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lovemesomerafael · 5 years

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El Amor Todo Lo Puede Chapter 32: All In

Source: @barbaoutfits

Chapters 1-31

The hotel ballroom was crowded with people wearing expensive suits and cocktail dresses. Drinks were flowing as they always do at a professional function with an open bar.

Rollins leaned over to mutter into Laura’s ear. “Don’t look now, but Mr. Tall, Dark, and $2,500 shoes is checking you out.”

Laura rolled her eyes. “Staring like a dog in heat. How romantic,” she quietly responded. They turned back to the conversation of the group they were standing with.

“Look, all I’m saying is that judge was wrong. Our search was legit,” Carisi was saying.

The woman next to him took the bait, and they were off on a debate of the 4th Amendment in which neither Rollins nor Laura had any interest.

Laura sighed. “Has it been an hour? Can we go now?”

“Thirty-five minutes.”

“That’s it. I’m calling the ACLU. There has to be an exception to mandatory work events for people who can’t drink. Because alcohol is the only possible way to survive these things.”

“Lemme tell you, it’s not helping that much,” Rollins responded drily. “We could network, I guess. Kill some time. Maybe enhance our careers.”

“Uh-huh. Cuz I’m just dying to become a white-shirt. Can you see me in those administration meetings? I’d have Dodds in a chokehold and be banging his head against the conference table in about five minutes.”

Rollins held up her empty glass. “Well, I hate to do this to you, Parker, but I’m going to get a refill.”

As Amanda moved off toward the bar, the man who had been openly admiring Laura walked over.

“I’m Adam Watson, new head of Public Affairs at One PP.” He held out his hand, and she shook it. “I’ve been in NYC for two weeks now and the only people I’ve met are old men. I decided to introduce myself to you so that I can say I know at least one beautiful woman in the city. Help a guy out?”

“Hmmmm.” Laura took a sip of her drink. “Not terrible, but a little on the cheesy side. Also, just bordering on sexist. Wanna try again?”

He laughed. He did have a very nice smile, and nice laugh lines at the corners of his blue eyes. “Uh… how about simply, ‘Hi, I’m Adam Watson?”

“Better.” She said, and shook his hand again. “Detective Laura Parker, SVU.”

“Ah.” He nodded. “So, basically the exact wrong person to try that line on.”

“Basically. But I’ll overlook it because I know like five people in this room, and they’ve all deserted me.”

“You’ve got me beat. I think I know three. Mind you, I’ve been introduced to probably 50% of the people here, but I’ve already forgotten all of their names, and I’m going to be expected to recognize them when I see them again.”

Laura laughed. “You mean I’m not the only one who doesn’t want to be here?”

“Detective, 95% of the people in this room don’t want to be here.”

She laughed. “Well,” she said, clinking her glass with his. “Misery does love company.”

He moved closer to her, encroaching slightly on her personal space, but he didn’t touch her. “Looks like you could use a fresh drink. Can I buy you a refill?”

“At an open bar. Chivalrous.” They both chuckled sociably as they turned toward the bar area.

There was a mass of people crowded around the bar, jostling and trying to catch the attention of one of the bartenders. “Stay here,” Adam told Laura as they approached the edge of the crowd. “I’ll take on the mob. What are you drinking?”

“Pellegrino with lime.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Well, that’s no good. Sparkling water isn’t going to soften the edges of this command performance, is it? I’ll see what I can do.”

“No, thanks. Pellegrino is perfect.”

He winked at her and waded into to the melee around the bar.

A soft but scornful voice beside Laura’s ear said, “You do realize that wink means ‘I’m not listening to you, I’ll never get you back to my place if you’re sober’?”

She turned her head to grin at Rafael. “Cynic. 20 bucks says he comes back with Pellegrino.”

“50 says he comes back with whiskey.”

“You’re on.”

They turned to face one another. “Man, I’m glad to see you. Liv is requiring all of us to show the flag for at least an hour. I’m only forty minutes in and I already want to slit my wrists. Twenty more and I might end up starting a fistfight, just for something to do with my hands.”

