YOU ARE MINE

~~Rafael~~

"Don't tell me you're done already, Sofia."

She stares up at me wide-eyed, still catching her breath, and I can't help the smirk that pulls at my lips.

"I'm not done with you yet."

She giggles, that soft, unguarded sound that does something inconvenient to my chest and I take my time crossing back to her, unbuttoning my jeans slowly, letting my eyes move over her the way I've wanted to since the first moment I saw her at that pool.

She is breathtaking. Completely, unfairly breathtaking.

Her green eyes are wide and glazed, lips parted, still flushed from her first orgasm. Her hair fans out across the pillow in loose waves. She watches me with a mixture of wanting and not quite knowing what she's wanting, and that look alone is enough to undo me.

I push my jeans down and she makes a soft sound, surprise, maybe nerves and I feel her gaze move over me like a question she hasn't decided to ask yet.

She reaches for me, and I shake my head.

"Next time." I stroke myself slowly, watching her watch my hand, watching her thighs press together in search of friction she isn't going to find that way. I catch her knee before she gets too far and ease her open again, unhurried. "Dripping, sole. Look at you."

She flushes pink from her cheeks to her collarbones and shifts her hips upward like she doesn't even realize she's doing it. I position myself between her legs and she opens for me, trusting in a way that makes something tighten in my chest.

She closes her eyes as I brush against her entrance.

"Rafael." Her voice is barely a whisper. "Is it going to hurt?"

I take her chin gently between my fingers and tilt her face up to mine so she has nowhere to look but at me. "We go slow. I have you." I hold her gaze. "I will never let anyone hurt you while I'm here."

Not when you're mine.

I lower myself over her carefully and our eyes stay locked as I begin to ease into her warmth. Her palm presses flat against my chest, feeling my heartbeat, maybe, or steadying herself. The tightness of her. The way she breathes in sharp and small with every slow inch. I feel the moment she tenses and I stop, brushing the hair from her face.

"Breathe, sole."

Her eyes find mine. I hold still, waiting, letting her set the pace of her own breathing until it evens out beneath me.

"You're mine, Sofia," I murmur against her temple. "All mine."

Her breath hitches as I push past and claim her fully, filling her slowly, watching her face for every shift and flicker. She writhes against me, her fingers curling into my shoulders.

"You're doing so well." I press a kiss to her jaw, her cheek, the corner of her mouth. "So good for me."

She exhales something between a moan and a sigh, and her nails drag lightly down my back. I feel it like a live wire.

"Deeper," she whispers. "Rafael, I want you deeper."

Something in me snaps loose.

I drive in and she gasps, her eyes going wide, her back arching off the mattress. I grip her hips and hold her steady, finding a rhythm, slow at first and then less slow, and less. Her moans come in waves that match every thrust, her fingers digging into my back like she's trying to anchor herself to something solid.

"There...." she breathes. "Right there, don't stop...."

I knew there was a reason I couldn't stay away from this girl.

I give her exactly what she's asking for. Her hips rise to meet mine, our bodies finding the same rhythm without thinking about it, and her cries fill the quiet room. She is warm and perfect and completely undone beneath me, and I have never wanted to stay anywhere as badly as I want to stay right here.

Her walls tighten around me.

"Rafael..." My name breaks in her mouth. "I'm going to-"

"Come for me, sole."

She unravels completely, and I follow her over the edge, my forehead dropping to hers as I let go, a low grunt escaping my chest. We collapse against each other, both breathing hard, her fingers still loosely tangled in my hair.

I kiss her slowly once I can think again. Soft and unhurried, the way I've wanted to kiss her all night when I wasn't too consumed to be gentle.

She whimpers softly as I ease out of her, and I watch her curl instinctively, twisting the sheets around herself, hiding. A small pink stain blooms beneath her thigh.

Pride moves through me, fierce and quiet at once.

"Don't hide from me." I tug the sheet back gently. "Show me what's mine."

She opens for me with a shy smile that she can't quite suppress, and I lean down and press a kiss to the space between her breasts before rolling onto my back. She tucks herself against my side without being asked, her head on my chest, her fingers tracing idle circles over my skin.

I close my eyes and rub slow circles over her scalp.

"Rafael?"

"Hmm."

"What does il mio piccolo sole mean?"

I open my eyes. I hadn't realized she'd held onto that....that she'd carried those words from the hallway all the way here. I can feel her waiting, the warmth of her cheek against my chest.

"Aren't you Italian?" I say. "Shouldn't you know?"

"I grew up in prep school in Connecticut. I know as much Italian as a golden retriever." She tips her chin up at me, sticking out her tongue.

I laugh, the kind that surprises me. "It means my little sunshine. Sole on its own just means sun."

She goes quiet for a moment, and I can feel the smile spreading against my skin before I even see it.

"You call me your little sunshine." She says it softly, not quite a question.

"I call you that because even the sun has to sleep." I close my eyes again. "Goodnight, sole."

She huffs. Tries to sit up. I pull her firmly back against my side, tangling her legs with mine until she can't go anywhere.

"Rafael. Tell me why."

I begin to snore, loudly and very unconvincingly.

She sighs. Lets it go. Her fingers find their slow circles on my chest again and within minutes her breathing evens out against me, and I realize somewhere in between I've stopped pretending.

---

I wake before dawn.

The room is still dark, just the earliest grey light beginning at the edges of the curtains. Sofia is asleep on her stomach beside me, one arm stretched toward where I was, her hair a golden mess across the pillow. I watch her for a moment longer than I mean to.

That's the best sleep I've had in years. Maybe longer.

I ease out of bed without waking her, moving quietly across the room to dress in the dark. At the door I glance back. She's shifted in her sleep, her face turned toward me now, something soft and unguarded in her expression even unconscious.

I should leave. That was always the plan.

I'm halfway down the hallway when I notice the vase on the side table, red roses, fresh, catching the early light through the window the way Sofia caught the moonlight a few hours ago. I stop.

I stand there for a moment, feeling slightly ridiculous.

Then I take one.

I carry it back to her room, set it on her bedside table where she'll see it the moment she opens her eyes. She's curled on her side now, the blanket kicked half off. I pull it up over her shoulders, carefully, so she doesn't stir.

I don't want anyone else seeing her like this. Soft and sleep-warm, her hair spread out around her, her lips slightly parted. This version of her belongs only here, in this quiet dark, and I am aware in a way that feels new and slightly alarming that I want to be the only one who ever gets to see it.

I press one last kiss to her forehead.

Her nose twitches. The corner of her mouth curves up in a small sleepy smile, involuntary, unconscious, just her and I understand in that moment, with complete and inconvenient clarity, why I call her sunshine.

She doesn't even have to be awake to light up a room.

I straighten up. Stand there another beat longer than necessary.

She has absolutely ruined me.

She just doesn't know it yet.