He lay down next to her and skimmed his hand over her stomach and up to her breasts. ‘See how beautiful you are...’ he murmured, directing her gaze to the mirrored ceiling above the bed.
The contrast of her milky-skinned body against the purple satin sheets was intensely erotic. She reminded him of a Renaissance painting by one of the great masters, with her glorious hair spilling over her shoulders and her ripe, curvaceous body so utterly perfect that a saint would be tempted by her.
And he was no saint, Luca thought with wry self-derision.
In the mirror he watched his dark fingers stroke her white breasts with their rosy-tipped nipples. He watched her eyes darken as he rolled first one nipple and then its twin between his thumb and forefinger until each peak was pebble hard.
‘Luca...’ she whispered.
Her breathing quickened as he bent his head and anointed one nipple with feather-soft kisses before drawing the nub into his mouth and suckling her until she gave a thin cry and he transferred his mouth to her other breast.
Athena’s gaze was riveted on the twin reflections in the mirror of her and Luca. Her dark nipples stood out against her pale breasts and were swollen and reddened from where he had sucked them. She looked wanton and shameless, her near-naked body sprawled on the satin sheet for his delectation—and hers, she thought with a shiver of excitement as she watched him trail his fingers over her stomach and hook them into the waistband of her knickers. The sheer black lace afforded little protection from his predatory gaze, but when he slowly pulled her panties down her thighs she felt suddenly vulnerable—because Luca was the first man to see her naked.
Perhaps he sensed her slight hesitation, because he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her deeply, demandingly, until she relaxed and parted her lips to allow him to explore her with his tongue.
He lifted his head and his eyes burned into hers. ‘Watch me touching you,’ he said huskily. ‘Sex isn’t shameful, carissima. It’s beautiful—just as you are.’
She stared up at the mirror and her heart jolted against her ribs as she watched Luca push her thighs apart and slip his hand between them. She felt him press his finger against her moist opening, and gently, oh, so gently, push forward until the tip of his digit was inside her.
‘Good?’ he queried softly.
She nodded, unable to find the words to describe the sensuous pleasure that swept through her as Luca slid his finger deeper into her. She felt herself relax as her body opened for him like the petals of a flower unfurling.
‘You see how your body is ready for me?’ he murmured.
Athena found it incredibly erotic to watch her reflection as Luca caressed her, to see her face flush with sexual heat as he swirled his finger inside her in an exquisite dance that evoked a trembling sensation deep in her pelvis. And as she watched her body’s response to his touch and saw his reaction—the sudden tautness of his features and the streaks of colour that winged along his cheekbones—she no longer felt shy or nervous.
Luca made her feel beautiful and powerful. There was no shame in admitting that she wanted him—no shame in showing him how much she desired him and how impatient she felt for him to make love to her.
She cupped his face in her hands and pulled his mouth down on hers, kissing him with a passion that made him groan.
‘Mia bella, we need to take things slowly. I want to make it perfect for you.’
So much for his assumption that he would be in control, Luca thought ruefully. Athena’s eagerness was testing his self-control to its limit, and his fingers were all thumbs as he fumbled with his zip and finally managed to remove his trousers without any of his usual finesse. He pulled off his boxer shorts and, hearing her swift intake of breath when she saw the hard length of him, reinforced his determination to concentrate on making Athena’s first sexual experience as pleasurable as he could.
He kissed her mouth, and something fleeting and indefinable tugged on his insides when he felt the sweet sensuality of her response. He moved lower and kissed her breasts, before trailing his lips over her stomach and lower, to the triangle of neatly trimmed brown curls between her thighs.
‘Luca...’
Uncertainty edged into Athena’s voice as she stared up at the mirror and watched Luca’s dark head move down her body. His mouth left a trail of fire across her skin and her thighs trembled as he pushed them apart. She realised with a mixture of shock and excitement what he was about to do.
‘I don’t think...’ she protested faintly, but he stopped her frantic attempt to close her legs by sliding his hands beneath her bottom and angling her to his satisfaction.
‘Don’t think...just feel,’ he ordered, before he lowered his head.
The first stroke of his tongue over her sensitised flesh caused Athena to gasp and jerk her hips. But Luca held her firmly as he proceeded to use his mouth and tongue to devastating effect, decimating her inhibitions as he bestowed upon her the most intimate caresses of all and brought her closer and closer to the edge of somewhere that remained frustratingly just out of reach.
The flick of his tongue across her clitoris drove her higher, and she twisted her fingers in the satin sheet as she tried to hold on to her sanity.
He lifted his head and she gave a choked cry as her body quivered like an overstrung bow. ‘Watch and see how beautiful you are when you climax,’ he said thickly.
In the mirror she saw his dark head nestled between her pale thighs. It was shockingly intimate, but she could not stop watching him making love to her with his tongue and his fingers. The pressure inside her was building, and the need for fulfilment was so urgent that she arched her hips, seeking the heat of his mouth.
And then suddenly she was there, poised on the tip of a wave’s crest, before the wave broke and she was swept into a maelstrom of exquisite sensations that she was sure nothing could surpass.
