Desert Jewels & Rising Stars

by Sharon Kendrick

  His voice was tight. ‘Miss Winthrop has gone home, and she won’t be back. I must apologise for her rudeness. She refused to come in here and do it herself.’

  Gracie’s mouth opened and closed like a fish. ‘You asked her to come in here? And apologise?’

  Rocco nodded curtly. ‘I shouldn’t have even had to ask. She had no right to talk to you like that. And she was wrong. You served up an amazing meal.’ He shook his head slightly. ‘I had no idea you could cook like that.’

  Half dazed, Gracie said, ‘One of my foster parents trained in Paris as a chef in the sixties. She ended up working as a cook in a school kitchen when she came back to England because no one would hire a female chef.’ Gracie shrugged. ‘I’m not that proficient, really … I picked up some basics and I like cooking.’

  Rocco stepped further into the kitchen and Gracie gulped. He looked so intent. She moved back a step and her foot knocked the pan on the floor. She looked down to see that some sauce had leaked out and automatically bent down to get it. Suddenly Rocco was there, taking her arm and helping her up, taking the pan out of her hand.

  He led her away from the spill. ‘No,’ he said, his accent thick. ‘Someone else will clean it up.’

  Gracie just looked up at him. He was too close all of a sudden, his sheer physical presence more than overwhelming, and she was horribly aware of her red eyes. She hated that she had been so upset and was terrified Rocco would see it.

  ‘You don’t have to apologise. She’s the one who was rude.’

  ‘But I put you in that position. I let her speak to you like that.’

  Gracie couldn’t keep the hurt from her voice. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘you did. I thought you did it on purpose. To get some pleasure out of seeing me squirm. Seeing me out of my depth.’

  Rocco shook his head, and the look on his face made tendrils of heat coil up inside her—along with panic. She didn’t know if she could control her response when Rocco stood this close to her, touching her. And that awful uncontrollable emotion was rising again, that sense of how vulnerable she’d felt this evening. She hadn’t felt a need to impress someone for a long time—if ever.

  Gracie spoke with a rush. ‘She looked through me, and then she looked at me as if I was dirt, as if she couldn’t believe that I’d actually handled her food.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said.

  Confusion warred alongside the panic within Gracie. She didn’t know what Rocco was trying to do to her. He was looking at her so intensely. ‘Stop saying that. You’re not sorry at all.’

  Tears were blurring her vision again, and Gracie fought not to let them fall, blinking rapidly. He’d reduced her to a snivelling wreck—why wasn’t he walking away? Anger at her response, and at him for precipitating it, made her lash out as she tried to extricate her arm from his grip.

  ‘Do you know what it’s like to be looked through? As if you don’t exist? Do you have any idea how that feels? I am someone, Rocco. I am a person with hopes and dreams and feelings. I’m not a bad person, despite what you might think. When someone looks through you like you’re invisible—’

  ‘Gracie …’

  Rocco had taken both her arms in his hands now. He was standing right in front of her, gripping her tight. She sucked in a shaky breath.

  He spoke again. ‘I know … I know what it’s like.’

  Faint scorn laced Gracie’s voice. ‘How can you know? You have no idea what I’m talking about.’

  His hands gripped tighter. There was a white line of tension around his mouth and his eyes were blazing. ‘I know.’

  His hands gentled then, and Gracie stared up, dumbfounded. One hand came up to her chin and with his thumb and forefinger he tipped her face up higher, so she couldn’t escape his gaze.

  ‘I see you.’

  Emotions were roiling in Gracie’s belly. She felt hot all over. Confusion warred with the anger inside her, and she shook her head. ‘You don’t … You can’t. I’m nothing to you.’

  Fiercely, he shook his head. ‘No. You are not nothing.’

  Gracie was dimly aware that in their backward-forward dance they had now moved into a more dimly lit corner of the kitchen by the window seat. She could feel her hair unravelling. The entire world might have stopped turning in that moment and she wouldn’t have noticed. All she could see were the black depths of Rocco’s eyes and she was drowning. She had to fight the pull of the strongest tide she’d ever felt.

