by Maisey Yates
“I do?” she asked, her voice breaking as he pressed a kiss to the hollow of her throat.
“Yes. You make me feel dangerously uncivilized.”
He kissed the valley between her breasts, and she couldn’t have responded to his comment if she’d wanted to. Then he moved his head and took one straining peak into his mouth. She closed her eyes, stars dancing across her vision. Molten desire pooled hot in her belly and dampened her core.
Marco took her hands and placed them on his belt. With shaking fingers she undid the buckle and let it hang loosely. She looked at the outline of his bulging erection, pushing aggressively against his black pants and quickly undid the closure before nerves could overtake her arousal. She lowered the zipper and the back of her hand made contact with his hardened shaft. His body jerked, and he groaned in obvious pleasure.
Emboldened by his response, she encircled his heavy length through the thin fabric and squeezed gently. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back. “You’re a dangerous woman.”
She laughed shakily and started to work his pants down over his lean hips, taking his underwear with them. It suddenly seemed very important to see him, to get her first glimpse of a naked man, so she could assess exactly what she was dealing with.
The sight of his nude body took her breath away. He was beautiful. He was also very big—much bigger than she’d anticipated a man could be—and she had to wage a small battle with her nerves. She inhaled and wrapped her fingers around him. His skin was even hotter there, like a flame. She moved her hand over his velvety skin, exploring him, learning what he liked and what made him moan with pleasure.
“Enough teasing.” He picked her up again and she found herself lying flat on her back on the cool white comforter.
He drew a nipple into his mouth, sucking it, laving it with the flat of his tongue, before moving his attention to the other breast and repeating the act. Heat flared in her pelvis and all nervousness fled, pushed out by the intense longing that was pouring through her body in waves.
Marco pulled back and looked at her, his eyes glittering with passion. He let a finger drift up her inner thigh, coming close to her pulsing wet center. She shivered, anticipation of the unknown coupled with her intense arousal making the muscles in her legs quiver.
Testing her readiness, he slid the tip of one finger inside of her tight channel. She gasped, her hips bowing up off the bed. “Beautiful,” he murmured.
He leaned down, spreading her thighs wide with his broad shoulders. Then he touched the sensitive bundle of nerves with his soft lips.
“Marco!” she pushed against him.
He chuckled and pulled her hands down, pinning them to the bed. He lowered his mouth again, sliding his tongue gently through her damp folds, sucking her moist clitoris. The tension in her pelvis tightened until she thought she would shatter into a million pieces if something didn’t give.
He repeated the motion, penetrating her with his tongue, and the tension snapped. Pleasure rolled over her like a tidal wave, and for a moment there was nothing. Nothing but feelings so acute, so all consuming, that they overtook her completely, leaving her spent and breathless in the aftermath.
When she came back to herself Marco was above her, positioning himself at her slick entrance. Her orgasm had taken the edge off her need, but she was still unsatisfied. She ached for him, for his possession. She cupped his tight buttocks with her hands and urged him forward.
He surged into her—and the pain blinded her for a moment, the tearing sting bringing tears to her eyes. She bit her lip to keep the scream that was building in her throat from escaping and lay rigid beneath him, trying to catch her breath.
“What the—?” He began to move away from her, but she gripped his hips, pulling him back to her.
“No. It’s getting better. Just be still for a moment.” She wrapped her feet around his calves, anchoring him to her.
Gradually the stinging subsided and gave way to a feeling of fullness that was exquisite beyond words. Arousal flared to life inside her again, all discomfort forgotten.
Marco remained still, the cords of his neck standing out, showing the effort it took for him to maintain self-control.
“Now,” she begged.
Then he began to move. The sensation was so shattering, so amazing. She was lost in the steady rhythm of his thrusting. The fractured sounds of their breathing. She felt the muscles in her pelvis spasming. The feeling tightened more still, radiating down to her internal muscles. She was reaching for something—something that seemed much too high for her to grasp.
Then she found it. It was so deep, so all-consuming that she couldn’t keep it all inside of her. She let out a hoarse cry as the pleasure rushed up and crashed over her like a wave. She gripped his shoulders, using him as an anchor, as her release went on and on, until finally she was left spent and breathless, floating in the swirling surf.
Marco stiffened above her and pushed himself firmly against her, freezing for a moment while he gave himself up to his own orgasm. He collapsed on top of her and held her close, his accelerated heartbeat reverberating through her, matching the beat of her own.
She brushed a lock of hair out of his eye and traced the features of his face lightly with her fingers. He had shown her a side of herself she hadn’t believed existed; he had made her more than she had been.
It was impossible in that moment to shut off the emotion that washed through her. Her heart was full and she felt tears begin to slide down her cheeks. She didn’t want to guess at why she felt whole with Marco joined to her…why she felt she might break when he withdrew.
In that moment she was very much afraid that she was the naïve fool she’d promised herself she would never become.
Chapter Eight
MARCO rolled onto his back, his breathing labored, his blood roaring in his ears. His whole body was still on fire from what had been simply the most amazing sexual experience of his life. And the most reckless, stupid act he’d ever committed.
