A Deal for Her Innocence

by Williams Cathy

  ‘Tell me.’ The words were out and she wasn’t even tempted to take them back.

  She sensed his stillness and recognised that she had crossed a line. One night. Would that be so very bad? Maybe he would laugh and turn her away, but at last she would find out, and wouldn’t end up being the coward who would look back and wonder ‘what if?’ for ever...

  ‘Where are you going with this?’ Niccolo questioned coolly.

  Ellie knew that the shutters were falling fast and she was gripped by a sudden desperation to take a chance.

  ‘You were right,’ she said huskily. ‘About the chemistry. It’s there. Well, it is for me, anyway. Maybe you’ve just been playing games because there are no other distractions around to grab your attention.’

  ‘I already told you, I don’t do games.’ Niccolo didn’t move a muscle. ‘Life’s too short. But you don’t do sex without strings, or have you forgotten all about that?’

  ‘I haven’t forgotten.’ Her voice hitched on a note of fervent earnestness. ‘But you confuse me. You make me question things I never questioned before.’

  Niccolo wasn’t into soul-baring but he found that he was holding his breath and not swiftly trying to change the subject onto more familiar ground.

  Ellie reached out and ran her finger along his muscled forearm and, when he stiffened in immediate response, she was suffused with a sense of soaring triumph.

  ‘I’m careful.’ She took her time sifting through her thoughts to find the right words, but feeling vulnerable to be confiding like this in a man who clearly didn’t welcome confidences. ‘Maybe too careful. And I may disapprove of relationships based on sex, but I would never allow myself to let sex morph into a relationship.’ Ellie wondered if she was making herself clear. She certainly was to herself. She was making perfect sense to herself.

  There would be no happy-ever-afters with Niccolo Rossi, but she wouldn’t be looking for any. She would retain control over the situation because she was making a conscious choice.

  It wasn’t a choice she had ever thought she’d make, because she’d always been rational when it came to sifting her way through the confusing tangle of relationships, but this was a chemistry against which she had no weapons. It wasn’t weak to succumb. On the contrary, it was strong. She was proving to herself that passion wasn’t necessarily dangerous, just so long as you didn’t confuse it with love, and that would be a lesson that would stand her in good stead.

  The boyfriends she had had in the past had ticked all the boxes but the one marked passion, and she could see now that passion was something she couldn’t shove into the background as insignificant.

  Accepting that made her feel empowered. She wasn’t stepping out of her comfort zone. She was broadening her territory.

  This was what it felt like to be totally in charge of life around you. Instead of shying away from danger, she was nullifying the danger by taking it head-on, eyes wide open. And not just taking it on, but enjoying it.

  ‘I’m making a choice,’ she said, then she shrugged just in case he started thinking that she might be trying to pin him down, just in case he needed an exit. ‘The rest is up to you.’

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ELLIE DIDN’T KNOW what to expect. For what felt like an agonisingly long time she held her breath, conscious that this was the most daring thing she had ever done in her whole life.

  She’d become so accustomed to playing it safe. How had that happened? she wondered. How had she allowed the years to roll by without daring to test the waters? Why had she always assumed that because you got close to the fire you would end up being burned, when in fact you might just end up feeling warm and enjoying the warmth before walking away from it, no harm done?

  His kiss was soft, exploring, a meeting of mouths, a twining of tongues, and she melted into it as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

  She shuffled towards him, wrapped her arms around his waist and stood on tiptoe to reach up to him as he reached down to her. His tongue probed and darted, and she moaned softly. The shimmering, soft fabric blew against her legs.

  The layers of clothes separating them were no barrier against his desire. It was a powerful indicator of just how turned on he was by her.

  Daringly, Ellie ran a trembling hand over the bulge distorting his trousers and Niccolo deepened the intensity of his kiss, moving from tender to demanding, giving her no time to surface.

