by Kim Lawrence
Acknowledging that the ugly incident from her past had not gone away but spread out ugly roots from the dark corner she had consigned it to had been half of the healing process. Losing her virginity would complete it.
She wanted to have sex with the most gorgeous man on the planet and if he ended up breaking her heart she would deal with that later. In the meantime she was going to enjoy it, and so what if all he wanted was her body? She could deal with it.
‘Only don’t carry on looking at me with those big hungry eyes or I’ll...’ He took a deep breath and dragged a hand across his hair, somehow managing to look totally normal seconds later, when he tipped his head her way as though they had just exchanged nothing more intimate than a good morning while she was shaking inside and out.
If that was good morning, imagine goodnight!
CHAPTER NINE
‘WELL, WHAT DO you think?’
Tess blinked. ‘Think?’
‘You haven’t heard a thing I’ve said, have you?’ Natalia angled a speculative look at Tess’s face. ‘And you keep smiling.’
‘Do I?’
‘Is it that guy at the coffee bar? I saw him give you his number. He was hot!’
Tess, who had forgotten the crumpled piece of paper in her pocket, smiled and tried to look mysterious. ‘Maybe.’ She could hardly say, I was thinking about your brother kissing me. She frowned as she thought of Danilo walking away. Not here, not now.
She really wished she had asked for more details. That she’d pinned him down to a time and a place. Astonished at the way she was thinking, she took a deep breath and looked at Natalia, who was happily chatting away. She didn’t have a clue what she’d been talking about; all she’d been fantasising about was being made love to by Danilo.
By that evening, it looked as if the fantasy was going to remain just that. Danilo was not at the palazzo when they returned and he was a no show at dinner. The meal was a nightmare! Tess smiled through gritted teeth listening to Franco’s jokes about his cousin’s workload being blonde and six feet in heels, then refused the suggestion of a film session. She really wasn’t in the mood for watching a cool blonde Hitchcock heroine ensnare her man.
She felt like a total and complete idiot. She’d finally decided to give herself to a man and he’d lost interest, or had a better offer. Who knew...who cared?
Me, she thought miserably as she tipped half a flagon of bath oil into the copper tub that took centre stage in her massive en-suite bathroom.
The bath was running when she heard a knock on the door and she called out, ‘Hold on!’ as she paused to switch off the taps. A leak in the ceiling of the palazzo could destroy a priceless fresco.
She opened the door, expecting to see one of the maids who turned down her bed each night, and instead saw Danilo standing there looking cool. But that illusion vanished as soon as she met his eyes. The dark slow burn she saw there lit a fuse inside her in the time it took for her heart to take a lurching thud, all her earlier anger fading.
It was mad, it was crazy, it was utterly illogical but she wanted to be with him tonight, actually any night.
Without a word he stretched his hand towards her.
Tess looked at his long brown tapering fingers and imagined them on her skin. A second later she laid her hand in his.
She jogged to keep up with his pace.
‘Where are we going?’
‘Somewhere we can be private. This is it, my room.’ He walked ahead of her, through the door, and stood to one side as she entered.
Danilo’s private apartment was in the north-facing wing of the palazzo. She’d never been here before though she’d often wondered what it was like, but as he closed the door behind her Tess felt no urge to study the decor.
Danilo was a work of art, she decided, making a covert study of him. The angle of his head, the strong line of his back, the strong musculature and power of his thighs hinted at by the well-cut linen trousers he wore.
The click of the key as he turned it in the lock broke her rapt concentration.
It’s really happening, then, she thought as he turned to face her.
She didn’t realise his intention when he caught her hand, turned it over until it was palm up and unfolded her fingers one by one to expose her palm.
She stared at the key he placed in it before he closed her fingers and his hand over it.
‘To keep them out, not you in. You can walk through that door any time you want to, you know that?’
She swallowed, struggling to force the words past the aching occlusion in her throat, but there was no hesitation before she handed the key back to him.