She was wrong. As Luca moved over her and she felt his naked body pressing down on hers she realised that the journey had not finished—it was only just beginning.
He positioned himself so that the swollen tip of his arousal pressed against her, and then he slowly eased forward and entered her with tender care, taking his time so that her tight muscles stretched to accommodate him.
Athena found the sensation of him filling her new and wondrous. There was a brief moment of discomfort as her body tried to resist him. He immediately stilled and looked into her eyes, his own dark with remorse.
‘Did I hurt you? Do you want me to stop?’
‘No!’ She wrapped her arms around his back to prevent him from withdrawing. ‘Don’t you dare stop,’ she whispered.
The delicious spasms that had racked her body when Luca had brought her to orgasm with his mouth were beginning again—little ripples that intensified as he began to move inside her. She soon learned the rhythm he set as he thrust into her, gently at first, and then harder and faster, as their breathing quickened and their hearts thundered in unison.
Luca rolled onto his back, taking Athena with him so that now she was on top. She braced her hands on his shoulders and he moved her so that she was sitting astride him. Their new position allowed him access to her breasts, and he heard her gasps of pleasure as he sucked one hard pink nipple and then the other while he held her hips and showed her how to ride him.
‘See how beautiful sex is...how beautiful you are,’ he said hoarsely, directing her gaze once more to the mirror above them.
Her body was peaches and cream, her full breasts ripe for his mouth, and she tasted of honey and nectar. She was a goddess, and Luca was entranced by her as she moved her body in perfect accord with his and the fire inside him burned hotter and fiercer. He was losing his mind—certainly he was losing control. He wrapped a strand of her silky chestnut hair around his fingers and tugged her forward so that he could kiss her mouth endlessly, hungrily, wis
hing these moments could last for ever but at the same time desperate to climax inside her until he was utterly sated.
She reared above him and tipped her head back, her long hair swirling around her shoulders. In the mirror Luca watched her expression change from startled surprise to wondrous amazement at the moment she climaxed. He felt her body convulse as her muscles contracted around his shaft, and the pressure inside him exploded like a volcanic eruption.
Through the waves of his own pleasure he was determined to extend hers, and he rubbed his finger over her clitoris until she trembled and came again, sobbing his name in the throes of her orgasm until at last she slumped onto his chest and he enfolded her in his arms and held her tightly against his heart.
Was it because it had been new for her that sex with Athena had felt like a uniquely special experience for him? Luca wondered. He had found her untutored responses a thousand times more exciting than the honed skills of his sexually experienced mistresses.
But the idea that she somehow belonged to him made him realise he was on dangerous ground. He had no right to feel possessive of her because one day, without a shadow of a doubt, he would set her free from their marriage deal. That was the way it was, the way it had to be, and there was no point wishing for something that could never be his, Luca told himself firmly.
Yet he could not resist threading his fingers through her silky hair, and he felt a deep reluctance to withdraw from her when it felt so right, so complete, for their bodies to be joined. He could have stayed like that for ever, but at last she lifted her head and smiled at him, and for a split second he felt an iron fist squeeze the lifeblood out of his heart.
Athena loved the sensuous drift of Luca’s hand stroking up and down her spine almost as much as she had loved the sensation of being filled and possessed by him when he had made love to her. She felt utterly relaxed and at the same time incredibly alive—as if every cell on her body was fizzing like champagne.
When he shifted position she thought he would move away from her, but instead he pulled her close, so that her face was pressed against his chest, and she fell asleep listening to the steady thud of his heart.
CHAPTER TEN
‘YOU MUST TELL Athena the truth, Luca.’
Athena opened her eyes to find the tower room flooded with sunlight, and a glance at her watch revealed that it was mid-morning. For a moment she thought she had dreamed that she’d heard a man speaking, but now she heard two muffled voices and recognised Luca’s sexy, husky accent and the deep tones of her brother-in-law. The two men must be in the sitting room which adjoined the bedroom where she and Luca had slept.
Not that they had done much sleeping! She felt hot all over as she recalled that Luca had made love to her twice more after the first time, and had combined fierce passion with unexpected tenderness. It had been an incredible night, but the fact that she was alone in the circular bed this morning seeded doubts in her head.
She frowned as she tried to make sense of Kadir’s words. What was the truth that Luca had to tell her?
She sat up and pushed her hair out of her eyes, puzzling over the muffled conversation she had overheard, but at that moment the door opened and Luca walked into the bedroom. Athena’s heart missed a beat. He looked gorgeous in black jeans and a polo shirt, his dark hair ruffled and his eyes glinting with sensual heat as his gaze dropped to her bare breasts.
It was ridiculous to feel shy after he had seen and kissed every centimetre of her body last night, she told herself. But she still pulled the sheet up to her neck and heard Luca give a soft laugh.
‘It’s too late to try to hide yourself from me, mia bella, after the amazing sex we enjoyed last night.’ He leaned over the bed and tilted her chin so that she was forced to look at him. ‘And I know you enjoyed the night as much as I did,’ he stated, with enviable self-confidence.
