by Lynne Graham
‘ could never taste as sweet as this’ he swore, and he crushed her soft pink mouth under his mouth.
Without hesitation he stooped to curve a powerful arm below her hips and swept her up into his arms to carry her back to the bed.
‘We can’t… I’m not speaking to you ! ‘
Lydia protested frantically when he let her come up for air again.
‘So?’ Cristiano swooped down on the fingers she had raised in uncertain protest, engulfed them in his mouth and laved them with his tongue.
A frisson of heat twisted low in her pelvis her tummy muscles tensing in response. She snatched in air audibly and the silence pounded. Her body was deliciously poised on the edge of wild anticipation. ‘Don’t… ‘
‘But you like it cara mia’ he breathed softly, his intent gaze narrowed to gleaming chips of sinful gold below ebony lashes.
Her very bones were ready to melt into the mattress beneath her. She studied him helplessly admiring the strong slash of his nose the smooth hard masculine planes of his lean strong face and the beautiful passionate curve of his sensual lips. He was breathtaking. In a sudden movement that seemed to her to be quite unrelated to any process of thought on her part her fingers slid from his shoulder up into the springy depths of his black hair.
‘I don’t like you…I really don’t like you’ she whispered shakily.
‘But somehow l find you… ‘
His shimmering gaze entrapped hers. The word you’re searching for is…irresistible.’
‘Dream on… ‘
But the stormy hunger assailing her made her tug him down to her level so that she could claim his mouth for herself.
Breathing raggedly, Cristiano leant back from her to rip off his shirt and dispose of his jeans.
There was nothing cool or practised about that process. She spread her fingers on the warm bronzed expanse of his chest let her hand sink lower to the taut musculature of his abdomen felt him shudder beneath her touch. She looked up at him in surprise. His eyes devoured her. In an almost clumsy gesture he cupped her face and kissed her with a breathless driving desire that sent a liquid tightening sensation shimmying through her.
‘You burn me alive ‘cara mia ‘ he confided unbuttoning the shirt she wore with scant ceremony bending over her with predatory intent etched in every line of his magnificent length.
She trembled and her eyes slid dreamily closed in silent welcome. He kneaded the lush distended buds of her nipples with skilful fingers and her spine arched She moaned low in her throat. All thought had gone, to be replaced by a fiery elemental need that she was no longer able to fight.
‘The very scent of your skin tells me that you belong to me’
Cristiano breathed erotically against her throat when her entire body was taut and thrumming like a piano played by a master.
She shifted against him thighs parting for him the hunger already too great to be denied.
‘Cristiano… ‘ He traced the damp delicate softness below her mound and she gasped and writhed tiny cries escaping her, muffled in his strong shoulder as he toyed with the most sensitive spot of all. The pleasure was so intense she couldn’t bear it. He came over her and she arched up to him urging him on, frantic and out of control wanting needing striving with every fibre of her being to sate her own longing for him.
‘Dio mio.. .you match my passion.’
One hand knotting into her tumbled silvery fair hair, he kissed her with sensual savagery. He slid provocatively against the moist heart of her teasing her with the hot hard shaft of his sex. Sizzling golden eyes held hers with fierce desire. ‘1 like the fact that I am the first, the only lover you have ever had. l was shocked but it is the most erotic discovery l have ever made, carrisima.’
She said nothing, for she was beyond words her whole being centred on sensation. He entered her in a single deep thrust and she cried out in urgent response. There was nothing for her but him and what he was making her feel. He had taught her this raw, insistent need that had driven her past the boundaries of control. He slammed into her faster and faster. Wildly excited, she moved against him in a frenzy of abandonment grasping for the ecstasy she could sense lying just out of reach. In an instant she went from torment to a crescendo of glorious pleasure and plunged over the edge, quivering in shock as the ripples of ecstasy continued to tug at her. Nothing had ever been that intense for her. As he groaned and shuddered in satisfaction her eyes were overflowing with tears.