  ‘Romantic setting,’ he broke off to say in a husky, uneven voice, ‘but not exactly practical for what I have in mind.’ Niccolo was shocked at the uneven tenor of his voice. This was not the lazy, teasing, confident voice of someone in control of his responses. This was the voice of a horny adolescent on a date with the hottest girl in the school. Well, he hadn’t been that horny adolescent for a long time and he breathed in deeply, regaining control.

  ‘I knew you found it romantic here,’ Ellie murmured with a husky laugh. She stared up at him and he glanced away briefly, but then looked back down at her with a wry smile.

  ‘It’s romantic,’ he conceded. ‘Will you be putting that in your mock-ups?’

  ‘This whole resort is romantic. I’m spoilt for choice.’

  ‘Yet there are no nubile young things leaping behind bushes so that they can rip one another’s clothes off.’

  ‘No, not much leaping behind bushes,’ Ellie agreed.

  ‘Not unless you count us.’

  ‘Niccolo...’

  ‘Is an “on second thoughts” conversation looming? Or are you about to tack Take me, please to the end of my name?’ Niccolo prided himself on being able to walk away from any woman because there was no woman tempting enough ever to make him seriously lose his head. Granted, he had never been in the position of actually thinking that he might have to walk away from one before he got his fill, but the uncomfortable thought now occurred to him, and he didn’t know what to do with it. Not cool.

  ‘I’m not having second thoughts.’

  Relief rushed through him with the force of a tsunami. ‘In that case, yes, of course I’ll take you. Back to the villa and straight into my bed.’

  The heat in his voice made her shiver. She was so hot for him that she wanted to tell him to shut up, to just take her, right here and right now, and hang the discomfort.

  Instead, she said in a rush, ‘I’ve never done this before.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘You know?’

  ‘You’ve spent long enough telling me how much you disapprove of chance encounters that lead to sex. I’ve got the message, Ellie.’ He nuzzled the satiny smoothness of her neck and she whimpered and melted a little bit more. ‘You’ve never done sex without the promise of a relationship, even if the relationship didn’t work out in the end. So choosing to have scintillating sex with me on a tropical island with nothing at the end of it but a wave goodbye is a first for you. Don’t worry, my darling, I promise you that you won’t live to regret your decision.’

  Niccolo very slowly drew up the silky, long dress, scooping it until the soft fabric fell over his big hand, until he could feel the warm nakedness of her skin underneath, the brush of her thigh.

  Ellie opened her mouth but her words were lost in a cascade of sensation as he expertly curved his hand between her legs to caress her inner thigh, his knuckles nudging her, scraping against the thin material of her underwear.

  She couldn’t think when he was doing this. She certainly couldn’t hold down a sensible conversation about the embarrassing truth of her virginity.

  Thoughts flashed through her mind, darting like quicksilver. She tried to picture his reaction if he knew that she’d never actually gone the full distance and slept with a guy. Amusement? Horror? Would he take it in his stride? Or would he run for the hills? Ellie doubted that virginity would appeal to a man like Niccolo Rossi. ‘Virgin’ and ‘casual sex’ were two things that didn’t go together. Moreover, what if he didn’t want the bother of having sex with someone who didn’t know the ropes?

 
Having dared, Ellie didn’t know what she would do if Niccolo decided, for whatever reason, that he didn’t want to take on the responsibility of having sex with a virgin. Now that she had come this far, she had to go the whole way. She had to.

  Which meant that she wouldn’t say anything.

  Not difficult, bearing in mind that her vocal cords had dried up under the devastating impact those caresses were having on her.

  ‘I can tell how much you want me and I like that. A lot,’ he said huskily. ‘You’re ready. Shall I see how ready?’ He slipped his hand under her knickers, a shockingly intimate invasion that made her gasp, but there was no time for her to draw back because her whole body was besieged by sensations she had never experienced before.

  This was what craving felt like. This feeling of wanting that was so powerful it made your whole body shake from the force of it. If molten lava had poured from the open heavens she wouldn’t have been aware of it, because all she was aware of was the pressure of his finger against her body, teasing it until she wanted to scream and beg and plead.

