Emilio's breath hitched as he found himself slammed against Matteo's penthouse door, the lock clicking behind them before he could even blink.
"You ran again," Matteo growled, his voice a husky rumble against Emilio's ear. "Do you really think I'll keep chasing you forever?"
Emilio didn't answer his heart was racing, his body on high alert. Matteo's presence was everywhere: the scent of his cologne, the heat of his body, the weight of his gaze.
"I didn't run," Emilio muttered, though it sounded pathetic even to his own ears.
Matteo's laugh was sharp. "No?" He slid a hand beneath Emilio's jaw, lifting his chin just enough to trap his eyes. "Then why were you halfway into a cab when I came outside?"
"I panicked," Emilio confessed, his voice barely a whisper. "I don't know what this is what you want from me."
Matteo's eyes darkened, glowing like embers. "I want all of you."
Emilio swallowed hard. "You don't even know me."
"But I want to," Matteo whispered, and then his lips brushed Emilio's barely there, just enough to make him crave more. "I want to know what makes you laugh. What makes you cry. What sounds you make when you can't take anymore."
Emilio's knees buckled. Matteo caught him with a firm grip around his waist, holding him up with maddening ease.
"Why me?" Emilio asked, and the vulnerability in his voice cracked something inside Matteo.
"Because you make me feel real, Emilio," he said lowly. "And I haven't felt real in a long time."
Their lips collided again, this time with no hesitation. Matteo kissed like a storm deep, demanding, relentless. His hands roamed, hungry but controlled, memorizing every inch of Emilio's trembling frame.
Emilio moaned into the kiss, his fingers curling into Matteo's shirt.
He should pull away. He should.
But God, he didn't want to.
Matteo broke the kiss slowly, his forehead pressed against Emilio's, his breath hot and heavy.
"You're mine, Emilio," he said, voice like gravel and fire. "Even if you don't say it yet I'll make you feel it."
Emilio's chest rose and fell in rapid waves, every part of him vibrating with heat, with longing, with something far too dangerous.
And as Matteo led him deeper into the penthouse, Emilio didn't resist.
He didn't run.
He just followed heart pounding, lips tingling, soul screaming toward a man who could ruin him…
…or show him exactly what it meant to belong.