by Lucy Monroe
‘So you convinced yourself I was a well-used cherry tree ripe for the picking.”
He winced at the analogy, but nodded a short sharp movement of his head.
‘Because of Sofia?”
‘Because of my own stubborn pride, all right?” He hated this kind of talk. Acknowledging emotions was bad enough. Discussing them was torture.
‘AII right.”
Again the silence.
He kept expecting her to push for more. Did not women always want to dissect the emotions of a situation until they were laid bare in every way for their edification? Yet, she said nothing.
They arrived back at the house. He helped her from the car and she thanked him, but she did not re-open the conversation.
That bothered him. It was as if it was not important enough to her to pursue.
Heaven knew he did not want to discuss his feelings, but still he felt cheated. She should want to.
If she cared about him.
She had not repeated any declarations of love since their reunion. Perhaps all tender feelings for him were gone, but she did not respond in his arms like a woman who felt nothing more than sexual gratification.
What they shared when their bodies joined was sacred.
Perhaps she was attempting to distance herself from him again. Go back to that place she had been for the last year where she had not needed him, had in fact wanted nothing to do with him. He was not about to let that happen.
He led her into the house but did not give her the chance to go to her own room.
He simply swung her into his arms and carried her up the stairs.
She looped her arms lightly around his neck her expression too indecipherable for his liking.
‘Where are you taking me?”
‘To bed ”
‘whose?”
”Mine ”
‘Do I have any say in the matter?” Tension gripped him.
‘Do you want to sleep alone?” He waited for what felt like hours but was more likely only a few seconds before she let out a small puff of air and tucked her head into the curve of his neck.
‘No’
C HAPT E R T E N
SALVATORE let out the breath he had been holding and carried her into his bedroom. Relief pulsed through him. He could not press her if she truly did not want to share his bed and yet he had no idea how he would have handled her rejection.
He did not bother to turn on any lights. He wanted this time together to be elemental…without
distractions.
He couldn’t be slow this time. His need was too great. Stripping her he touched each soft curve with voracious need to elicit her complete surrender. She urged him on with moans and little feminine cries that increased his own ardor to frightening proportions.
He brushed the damp curls at the apex of her thighs. ‘I want you, Elisa.”
She widened her legs, letting his fingers dip into the heated honey waiting for him. He caressed the swollen flesh he found there the small swollen button that he knew brought her extreme pleasure.
Arching toward his hand she panted. She moaned. She writhed her legs moving restlessly as he circled her clitoris with his thumb.
‘I want you too.”
‘Enough to take me for a lifetime?”
‘Don’t teasel”
He was seriously tempted to push it to gain her acquiescence to his proposal by whatever means, fair or foul at his disposal but in the end he had no more control than she did. He needed her.
He rolled onto his back, pulling her with him. ‘lf you want me, take me.”
He would at least have the satisfaction of knowing the seduction was mutual.
She didn’t hesitate. She mounted him opening herself over his hard shaft and pressing downward until she enveloped him completely. Her swollen inner tissues clamped tight around him caressing his shaft in small muscular contractions.
He groaned and thrust upward, his hands tight on her thighs.
Her head fell back and her long hair cascaded down her spine. He could not see her expression in the semi-darkness of the room but her posture was that of a woman in the throes of sexual abandon .
‘you feel so good inside of me. It’s as if we aren’t two people any more.”
Could she hear what she was saying? They were one. She must realize they belonged together.
And then all conscious thought flew from his head as she rode him to mind-numbing pleasure and a climax that left his body shaking beneath hers.
She fell against his chest her own cries ringing in his ears.
Elisa didn’t know how long she lay in a boneless mass on Salvatore’s chest but eventually she lifted herself off.
He refused to let her get far and pulled her against him his strong arms comforting and warm bands around her.
She snuggled into his side, feeling replete and physically sated. Only it was much more than that.
She felt an emotional well-being that she had thought she would never experience with him again.
‘Salvatore?”
‘Hmm?” His hand played idly over her ribs, his own body only having just relaxed from its shuddering reaction to their lovemaking.
‘How come it’s OK for you to make love to me on this trip to Sicily, but the last time I was down, it would have been a dishonor to my family if you had seduced me?” His hand stilled.
‘ls it because I’m not staying in my father’s house?” That would help explain his intractability on the subject.
Surprisingly, he shook his head.
‘ls it because you told my father you intended to marry me?” She didn’t think so. Somehow, she couldn’t convince herself that her father would be a modern sort who thought it was OK for his daughter to shack up with her intended.
‘Then why?”
‘Because amole in my mind you have been my wife since the night you told me about the baby.”
She sucked in air like a boxer trying not to go down.
‘you’re kidding.” Not original, but her brain had frozen on that amazing statement.
‘Marriage is no mocking matter to me.”