‘If you enjoyed it so much why did you get up this morning without waking me?’
‘At dinner last night you heard me arrange to go riding with Kadir this morning. We had to leave at dawn—before the desert sun was too hot for the horses.’
She did remember now, and her tension dissolved with the realisation that Luca had not left her because he regretted making love to her.
‘I heard you and Kadir talking a few minutes ago.’ She remembered the strange comment she thought she had heard her brother-in-law make. ‘What were you talking about?’
He shrugged. ‘Nothing important.’
Athena did not need to know the details of his conversation with Kadir, Luca assured himself. He understood Kadir’s concerns, but Kadir was unaware that his marriage to Athena was not real.
On the other hand, he mused, there was no reason not to tell her the truth about himself—especially as she had met his daughter and knew about Rosalie’s illness. But he had only revealed his situation to a few trusted friends, Kadir being one of them. It was surprisingly difficult to discuss a matter that was so deeply personal to him, but as he looked into Athena’s sapphire-blue eyes Luca acknowledged that she was the only woman he had ever known whom he trusted implicitly.
‘To spare your sister further worry while she is worried about baby Faisal we have kept up the pretence that our marriage is real while we are in Zenhab. But that has given Kadir cause for concern.’
‘Concern about what, exactly?’
Luca wondered why his heart was beating painfully hard. ‘There is something about me that I haven’t told you—something that if our marriage was real I should have told you.’
Athena said nothing, simply stared at him, and after a moment Luca continued.
‘I explained previously that Rosalie’s illness, Rett Syndrome, is a genetic disorder. Most cases are sporadic, meaning that there is no reason why children—mainly girls—develop the disease apart from bad luck. Rett’s usually strikes randomly, but studies have proved that in very rare circumstances a man can carry the gene mutation responsible for the disease, and he will always pass that mutation on to his female offspring.’
A nerve flickered in Luca’s jaw.
‘After Rosalie was diagnosed I had tests which showed that I carry the gene mutation for Rett’s in my DNA.’ He heard Athena’s swiftly indrawn breath and saw the shock on her face that she could not hide. ‘It is because of me that Rosalie’s life is slowly being destroyed by a terrible illness,’ he said harshly.
Athena’s reaction of stunned silence exacerbated his familiar feelings of pain and guilt.
‘Obviously if I had known I was a carrier, with the potential to pass a dreadful debilitating disease to my daughter, I would not have risked having a child.’
‘But you didn’t know. How could you have done?’ Athena said gently. ‘You said Jodie hadn’t even told you she was pregnant when she left you and went back to New Zealand. It must have been devastating when Rosalie’s illness was diagnosed, but you can’t blame yourself, Luca.’
He did blame himself, though, she realised as she stared at his hard-boned face and the rigid line of his jaw.
Her heart ached for him. She had seen how much he adored Rosalie. And not only did Luca have to watch his daughter’s health deteriorate, but he also felt responsible for her illness. There must be implications for any more children in the future, too. Rett Syndrome was incurable, and she could understand why he would not want to risk passing on the mutated gene he carried to another child.
‘Whether or not I blame myself, it doesn’t help Rosalie,’ Luca said grimly.
He looked away from Athena, rejecting the sympathy he could see in her eyes. His emotions felt raw, and he was in danger of admitting to her that sometimes he cried when he saw his daughter suffering—that sometimes, deep in his heart, he wondered if he was as worthless as his grandmother had told him he was as a boy, and that Rosalie’s illness was punishment for his sins.
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�All I can do is ensure that Rosalie’s life is as good as it can be in the circumstances, and that she is as comfortable and happy as possible.’
He strode back over to the bed, and his eyes were hard as he stared down at Athena. ‘That’s the reason I married you—the reason I paid you to be my wife. To keep Villa De Rossi so that Rosalie can live the rest of her life in the home she loves.’
Their marriage was a business deal with certain rules attached. There was no harm in reminding Athena of those rules, Luca decided.
‘Last night was fun.’ He looked into her sapphire-blue eyes and remembered how they had darkened with desire when he had made love to her. ‘But that’s all it was,’ he warned.
‘Do you mean it was a one-night stand?’
Athena bit her lip. Perhaps, despite Luca’s insistence that he had enjoyed having sex with her, he had found her lack of sexual experience boring.
He looked surprised. ‘No, what I mean is that just because we’ve slept together it doesn’t change the fact that our marriage is temporary and in a year from now we will divorce, as agreed. What I’m trying to say is that I would like to have a sexual relationship with you, but there is no chance I will fall in love with you.’
‘No hearts and flowers?’
She remembered what he had said when she had asked him to be her first lover. From the very beginning, when he had proposed his outrageous marriage deal, Luca had been completely honest with her, Athena acknowledged. If she chose not to sleep with him again she knew he would respect her decision.
But why deny them what they both wanted? she asked herself. Luca had proved last night how much he desired her, and he had helped her to bury the ghosts from her past for good. He had shown her that sex was not shameful but beautiful—and he made her feel beautiful...especially when his eyes gleamed with a predatory hunger, as they were doing now when he looked at her.
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