‘Feeling your sexy little body pressed up against me. No, I take that back. I think you have a very good idea of how tough this is for me because you can feel my desire against your skin. That says it all.’
‘You’re...you’re very big,’ Lucy whispered, and Dio grinned.
‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’
‘I mean...have you ever found that a problem?’
Dio frowned. ‘What are you talking about? Why would I have found that a problem? A woman’s body is engineered to accommodate a man of my size.’
‘There’s something I feel you ought to know,’ she whispered, heart beating fast. ‘I’m not as experienced as you probably think I am.’
‘I never thought you were the sort of woman to sleep around.’
‘I’m not. In fact, actually, I haven’t slept around at all,’ she admitted awkwardly and Dio edged back from her.
‘Are you telling me that you’ve never made love to a man before?’
‘It’s not that big a deal,’ she returned defiantly.
Dio remained silent for so long that she wondered whether he was trying to concoct an excuse to withdraw from the situation which he had been so keen to engineer.
‘How come?’
‘I don’t feel comfortable having this conversation. I just thought that...that it was something you should know before...well...’ She laughed nervously. ‘When you’re disappointed, then you’ll understand why.’
Dio sat up.
His wife was a virgin. Incomprehensible. How had she managed to withstand the advances from men, looking the way that she did? Why had she? He raked his fingers through his hair then swung his legs over the side of the bed.
Lucy took advantage of the moment to yank the duvet over her.
This was a nightmare. What on earth had possessed her? Dio was a man of experience, a guy who had married her as something convenient that came as part of the package deal. He wasn’t into virgins and he certainly wouldn’t be into holding her hand while she lost her virginity.
She must have been mad.
Mortification swept over her in a hot wave.
Typically, he hadn’t bothered to get dressed. While she had felt an urgent need to cover herself, he was as comfortable having this hideous conversation in the buff as he would have been in one of his hand-made Italian suits. He had moved to sit in the chair by the mahogany desk by the bay window.
‘How come?’ he repeated. ‘And please don’t tell me again that you don’t feel comfortable having this conversation.’
‘It just never happened for me.’ Bright patches of colour delineated her cheekbones.
There was no way she intended pouring her heart out with some little-girl story of how unhappy her childhood had been; how she had witnessed her mother’s miserable stoicism in the face of her father’s selfishness and philandering. She wasn’t going to drone on in a self-pitying manner about her lofty determination only to have sex with the man she truly loved which, frankly, would have been a confession too far—especially considering the man she had thought she loved had turned out to be just the kind of man she should never have got mixed up with in the first place.
‘No testosterone-filled boys creeping through the windows of your prim and proper boarding school to have their wicked way with the innocent virgins?’
His lightly teasing tone was so unlike him that she felt herself begin to relax.
‘None of that. There was always the house mistress on red-hot alert, waiting with a rolling pin for any daring intruders.’
She lowered her eyes but could still feel him staring thoughtfully at her and she didn’t like that. It made her feel exposed.
‘And I suppose daddy was just as protective with his little girl?’ His voice was hard-edged.
Lucy shrugged. Yes, he’d seen off potential boyfriends all right, not that there had been many of them, but only because he had been such a crashing snob that no one had fitted the bill.
In retrospect, taking into account his dire financial situation, none of them had had the necessary bank balances to provide a rescue package anyway. Dio had certainly fitted the bill and he had not been on her father’s ridiculous social-climbing radar.
Watching her, Dio saw a shadow cross her face, gone as quickly as it had come, and he was struck by a sudden intense curiosity to find out what lay behind that shadow.
‘I would completely understand if you’d rather call it a day right now.’ She laughed a little unsteadily. ‘It was a stupid idea, anyway. You can’t just have a honeymoon and pretend that all the stuff that’s happened between us never took place.’
‘You’d be surprised,’ Dio murmured.
He stood up and strolled over to the bed. She was a virgin. The thought rocked him, brought out a fierce possessiveness which he never knew he had. All those nervous little looks and shy glances now made sense. He’d never have guessed, but then he hadn’t been looking, had he? He had accepted the cover version of her, the cool, elegant woman born into wealth and comfortable with it.
He hadn’t thought to look any deeper. She had deceived him, as far as he was concerned, that that was the end of the story. He had closed the door and it had been a lot easier to keep it closed.
‘I’m surprised,’ he murmured, ‘to think that you have never made love to a man before...shocked, even...but not turned off. I have no idea where you got that notion from, my dearest wife.’
His voice was low and husky, his grey eyes glittering with intent.
‘But can I ask you one thing?’ He returned to the bed, depressing the mattress with his weight, and very slowly pulled down the duvet which she had dragged up to her neck in a vain attempt at modesty. ‘Why choose the husband you’re keen to divorce? Seems an unusual option.’
Lucy felt that if he listened hard enough he would be able to hear the steady, nervous thump of her heart.
Now, wasn’t that a question?
‘I fancy you.’