Dizzy with warmth and delight, she lay there, just holding him to her.
Perhaps it was unfortunate thatjust at that instant she should have caught an accidental glimpse of herself in the looking-glass on the wall by the door. She was wrapped round him like an adoring lover. She blinked and then stared, the mists of passion and misplaced affection dissipating faster than the speed of light. Slut she mouthed at her image hating herself with all the strength of character she possessed. At that same moment she recalled his last words on the score of her virginity, and such a flood of self-loathing filled her that she was surprised that her temper did not erupt like a volcano.
Cristiano lifted his dishevelled dark head to look down at her.
‘That was amazing, astonishing… ‘
He touched a wondering fingertip to the moisture sparkling on her cheeks and let his handsome mouth glide over her damp skin in a caressing benediction. ‘We have something special here.’
‘Time will tell. I was thinking about something else ‘ she admitted in a soft tone that gave no hint of what was to come.
‘lsn’t it a shame that you didn’t know I was a virgin when you laid that bet with your friends’?’
Stunned by the pure shock value of that controversial question, Cristiano jerked taut and rolled back from her.
Smiling stonily, she continued, ‘After all if you’d known that your target was a virgin I imagine the stakes would have been even higher.’
For a timeless moment Cristiano shut his eyes and thought of every swear word he had ever known. That pointless pursuit was followed by a ferocious desire to smash his fist into the wall.
‘Don’t even think about denying it ‘
she warned him.
Brilliant dark golden eyes met hers with a lack of expression that infuriated Lydia. She wanted blood and she wanted to discomfit and embarrass him. ‘Your sense of timing is an art form ‘ he told her flatly.
‘When…how did you find out?’
he breathed, hauling on his boxers.
She sat up in bed. ‘The party at your house.’
That last night we were together?’ he shot at her in astonishment.
‘I went looking for you. You were playing billiards and the door wasn’t shut. I heard you and Philip and some other guy talking’
she recited bitter anger beginning to rise in her as she recalled that painful experience.
He pulled up his jeans.
‘You were listening outside the door’?’
‘lt was an accident! ‘ she slung at him.
‘And I never saw you again until l went looking for you fabulous cheekbones’.
‘Were you surprised?’ Lydia flung bitterly.
‘No… In an uneasy movement, he raked long brown fingers through his black cropped hair.
‘But if you listened surely you heard me offering to pay up because I wanted out of the bet’?’
‘Did you’?’ Lydia lifted and dropped a slight shoulder in dismissal of that plea.
‘Really? Why would you have done that? And-even if you did-well I’d evidently walked off by that stage, and didn’t hear you say it.’
Cristiano expelled his breath on a hiss. ‘I don’t expect you to understand this-‘
‘Why? Why wouldn’t l understand’?’
‘Because you’re a woman’ Cristiano growled.
‘That asinine bet was suggested a few hours after I was seen talking to you in Paris. It was the day we first met-‘
‘Gosh that’s so romantic ‘ Lydia told
him listening with an earnest air her arms clasped round her raised knees.
Her sarcasm made Cristiano throw up his hands in a gesture of rueful acceptance. It was very charming, beautifully executed and the effect was enhanced rather than spoilt by the fact that he was barefoot and bare-chested with his jeans still unzipped.
‘I had had too much to drink…we all had. I should have said no then.’
She tilted her head to one side wildly tousled platinum-pale waves tumbling back from her pink cheeks.
‘To me… or the bet?’
‘The bet…naturally’ Cristiano declared.
‘But a guy doesn’t say no to something like that’. ‘It’s all to do with a cool macho bastard who keeps his brains in his boxers’?’ Lydia asked bitterly.
‘Don’t you dare try to make excuses ! It was disgusting-‘
His strong shadowed jawline clenched.
‘1 know it was and it wasn’t my style, believe me.’