  ‘Rocco …’ Her voice was shaky. ‘What are you doing? Why are you here?’

  Her lower arms were between them, as if she was still valiantly making the effort to pull free from Rocco’s hands. But his hands had gentled, and yet Gracie couldn’t move back or break free. Some fatal lethargy had invaded her bones and her blood. He pulled her in closer.

  He didn’t speak for a long moment, and then it was as if the words were being pulled out from deep inside him. ‘I want you. I am here because I want you. This whole evening, this past week, ever since I met you … I’ve wanted you. Not her. She guessed how I felt. That’s why she was so cruel.’

  Gracie shook her head even as molten heat seemed to bloom down low between her legs. She’d never felt so hot. And so out of her depth. She’d truly believed that her guilty little secret of obsessing about Rocco would never be noticed. Or reciprocated.

  Gracie shook her head again, more forcefully this time. ‘No. You’re bored … or trying to make her jealous or something. I’m just convenient.’

  Rocco grimaced then. ‘You’re definitely not convenient. And I am not bored. I don’t care if she is jealous, because it’s over and I’m never going to see her again.’

  Gracie reeled. The full magnitude of what he was saying started to sink in. He’d had a fight with his fiancée over her? And he’d chosen her?

  ‘But … you had a relationship. You were going to marry her.’

  Rocco went still for a second as the enormity of her words sank in. He had just ended his relationship with Honora Winthrop, and in doing so his grand plans to marry her. He’d done it because he wanted to sleep with Gracie O’Brien more urgently than he’d ever wanted anything in his life. More than the social acceptance he’d hungered for for so long? He didn’t even want to answer that.

  In some rational part of his brain that was still functioning Rocco knew very well that if he ran after Honora Winthrop and caught her just as she reached home he might salvage something.

  And like a slow-dawning yet cataclysmic realisation he knew he didn’t want to. The feeling of claustrophobia that had been dogging him for weeks had lifted.

  Rocco shook his head. ‘We didn’t have a relationship—not really. What we had was an understanding that a more permanent relationship would be mutually beneficial on many levels.’

  ‘But that’s … so cold.’

  Rocco shrugged and said cynically, ‘That’s life. I hadn’t yet asked her to marry me, and I haven’t been sleeping with her.’

  Gracie was trying to take it all in. She knew that Rocco wouldn’t feel he had to hand her platitudes to get her into bed. She believed that he hadn’t cared for that woman, and that he hadn’t slept with her. He was too powerful to care about lying. She knew he wouldn’t shy away from hurting her with the truth if he had slept with that woman.

  Her head started to throb. She couldn’t take any more in. She didn’t want to hear anything else. Rocco pulled her even closer. She felt as if she was on a train with only one destination and there was no way she could get off now. Unconsciously she’d gone up on tiptoe, her body knowing what it wanted even before she did.

  His head lowered towards hers, that beautiful mouth came closer and closer, and Gracie’s eyelids fluttered closed just as darkness and heat swept over her mouth and settled there like a brand.

  At first the kiss was like falling into a whirlpool. Instinctively Gracie reached out to hold onto Rocco’s shirt because she couldn’t feel her legs any more. And then an urgency gripped them both, as if the first taste was m
erely a civilised veneer. Rocco’s hands went to Gracie’s face. She was being backed against a wall, or some sort of solid surface, and Gracie leaned back and let it support her weight.

  Rocco’s mouth was hard, and yet his lips were soft, pressing, tasting, coaxing. She felt the slide of his tongue against the closed seam of her lips and her hands clenched tighter as her mouth opened up to Rocco. The kiss deepened. His chest pressed hard against her, crushing her hands between them. But Gracie didn’t care. She revelled in Rocco’s big hands holding her face just so he could plunder her mouth.

  Gracie was falling, slipping and sliding into another dimension. Rocco’s scent intoxicated her. His tongue stroked along hers in a wicked caress. Teeth nipped at her lower lip, only to soothe it in the same moment. It was tart and sweet all at once. It was all-consuming, like jumping right into the middle of a fire.