‘And fancying me is enough to paper over the fact that you don’t like me?’
Lucy felt that she could say the same about him, but men were different from women, weren’t they? Women looked for love and men sought sex. That was why Dio had never been tempted in the past to hitch his wagon to any of the many women he had slept with. There had been no broken engagements or heart-rending tales of thwarted love. When they had been dating, during that brief window when she had actually believed that he was interested in her for herself, he had laughed when she had asked him whether he had ever been in love.
Dio might have used her, and certainly did not feel anything for her, not even affection—but he would still have no problem getting into bed with her because, as far as he was concerned, that was part of the marriage contract which he had been denied and, besides, he didn’t think she was half bad-looking.
It was slowly dawning on her that she might hate him for stringing her along—might hate that core of coldness inside him that had allowed him to be the kind of man who could do that—but there was still something deep in the very heart of her that wasn’t quite as immune to him as she would have liked to be.
She would rather have chewed her own arm off than ever admit that to him.
‘Why not?’ she asked.
Dio frowned. Their marriage had been little more than a business transaction and he wasn’t sure why he now found her attitude unsettling.
‘I was young when I married you, Dio. I’m only twenty-four now. Before you came along, I was totally wrapped up doing my maths degree and it didn’t leave a whole lot of time for men.’
‘You mean I was the first guy you really ever fancied...’
‘You’re a good-looking man.’
To his ears, that sounded like agreement, which made him wonder why she had retreated to her ivory tower t
he second the ring was on her finger.
‘Then why wait until now?’
‘Because maybe I’ve discovered that I’m more like you than I wanted to admit, even to myself.’ She breathed with the panicked sensation of someone treading on thin ice.
So much safer when she had been able to keep her distance and set aside all the uncomfortable thoughts now besieging her.
‘Now that we’re going to be getting a divorce—’
‘That’s a matter that’s still up for debate...’
‘I know the conditions and I accept them,’ Lucy told him bluntly. And then she added for good measure, for just that little bit of protection, ‘And you’re right—I can’t see a way forward if I leave this marriage with nothing. I’ve never known what it was like to be broke.’
‘Because Daddy protected you even when he was going under and all but waving a white flag...’
‘Whatever.’ She took a deep breath and did her utmost to disconnect from the contempt she felt for a man who had betrayed her mother and herself for pretty much all of his life. ‘Now we’re going to part company for ever in a couple of weeks’ time, why deny the fact that I find you an attractive man? It makes sense to sleep with you, Dio. Like you said to me, it won’t be a hardship.’
Pretty much everything she said got on Dio’s nerves even though there was not a single thing he didn’t agree with, not a single thing that shouldn’t have eased his conscience.
‘And what if I told you that you could have the money you want without the sex?’ he heard himself ask.
Lucy looked at him, surprised.
‘You mean that?’
‘What if I told you that I did?’ For a man who didn’t deal in hypotheses, he discovered that he was a dab hand at dishing them out. He had seen nothing wrong with going after what he wanted, what he was owed, and likewise he had seen nothing wrong in using whatever tools were at his disposal to get there. After all, he owed nothing to a woman who had been his wife in name only for reasons that had suited her at the time. Why should he care about a woman who had turned out to be no better than a gold-digger?
Annoyingly, it now irked him to think that she was only going to hop into bed with him because he had dangled that money carrot in front of her. So she fancied him. Big deal. From the age of thirteen he had known what it was like to be fancied by the opposite sex. But did she fancy him enough to sleep with him if she didn’t think that it made financial sense?
He loathed the direction his thoughts were taking but seemed unable to stop the flow now that it had begun.
‘Are you? Because, if you’re just speculating, then I don’t want to be having this conversation. You’re free to walk away cash in hand, Lucy, and you don’t have to sleep with me as part of the deal.’ He flung himself onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. If this was what it felt like to be the good guy, then he could say in all honesty that he’d felt better.
‘Really?’
‘Feel free to show your true colours, my beloved wife,’ Dio said acidly, still staring up at the ceiling but conscious of her naked, sexy body next to his with every treacherous pore of his being.
‘I meant what I said when I told you that I want to sleep with you—money doesn’t have anything to do with it.’
Dio inclined his head to look at her. He couldn’t credit the soar of triumph that greeted her unsteady admission.
‘Is that the sound of you telling me that you’re using me...?’ He shifted so that he was lying on his side and lost himself in a shameless observation of her beautiful body, even though it was costing him not to touch that beautiful body. Yet.
‘And what would you say if I told you that I was?’
‘I’ll live with it,’ he murmured. ‘Now, lie back. I don’t think I’ve ever had so much talk before sex in my life before.’
Lucy’s eyelids fluttered and she obeyed, sprawling with feline satisfaction, arching slightly so that her small breasts were pushed up.
