His dark eyes locked on hers and her belly quivered at the blatant desire gleaming there. ‘I want you. Damn it, but I want you.’ His tone was gruff with a side note of resentment.
Izzy coiled her finger around a lock of his hair. ‘You make it sound like it’s some sort of affliction.’
He pressed a firm kiss to her mouth. ‘It is. It’s plagued me for years.’
She pushed his head back up by placing her hand against his forehead. ‘How many years?’
He gave a lopsided smile that made something in her chest ping. ‘Seven.’
Izzy outlined his mouth with her fingertip. ‘So you really did want me back then.’
‘Madly.’ He captured her finger and closed his mouth over it, drawing on it like he had done on her nipple earlier. It was the most erotic feeling to have his tongue flickering against her finger, and her inner core reacted in anticipation.
‘You told me to go away and grow up.’
‘Which you have done.’ His eyes glinted as they glanced at her naked breasts. ‘It’s been all I could do to keep my hands off you.’
Izzy took his hands and placed them on her breasts. ‘I want your hands on me. I want you inside me.’
Something flickered across his gaze. ‘Are you on the Pill?’
‘Yes.’
‘Good, because having sex is one thing, having a baby is another.’
‘I’m not going to get pregnant, Andrea.’ Izzy hadn’t intended to snap at him but the way he was carrying on made her feel he suspected her of trying to trap him with a surprise pregnancy.
‘It can happen even when precautions are taken.’
‘It hasn’t happened so far.’
‘But if it did, what would you do?’ he asked.
Izzy had never thought of having a baby. It was something other people did—they got married to someone they fancied themselves in love with and then had a child or two together. She had taught herself not to want such things. Watching the way her mother had suffered under the over-controlling behaviour of her father had made her wary of allowing any man to have such a hold over her. And even though she had only been five when her brother, Hamish, had died, watching the overwhelming grief her parents had gone through, particularly her mother, had further entrenched her decision to stay single and childless. Falling in love with someone would make her too vulnerable and needy. Having a child with them would only increase that vulnerability. It had always seemed far more sensible, not to mention safer, to keep men at an emotional distance.
Thinking about a baby and Andrea in the same sentence was dangerous. It opened a door inside her head that until now had always been firmly locked. Images flooded her brain of him cradling a newborn baby, its downy head covered in ink-black hair, making something tighten around her heart like the slow closing grip of an invisible fist.
Izzy let out a measured breath to bring herself back under control. ‘You really know how to kill a mood, don’t you?’ Her attempt at humour didn’t quite hit the mark.
Andrea took one of her hands and pressed it to his mouth, his eyes still holding hers. ‘It’s an important conversation to have because this is only for six months. A child would change everything.’
‘Rest easy, Andrea. I don’t want to have kids. Do you have this conversation with every woman you sleep with?’
‘I always use condoms. No exceptions.’ A small frown pulled at his forehead. ‘My relationships don’t normally last longer than a few weeks, if that.’
‘Why’s that?’
He twirled a strand of her hair around one of his fingers, his gaze dropping to her mouth. ‘I don’t like giving my partners false hope. I’m not the settling down type. I bore too easily.’
‘So you end things before they get too clingy?’
‘Works for me.’
Izzy wondered why he had got to the age of thirty-four without wanting more than a few weeks of passion with yet another lover he would then let go without a backward glance. Didn’t he want more than that?
Didn’t she?
Izzy blocked the thought like slamming the door on an unwelcome guest. What she wanted was to buy back her grandparents’ house to honour her mother’s wishes. That was her goal and she was not going to rest until she achieved it. She touched his jaw again, moving beneath his weight, her body still on fire. ‘Are we done talking now?’
His lips curved up at one corner, a glint in his eyes. ‘What else did you have in mind?’
Izzy pulled his head down so his mouth was just above hers. ‘Figure it out.’