  He took his mouth away and amidst the fiery excitement pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth—an incongruously gentle gesture. Gracie opened heavy eyelids. Her mouth felt bruised, swollen. She wouldn’t be surprised if the world had moved on a couple of decades since they’d started kissing. She felt that altered.

  She looked straight up into the dark molten pools of Rocco’s eyes. This close she could see flecks of gold. His cheeks were flushed.

  Feeling bewildered, she asked shakily, ‘What is this?’

  Rocco took down his hands from her face and caught some of her hair, wrapping it around a finger, looking at the fiery gold strands.

  ‘This …’ his gaze came back up ‘… is called chemistry—except I’ve never felt it like this before.’

  Gracie shook her head. ‘I’ve never felt this before either.’

  Rocco’s hand moved slowly up over Gracie’s hip to her waist, and then under one arm to rest where her breast curved out. With a lazy smile Rocco moved his hand so it cupped her breast, the thumb moving back and forth over the taut peak which tightened even more underneath the stiff material of her dress. Her breath hitched.

  ‘This,’ Rocco continued, ‘is what started between us the night we met.’

  Gracie’s eyes searched Rocco’s for sincerity. So he’d felt it too. This extraordinary connection. Like a livewire coming to life the moment she’d looked at him. This had nothing to do with her brother. This had existed between them before they’d even known who the other was.

  Suddenly a desperate urgency Gracie had never felt before rushed through her body. She needed to connect on a base level with this man right now. She lifted her hands from between them and caught his head, his hair soft and silky between her fingers. Inexorably she brought his head down to hers and pressed her mouth to his. He took her cue and both hands moved to grip her waist tightly as his mouth opened and his natural dominance took over.

  Tongues met and clashed furiously. Gracie arched herself into the hard wall of his chest, crushing her breasts to him, desperately seeking to assuage the ache building throughout her whole body and between her legs. Their hips were tight together. Gracie could feel the long ridge of his arousal and instinctively opened her legs to increase the contact and friction.

  She was barely aware of Rocco tugging the tiny apron free and moving his hands to the buttons of her dress, ripping them apart. Cool air touched her heated skin and she craved to be free of her constricting garments, nearly sobbing out loud when she felt Rocco’s big hands pull the top of the dress apart to bare her breasts to his gaze. She vaguely heard material rip.

  He drew back from the kiss and looked down, breathing harshly. Gracie was dizzy, heart racing like an express train. She couldn’t get enough oxygen to her brain. Rocco’s eyes were feverish. As much as he could he pushed the shoulders of her dress down, baring even more of her breasts. The pale skin was framed by a black bra, not racy in the slightest. But Gracie was beyond caring. She needed this man’s touch, his mouth …

  As if reading her mind, Rocco pulled down one cup, forcing her plump breast to spring free. As if hypnotised, Rocco cupped and caressed her breast, a thumb stroking the peak back and forth. Gracie bit her lip to stop herself from begging.

  Excitement zinged through her veins when his dark head lowered and finally the wet sucking heat of his mouth surrounded that taut peak. His tongue rolled around it, sucking it into even more tightness. Gracie’s head fell back against the wall, the pain unnoticed in the haze of pleasure infusing her body. Her hips were squirming, undulating against Rocco’s, her legs had parted even more and his erection was long and hard and thick against her sensitive sex.

  Gracie wanted to see him unclothed and started searching for his shirt, clumsy hands fumbling with his buttons. He took his mouth away from her breast and stood up.

  Rocco’s head was consumed by fire. A fire of lust and desire and need too great to deny. Gracie was half slumped against the wall behind her. His hips grinding into hers was probably the only thing still keeping her standing. Her mouth was dark pink and swollen. Eyes huge with pupils so dilated they looked black.

  Her fast breaths made her pale breasts rise and fall enticingly. She had small tight pink nipples, surrounded by slightly darker areolae and freckles. Rocco felt a sense of inevitability sink into his bones. This woman was his.

  He knew he couldn’t rationalise that assertion now. He could only act on the singularly strongest driving force of his life: to have her and make her his.