‘I don’t need it. There’s nowhere else I want to be right now.’
And right now was all that mattered, she told herself and waited for the flurry of panic to subside. It did. The now was all that mattered, all that she could allow to matter, and she refused to think beyond it, beyond to a future that didn’t contain Danilo.
‘You’re sure?’
His voice had sounded not quite steady. By comparison, her response was. ‘Totally.’
With a nod, he inhaled through flared nostrils. She watched as he slid the key back into the lock and turned back to face her, his dark eyes seeking out and fastening onto her exotic, wide-spaced amber eyes. The unvarnished carnality of his stare sent a deep shudder through her receptive body. Tess snatched in air through parted lips when, without breaking contact, he began to unbutton his shirt.
Tess swallowed, breathing hard, her eyelids fluttering as she fought the compulsion to watch. She lasted until he slipped the last button and then she couldn’t not look.
A deep, tremulous sigh escaped her parted lips.
The shirt hung open to the waist revealing a section of his flat, muscle-ridged belly and the light dusting of body hair on his broad, powerful chest that narrowed into a directional arrow as it vanished under the belt that hung low on his narrow hips.
The image imprinted itself on her retina as her skin heated. She moistened her lips and thought about touching him, thought about unfastening the silver buckle and...her thoughts shocked and excited her.
‘Now your turn.’
It took a few moments for her lust-soaked brain to work out what he had said, what he was asking her to do. Her eyes widened and from some primal corner of her mind the confidence to do what he asked, not just because he asked but because she wanted to, came.
Shoulders back, she lifted her chin, her stance challenging him as she walked slowly towards him. She didn’t stop until she was close enough to feel the heat coming from his body.
His eyes were hot too, hot enough to singe her as she held them for a moment before she turned around presenting her slender back to him. She could hear the sound of his harsh, rapid breathing above the thud of her heartbeat as she gathered the long skein of her hair in one hand and lifted it off her neck in silent invitation.
Her breath came quick and shallow as he slowly pulled down the zip of the silk shift dress she was wearing. The light contact of his fingertips on the damp skin of her back sent little shivers of sensation across her skin as they moved downwards until her back and the dimple above the upper curve of her taut bottom were exposed.
She stood there for a moment, feeling his stare burning into her back, then, taking a deep breath, she retraced her steps until she reached the spot where she had begun and turned. Holding his eyes, she slid her loosened dress off one shoulder then the other.
Danilo watched, his eyes half shaded by his heavy lids and thick lashes leaving just a glittering slit visible. He was fighting for each breath like someone oxygen-deprived. Each laboured inhalation lifted his ribcage and pulled his flat belly concave, all the while his eyes remaining trained on her face.
It wasn’t until she let the dress fall, jiggling her hips as it slipped in a silken slither to her ankles, that his glance dropped.
She heard his raw gasp of, ‘Che Dio mi aiuti...’ as she stepped away from the silken pool at her
feet, and, head tilted to one side, took a step towards him and stood there poised, reminding him of a deer not sure whether to run away or towards the light. She stood before him, an incredibly arousing combination of wantonness and innocence in her pose.
Perfect, he thought as he greedily absorbed every detail, every perfect inch of her as she stood there in her heels, tiny pants, a bra that consisted of little more than two triangles of silk, so fine he could see not just the outline of her prominent nipples through it but the darker shadow of the areola.
She was beautiful. More than beautiful. Skin that pale and perfect did not exist, he had thought, outside the airbrushed photo spreads in glossy magazines. But she represented everything that was female and desirable. He was unable to take his eyes off her, his restless gaze remaining riveted as he moved towards her.
Tess gave a tiny cry and ran, meeting him halfway.
The impact of their collision was softened when his arm, resembling a band of steel, wrapped around her waist before, almost casually, he lifted her off her feet and dragged her against him in one smooth, effortless motion.