His mouth covered hers in a kiss that triggered a wave of longing deep in her body. His hands moved over her in barely touching strokes that heightened her skin’s awareness, ramping up her need to feel him crush her to him. He took his time pleasuring each erotic zone on her body—her breasts, the underside of her wrists, her thighs. He moved down her body, leaving kisses on her electrified flesh, teasing her into a frenzy of want that made her writhe and whimper. Clothes were removed and discarded, both his and hers, and for once she didn’t feel naked and exposed and embarrassed.
He parted her thighs and stroked her with his fingers, making her snatch in a breath as the sensations tingled through her most tender private flesh. She had never allowed a partner to be so intimate with her. Not that her less than a handful of lovers had even tried. But Andrea’s touch was so gentle, so respectful and giving she was swept away on the sheer eroticism of it, her inhibitions fading as tingles of pleasure shot through her in tiny little fizzes. His lips and tongue caressed her, opening her to a new world of feeling, a world of cataclysmic pleasure that left no part of her body untouched. Ripples of delight ran from her core to her extremities, even to her fingertips and toes. A shiver ran over her scalp, coursed down her spine and back up again as every muscle and tendon in her body shook and shuddered with a release so exquisite it blew every thought out of her mind.
Andrea stroked the side of her thigh as she came back to her senses. Izzy couldn’t speak. Didn’t want to speak in case she ruined the atmosphere by saying the wrong thing—an unsophisticated, self-conscious comment that would make him realise how disparate their lives were when it came to sex. She was in no doubt of his experience. Hadn’t he just proven it? He had played her body like a maestro played a temperamental instrument. He had made her senses sing with such harmony and balance that she couldn’t imagine ever allowing any other man to touch her now she had experienced his caresses.
Andrea brushed back her hair from her face, his gaze hooded but with a light of intensity—a probing light of contemplation. ‘You’ve gone very quiet, cara.’
Izzy forced a smile. ‘Don’t you want to...?’ She waved a hand to their where their bodies were pressed together. ‘Finish off?’
He took her hand and pressed a kiss to the middle of her palm, his eyes still holding hers. ‘There’s no hurry. I want to savour every minute.’
Izzy chewed the side of her mouth, her gaze slipping out of reach of his. With her free hand she traced the carved contour of his left pectoral muscle with her finger. ‘I’ve never slept with someone so...so not in a hurry...’
He brought her chin up with the end of his finger, locking his gaze on hers. There was a soft concerned look in his eyes that made her wonder if her enmity towards him had been misplaced, misguided, mishandled. ‘Your pleasure is important to me. I want our first time together to be mutually satisfying, not a fast and furious fumble that leaves you frustrated.’ His thumb brushed over her lower lip for a moment, his brow furrowing. ‘Are you telling me you haven’t always enjoyed sex?’
Izzy lost herself in the dark warmth of his gaze. How could he so easily read her mind? Her body? Her emotions? ‘I’m not as experienced as I’ve made it appear or sound in the press.’ She sighed and continued. ‘I’ve never been all that comfortable with physical intimacy. I couldn’t bear the thoug
ht of being intimate with anyone without numbing myself first with alcohol. None of my partners seemed all that interested in whether I was having a good time or not. Everyone assumed I was the up-for-it party girl, but in reality... Well, this is the first time I’ve had an orgasm with a partner. I used to fake it to get sex over with.’
He touched her face with a slow-moving finger from her cheek to her chin and back again. ‘Oh, Isabella.’ His voice had a soft note of compassion that derailed her even further. ‘Sex is supposed to be a mutual thing, not a one-way street. Your partners should have checked to see if you were comfortable with what they were doing. You shouldn’t have to endure sex but enjoy it.’
Izzy gave him a self-deprecating smile, so touched by his understanding she was worried she might get emotional. ‘Speaking of one-way streets... Are you going to finish making love to me?’
The shadow of concern was back in his gaze. ‘Is that what you want? What you really want?’
Izzy stroked his face from ear to stubbly jaw. ‘I want you to make love to me. I want to experience your pleasure as well as my own.’ Her voice was nothing more than a breathy whisper but it contained all the longing she felt for him, the longing she could feel throbbing, deep and heavy, in her blood.