He’d had sex with her without a condom, taking her word for it that she was on birth control. She’d been a virgin. A virgin.
He’d never so much as kissed an innocent, and now he’d taken one to bed and initiated her none too gently. He was torn between immense guilt at the realization that he’d taken her virginity, and a building rage at the thought that she might have contrived to trap him.
He turned and looked at the woman lying in bed with him. Tears were rolling down her pink cheeks, her bottom lip, swollen and red from his violent kisses, was trembling. His gut twisted, and guilt overrode the anger.
“Did I hurt you?” he asked, catching a tear with his thumb.
She shook her head and then grimaced. “Well, it didn’t hurt for too long.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that you were a virgin?”
She grimaced at the word. “I didn’t think it would matter. I kind of hoped you wouldn’t notice, actually. And anyway, you wouldn’t have believed me.”
“You don’t know that.” He knew she was right. He would never have believed her. He would have thought it a ploy of some kind—just another tactic to get him to drop his guard and do something stupid and irresponsible. Of course even without her admission he’d managed to be stupid and irresponsible.
A few more tears slid down her cheeks.
“I did hurt you,” he said.
“No.” She swiped at the moisture on her face. “I don’t know why I’m crying. I really don’t. I’m not normally a crier.”
“A woman’s first time is very emotional.”
Her face pinked. “Are you very experienced in the matter?”
“I can only claim this single experience.”
Something that looked like relief flashed in her tearful blue eyes. He’d meant to ask her about her birth control pills, about whether or not they really existed, but he couldn’t bring himself to interrogate this new incarnation of Elaine, this vulnerable innocent with the wide, unguarded eyes.
He cupped her chin and turned her face to him gently. “Something you need?”
She blushed to the roots of her blond hair. “I don’t have any clothes in here.”
He chuckled. “I’ve seen and tasted every inch of you, cara mia. Your modesty is too little, too late.”
“Well, that was different. We were…and now we’re…” She pulled hard on the sheets and coiled them around her curvy body, before sliding out from beneath the white duvet and standing up.
“Where are you going?”
Her flush intensified. The spot on her chest where his beard had abraded her delicate fair skin turned a deep mottled rose. “I was going to go get my birth control pills, and then I was going to go to sleep on the couch.”
That answered his question about the pills. “You’re not sleeping in another room.”
“I didn’t think that men liked to talk…you know…after…”
“Come back to bed, Elaine. After you get your pills, of course.”
She scurried off, her steps restricted by the tightly wrapped sheet.
The woman made absolutely no sense to him. She didn’t come across as being naïve or sheltered in any way, and she was extraordinarily beautiful. That she had come to his bed without experience just added another piece to her personal puzzle. He prided himself on being able to read people. Business was about more than numbers: it was about gut feeling, it was about intuition. With Elaine his intuition seemed to be on vacation. He was no closer to figuring her out, or her motives, than when she’d first walked into his office with her outrageous proposal.
She came back into the room, her face pink and fresh-scrubbed, her luscious body wrapped in the silk robe they’d discarded on the porch, the sheet draped over her arm.
“See—I wasn’t lying.” She waved a small pill packet. “I wouldn’t risk the company like that.” She placed the pills on the nightstand and stood with her arms wrapped around herself. She looked so young and innocent. Some long-ignored protective instinct had him rising from his position and reaching out to her, drawing her down onto the bed.
“So why did you suddenly decide to go to bed with me? Obviously you’ve made it a point to save yourself.”
She shrugged. “Not really. It’s like you said—desire and satisfaction. It’s not very complicated.” A shuddering breath shook her small shoulders. “I’ve never really wanted to be with anyone like that, and I didn’t see the point of taking the step if it wasn’t something I really wanted to do.” She hesitated for a moment, and then turned onto her side so that she was facing him. “There was one guy that I thought I might…Well, anyway, when I told him I wasn’t ready he seemed okay with it. Then the next day at work I found out he was telling everyone I was off-limits to all the guys in the office because I was the boss’s plaything.” She gave him a pointed look. “I know you’ve heard the story. Anyway, I haven’t been that inspired to try my hand at relationships again.”
Her words held a ring of truth to them, and they sent a sharp pain through his chest. The image of a young, naïve Elaine being dragged through the mud by world-weary cynics, her heart broken, her reputation left in tatters, affected him far more than he was prepared for. He didn’t want to be a part of that—part of the ugly world that had stolen her innocence in so many ways. But he was a part of it. They had stolen her idealism, her emotional innocence, and he had taken that last piece—her physical innocence—for himself. He wouldn’t use it against her, but he had nothing to offer her either.
“This isn’t going to be a relationship in any sort of permanent sense. That’s not how I do things.” He despised the bluntness of his words, but he would not give her time to entertain fantasies of a future for the two of them. That was one reason he’d so carefully avoided women with no experience. They thought of love and sex as two things inextricably linked, and he honestly didn’t have any of that kind of love available.