She swallowed the disbelief trying to choke her. ‘lf you’re serious then I guess that makes you pretty poor husband material.”
She was only half kidding.
He flipped her on her back and loomed over her, all domineering male, but she didn’t feel dominated. He would never hurt her physically and she was beginning to see that the emotional wounds he had dealt her pained his conscience as much as her heart.
‘What do you mean by that?” he demanded.
‘WeII if you’ve been married for the last year to me in your mind that makes you an unfaithful husband doesn’t it?”
She wanted to be flippant but her words came out very serious and too vulnerable for her comfort.
The idea of him making love to another woman probably one who was way more sophisticated and experienced than she was caused a sharp pain in the region of her heart.
‘Why would you say this?”
‘oh please.” He was so oversexed they could write manuals on him. ‘you’re not exactly the celibate type, Salvatore.” And the thought he’d gone an entire year without sex at all was laughable.
‘Nevertheless, I have been celibate.” His tone of voice dared her to disbelieve him.
Her breath sort of froze in her windpipe. She shook her head unable to get words out.
‘Si. I had desire for only one woman and she avoided me with the professionalism of a tax evader ”
It was unbelievable. Impossible. Salvatore had had no one for a whole year?
‘ls that the truth?”
‘i will never lie to you.”
She looked through the dimness trying to read the expression in his almost black eyes. Even the darkness could not hide the sincerity burning there. She believed him.
‘What would you have done if I had found someone else?”
‘you would not. You belonged to me even when you wan
ted to deny it.”
‘But what if I had?” she pushed.
‘lt did not happen.” And the overwhelming fury she sensed in him made her very glad it had not.
Then he turned his head and light coming in through the door exposed a stark pain she could not bear to see .
She cupped his cheek. ‘No. It did not happen. I didn’t want it to.”
He nodded. ‘see? You knew deep beneath your anger and disappointment in me that we belonged together.”
He did not love her had made no excuses for that but such a description of their relationship was not something to be scoffed at.
‘So, I guess you’re pretty disappointed with the kind of wife I’ve been for the past year.” Part of her still needed to make a joke of his incredible statement.
He didn’t laugh. He didn’t even smile. ‘you have been hurting. I knew this. I wanted to make it better, but did not know how.”
‘lt helps to know you believe me about our baby, that you grieve its death as much as I do.” The words came out sounding more like a question than a statement of fact.
He kissed her forehead his lips tender enough to make her smile despite remembered grief.
‘I do believe you and I do grieve. This grief is another thing that draws us together something we share that no one else is party to.”
She considered that and his assertion earlier that the doctor had said making another baby might be beneficial for her mental health.
‘you made love to me again without protection.”
‘I did not ” Feeling the extra wetness between her legs, she shook her head. There is physical evidence to the contrary.”
‘lt was you who made love to me this time.”
Remembering her wild ride and how she had exulted in bringing them b0th such pleasure she flushed with stirrings of resurging desire.
‘So this time it is my fault?”
‘lt is mutual. It has always been mutual.” It was his turn to sound as if he needed confirmation of that fact.
He’d promised not to lie to her. She could give him no less than the truth herself. ‘Yes.”
‘Say you will marry me.”
‘Because you feel guilty about the loss of our child?” She couldn’t help feeling that was still a big part of his desire to get married.
‘Because I do not wish to face a future without you.”
Again his tone dared a denial. She didn’t want to give one. She wanted to believe him. He might not love her but he needed her and heaven knew… she needed him. She’d only been half-alive over the past year.
‘yes ” The heartbeat beneath her hand sped up and Salvatore stretched out his hand to turn on the bedside light.
She blinked against the unexpected brightness.
A vibrantly triumphant male loomed above her, taking up her entire vision. ‘Say that again.”
‘yes I will marry you.”
She got only a moment of seeing a grin that indicated he was really happy before his lips covered hers and he took her on a sensual journey that outdid anything she had ever experienced with him before.
The next few days flew by in a whirl of activity. Not only did Elisa have to finish plans for the auction, but she also now had her stepmother calling every fifteen minutes with suggestions for her upcoming wedding.
Therese had been disappointed to learn the event was scheduled for two weeks hence saying a proper wedding could not be planned in under six months. Francesco had argued that he wanted to give his daughter a traditional Sicilian wedding, but both Elisa and Salvatore had remained adamant.
She wasn’t sure why Salvatore felt the need to do the deed so quickly, but she knew her own motives.
She couldn’t help feeling they had made a baby that first night back together. While Salvatore might consider them already man and wife she wanted the legal ties as well if she was going to carry hi s chiId again .
Everything this time around was going to be right.
So, although it meant putting together a wedding and an auction at the same time, she did not complain .
‘How did Shawna take the news of our upcoming marriage?”