He brought his mouth down to just above hers. ‘Are you sure?’ His warm breath caressed her lips and his hesitancy melted her heart.
‘I’m sure,’ she said and closed the gap between their mouths.
CHAPTER EIGHT
IZZY’S MOUTH WAS on fire as soon as Andrea’s met hers. His tongue a flame of need that echoed her own. The mutual exchange of passion thrilled her, ramping up her excitement because with every sensuous touch and caress it erased the bad memories of the past. It was an awakening of her flesh, of her desire, of her ability to give and receive pleasure and she gloried in it.
Andrea was slow and thorough in attending to all her pleasure spots, leaving no secret place undiscovered. He kissed and stroked her breasts, nibbled and nudged and gently grazed them with his teeth so that every hair on her head was tingling at the roots.
But she was just as keen to explore him and ran her hands over his taut muscles and his steely flanks and his flat abdomen. She took him in her hands and learnt his likes and dislikes, reading him as he had read her and enjoying the way he responded to her touch. Feeling powerful in a way she had never felt before.
Andrea sourced a condom and positioned himself at her entrance. The final moment of physical connection was so strongly erotic and yet surprisingly tender, it took her breath clean away. Her body welcomed him, accepting him and wrapping around him with no fear, no reluctance and no pretence. The slow movement of him within her drew from her a fevered response as her nerves began to sing at the friction. She was climbing to a far off summit, each of her muscles becoming taut with built-up tension. She was not quite there and yet so close it was like hovering on the edge of a precipitous cliff.
Andrea brought his hands between their rocking bodies and caressed her intimately, his fingers cleverly stroking her over the edge into a free fall into the abyss. Her senses were reeling, spinning her away from conscious thought, her body a blissful array of sensations that rippled through every pore of her flesh. It was like her nerves were on the outside of her skin, every movement, every touch of his hands and body making her hum and throb with pleasure.
Izzy felt his release follow soon after. There was none of the huffing and grunting and crushing, almost suffocating weight of her previous partners. Andrea held her close and gave himself up to the moment of completion with a deep guttural groan that reverberated through her body as if his pleasure was intimately tied to hers. She felt every one of his spasms as if they were her own, making her feel closer to him than she had ever felt to anyone. Emotion suddenly clogged her throat, her eyes stinging with unshed tears. She lamented her lack of sophistication for feeling so exposed and vulnerable and hid her face against his neck, hoping he would put her silence down to her satiated senses.
After a minute or two of silence, Andrea propped himself up on his elbows and turned her head so she was facing him. His brows came together when he saw the glimmer of tears in her eyes. ‘Did I hurt you?’ His tone had a ragged edge that made the stitches around her heart loosen even more.
Izzy gave a lopsided smile. ‘No, of course not. You were wonderfully gentle. It’s just I...I didn’t realise it could be that good. That satisfying and...not sleazy or rushed or shameful in any way.’
He mopped a couple of tears that had escaped from beneath her eyes, the look in his gaze so tender it made her want to cry all over again. She was used to partners rolling away and leaving. Job done. End of story. Andrea’s approach was so different...so touchingly different it was like he had made love with not just her body but with her mind and soul.
‘You were wonderful too,’ he said. ‘I always knew we would be good together.’
Izzy trailed her fingers down the hairy roughness of his forearm, her eyes avoiding his. ‘Why wait so long to act on it?’ She slowly brought her gaze up to his. ‘I mean, for all this time we could have been making love instead of war.’
His smile was rueful and he captured a strand of her hair and tucked it back behind her ear. ‘It’s one of the reasons I’ve always kept my distance. I didn’t trust myself around you. But my housekeeper, Gianna, knew I was beaten the minute she met you. Even before she met you.’
‘Because I’m the first woman you’ve brought here?’
‘Because you’re the first woman I’ve married.’
