by Cathryn Fox
What is mine?
I swallow the knot clogging my throat and follow the sales lady to the back of the store. The hangers scrape the metal rod as she searches through the dresses. She casts another glance my way. “Size six?”
“Yes,” I say, and she pulls a simple, strapless, A-line dress from the rod and displays it for me. “I think this will be beautiful on you.”
I look it over and glance at Gio. “What do you think?”
His knuckles brush mine, the touch powerful and intimate, so goddamn real I pinch my leg to remind myself it’s not. “Anything will be beautiful on you, Olivia,” he whispers in the softest voice.
Good God, if he keeps touching me and looking at me like that, I’ll never survive this.
I run shaky fingers over the dress. “It’s so pretty.”
“Try it on,” Gio says, looking like he’s in total agony as he gives my hand a little squeeze. I pause for a second and take in his pained expression. What the hell has come over him? I’m about to ask but stop when he gestures toward the changing room and says, “Go.”
“Okay.”
I make a move to turn, but his hand captures mine to stop me. “Liv,” he says, his voice a soft rasp that sends shivers skittering through me. “I want to see it on you.”
The sales lady wags her finger at Gio. “Now, you know it’s bad luck for the groom to see the bride in her dress, right?”
“Yeah, I know.” He drops onto the sofa facing the changing rooms. I meet his eye, and he gives me a smile so full of heat and promise, my entire body warms. “I’m waiting,” he says.
I slip into the changing room and peel off my sundress. My fingers slide over the soft silk of the dress, as I put my feet into it and pull it up. I press my hand to my stomach and turn left and right, the hem swishing with the movement. So far I love it, but I can’t quite seem to get it zipped all the way. I open the door in search of help, and when I find Gio staring at me from the sofa, his eyes flaring hot, my knees wobble. My God, is it possible that he does want me in his bed?
Could he want me as much as I want him?
I mull that over for a second then bite the inside of my cheek as I give myself a quick lecture. This isn’t about love or sex. You’re both just doing each other a favor, Olivia.
“Need a hand?” he asks, his voice deeper, rougher than it was before.
I turn and gather my hair to expose my back. “Yeah. The zipper.”
The leather chair makes a squishing sound as he rises, then he closes the distance between us. I watch him in the mirror as his gaze goes to my exposed back. Warm knuckles brush my skin, his movement slow and deliberate as he pulls the zipper up, the teeth cutting the sudden tension between us. For a second, I envision our wedding night, and Gio sliding the zipper down instead of pulling it up. My entire body tightens as I conjure up the image, and my breasts grow heavy, needy, aching for something rough and greedy from Gio.
He meets my gaze in the mirror and holds it. “Beautiful,” he says, the heat from his mouth washing over my bare shoulders. My sex clenches as the warmth from his breath trickles downward, stopping to play with every erogenous zone on the way.
This might be an act, a hands-off marriage to fool his parents, but heck, maybe I should change his mind on that. I mean, I’m not supposed to go home until I’ve had sex, right? Maybe I should take advantage of this situation and seduce the guy I’m about to marry.
Heartache is something I avoid, and I don’t plan to ever trust him again, but since this man already shattered my heart, what more could he do to it? What more do I have to lose? Seducing my husband makes perfect sense, and then at least I’ll be fulfilling my part of the New Years Eve pact.
And maybe, just maybe, I’ll summon the courage to tell him how I really want him to take me in bed.
Chapter Five
Gio
After a very fast ceremony on the vineyard, I pace around the honeymoon suite in the main castle, my cock so hard it’s all I can do to remind myself Olivia is my wife in name only. She’s not mine to strip bare, toss on the bed, and have my wicked fucking way with. We’re simply doing each other a favor, and I’d be wise to remember that.
But that doesn’t stop me from wanting to do dirty things with her. For two long years, I thought about her, wanted her, craved her with an intensity that frightened me a little. And today, seeing her in her curve-hugging white dress, looking so gorgeous as the minister united the two of us in front of my three family members—Luca watching as well—pretty much had me teetering on the edge of sanity.