The delicious shock of skin-to-skin contact vibrated along her nerve endings, and combined with the arousing power of his display of strength it made her head start to spin. She didn’t even connect the low feral moan with her as she reached out greedily for him, her fingers digging into the thick glossy pelt of hair, pushing deeper and holding him there as he found her mouth.
The kiss, hard, hungry, seemed to go on for ever, or at least until the heat that unfurled in her belly had ribboned out throughout her entire body until she was aflame, her sensitised skin tingling, her insides liquid. The hunger his kiss had awoken was relentless, all consuming, something outside her experience or imagination.
As he continued the carnally creative kiss Tess twisted in his arms, her attempt to wrap her legs around him aided when he grunted and shifted her higher up without breaking contact.
When he finally lifted his head they were both breathing hard.
Her legs still secured around his waist, she held his face between her hands. ‘I like that a lot,’ she told him.
Her fierce declaration dragged a raw laugh from his throat as he stared into her passion-glazed eyes with a mixture of hunger and fascination. ‘Madre di Dio, cara, so do I. I have never met a woman like you.’
‘You are perfect!’
‘It will be perfect,’ he promised thickly as he kissed her again. Tess’s lips parted without pressure, inviting the carnal intrusion of his tongue and meeting it with her own.
They stumbled, bodies entwined, until Danilo’s legs made contact with the bed. He turned as he looked down into her passion-flushed face, her golden eyes glowing, waiting... She was the living embodiment of temptation. His heartbeat slowed, leaving the impression that they were suspended in time.
The impression was fleeting; the moment passed but the pressure in his chest didn’t. It grew; he felt he couldn’t breathe. The unfamiliar feelings that broke loose inside him as he looked at her increased in intensity, stronger than anything he had ever experienced. A mingling of tenderness and passion, the combination was as contradictorily confusing as this woman was. As their eyes caught and held he felt a surge of possessiveness that drew a growl from his chest, as all the disparate feeling she evoked in him narrowed to one—passion! Hot and dark, like nothing he could remember feeling, it gripped him now as in his imagination. He felt her female warmth gripping him, holding him tight in a slick silken sheath.
Breathless, she blinked up at him, not sure how she came to be sitting on the edge of the bed, but she was. Danilo seemed a long way away looking down at her. She wanted him on top of her, inside her, not miles away, then as she opened her mouth to voice her complaint he dropped to his knees at her feet.
She stared at his dark head as he lifted first one, unhooking her shoe before he slid it off and flung it over his shoulder. Then he did the same to her right foot. A tiny shocked gasp left her lips as he raised her foot and ran a finger slowly along the delicate arch before lifting it to his lips and kissing it. She shuddered.
By the time he had applied the same methodology to her other foot she was shaking like someone with a fever, a heat that burned away the last shred of sanity she retained. There was nothing left but deep, drowning need.
‘Please...’
A pulse throbbed in his temple, pounding with the effort it cost not to respond to the carnal, throaty plea.
Every instinct inside him screamed protest when, instead of pushing her down and falling on top of her the way they both wanted, he caught her hands and pulled her to her feet.
He couldn’t stop his hands sliding down to her bottom, curling over the peachlike curves, drawing her into him until their bodies collided and he heard her gasp.
She was too weak with lust to hold her head up; it fell back but not before, through heavy, half-closed eyes, she saw the taut, almost feral expression on Danilo’s face. The image of it imprinted on her retina and she felt herself sinking deeper into the sexual thrall that held her tight in its grip.
Suddenly, she found herself sprawled onto the bed, her heart thudding as he lowered himself until, one knee braced on the mattress and a hand under her head, he loomed over her.
In mute supplication she held up her hands to him, her face a mask of need as she slid them over the sweet, slick miles of his powerful shoulder and back.
But instead of finally feeling the weight of his body on her, which was what she wanted, what she needed, the mattress lifted as he stood up until only their fingertips were touching.