  When he withdrew that exploring finger and gently arranged her knickers back into position, she could have wept with frustration.

  ‘You’re stopping. Don’t stop.’

  ‘You won’t thank me after if we make love on the sand.’ Niccolo could also have said that he was doing himself a favour in stopping because he was so turned on he felt like he would explode unless he took a step back.

  He’d barely laid a finger on her! It was crazy.

  Hands linked, they couldn’t make it to their villa fast enough. Time to reflect. Time to think about what she was about to do. Time to change her mind.

  Ellie knew that this was a valuable break in proceedings. It would take them fifteen minutes to get to their villa. Longer, if they were stopped en route by guests or staff members. Niccolo was ridiculously popular. He could barely walk ten metres without someone wanting to have a chat about nothing in particular.

  During that time, there would be ample opportunity for her to stand back and look at what she was doing under the glaring, cold light of reality.

  Nothing of the sort occurred. If anything, the frustration that had shot to the surface when he had removed that deliciously questing finger from inside her only ratcheted up, up and up so that she was squirming by the time they were finally back at the villa.

  The air was balmy. The roar of the ocean had faded to an insistent, soothing, background sound, replaced by the harmonious orchestra of night insects—frogs, toads, crickets and grasshoppers.

  Niccolo pushed open the door to the villa and swung her inside all in one fluid motion, then he swivelled so that she was against the closed door, then he kissed her. And this wasn’t the exploring, lazy kiss of before. This kiss was hungry, urgent, demanding...wanting what was on offer.

  Pressed with her back against the door, Ellie reached up and wound her arms around his neck, pulling him down to her.

  She was desperate for his finger to be back where it had been and she wriggled as he kissed her.

  ‘Don’t be impatient,’ Niccolo broke away to tell her with a grin in his voice. ‘I’m not going to rush this. I want to touch every part of you and I want to take my time.’

  ‘Niccolo...’

  ‘Here is slightly more preferable to the beach but not as good as my king-sized bed.’ He lifted her off her feet as though she weighed nothing, and Ellie gasped and then laughed as he took the steps up two at a time, kicking open a bedroom door but not bothering to turn on any lights.

  Not that there was a need because the bright, silver moon poured sufficient light through the window to illuminate a bedroom that was slightly bigger than hers and just as exquisitely furnished.

  He carried her to his bed and gently deposited her, then he stood back, head tilted to one side, feasting his eyes on her rumpled sexiness and wondering what it was about her that he found so compelling.

  Her hair spilled about her face and her dress was hiked up to the thigh. It gave him a delicious kick to acknowledge that she hadn’t done the predictable thing and tugged it back into the interminably modest mode. But then she was stepping out of her comfort zone. He couldn’t wait to see where that took them.

  He watched her intently as he removed his shirt. Half-naked, he waited a few seconds, drinking in her slumberous, greedy gaze.

  He removed his trousers and tossed them aside. Her eyes widened.

  From her prone position on his bed, Ellie absorbed the enormity of what she was about to do with rapidly beating heart. She’d never wanted anything more, but apprehension at the physical act made her breathless and giddy.

  He was so beautiful. Like an exquisitely carved Greek god brought to vibrant life. His shoulders were broad and muscled, his chest, with its dark, curling hair, tapered to a washboard-hard stomach and a narrow waist.

  ‘Relax,’ Niccolo murmured, slipping onto the bed next to her, then flipping her onto her side so that they were face to face, looking at one another. ‘You’re as skittish as a colt.’ He found her naked thigh with his hand and smoothed his palm over it. ‘Your skin is like satin,’ he murmured. ‘Has anyone ever told you that?’

  ‘No,’ Ellie answered truthfully. Her voice was shaky.

  ‘Why are you so nervous? There’s no need to be. Trust me. You’re going to enjoy every second of being out of your comfort zone. Who knows...you may never want to return back to it. Shall I continue doing what I was doing on the beach? Hmm? Would you like me to touch you down there until you’re squirming against my finger?’