She straightened her spine, her blue eyes emotionless. “I know that. And I don’t really want a relationship either.”
Once again the woman managed to surprise him. She never said or did what he expected her to do. He’d expected her to be clinging to him and asking him about his feelings, but instead she’d been cool, almost aloof, since returning to the bedroom.
“Then what is it you want?”
Her face turned a deep crimson. Now he knew that the blushing wasn’t an act. She’d blushed like a virgin because that was exactly what she had been.
“The company,” she said, her chin set stubbornly.
“I meant what is it you want from me?” A slow smile curved his lips. “What are your terms and conditions?”
Elaine didn’t know how to have a conversation with a naked man. It was difficult to concentrate on words when they were so close, with him naked and her clad only in the thin, barely there robe. All she wanted to do was lean in and kiss his lips, run her hands over his bare skin, feel him filling her again, bringing her the ultimate release. Harder still to tell him what she wanted when she had no idea what it was that she wanted or expected.
Could she honestly have a no-strings physical relationship with him?
Yes! her body screamed enthusiastically.
Yes. Her mind confirmed it. When things went back to normal, when Marco was out of her life and she had assumed her position as owner and CEO of Chapman Electronics, her life would be even more consumed by work than it already was. She would never find the time for a relationship. She had to take this, now, while she had the chance.
And when it was over she would always have the sweetest memories of what it was to be held in Marco’s arms. She honestly couldn’t imagine ever being with another man, sharing the intimacies that she had shared with Marco. Perhaps it was her inexperience, but she really felt repulsed by the idea of another man touching her. That was why she had to seize the moment. Men did it all the time—satisfied physical needs with no feelings involved. Why shouldn’t she do it for herself?
“Twelve months. The physical relationship lasts for the duration of the marriage. Neither of us will be unfaithful, and at the end both parties go away with what we agreed upon,” she said, shocked by the steadiness of her voice.
He gave her a wicked grin that made her breasts heavy and caused a pulse to start pounding at the apex of her thighs. “A business deal, Ms. Chapman?”
“Is there any other kind, Mr. De Luca?” Far from being steady, her voice was now quivering again, this time at the lascivious intent that was written all over Marco’s face.
He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled the sheet away, revealing her body to him. “I think it’s safe to say we’re officially mixing business with pleasure.” He rubbed the pad of his thumb over one aching nipple and she felt herself melting into him, ready and willing for whatever he wanted to do to her.
His lips closed over hers and conscious thought became difficult. Her heart was thudding heavily, and new, strange emotions were swelling in her chest. She felt her eyes growing wet with tears again. If she could keep this purely physical, if she could stop herself from feeling, then everything would be all right. She could indulge in her craving for Marco and come away unchanged.
The thought of leaving him sent a ripple of pain through her body that matched the pleasure being delivered by his skilled hands. And then all thought became impossible as she was pulled down into the swirling undertow of sensation.
“Good morning.” The sound of a husky male voice pulled Elaine from her comatose sleep. Gradually her senses returned to her. There was a large masculine hand splayed across her belly, and she could feel…oh…she could feel Marco’s erection pressed against her backside.
The events from the night before came flooding back to her with brutal clarity. She’d slept with Marco. He knew she’d been a twenty-four-year-old virgin. She had agreed to a twelve-month sex only relationship.
She had off
icially lost her mind.
His hand drifted up and began toying gently with her nipples. She moaned. Yes. She’d lost her mind. And if he kept touching her like that it was going to be lost to her forever.
“Good morning.” She tried to squirm out of his hold, away from him and back into a realm where critical thinking was possible, but that only brought her into more forceful contact with his burgeoning hardness. The twitch of his member and the accompanying moan of pleasure sent a Shockwave of longing all the way down to her core. She wasn’t going to find her sanity anytime soon.
“No need for you to get up. Breakfast will be delivered in a few minutes.”
She increased her struggle to get free. “I’m not getting caught naked in your bed!”
“We’re newlyweds,” he said innocently. “Where else would they expect to find you?”
He rolled over and pinned her on her back, his smile playful. He raised her hands above her head and held them, effectively trapping her. It should have made her angry. It really shouldn’t have turned her on. He brought his mouth down and kissed her deeply, passionately. He pushed one hair-roughened thigh between hers and she voluntarily let her legs fall open.
The intercom buzzed and Marco moved away from her. “I don’t mind getting caught in bed with you, but I don’t relish being found in the middle of lovemaking.” His smile turned rueful. “I lose my control with you, cara.” He looked utterly mystified by the thought.
She couldn’t stop herself from openly admiring his naked body as he strode across the room and picked a pair of well-worn denim jeans from the closet. She watched him slide them up his legs and over his tight rear end. Knowing he wasn’t wearing underwear was going to kill her at some point today.
She’d assumed that making love with Marco might take the edge off her desire. She’d been very wrong. Now that she knew what he could make her feel, now that she knew that every promise his sensual lips made, all the dark sexuality his lithe body proclaimed, was understated when compared to the fulfilled promise, she could think of nothing else but tasting him again.