Izzy glanced at the rings on her left hand. They looked so real and yet... An invisible hand fisted around her heart. This was for six months and six months only. He didn’t want a wife any more than she wanted a husband. They weren’t doing for ever. They were doing for now. For money. For mutual advantage. She brought her gaze back to his. ‘But Gianna knows this is a marriage of convenience. We’ve both told her that none of this is real.’
He moved away to dispose of the condom. ‘I told you—she’s a die-hard romantic. A marriage of convenience to her means an opportunity to fall in love. She married her late husband to settle family debts and they had thirty-odd happy years together before he died a couple of years ago.’ He glanced back at her but his expression was now masked. ‘Don’t let her get to you. We’ll do it our way and when it’s time to end it, we’ll do so without tears. Agreed?’
Izzy didn’t care for the slightly clinical tone he used. Surely this wasn’t like any old business deal? This was about two lives intersecting, two bodies giving and sharing pleasure. She screened her own expression, hiding her niggling doubts behind a smile she wasn’t sure made the distance to her eyes. ‘Agreed.’
He leaned down to brush her mouth with a brief kiss, and then he straightened and reached for his trousers. ‘I have to see to a couple of things in my office to do with my business merger. Will you be okay to entertain yourself for an hour or two? We’ll have dinner out on the terrace. Maybe have a moonlight swim afterwards. I’ll give Gianna the night off so we won’t be disturbed.’
‘Sounds like fun,’ Izzy said, already tingling at the thought of sharing a moonlit swim with him.
* * *
An hour and a half later and Andrea still hadn’t worked his way through the pile of paperwork sitting on his desk. His mind kept drifting back to making love with Izzy. He still couldn’t believe he had crossed the boundary he’d been so adamant not to cross. But the things she had shared about her past and her insecurities had made it virtually impossible for him to resist her. A barrier had been removed between them and it had opened up a world of sensuality that until now he had been avoiding. Their lovemaking had been both tender and passionate and his body was still tingling from her touch. He knew it was dangerous to tweak the terms of their arrangement but he assured himself it was only for six months. Yes, a bit longer than his usual relationships, but
they both stood to gain from the deal. His colleague’s wedding was only a couple of weeks away and he figured now he was sleeping with Izzy it would make their marriage look all the more authentic.
It sure felt damn authentic, which was a thought he shouldn’t be allowing inside his head. But he reassured himself that Izzy didn’t want a long-term marriage any more than he did. They had both been clear from the outset on what they wanted out of this arrangement. She had far more to lose than he and he was counting on her abiding by the rules so she got what she wanted. Her inheritance. Which she deserved, for he firmly believed now she had been badly treated by her father. It angered Andrea that he had held her father in such high esteem when all the time Benedict had been manipulative and cruel towards Izzy. Andrea knew enough about her to know she was a lot more sensitive and soft-hearted than she let on. The brash don’t-mess-with-me exterior was an act, a ruse to put people off so they wouldn’t see how easily she could be hurt.
But making love with her had made Andrea realise how careful he would have to be not to end up hurting her himself. They had made an agreement. Six months. He wasn’t interested in prolonging their relationship or indeed any relationship in the future. He had no desire to lay himself open to rejection again. To be shunted aside when feelings died. To be kicked out of someone’s life as if he were nothing more than useless trash.
No. He would stick to the plan. Keep his emotions out of the arrangement and enjoy the physical chemistry he had going on with Izzy.
Stick to the plan.
That was all he had to do.
* * *
Izzy showered and came downstairs in time to receive instructions from Gianna about the heat and serve dinner she had prepared. A candlelit table with a crisp white tablecloth was set up on the terrace overlooking the pool and the Positano coastline below. Two cushioned chairs were positioned either side of the table and a gorgeous arrangement of fresh flowers was elegantly draped either side of the scented candles. It was the most romantic setting Izzy had ever seen and yet she couldn’t help feeling a little conflicted. Making love with Andrea had changed something in their relationship. She didn’t hate him. Her hatred had been her armour and now she was fighting a battle without a weapon. What defences could she use if not her dislike of him?
Bound by a One-Night Vow Page 10