Rafael laughed, smiling at her in a way that sent hot shivers through her. “Promise you’ll give me a heads up so I can get a good seat. And if you’re taking requests, may I suggest Rita Calhoun could use a good ass-kicking?”

“Uh-oh. What’d she win now?”

“I don’t want to talk about it. I’d rather talk about how pretty you look tonight.”

Rafael actually thought she looked better than pretty. Stunning was closer to the mark. The simplicity of her black dress accentuated her curves, and the low-cut back showed enough skin to make Rafael’s hands itch to caress her. The dress was exactly long enough to be appropriate, and not one millimeter longer. He had seen her from across the room and admired her legs as she walked with that yahoo in a cheap suit now getting her a drink.

“Thank you. You’re just not used to seeing me in drag, is all.”

“Tonterías.[1] I have excellent taste. If I say you look great, you do.”

“You look even better than usual, yourself,” she replied, a little shyly. The suit he was wearing, one she’d never seen before, was a beautiful worsted wool featuring a green stripe that made his eyes even more dazzling.

At that moment, Adam Watson returned, holding a small tray over the heads of the crowd. When he brought it down, Laura and Rafael saw that he had, indeed, brought her sparkling water. He had also brought two shots of tequila.

“Here you go,” he announced. “Pellegrino for your thirst, and tequila for the pain.” He looked quite proud of himself.

Laura looked at Rafael and saw the smirk she knew he would be wearing. But it was tinged with something unpleasant. “Laura,” he said, “You don’t drink, do you?” There was an edge to his voice.

“No, I don’t.”

“Do you mind?”

“Not at all.”

Rafael picked up the shot and tossed it back without bothering with the salt and lime on the tray. “Thanks, guy,” he said to Adam with an obviously fake smile. He put an arm possessively around Laura’s waist and steered her past Adam Watson.

He led her to a table about halfway across the room. “You owe me 50 bucks.”

“Technically, I don’t. You said he’d bring whiskey. But you do owe me 20, because I said he’d bring Pellegrino. Which, by the way, I didn’t get to drink before you whisked me away like the Secret Service.”

“I’ll buy you a case. Who is that slimeball?”

“New head of PR at One PP. Which means both of us are probably going to regret what you just did.”

“I doubt that very much,” Rafael snarled.

Laura squinted at him. “You OK? He’s just some flirty dude at a cocktail party. Why aren’t we just making fun of him?”

“I’m surprised you’re not more annoyed. Guy tries to force alcohol on you…”

“That might be a little overdramatic. C’mon, you know I can handle him.”

“Knock yourself out,” Rafael snapped. “I was just trying to do a good deed.”

“And you did. Thank you. But it wasn’t necessary.”

“Yeah. Whatever.” He tossed back the rest of his drink. “Then you’re on your own. You can probably still get that Pellegrino.”

As she watched him stalk off across the room, Laura wondered whether the motion he’d lost to Rita Calhoun today had gotten under Rafael’s skin, or whether this was an extension of the feelings he’d been having a few nights before. She made a mental note to call him when she got home and ask if he wanted to talk about it.

She turned around to look for a familiar face in the crowd, and almost immediately caught Adam Watson’s eye again. He was looking at her, and still held her drink. He raised it up to her in invitation. Not wanting to be rude, she walked over.

“Thank you,” she said. “Sorry about that. He’s um, protective of my sobriety.”

Adam ignored the mention of Rafael as though he didn’t exist. “Sobriety, huh? Good for you. How long?”

“Over eight years now. But you don’t want to talk about that.”

He again stepped just a little too close. “Actually, I’d enjoy talking about you. Let’s go see if we can find a quiet table where we can do that, shall we?”

Laura would rather not. His manner was a little oily for her, and she had no intention of sharing any kind of personal information with the new head of Pubic Affairs for NYPD. “I have a better idea. Why don’t we see if we can find the rest of my squad? They’re here somewhere, and…”

“Please, don’t make me meet any more people whose names I won’t remember.” He smiled down at her, putting an arm around her shoulders and pulling her toward a table. “Besides, I’m sure they can’t be as beautiful as you. I’d rather spend some time getting to know each other.”