  ‘Niccolo...’ Ellie said brokenly, legs opening of their own accord, body shifting into just the right position for his hand to settle over her feminine mound.

  She moaned and stilled, arching a little as he slid that devastating finger over her until she was panting, until her attack of nerves was lost under the weight of mindless sensation.

  Desperate for the feel of skin against skin, Ellie wriggled up to hook her fingers under the hem of the dress, yanking, tugging and then abandoning the effort because Niccolo seemed to be so much better when it came to clothes removal.

  The sultry breeze through the open windows caressed her suddenly naked skin. Ellie could barely open her eyes, but open them she did, to see him removing the last vestige of his clothing. Boxers joined trousers in a heap on the ground somewhere.

  He was impressively built. From a position of absolutely no experience, Ellie recognised that much. Straddling him, she felt a roar of excitement race through her, and she circled him with her hand and then hitched up so that she could trace a delicate line around his girth with her tongue.

  Niccolo reared back and groaned, fingers curling into her hair so that he could press her to take him in her mouth.

  Tasting him was heaven. She wriggled a bit more so that she was on her knees, in just her underwear, bent so that she could devote all her attention to him.

  The outer reaches of her daredevil, abandoned wantonness astounded her. Where on earth had it come from?

  She fell back as he gently tugged her away from him and sighed with pleasure as he removed her bra and underwear.

  ‘You’re good at this, aren’t you?’ Ellie moaned, conjuring up a marching parade of the blonde supermodels who would have preceded her.

  ‘Very good,’ Niccolo assured her, without a trace of false modesty. ‘Now, keep quiet and enjoy. And relax...’

  He’d fantasised about her breasts but no fantasy could have done justice to their pert roundness, to the deep pink discs of her nipples. He lowered his head and attended to the pressing need of tasting them. He drew one into his mouth, sucked hard on it, licked its stiffened tip with his tongue until he felt her squirm. Her skittishness had gone, as he had known it would. By the time he was ready to enter her, she would be hot, wild and desperate.

  But that time wasn’t yet, however out of control he felt, and however fast and hard he wanted to take her without any further foreplay.

  He wanted t
o savour what he’d waited for and, frankly, what he’d pursued, contrary to all his natural inclinations.

  He worked his way down from her breasts, felt the rise and fall of her chest as she sucked in oxygen in deep, moaning gasps.

  He circled her belly button with his tongue and then, winding his way yet lower, pushing apart her legs wide enough to accommodate his body between them, he sensed her tense.

  It was something that impinged on his consciousness for a matter of mere seconds.

  He was way too submerged in his own delicious loss of self-control and the urgent pounding of his runaway libido to pay attention to what was happening on the outer fringes of his consciousness.

  Niccolo lowered his mouth to her. She smelled of honeyed musk. A deep, hoarse groan greeted the explorations of his tongue. Her legs widened and she pushed up, her whole body stiffening and then bucking as he delved deeper and licked harder and faster.

  At this point, experience had taught him that the game of proving expertise would commence. Women liked showing him what they could do. Some form of gymnastics was usually involved. They would do their utmost to demonstrate their prowess between the sheets in the hope that they might hold his attention for longer than their predecessors.

  Not this time. This was pure, undiluted enjoyment and he thought that a man could get addicted to it.

  Ellie wasn’t trying to prove anything to him. She was just luxuriating in the pleasure he was giving her with his hands and his mouth. Niccolo didn’t want it to end.

  He knew when her orgasm was building, and he knew how to gently ease her away from it, and he was amused that she didn’t even bother trying to conceal her anguished frustration.

  Only when he reared up to reach for the condoms in his wallet on the bedside cabinet did he once again sense a hesitation.

  ‘Niccolo...’ Ellie paused but then closed her eyes and smiled, too turned on to care about any long speeches about virginity, high moral principles and the importance of love.