  With impatience making his usually graceful movements jerky, Rocco opened his shirt, buttons popping off around them. He looked at Gracie’s half-open dress. It had to come off over her head. He brought his hands to the thin material and ripped it all the way to the hem. His blood was pumping now. Her dress gaped open down to her thighs, giving a glimpse of black panties.

  He felt feral. He felt wild. He’d never felt like this with another woman.

  He looked at Gracie and forced himself to grind out, ‘We’re doing this right here, right now. Unless you say no. You have about ten seconds to decide.’

  CHAPTER SIX

  GRACIE looked up at Rocco, towering above her, making her feel impossibly small and delicate. The sheer stark hunger stamped onto his features was awesome and almost frightening. But she wasn’t frightened. She hadn’t even blinked when he’d ripped her dress open like some kind of animal. It had excited her.

  She shook her head and reached out a hand to his belt. ‘Don’t stop.’

  He seemed to wait for an infinitesimal moment, as if testing her resolve, and then with a guttural sound he took off his shirt and started to push Gracie’s dress down her arms until it was off completely. Her bra came off too, so now she was naked except for her knickers. She felt vulnerable for a moment, until Rocco started undoing his belt and trousers. And then heat took over again.

  She greedily took in his amazing physique. Taut muscles and gleaming skin. Springy dark hair on his chest that arrowed down into that tantalising line which was revealed as his trousers slid down over powerful thighs. He wore snug fitting briefs that were tented over his erection. Gracie’s eyes went wide.

  But then Rocco reached for her and she looked up, her gaze clashing with his. It was as if they were in the eye of the storm. Suddenly everything took on a languorous feel. His hands tangled in her hair, tumbling it from its bun completely. His mouth found hers, kissing her, rediscovering her taste with his tongue. And then it moved down, over her shoulder and to her breasts, which felt full and aching. Both hands cupped her breasts and he fed one hard peak and then the other into his mouth, teeth nipping gently, making Gracie cry out.

  The urgency didn’t take long to build again. Gracie was straining against Rocco, her back arched, hips moving impatiently. One of his hands moved around her rib cage and down her back, under her knickers to cup the cheek of her bottom, squeezing it harshly, making her nerve-points tighten and tingle.

  His mouth moved back up to find hers, and he pulled her close making his chest hairs scrape against moist, sensitised nipples. Gracie was clutching at his shoulders, incapable of doing anyt
hing but succumbing to this onslaught on her senses. His hand moved from her bottom, tugging her panties down slightly, and around to the apex of her legs, between their bodies.

  Gracie held her breath as his long fingers explored the damp curls surrounding her sex. Her hands gripped his wide shoulders as a finger delved deeper into the secret folds where she ached. He found the most intimate part of her and rubbed back and forth. Gracie started to shake.

  Rocco’s finger thrust deep inside, the invasion all at once shocking and cataclysmic. Gracie came in a rush, her body convulsing around Rocco’s hand. The sudden tide of pleasure was so intense that tears leaked from her eyes, her whole body held taut for a long moment.

  When it was over Rocco slowly withdrew his hand. Gracie felt shell-shocked, numb, with little fires of sensation racing over her skin. She’d never experienced anything like that. All she could remember of her few sexual experiences was how she’d never found any kind of satisfaction. She’d thought sex was overrated. She couldn’t believe she’d just—

  Suddenly she was being lifted. Rocco said roughly, ‘Put your legs around my waist.’

  Dumbly, she did so, wrapping them around him, feet locked together over his buttocks, arms around his neck. He walked them over to the huge table where they usually ate breakfast. Holding her securely with one strong arm, he used his other one to sweep the detritus on the table to the floor. Cookery books landed with dull thuds and a cup fell and smashed. Rocco laid her on her back, the apex of her thighs tight against his waist. She could feel his erection nudging her bottom and her sated body started to hum again.

  Rocco gently disengaged her legs, all the time staring down at her if mesmerised by her. He hooked his hands into his briefs and with a quick downward movement tugged them off. Gracie looked down to see the full extent of his erection. It had felt big. But it looked massive. Shivers of fear at his size mixed with excitement went through her like electric rivers of shock.