With an unsteady groan, Dio planted a trail of kisses along her neck, then lower across her collarbone. He found heaven when he finally took one nipple into his mouth. It was sweet and succulent and he suckled on it, feeling it tighten in his mouth and hearing her moan as he swirled his tongue across the sensitive surface before drawing it long and deep into his mouth once again.
Gently he cupped her other breast, massaging it, and then rolling his fingers over her nipple, a warm-up for his mouth.
It was pure agony taking his time but he refused to let himself forget that she was a virgin. His virgin. His virgin bride. The thought of that fired him up on all fronts and appealed to the very essence of his masculinity.
He took his time as he straddled her, pushing her legs wide open to accommodate him, and gently stilling her instinct to snap them shut.
He was so aroused that he could scarcely breathe. If he began telling her what he wanted to do with her, he knew that he would find it impossible not to come.
This was a first for her and in some ways it was a first for him as well. The slight tremble which he knew she was trying hard to contain gentled his natural raw instincts.
Her other nipple was waiting for him and he took it gently into his mouth and teased and licked and sucked until she was writhing underneath him, arching up, her fingers curled into his hair so that she could push him down against her breast.
Her nipple was taut and glistening as he finally drew away. Hands flat on either side of her, he continued to trace a path along her rib cage, over her stomach, pausing to circle her belly button and then lower still...
Lucy’s eyes flew open as his mouth moved to caress her inner thigh.
‘Dio...’
He looked up and smiled. ‘Dio...what...?’
‘I... I...’
‘Relax. Trust me. You’re going to enjoy me kissing you down there.’ The scent of her filled his nostrils. ‘And don’t close your eyes,’ he commanded. ‘I want to know that you’re watching me when I begin licking you...’
Lucy moaned as her imagination took wonderful flight. She was so wet for him, wanted him so much. She marvelled that she had spent so many months primly keeping her distance, little knowing that he had the power to melt every bone in her body until she was as pliant as a rag doll.
She watched as he settled between her legs, hands against the soft flesh of her inner thigh preventing her from closing her legs, making sure that she was open for him.
Delicately he slid his tongue between the soft folds, finding the throbbing bud of her roused clitoris with ease and tickling it.
The pleasure was exquisite.
She wanted to keep her eyes open so that she could see his dark head moving with purpose between her legs but she couldn’t. She tilted her head up and arched her back, an instinctive response to what he was doing.
When he plunged his finger into her, whilst keeping up the insistent pressure of his tongue on her clitoris, Lucy could no longer hold herself back.
The waves of pleasure were too much, far too much. She didn’t want this...she wanted him in her... But with a long, shuddering groan she gave in to the ripples that increased into an unstoppable riptide of her orgasm.
She came against his mouth, rising up, crying out, moving wildly as his tongue continued its ruthless plunder.
Her own lack of experience stared her in the face as she gradually came back down to earth.
‘I’m sorry.’ She turned away as he moved up to tilt her chin gently so that they were looking at one another.
‘Only tell me you’re sorry if you didn’t enjoy it.’
‘You know I did,’ she whispered. ‘But I... I should have been able to hold off. I shouldn’t have come...not like that...not when I want you in me...’
‘I wanted to bring you to an orgasm, Lucy. This is just the forep
lay...’
‘It’s pretty mind-blowing,’ Lucy returned shakily.
‘You’re so beautiful and wet that I’ll be able to slide into you, and I’ll be gentle. I don’t want to hurt you.’
Lucy found it remarkable that this powerful, ruthless man, accustomed to getting his own way at all costs, could be so tender between the sheets.
Yet, wasn’t that the hallmark of the expert lover? That was what she told herself because it was bad enough that he was climbing out of the box into which she had securely placed him. She just didn’t need yet another side of him to hit her in the face and overturn yet more preconceptions.
He said that she should trust him and that he didn’t want to hurt her but some little voice inside cautioned her that it was within his power to deliver a great deal of hurt.
He already had! Surely the proof of the pudding was in the eating? He had married her so that he could socially elevate himself. Her father had been cruelly clear on that count. He had turned her into the cynical woman she was now! It would be wise to remember those things. She knew that the most important thing in the world was self-preservation.
She wanted a divorce, wanted to rid herself of a marriage that was a joke, and tellingly he hadn’t argued against that. He wanted her but, once he got that out of his system, he would be more than ready to ditch her and move on with his life, find himself some woman he actually had feelings for and wanted to settled down and have children with.
That woman would never be her.
But, Lord, it was hard to marshal her thoughts when her whole system was in crazy free fall!
She felt him nudge against her and, just like that, a slow burn began. She wrapped her arms around him, loving the hardness of his body.
‘Tell me what to do,’ she whispered. Those were words that Dio had never heard from any woman and they were curiously thrilling.
‘Do nothing but what feels good for you, and lose yourself, Lucy. It’s what making love is all about.’
That sounded like a pretty scary concept to her but she nodded obediently and then stopped thinking altogether as he began to kiss her, slowly, taking his time.
The Wedding Night Debt: Christmas at the Castello (bonus novella) Page 10