She mentally rolled her eyes and decided she was going to have to find a way to extricate herself gracefully from this situation. This guy was definitely sleazy, but neither she nor her SVU colleagues needed the new brass to start out with a grudge. She let him lead her – drive her, really – toward a table. Seriously, he was good looking, she guessed, but did women really respond to this bulldozer treatment?

He pulled his chair too close to hers and leaned in, touching her hand. She could smell some kind of spicy aftershave and something else – maybe a hair product. He put his face in front of hers and looked her square in the eye. “So. Who is Detective Laura Parker, hmmmm?” She almost laughed.

Laura caught Rafael glowering at them from across the room, and knew she would have to explain at some point how this had happened. She spent the next twenty awkward minutes trying to back away from Adam Watson, and out of the conversation. She realized that he was not only obnoxious but actually fairly drunk. Her patience ran out when he put a hand behind her head and tried to pull her in for a kiss. “I have to tell you, Laura,” he breathed tequila into her face, “I haven’t been able to look away from you in that dress. The way it hugs your body and shows off those perfect tits –“

Laura pulled away from him, but he grabbed her wrists. “Listen, let’s get out of here. I have a town car waiting for me, and I’d like to get you in the back seat and lick -“ His speech ended in a high-pitched squeak as Laura took the fingers of his left hand into a very particular grip.

“Mr. Watson, you and I have to work together. And that means that you will speak to me with respect. I understand that you’re drunk, and I’m going to assume that you would never act this way under normal circumstances. I’ll forget this ever happened. But, if you ever talk to me like that again, I’m going to break your fingers one by one.” Her expression had been as hard as her words. Just as suddenly, however, she favored him with an overly-sweet smile as she dropped his hand. “With all due respect, of course.”

She didn’t wait for a response. She got up and walked rapidly away, immediately scanning the room for Rafael. She was looking forward to hearing him laugh when she told him what had just happened. The first familiar face she saw was a junior ADA who had handled a few motions and arraignments for SVU.

“Hey, Suneetha, have you seen ADA Barba?”

“Yeah, he left about 10 minutes ago. Looked like he was in a foul mood, too.”

“Thanks.”

What did that mean? Rafael couldn’t think… He knew her better than that. As soon as Adam Watson tried to give her a drink she had told him she didn’t want, any possibility of even friendship between them had ended. Rafael had to know that. Although, to be fair, he did have the right to be a little miffed that he had tried to rescue her from a jerk, only to see her head right back to said jerk. She had been planning to call Rafael anyway. She decided she would need to begin the call with an apology, or at least an explanation.

Fin signaled her from a stand-up table a few yards away, where he was chatting with some people – clearly cops – she didn’t know. She spent the next hour in a surprisingly pleasant conversation with them.

Fin dropped her at her building around midnight. She was exhausted from trying to act appropriately in front of the NYPD brass and city legal dignitaries at the event. She’d much rather have been with him, chasing some suspect down a crowded street. She was also a little concerned because she had texted Rafael and received no response.

From the street outside their building, she had seen that his lights were still on, so she assumed he was still up. Besides, they often texted each other late at night. As she waited for the elevator, she decided to try another text to see whether he would talk to her.

Laura: You left without saying goodbye.

10 minutes later, when she had dropped her coat and purse on the couch in her apartment, he still hadn’t responded.

Laura: If you’re not speaking to me, it really only works if I know that.

That got him to text back.

Rafael: It’s late. Go to bed.

Laura: I’m coming up.

He might have answered, but she didn’t wait to find out. She grabbed her keys and took the stairs to his apartment, still wearing the dress she’d worn to the cocktail party.

When she knocked quietly on his door, she initially heard nothing. Then, his muffled voice came through the door saying, “Use your key.” He didn’t add, “if you must,” but she heard it anyway.

He had changed his immaculate suit for a dark green polo shirt and jeans. He was in his kitchen, in the process of slamming dishes none too gently into the dishwasher. He looked up at her, but didn’t stop what he was doing.

“I don’t know why you’re here,” he told her. “It’s midnight. I am not mad at you, I left because I wanted to, and everything’s fine.”