I pull the curtains open and crack the window, hoping the cooler night air will clear my head. When the bathroom door creaks open, I turn to see Olivia coming my way. She’s dressed in a sexy little white lace number that arouses the beast in me, and I’m afraid that not even the night air will help cage my lust.
Seriously, though. Is she fucking trying to kill me? Christ, she knows white lace is my favorite, and if I didn’t know better, I’d think she was trying to fuck with my last working brain cell. I grunt. Maybe this is her way of retaliating after I turned my back on her.
She shrugs, her eyes apologetic. “This is all I have,” she explains. “It came with the dossier.”
Right, the dossier. Okay, so, no way could she be fucking with me on purpose. She wasn’t even the one who’d packed her clothes. I nod and try to keep my cool as she walks to the bed, a little extra shake in her hips—or maybe I imagine that—and slides under the covers.
I shut the curtains, but leave the window open, my thoughts going to the pact she’d described. I still can’t believe sleeping with some random stranger was a part of the deal. If she wants someone to sleep with, it damn well should be me.
Don’t go there, dude.
“Why do you think your friend sent you here, to my villa?”
Still dressed in my tux from the ceremony, I shrug out of the jacket and yank off my tie. Olivia’s eyes track my every movement. Christ, if she keeps looking at me with those big doe’s eyes of hers, no way can I be held accountable for my actions.
“I have no idea,” she says, fixing the blankets around her. “But I plan to find out when I return in three weeks.”
Did her friend think we had unfinished business? Send Olivia to me on purpose? If so, she was right. But there’s nothing I can do about it. Olivia is a good girl in the purest form, and I’m not about to corrupt her. I walk across the room and pour another scotch. Alcohol might be the only thing to help me get through this night without ravaging an innocent.
I hold the cup out to her. “Drink?”
She presses her palm to her forehead. “No, I’m still feeling the effects from all the champagne we drank.” She looks around the room. “So this is the honeymoon suite. It’s nice, but where do you usually sleep?”
“I have a room in the main castle here. But now that we’re married, we’ll move into one of the villas. It’s tradition.”
“I’m actually booked into one of those villas. Abrusco.”
I freeze. “Granddad put you there?”
She nods.
Shit. That place hadn’t been rented out in months. Since it’s isolated from the main castle, as well as the other villas, and no one ever goes there, it’s where Luca and I meet to get a little privacy around this place. Either there or in the cellar of the winery where we keep our family’s private reserve. We can’t very well go to my room in the main house, and he lives five miles down the road. Was it possible…? Fuck, no. No way could she have seen or heard us, or she would have said something.
Her fingers leave her forehead to race through her hair, and as her long, dark curls fall over her back, my focus shifts and I envision her straddling my body, Luca behind her, the two of us taking her until she’s screaming our names.
Stop it.
I quickly wipe that image from my mind and down the rest of the dark liquid in my glass. It burns my throat as I reach for the button on my pants.
“What are yo
u doing?” she asks, her gaze briefly dropping to my fingers before dashing upward.
“Getting out of these clothes.” I meet her flickering gaze. “I sleep naked, remember.”
“I remember,” she whispers, her voice so low I have to strain to hear it.
Pink stains her cheeks, making her look so angelic. “I’m sorry,” I say. What the fuck were you thinking, dude? “I’ll keep my clothes on.”
“No. It’s okay.” She waves her hands and then lets them fall to her sides. “This is just so surreal. When I came here, I never thought I’d run into you, or find myself in a fake marriage, sleeping in the honeymoon suite. It’s a lot to take in.”
My heart pinches as I look at her, and all I want to do is go to her, comfort her—tell her how much I fucking love her, how much I want this to be real. But I can’t do that. Not without eventually ruining her. In an effort to lessen her worries, and keep the beast leashed, I point to the chair in the corner. “I can sleep there.”
She wets her bottom lip, and my insides coil tight. That’s one of my biggest turn-ons, that and high heels, and she damn well knows it. I study her. Is it possible that she wants me? That she is going out of her way to seduce me?