Her look was disbelieving.
‘I didn’t see those guys again until the weekend party at my house. By then l had forgotten all about the stupid bet. When the issue was raised-‘
‘Listen don’t use nice clean businesslike words like “issue” to describe what I overheard. l heard those men talking about me in a manner that you should have objected to!
‘I did object…why did you have to walk away before you heard me doing exactly that’?’ Cristiano demanded in a driven undertone a raw light in his dark golden eyes that lent them an unusual degree of clarity. ‘
Philip was drunk. I stopped the locker room discussion and I dropped the bet. ‘
The silence lingered while she considered that explanation. She had never known him to lie. Did he deserve the benefit of the doubt? Although she did not wish to give it to him his patent sincerity was his most convincing defence.
‘Wi1l you accept that’?’ Cristiano prompted.
Lydia gave him a grudging nod for she had enjoyed his discomfiture that rare chance to see him shorn of a little of his glossy patina of aloof indifference.
‘But don’t ever expect me to forgive you for it’
she warned him.
‘The bet is why you took off with Mort Stevens isn’t it’?’ Again, Lydia nodded in confirmation.
‘Why am l only finding out about this now? Why the hell didn’t you talk to me about this when it happened’?’
Cristiano shot at her with a suddenness that disconcerted her.
‘We only had a few dates and it wasn’t going very well for us that particular day, was it’?’ ‘I had no idea you were a virgin. If I had known you were that inexperienced if I had had the slightest suspicion I would have had a totally different attitude. You should have told me.’
‘lt’s so easy for you to say all this stuff now! ‘
she condemned.
‘Have you any idea how I felt after I found out about that bets?’
Cristiano tensed. ‘1 can imagine. ‘
‘How could you possibly? l felt betrayed and humiliated. It was obvious that you were only with me because of a horrible bet and that all you were interested in was sex. ‘
Cristiano sank down on the edge of the bed.
‘lt wasn’t like that.’ . .
‘Then how was it?’ she challenged.
The silence pulsed with undertones.
His lean darkly handsome features were taut his glittering gaze hooded.
‘It’s insane for you to believe that I was only with you because of a bet. That I utterly refute. I saw you; l wanted to get to know you. There was a very strong sexual attraction and I’m not ashamed to acknowledge that. The bet was a piece of foolishness between young men, all of whom should have known better. It was inexcusable and offensive and I apologise without reserve.’
She had clasped round her knees. He had not denied her contention that his sole motivation had been sex, and that hurt. She questioned her own over-sensitivity. So she had loved and he had lusted? So it had been since time began. It was not the stuff of Greek tragedy, so why did she feel as though it was? Hadn’t she always known that she was just another in a long line of fanciable bed partners in his fast-moving life? In an unexpected move that disconcerted her Cristiano tried to tug her back into his arms. Her emotions were already very shaken up and in the grip of that inner turmoil she felt neither gracious nor forgiving.
In fact when she realized that he was attempting to assume a comforting role her pride rebelled furiously. Rejecting him with positive violence, and pushing him away, she retreated to the far side of the bed. ‘Leave me alone! ‘
Cristiano vaulted back upright and spread fluid brown hands in an angrily defensive gesture.
‘1 only wanted to hold you. That at least should not be treated like a crime.’
Her head was beginning to pound with tension and she felt incredibly tired and sorry for herself.
‘That depends on your outlook. Now I want to get up and have a shower in a room of my own-but I don’t know where that is yet. And l want clothes…but l don’t have any within reach. l also want something to eat!
To her dismay her voice emerged with a shrill sharp edge that made her want to wince.
Cristiano strode across the room and cast open a door in the wall.
‘Your suite is through here. ‘I’ll get you something to wear’
Her eyes felt horribly hot and scratchy, and she bowed her weary head. She had never felt more alone in her life.