“Uh-huh. And that’s why you’re doing your best to smash those plates to bits.”

“Really? You’re going to criticize my kitchen abilities at this point in the conversation?”

She stepped to him and put a hand on his arm. “Rafael. Please. I can’t stand it when you’re mad at me. Will you let me explain what happened at the party?”

Rafael sighed and turned toward Laura. “There’s no need. I’m not mad at you.”

For a moment, they just stood looking at one another.

“I threatened to break that PR guy’s fingers, you know. I shut him down, and I wasn’t nice about it.”

“Yeah, but why? What was the point, Laura?” He turned his back, resuming his noisy work.

“He was a dick.”

“OK, that guy’s a dick, but maybe the next guy won’t be.”

“Stop it, Rafael. There’s no ‘next guy’. I’m not having that conversation again.”

“Laura, you could do better than me. And that is a conversation I’m not having again.”

“I don’t want to do better. I want you. Deal with it.”

Rafael slammed the dishwasher shut. “I’ve been dealing with it! Look what you’ve done to my life! I was doing just fine until you showed up. Now I’ve got you texting me nonsense all day, you’re on my couch every night, I’m leaving work early when I could be getting things done, I’m tripping over your kicked-off shoes everywhere… I can’t think straight! I haven’t had a moment’s peace since the day I met you! So why don’t you do us both a favor and take ‘no’ for an answer?”

Laura’s shock showed plainly in her face. She stood, speechless, confusion and humiliation robbing her of her senses.

“Laura, I…”

“Stop.” She managed to choke out in a small voice. She put a hand on his arm and tried valiantly to paste a small smile on her face. “Please, you don’t have to say any more. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… I can be… blind sometimes. I didn’t… I thought… I’m sorry. I really am. Good night.”

She straightened her spine and held her head high as she stepped, working furiously to maintain her dignity, out of his kitchen. Rafael thought he could actually feel the pieces of his heart tearing apart as she left the room.

He went after her. “Laura, no… Don’t go…”

“It’s late, I’ll see you at work,” she said, her voice beginning to break free of her control.

He reached her as she got to the door. As she tried to pull it open, he stepped behind her, reached his arm out past her and put a hand on it, keeping it closed. She stood, facing the door, in the small space between his body, the wall, and his arm.

“Please. Don’t go. I’m sorry…” Rafael spoke softly, his voice gruff, fighting with his own emotions. He moved his body just a bit closer to hers, testing to see whether she would tolerate his touch.

She felt immobilized by her own conflicting desires to flee from him in shame and to throw herself into his arms and beg him to love her. Without words to express any of that, all she could do was stand, forehead pressed against his apartment door, traitorous tears welling in her eyes and escaping to slide hotly down her face.

He risked another half step toward her, lowering his arm and wrapping it lightly around her waist. She could feel his face next to hers, his mouth just beside her ear. “Don’t leave me. Please,” he whispered, leaning his head on hers.

“I’m sorry f-for leaving my shoes here,” she choked, leaning just a bit back against him.

“Oh, God, Laura-“ He turned her to face him, placing a hand on either side of her tear-stained face. “Everything I just said was a lie. Do you have any idea what it does to me when I come home and I see those little holey tennis shoes next to my couch? They make it possible for me to start to believe you’re real.” He kissed her messily as she sniffled.

“I think about you all day long. I’ll be meeting with some asshole talking about unspeakable crimes and I’ll get a text from you with some stupid thing Carisi said, and I just want to start singing. I hardly ever stay late at work anymore because I can’t stand to be anywhere but where you are. And it scares the hell out of me. You know it does.”

“I know,” she sniffed. “It’s OK.”

“No. It’s not. I lost it just now because halfway is no good for either of us. I need to be in or out.”

Laura’s face lost all color except for flushed areas on her cheeks from crying. “Rafael, don’t-“

“Laura, I’m saying I’m in. The minute you started to walk out that door I knew I could never let you go. Who am I kidding? I’ve been in this whole time.”