Doesn’t matter. I’m not going there. I can’t.
“It’s not like we haven’t shared a bed,” she says and sinks lower into the mattress, her body writhing and making me bat-shit crazy as she settles herself.
My mind instantly goes back to the times I had her beneath me, and I shift so she doesn’t see the state of my cock. “Yeah, I know. But—”
“Let’s just get some sleep, okay.” She pats the side of the bed. “We’re both adults and know the score.”
She thinks she knows the score? Not fucking likely. The carnal side of me fights not to cross a line, push her past her comfort zone, and show her. But I wrestle that side into submission as I circle the bed.
“Yeah, okay,” I mumble.
Body hard and tense, I shed the rest of my clothes, all but my shorts. No need to free the beast and make this situation worse. I make a quick trip to the bathroom then slide between the sheets. Liv’s sweet, vanilla scent reaches my nostrils, and I breathe her in then cough to cover the growl rumbling in my throat.
“You okay?”
Okay? Hell no. I’m pretty sure I’ll never be okay again.
“Yeah.”
“’Kay. G’night.”
“Night.”
I roll, putting my back to her and resist the urge to shove my shorts to my knees and take my cock into my hands. The muscles along my jaw twitch as I clench hard, fighting my natural inclination to touch her. As I will sleep to come, I occupy my mind with the villa and all the changes I want to make to bring it into the twenty-first century and turn the place into a thriving resort. Beside me, Olivia shifts restlessly, and I wish to fuck she’d stop moving, stop reminding me she is there.
“Gio,” she asks quietly.
Don’t answer. Don’t answer.
“Yeah?”
“Why…”
I wait for her to continue. When she doesn’t I ask, “Why what?”
She goes quiet for a long time. “I’m really happy you’re going to take ownership of the villa. What do you plan to do to it?”
“I want to bring in a younger crowd. Liven the place up a bit.”
“When I first arrived, I was thinking the same thing.”
My leg touches hers, and she exhales a fluttery breath. It washes over me as I turn her way, even though facing her is against my best interests. “Yeah?”
Her eyes meet mine in the dim room. “I thought I was going to be bored to death here.”
Don’t touch her, Gio.
“And now?” I ask, my hand slowly sliding across the small space between us, drawn by a force I don’t seem to have any control over. Fuck me. “You don’t think that now?”
“I’m kind of excited to put together a marketing plan. See what we can do together. It will definitely look good on my resume if we can get this place thriving.”
“You’ve always had a brilliant mind, Olivia.” And a gorgeous body. One, even though I know better, I can’t seem to keep my hands off of.
The tip of my index finger touches her stomach, and I practically stop breathing when she tightens. The air around us charges with sexual energy, and my cock grows another inch.
“So this pact,” I begin slowly, not wanting to scare her off as I play with the lace on her sexy underwear. “You said you weren’t supposed to go home until you’ve had sex, right?”
What the fuck are you doing, dude?
“Yeah, but not just sex. Epic sex.” She makes a strange noise as her eyes slide away, like she can’t look at me, like she’s holding some sort of secret. Dammed if I don’t want to find out what it is. “Crazy, right?”
“Maybe. But I was thinking.”
Stop. Just stop and roll the fuck away already.
“About?” she asks.
“I could help you with that.” I slide my hand to her waist and shift closer, wanting to corrupt her, to own her completely.
Keep it together, Gio.
Her eyes snap back to mine, and I swallow against the dryness in my throat. “You could?” she asks, heat flashing in her dark eyes. Jesus Christ, she might hate me for running out on her, but she wants me as much as I want her.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s not like I’ve never been inside you,” I say, and her breathing becomes more erratic. Fuck, I shouldn’t be doing this, but after two long years of wanting her, I don’t have the strength to fight it anymore. “And I don’t like the idea of you in some strange guy’s bed.”
That vision actually fills me with white-hot rage.