* * *
He had not meant to let things go this far. He needed—it was important to say this, be upfront, not... His focus slipped, the urgency faded as he looked at her mouth and, unable to resist the temptation, the soft pink lushness offered, he bent his head.
The kiss that started at one corner of her mouth was softer than the others and then it wasn’t. Her lips parted as his body, supported on one elbow, leaned over her. As his tongue slid inside her mouth she met it with her own, the ache inside her now frantic and inarticulate, but Danilo was speaking. Half the things he said were in his native tongue so she didn’t understand them, but it didn’t seem to matter. It was all wildly exciting, his eyes, his touch, his mouth. They said the things that really mattered.
He slid his hands down her bare shoulders and pressed his lips to the hollow above her collarbone.
Tess’s head fell back as the kisses trailed in the direction of the valley between her breasts and he groaned. ‘Your skin is so soft.’
Her hands glided over the muscles of his back, each individually delineated. The beauty of the perfect formation was not blurred by an ounce of excess flesh. He was hard and lean.
‘I can’t believe this is happening. You’re incredible.’
And then to her utter dismay he stepped back, stood up and held up his hands as though he was warding her off.
Confused, she sat up. ‘Danilo...’
‘No!’
Her expression as she crossed her hands across her chest, the hurt shining in her eyes, almost snapped his resolve. If she had been anyone else he would have said to hell with it right there and then.
‘You need to know this is something I don’t do.’ He closed his eyes and huffed out a deep, long, steadying breath.
His face was taut with the effort it had cost him to pull back. The pain of it was etched deep into the lines of stress bracketing his mouth.
She would have been more hurt if it hadn’t been for the driven need that glowed in his darkened eyes, the layer of moisture that glistened on his bronzed torso, and the fact that he was panting deep, gulping breaths, as though he’d just run a marathon.
That makes two of us, she thought, getting angry instead. ‘Have sex?’
He ignored the comment. ‘Bring my personal life into this house.’
‘You mean sex life.’ It amazed her that she could sound so calm.
; He nodded. ‘If this happens—’
If it didn’t happen here and now whatever he was about to say wouldn’t matter, couldn’t matter, because she would die; she would die from sheer wanting. She would die a virgin of sheer wanting, which was even worse!
‘It will not make us a couple. I have no time in my life at the moment to devote to a relationship.’
‘But you have time for sex?’
‘Tess, you are not making this...’
‘Easy? It is easy. You don’t have to agonise. I already know what you’re working up towards—telling me that you don’t want emotional entanglements, that you don’t want your family, and I’m assuming anyone else, to know that we are sleeping together—if we ever actually get around to it. So, bottom line, it’s a sort of “what happens behind closed doors stays there”, which is fine by me. And outside the bedroom we carry on as normal, which shouldn’t be too hard. I’ll be leaving in three weeks, which is why I’m talking so fast.’
The last comment drew a sharp laugh from him.
She had mimed a ticking motion as she went through the list and now she threw the invisible list over her shoulder and rose to her feet, facing him, hands on hips.
‘So far so good but in this same spirit of complete disclosure I need to tell you something. It might surprise you,’ she warned.
It was Danilo who sat down on the bed this time. ‘That will not be a first. You are not about to break the news that you started life as a man?’
‘I’m a virgin.’
‘No, joking aside.’
‘Not a joke.’
The smile slipped from his face and was replaced by a guarded expression.
‘Years ago something happened, well, it didn’t, but it was scary and I think that every time I came near to...it got in the way—’
‘What happened?’
‘It doesn’t matter. The important thing is I’m dealing with it now.’
‘Yes, it does matter.’
She glanced at his face, took a deep breath and told him.
He sat and listened, not speaking, not moving until she had finished, his over-stillness at sharp variance with the emotions breaking loose inside him. Anger poured through him in a steady stream, mingled with outrage and a protective surge too strong to deny.