Leaning down, Rafael tilted his face toward Laura’s, taking a long time to touch his lips to hers to let what he’d said sink in. When she tilted up to him and tightened her arms around him, he pressed his mouth more firmly to hers, deepening the soft, light kiss just a little.

“Are we OK?” He asked.

“We’re OK,” she whispered, moving to continue the kiss.

He began to kiss her more deeply then, pushing her gently back against the door. She returned his kisses with growing intensity, her arms winding around him as tightly as his around her. Soon they clung together, pressing their bodies together as though they couldn’t get close enough.

He realized, in some dim recess of his mind, that he wanted to move them somewhere other than this corner of his small, dark foyer. But he didn’t want to do anything to break the spell, anything that might make her change her mind and want to leave again. Only after a very long time, when he felt her relax against him and heard her begin to breathe soft moans of pleasure, did he take a step backward. He moved away from the door, tentatively pulling her with him while they kissed passionately, almost desperately.

He took his time, needing her to want to stay. It was working. She shivered as he ran his hands down her sides and the bare skin of her back in the low cut dress, her own hands enjoying the contours of his muscular shoulders and upper arms. He thought he felt her initiate a step then, and within minutes they were standing, locked together, a few feet inside his living room. He felt her hands move to his chest, sliding them slowly down his torso in a maddening caress. She stopped moving and drew in a sharp breath as she felt him effortlessly lower the zipper on the back of her dress. He ran his fingers lightly up the bare skin of her back from the bottom of the zipper to her neck. They both felt her skin break out in goosebumps. Such undeniable evidence that she was enjoying what he was doing ratcheted up his arousal a few more notches.

He kissed slowly down her jaw and began on her neck. When he heard her breathy moan, he slid his hands up her arms until he reached her shoulders, hooked his thumbs on the straps of her dress, and pushed them off her shoulders. As the straps slid down her arms, the dress slithered down her body, pooling on the floor.

“Smooth,” she breathed.

Rafael began with his hands on her hips and glided them slowly up her sides. “For half that damned party, I was working out how I could get this dress off of you.”

“I thought you liked my dress.”

“I like it even better now,” he said, leaning down to scoop her up in his arms.

He carried her easily into his bedroom and set her gently on the bed, then pulled off his shirt in one motion as she playfully kicked off her shoes and moved over to make room for him. He lay down on his side next to her with her arm behind him, and immediately reached over to pull her to him. They made quick work of his pants and her panties.

Immediately, she tried to pull him over on top of her. He chuckled down low as he kissed her, and stayed where he was, lying on his side. He propped his head up on one arm, placing his free hand on her shoulder and running it slowly down her chest, across her breast and stomach, to her hip. “Relax,” he murmured, dipping his head to give her a sweet kiss. “We have all night.” He took a very long time to simply look at her, drinking her in as she lay there next to him, entirely exposed to his eyes.

“’Ño, Laura, eres tan hermosa.”[2]

She found lying there, simply allowing him to admire her nude body, the most erotic thing they had done thus far. His eyes sparkled in the half-light, his expression hungry and appreciative. But she wasn’t going to be able to lie still for long. As he slid his hand back up to her breast, she couldn’t help but arch her back, pressing into his hand. Laura moaned and squirmed beneath him, feeling every touch of his hands and mouth like a jolt of lightning to her core. He cupped her breast, using his thumb to tease her achingly hard nipple as he leaned over to use his lips and tongue on her other breast. “Rafael…”

She tried to turn toward him. She wanted him inside her, now. He wasn’t having it.

“Shhhh… Just let me…”

“I want to touch you. You made me wait so long-”

“And I’m gonna make you wait even longer,” he said, kissing her fondly.

He used his hands and mouth to worship her breasts for so long that she could feel her wetness beginning to actually drip down the inside of her thigh. When he began to slide one hand down her side to her hip, he heard her breath catch. From the way she shifted her pelvis, he guessed his caress was having the intended effect. He slowed the movement of his hand, prolonging her anticipation.

