

Oh shit. I let out a sigh, remembering something that will no doubt make everything a lot more complicated.

Before I can dwell on it, his eyes float open, and the warmness in them as he looks at me makes my heart ache just a little.

"Hey, you." My voice is still heavy with sleep.

He brings a hand to my face, brushes the hair back from my eyes tenderly. "Hey, you."

I relax into him and he tugs me closer, kisses my forehead and holds me against him. "So, bad news," I mumble into his neck.

"Mm." The sound of it vibrates through my skin, makes me shiver. "We probably should've used a condom," he says, and I giggle a little into his shoulder. "Or ten."

Nero isn't usually the kind to make jokes. My laughter travels across his collarbone.

"That too." A sigh. "Natalia is coming over to my place for coffee this afternoon."

His hands tighten around my hips, and he trails a rough finger down my arm, along my side, leaving behind sparks. "Will you tell her?"

I press my lips to the hollow of his neck, leaning my naked body against his, a desire for him stirring in my stomach. "I think she'll take one look at me and figure it out."

In a second, he flips me over, my back to the mattress, his mouth pressing into a dark mark on my neck, red from yesterday, from him. His fingers linger over another spot on my breast, the light redness of my skin evidence of the times he took me yesterday, over and over... "She'll kill me," he mumbles, sucking hard enough to leave another mark. Oooh.

A small chuckle escapes me, though as he trails his hands and mouth all across my skin, I lose my breath. "You sounds scared." A small bite makes me gasp.

He looks up at me, a glimmer in his eye. "You should be."

I laugh but then his hands trail lower, his mouth brushes against my belly and my breaths leave me. "And why is that?"

He sucks gently on my navel, making my insides squirm. "Do you remember what she said last time?"

I rack my brain but come up short. "When?"

The heat pools low in my gut as he continues to slowly, teasingly, drag his lips and fingers across my sensitive skin. "That time I came to borrow some tape."

Oh. I blush, remember telling Natalia about us. Nero at my door, about the argument they had in that language I can't understand.

"What did she say?"

He chuckles, it rumbles against my stomach, and his fingers sneak up the inside of my thigh, and I shiver, my eyes drifting shut.

"She warned me to stay away from you." His thumb brushes so close to where I am already wet for him.

"Or what?" Just a breathless flutter.

I feel him look at me, at the space between my legs, his gaze mesmerizing. "Or she'd cut off my cazzo."

I can't help the laughter that escapes my throat. No translation needed.

"What a shame that would b—oh, shit, Nero..."

He finds me there with his mouth and his fingers and I lose all thought.

My hands twine themselves into his dark hair, and the feeling of him, unshaven against the inside of my thighs, his hot mouth, sends me over the edge moaning his name.

"Oh." My chest rises and falls, and when I manage to look at him, he's watching me, that heavy, warm look on his face. "This much sex can't be healthy, Nero," I breathe, feeling that excited tug in my abdomen.

I hear him chuckle. He slides towards me, plants a kiss on my forehead, on my mouth. I can taste myself on him, and we haven't even had breakfast yet.

My hands travel down his lean chest, to the part of him that is hard against my thigh. I turn us over so I'm on top, press my mouth to his collarbone. Before he can protest, my teeth gently grasp the skin of his neck, leaving my own mark. His fingers run themselves through my messy hair, and he watches as I slide down him, I watch his chest rise with his breaths.

As soon as he realizes my plan, as soon as I nestle myself between his legs, he shakes his head. "You don't have to do that, dolcezza." The muscles across his lean body ripple, he watches me intently.

The look on my face, full of heat and mischief, shuts him up momentarily. And just before he begins to protest some more I take him into my mouth, silencing whatever he was going to say.

And the way he gently grips my hair, digs his fingers into the sheets and mutters my name low in his throat as I take every drop, you wouldn't think I'm out of practice.

•§•

cook for him. I make pancakes, shoving him gently away as he nips softly at my neck, distracting me from the batter crisping on the stove.

As I slip the spatula beneath the cake, he stands behind me with his hands on my hips, sliding lower, to my ass peaking out from beneath one of his shirts.

His touch makes me shiver. "Stop it, Nero," I whisper. I focus on pouring oil and raw mix into the pan rather than his rough hands all over me, kisses to my shoulder, the heat coming off of him, the scent of him freshly showered and masculine.

"You smell good," he mumbles into my ear, and I roll my eyes.

"It's the pancakes."

His nose trails a path from the space behind my ear to the edge of my collar, leaving sparks in its wake.

"What are you doing today?" I ask, distracted but wondering what is going in his life these days.

I feel his fingers trace the outline of my underwear, making my skin tingle. "Besides you?"

I roll my eyes, fighting away the smile that dances at the corner of my mouth. "Funny."

Another soft kiss to my neck. "I don't have any plans, dolcezza."

I flip the stove off and turn around in his arms, let my hands weave themselves into his hair and our lips tangle together.

It takes a few minutes for us to pry ourselves apart to pour coffee and syrup and whipped cream and fruit compote.

As we eat and laugh and joke and tease it feels so different than anything I have experienced with him. I see another side of him, the side that smiles more, not with malice but with fondness.

There is a constant spark of electricity between us, and before we can finish cleaning up after breakfast, he lifts me onto the counter and has me in his kitchen, and we moan each other's names against sweaty shoulders, him whispering sweet things into my ear.

It's just after eleven by the time I have to go. Go pick up groceries, prepare for Natalia's visit, get ready. Get some contraception.

"Come over later," I say softly against his neck. "Natalia's coming around three."

His fingers on my waist hold me close. "You want me to come over when she's there?" I realize how strange that would be, how incredibly awkward.

"Maybe it will be a good thing." I pull away a little and let my hands float through the soft waves of his hair. "I don't think she enjoys fighting with you Nero." But I don't want to tell him how to live his life, what decisions he should make. "Maybe..."

I feel his slow breaths fan my face, and he brings a finger up to graze my cheek. "Maybe I should make peace?" The tone of his low voice makes me think that he's considered it, multiple times.

I shrug, hoping that he sees that I really do care about him, about what happens to him after all the mess. I offer him what I can. "I'm baking cupcakes..."

His chuckle vibrates through me. "In that case, I'll think about it, carina."

He follows me as I get ready to leave, as if I don't live a couple meters away. I know that even in my apartment, I'll feel his presence through the walls, pulling me closer.

Before I go, he tugs me towards him and captures my lips once more, leaving his taste on me when I walk out the door.

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