Cristiano returned and laid her shabby pale pink cotton wrap at her feet. He maintained a careful distance as though she had an exclusion zone marked around her. A huge lump mushroomed in her throat. She fumbled her way into the wrap, shying away from his silent offer of assistance. Like a snail bereft of its shell she wanted to retreat into hiding-fast. Sliding out of bed she went rigid when she brushed against him.
Her blue eyes glimmered with a determined flame for she felt weak but had no intention of parading that fact.
‘So now you know l wasn’t trying to make you jealous when I walked out with Mort that weekend.’
‘I understand that maybe you weren’t exaggerating when you said that you hate me’.
‘That hasn’t bothered you too much up to now. Let’s face it’.
She sniped hearing the words flowing from her own lips and disliking them but quite unable to stop them leaping off her tongue,
‘You’ re not exactly Sensitive.’
Cristiano watched the door shut. He didn’t like that door closed between them. He swore vehemently under his breath. A gigantic wave of unfamiliar frustration gripped him. He was in shock. He wasn’t used to being taken by surprise or put in the wrong. It was unnerving to suffer that experience twice in the same day. But much that had been obscure was now crystal-clear. She had an exquisite grasp of the concept of revenge. Mort Stevens had been a reprisal attack a direct hit. To accept that he owed that experience to Philip and his own ladyish refusal to admit his distaste for a stupid bet was infuriating! His lean powerful face set into grim lines. He had to make amends. He had misjudged her and she had paid a high price.
A kindly older woman who introduced herself in careful English as the housekeeper, brought Lydia a menu and talked her through it. Having made her selections Lydia went for a soak in the sunken bath and scrubbed her tummy crimson to remove the fake tattoo. Not one of her cleverest ideas, she conceded stifling the memory of Cristiano pressing his mouth there.
Clad in a pair of short pyjamas, she checked her phone for messages. She had been hoping to hear from her mother for she was eager for the chance to tell Virginia that she was now safe from any threat of prosecution. She reminded herself that the older woman had been so scared that it might well be a few weeks before she had the courage to make contact with her daughter. After all, Virginia had anxiously mentioned the fact that mobile phone records could be checked.
Dinner was served at a beautifully set table in the opulent reception room that linked with hers.
/> But she ate sitting cross-legged on the bed next door and endeavoured to watch a gardening programme on the plasma screen she found concealed with other technology behind electronic sliding doors. Replete with food she crawled into bed. She did not think she had ever been so exhausted. It was so emotional and physical. Yet even though she tried to bar Cristiano from her thoughts, she fell asleep with his vibrant darkly handsome image in her mind’s eye.
She did not awaken until mid-morning, when a maid opened the curtains and brought her a cup of tea. Emerging from the bathroom enveloped in a towel she went into the attached dressing room and was astonished to discover that virtually all the outfits she had tried on the night before now hung in colour-coordinated rows in the fitted closets.
She glanced at the functional garments she had already taken out, and then slowly tidied them away again.
If Cristiano wanted her to dress in the latest and most expensive fashion was it really worth of saying no? She snatched in a sustaining breath and compressed her soft lips. It was time to deal with life as it was not life as she would have liked it to be. Shielding her mother and escaping a likely prison sentence came at a cost that she had agreed to pay. Nobody had twisted her arm nobody had forced her to sign that contract she reminded herself doggedly. She was a mistress. She was an accessory, arm-candy, a trophy to be put on display. And whether she liked it or not presentation was everything when only her face and her body counted in the balance.
A little while later Cristiano phoned to ask her to join him for lunch on the terrace. As if she had a choice she thought fiercely, her pride still stinging at the awareness of how much she was in his power. In his country in his house in the very clothes he had chosen and with an intimate ache at the heart of her to remind her if she needed a reminder of his passionate possession.
‘Did you sleep well’?’ he enquired huskily.
His dark sexy drawl made her tingle as much as though he had trailed his fingers down her slender spine. Soft pink burnished her cheeks.