Free RIPPED: A Dark Romance (Killer Lips Book 1) by Molly Molloy Page B

your breasts are incredible. I could kiss and toy with them non-stop they're so astounding.”
    For the first time ever I'm not concerned that he means fleshy. I am a goddess woman.
    Amazing. Full. Complete.
    The memory that I have to leave my ideal man in a day or so fills me with sadness.
    “What happened?” he says, his voice full of concern. “I felt you go slack in my arms.”
    What can I say?
    I don't want to leave.
    That's too ridiculous. I have to go home to the States and rebuild a life. Not become infatuated with a dream and a holiday lover.
    “No, if anything I'm too happy,” I say.
    How is it possible to be so ecstatic content and so miserable at the same time?
    Of course there's no way to tell him I'm unhappy about leaving him. He'd take off for the mainland in his fastest speedboat with the discovery that he has a woman that clingy in his arms. Maybe I should never have wished for a Venice romance. Holiday flings are a ton of fun until its time to say goodbye.
     

Chapter TEN
    I roll over to the incredible vista of the wide stretch of the Grand Canal and the ghostly palaces on the far side framed in the tall thin windows but the bed is empty.
    Was I dreaming again?
    But the pillow beside me still bears the indentation of his head. I sink my hand into it. Caressing the memory of his lush hair, the late night/early morning stubble on his chiseled chin.
    The twenty foot lengths of silk drapery have been pulled back on the artist's view and breakfast is laid out on the small table in front of the windows. I sit up and look all around but Mark is not here- the rooms' empty and I feel empty too without him. Whoever delivered breakfast had come and gone.
    I could sit at this window watching the world go by on the watery main drag for the rest of my life. There are thick layers of snow piled up on the red and white striped mooring poles sticking out of the canal. Barber's poles I'd called them and Mark laughed as he  corrected me.
    “ Briccole .”
    “Okay then, broccoli poles. I still like the stripes.”
    How can Josh get so angsty in here when there's so much to observe? Bells are clanging all over the city and people are riding in boats, standing. Balancing in their black finery, heading to church.
    The passage of traffic on the Canal is a fairground ride as the small punts used to ferry passengers from one side to the other weave between the flow of traffic in both directions up and down the thoroughfare. I gasp repeatedly at the close calls of the boats passing too close. The boatmen are of course expert and there's never any real danger.
    Did Josh come home last night? I hadn't heard him in my tranquil slumber, nestled in Mark's huge arms. It had no doubt been late and he won't be up for hours yet.
    And Mark? Is my lover hiding from me after the intense passion of last night? Did he sleep with me and slip away this morning, or had he disappeared back to his own room the moment I passed out?
    I know he'll come looking for me when he's ready. Father and son will both seek me out when they need company. I'm on edge for that moment to come sooner.
    I run a deep bath and pour a fragrant oil I discover in a cut glass bottle with a stopper. It turns milky the instant it hits the water and suffuses the room with the smell of tuberose and bluebells.
    I lower myself gingerly into the soft enveloping liquid, sore from the intense lovemaking. My nipples are tender as well. They respond immediately to my touch when I run my hands down my body, feeling the luscious milk bath turn my skin to satin.
    I'm already hungry to feel Mark's hands on me again, expertly lifting me to the highest pinnacle of joy. He's an absolute god in that department. Maybe men approaching the age of forty are all masters in the sexual art. Somehow I doubt it.
    My bags are packed ready for the flight first thing tomorrow. I hardly unpacked as Mark told me to wear the outfits in the huge closet. They were far more suited to the elegant décor of