Laura was becoming desperate. He was deliberately teasing her. Fuck, he was good with his hands, and his lips, and his tongue… She cried out as he finally ran a finger between her lower lips. He began a slow, thorough exploration with his fingers while he continued nuzzling her breasts. He smiled to himself as he felt her begin to move her hips and heard her whimper. He took his time teasing and caressing her with his fingers before finally, slowly slipping a finger into her. She cried out again. He began a maddeningly slow rhythm, sliding his finger deliciously in an out of her dripping passage, as he moved up to recapture her mouth with his. He relished her hungry response over prolonged minutes of deeply intimate kissing. She began to rock her hips wantonly, unable to control her moans, as he deliberately teased her with the tip of a second finger for long moments before giving in and sliding the second finger inside of her.

Finally, she couldn’t stay still any longer. She rolled toward him, throwing a leg over his. She kissed him, immediately taking control, exploring his lips and tongue with her own, while she reached down and ran her hand up first his leg, then slowly across his buttocks, before sliding it down his hip to caress his cock for the first time. His lips became nearly motionless as his entire attention became focused on what she was doing to him. His groan sent jolts of electricity through her. The idea that it was her causing Rafael Barba to make that noise was overwhelmingly exciting.

She had known, from their frustrating but delicious experiences on the couch, that his cock would be superb. Now, finally past the barriers of his clothing, she reveled in being able to see and fully touch him. She wanted everything all at once. She pushed herself up on one hand so that she could explore his chest with the other, stroking and nuzzling haphazardly in her excitement. When she bent down to lick the tip of his cock, the movement of her body made her intentions clear.

“Mi cari��o,[3] you need to stop that,” he growled.

“And if I don’t?” She whispered wickedly.

He took her by the upper arms and guided her back up the bed, then rolled them over so that he was lying on top of her. “Then I won’t be able to do what I want to do to you.”

“You mean what I want you to do to me.”

She wrapped her arms and legs around him, laughing softly and moving her hips in a way he couldn’t resist. As he entered her, he groaned gruffly, “Eres una hechicera, ¿cómo tienes ese control sobre mí? Algún día podré decirte que no.”[4] She gasped in answer.

Neither of them were able to prolong things longer than a few minutes. Rafael was beyond thinking, overwhelmed by the sensations – both physical and emotional – he was feeling. He reveled in the hot wetness of Laura’s body gripping him as he moved in and out of her. Laura had already been impatient to feel him inside her, but the sheer ecstasy of Rafael’s size stretching and filling her exceeded even her expectations. He pushed into her, withdrawing almost completely, then joyfully entering her again. He wasn’t going to be able to last much longer, hearing Laura cry out her excitement and feeling her rock her hips in time with his pumping. Her arousal was his. He lifted up onto his elbows so that he could look down at her face. Seconds later, she cried out his name and arched her back. He wanted to stay with her through her orgasm, but that was more than he could take. She was still bucking and shaking as he felt his own overwhelming climax burst upon him.

Many minutes later, Laura felt him roll them over so that they were lying side by side, holding one another. She was too spent to open her eyes. She wasn’t sure whether she felt better physically, with all the endorphins and other hormones swirling through her, or mentally, knowing that she had just – finally - had mind-blowing sex with Rafael. It had been too fast, but she would take care of that in a little while.

Rafael cradled her to him. She felt him lift his shoulder to tip her head toward him and kiss her forehead. He held his lips to her face for some time, thinking that the smell of her shampoo would make him horny for the rest of his life. He found he was smiling to himself. Had it really been that long since he’d gotten laid, or was she really that special? He knew it was both. Go slow, my ass, he thought.

He felt much, much more than a blissful, post-sex haze. He tried to stay completely in the moment and think only about this woman he held, who had slipped so blithely past all his defenses. He cared far more for her than he wanted to, and he would much have preferred not to be that vulnerable. In his more confident moments, he reminded himself what they’d been through together and the complete trust he had in her as a result. But that was his body. This was his heart. Still, it was too late now. He had no choice but to trust her, because he knew, without a doubt, that he was in love with her.

“So that happened,” he finally managed to say, still trying to catch his breath.

“Holy shit,” she panted.

“Yeah.”