She lifts her chin, despite the rapid-fire breathing, the heat of her body, the desire reflected in her dark eyes—all signs she wants this—and says, “This arrangement doesn’t come with rights, Gio. It’s fake. Plus I can take care of myself.” Her protest is so fucking weak. I wonder what kind of game she’s playing.
Time to find out.
“Yeah, well, this isn’t fake.” Gone too far to turn back now, I take her hand and put it on my cock. As she closes her fingers around it, I pinch my eyes shut, and work to keep a measure of calm when all I want to do is crash over her, launch into her, take her the way I’ve always longed to.
“Gio,” she whispers, but I close my mouth over hers and swallow her feeble protest. At first, her lips are firm, hesitant, but I buck into her hand, and she softens. It takes every ounce of strength I possess to leash the beast inside me. I bite back a curse, and as she kisses me back, drawing my tongue into her mouth, a rush of tenderness steals over me. Good. That’s what she needs from me. Soft, easy lovemaking. Not a filthy animal who wants to bend her over and do dirty things to her.
Always protective of her, I rein in my lust and break the kiss to press my mouth to the hollow of her neck, licking the sensitive spot that always drives her crazy. She writhes beneath my mouth, and the softness of her skin, such a contrast to Luca’s roughness, damn near shuts down my mind. But I draw a fueling breath to keep my last working brain cell functioning. She trembles, and I slide down her body, tug on her lace, and take one hard nipple into my mouth. I flatten my tongue and lick, laving her gently, and her hands go to my hair.
She grips my head and holds me to her, stroking my cock as her legs widen, her sweet pussy calling out to me. “Please…” she begs, a note of desperation in her tone.
I tear my mouth from her puckered nipple and look up at her. Her gaze clashes with mine, and I see something in the depths of her eyes. “Please, what?” I ask. Normally she’s quiet during sex, more docile than this.
“I…I…” she begins, then drops her head back onto the pillow. She tosses her head from side to side, her hair fanning out as she trembles with a need I’d never seen in her before. Maybe her near death experience had done something to her. “Please,” she says again.
I freeze for a moment, and my muscles tighten. What
exactly is she begging me for? All she has to do is tell me and I’ll give it to her.
“Olivia?” I ask, but she takes my head in her hands and guides my mouth back to her breasts. I slide my tongue over her bare skin, and pay homage to her nipple before I switch to the other breast, unable to get enough of her. I nibble her and eat at her as lust burns through my body, making me forget what it was I wanted to ask. Driven by need, I cup her breasts. Greedy bastard that I am, I clamp down on her taut bud—not as hard as I would have liked.
“Gio,” she whimpers, her voice tight.
Easy, dude.
I lick softly to ease the sting, then kiss the underside of her swells, lick her lightly scented skin, and when she moans, my dick jumps.
I work not to crush her under my weight as I begin a slow journey downward, and close my eyes against the flood of heat urging me to strip her naked, have her at my mercy. Fuck, what I’d do to shove my cock down her throat, watch her open her mouth wide for me and take me deeper than ever before. But I won’t do that because she’s a good girl.
With need urging me on, I grip her thighs and stretch them wide. Using my teeth, I tear at the sexy white lace preventing me from ravishing her. The sound of material ripping cuts through me, but it’s her gasp of shock that reminds me this is sweet Olivia.
“I’ll replace them,” I whisper, as her hips rise to meet my mouth.
“Gio,” she whispers and moves against my face, grinding her sweet pussy against my chin. My heart thunders, the scent of her arousal wrapping around my aching cock and stroking furiously. Fuck, I need to come, to drive inside and lose myself in her wet heat. But first I need to bury my face in her gorgeous cunt and make her come in my mouth. I want to taste her sweet release, drink her in.
I shift positions and shove her knees to her breasts, then push outward, so she’s wide open for me, mine to take any fucking way I want. “Keep your legs like this,” I say gruffly, and she grips them to hold them up. I look her over, and my mouth salivates when I see moisture glistening on her sex. It’s insane how much I miss fucking her, even if I have to control myself. My cock throbs with renewed pleasure as her sweet scent saturates the air.