Elisa looked up from the guest list for the auction. Salvatore had given her the library to work in,
bringing in all the equipment she required to finish organizing the auction. A fax machine a computer with high-speed internet service a phone with two lines-whatever she wanted she got.
She smiled at the man who acted as if nothing was too good for her. ‘My mother isn’t keen on the institution of marriage, you know.”
He nodded the glow of satisfaction he’d worn since her agreement to become his wife not dimming an iota. Shawna’s lack of approval would mean very little to him.
‘she wished me well and said perhaps marriage was the best way to spend my twenties.” She’d also said that a woman didn’t really come into her own until after forty and Elisa could evaluate her life and arcane commitments then.
Sharing that sentiment with Salvatore was not on the agenda particularly since she had no such intention. This marriage was for life, and if she thought Salvatore felt any differently about it she would never have agreed to marry him.
‘ls she flying over for the wedding?”
‘No. She’s working and can’t spare the time.” Strangely, that had not bothered Elisa.
She’d finally come to accept that her mother’s lack of affection was not her fault, but a deficiency in the older woman’s emotional makeup.
Salvatore laid his hand on Elisa’s shoulder. ‘Are you OK with this?”
‘l’m fine. Shawna was not a woman who should have had children.”
‘I can only be grateful she did not realize this until after you were born cars.”
Warmth suffused Elisa’s heart and she leaned into Salvatore’s body. ul’m almost done with the guest list for the auction.”
‘I will need it to run a background check on all those attending.”
‘ di Adamo cannot afford that level of security.”
Salvatore looked at her as if she’d lost her mind.
‘lt matters not what he can afford. This is your safety and I will not have it compromised.”
‘On other words you aren’t charging him.”
‘you are mine. I protect what is mine.”
‘Did you ever wonder if you were born in the right millennium? You’re a total dinosaur when it comes to relationships.”
An expression she could not decipher entered his eyes.
‘surely, it is not that bad?” He really seemed to care so she let him off the hook.
‘lt’s fine. If I thought you were walking on me, I’d let you know.”
‘lt is true. You are not shy in voicing your opinion.”
She grinned at the irritation in his voice.
‘l’m also not in danger. We’ve hired a top-notch auctioneer and two of your operatives will be responsible for the crown jewels’ display. My role will be a background one in every way. If anything, di Adamo will be in the limelight, not me.”
Salvatore just looked at her his face set in granite-hard contours.
She rolled her eyes. ‘Fine. 1‘11 give you the list. I don’t even know why I bothered arguing.”
Salvatore had given her complete reign regarding the auction plans but he had been intractable on the issue of her security from day one.
‘ls Adamo Jewelers ready for business again?”
‘Si. Your boss is happy with his new security.”
‘l’m sure he is.” She’d spoken to di Adamo, but their conversation had centered on the upcoming auction.
The old man was very excited about the influx of capital their fee for hosting the auction would give the store.
She ticked an item off her list and then looked up again.
‘Salvatore?”
‘Yes’
Milan is too far away for me to commute to work.”
His expression turned wary. ‘This is true.”
‘I don’t like leaving my boss in the lurch. He’s depended a lot on me over the past few years. It would break my heart if he lost the store after all this because he didn’t have the manpower to run it.”
She didn’t know what the answer was. Salvatore could not transfer his office from Milan. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to go on working after the baby was born. She wanted to be a mother first and foremost. Her passion for gemology was secondary for the time being.
But the thought of di Adamo relying on her and her not fulfilling her obligation to him left a hollow place in her tummy.
Salvatore’s silence clued her in that something was not right. She examined his face. The wariness was even more apparent in his dark eyes, but his mouth was set in a grim line-as if he was prepared for some kind of argument.
‘What’s wrong?”
‘Nothing is wrong.”
‘lmpossible situation. Yes.”
She wasn’t really paying close attention because it suddenly struck her that she wanted a traditional, over-the-top wedding gown and she didn’t know if she could get one on such short notice.
‘I bet Shawna would know someone ” she muttered as she pulled up the address file for her mother’s entourage.
She would call Shawna’s secretary. The woman knew every fashion designer in New York on a first-name basis.
‘You have no reason to be angry with me.”
‘Angry?” She picked up the phone to dial the secretary, but then realized the timing was wrong and put it back down. Making a quick note to call later she went back to her work.
‘A pregnant woman should not be working in such a dangerous environment. You were shot at.”
The urgency in Salvatore’s voice finally got through the haze of thoughts competing for her attention and she let her gaze lift to him.
‘What?” Dark chocolate eyes snapped with determination.
‘lt is for the best.”
‘What is for the best?” Had she missed something here? assignor di Adamo taking on a new assistant.”
‘Did I say it wasn’t?” you could not continue after our marriage. It would not be practical.”
‘I agree ” Rather than soothe him her acquiescence seemed to spur him on to more arguments in favor of what he had done.