“When I regain the power of rational thought, I’ll try to form a sentence about how great that was. But for now…”

“Holy shit will do,” he chuckled, kissing her forehead through her hair.

“But, are you… OK?”

He replied in a more serious tone, and put a hand to her cheek. “I’m way better than OK. When we get under the covers, I’ll be perfect.”

“Now there’s a double meaning I really like the sound of.”

“Don’t end a sentence with a preposition.”

Laura sat up. “Seriously? At this moment, what you have to say to me is, ‘Don’t end a sentence with a preposition’? What is wrong with me? How am I naked with you right now?”

Laughing, they slipped between the crisp, cool sheets of his bed to cuddle together.

Rafael knew he was smiling in the dark like an idiot, and he couldn’t have cared less. Laura had her eyes closed, enjoying the sensory experience of breathing in Rafael’s scent, feeling his muscular shoulder under her cheek, running her fingers lightly over his chest to savor the softness of his chest hair.

She was dimly aware of a sense of awe underlying her post-coital bliss. He was so much more than she’d imagined – more tender, more skilled, more sensual and romantic. And they hadn’t even started.

They dozed together, sated and happy. Rafael woke a while later, distantly curious about what time it was, but didn’t have the energy or inclination to move enough to look at the clock. He felt Laura stir against him and heard her sigh happily. The idiotic smile was back on his face.

“Hypothetically, if I said you rocked my world tonight, how insufferable would you be about it?” Her voice was languid and dreamy, with a tinge of amusement.

“One to ten?” He asked. She loved the rumble of his voice in his chest under her ear as she snuggled into him.

“Sure.”

“Well, my baseline’s about an eight, so…”

She squeezed him as she laughed, kissing his chest, then lifted up so she could kiss his lips. She didn’t say anything, just looked at him with a satisfied smile.

“Ven aca,”[5] he whispered, sliding his hand up her bare back and pulling her to him. She kissed him back, deepening the kiss and running her hand over his chest. When she felt the kiss change, she slowly let her hand drift down his chest and abdomen, until her fingers lightly traced over his cock. She could feel the first stirrings of arousal in him, and tenderly fondled him while they kissed.

“I know that was fast before,” she murmured provocatively against his lips, “but what I lack in patience, I make up for in perseverance.” He thought he had never known a woman who challenged him so often to kiss and smile at the same time.

As he grew harder, she moved to kiss his jaw, then his neck, and shifted her body to scatter a long, meandering line of kisses and soft nips down his chest and abdomen.

He groaned again, low in his chest, when she took him into her mouth, softly exploring his balls with her fingers. The musk of him, and of their lovemaking, was intoxicating. He was soon grinding his hips and gulping air, moaning heatedly, which inspired her to do everything she could think of to pleasure him. She spent long minutes stroking him, sucking and licking him, following his movements and his cries to establish the rhythm he wanted. Fuck, it was hot to hear Rafael so undone, and to know that it was her giving him such gratification. When he began to fuck her mouth wantonly, she knew he was close. She continued to suck him, running her tongue up and down his shaft and around the head of his cock until a cry and a salty jet in the back of her throat told her that she had given him the pleasure she’d been aiming for. She paid close attention to him as he rode his orgasm to its completion, moving with him until she had drawn out the last shudders.

He was still breathing heavily as she crawled back to his side and cuddled up to him, throwing an arm and a leg over him as she kissed his chest. He fell asleep with his nose buried in her fragrant hair.

It took Laura a few blinks to realize where she was when she awoke. When she did, her stomach did a little flip and she scooted closer to where Rafael lay behind her with his arm over her. She felt him kiss the back of her hair.

“Hi,” she muttered.

He nuzzled the back of her neck. “Did I wake you?”

“I don’t think so. How come you’re awake?”

“I had a nice dream.”

“About?”

“About you. Turns out it was real.” She felt him chuckle behind her. It felt wonderful.

“I had the same dream. It was nice.” She turned over to face him and put her arm over him, pulling as close to him as she could.

“Laura…”

“Hmmm?”

He didn’t answer. She looked up.

“Rafa?”

“The waking up part is really nice, too.” He kissed her long and slow, and began to make love to her again.