by Betsy Swann
Bugger!
They had talked so animatedly about last year’s project that she had lowered her guard around Enzo who didn’t know that Clarissa was her alter ego. Izzy twisted the stem of her wine glass between her fingers and felt tiny beads of sweat form above her upper lips. She had promised herself not to lie to him, apart from the fact that she wasn’t really his brother’s PA, but how could she possibly stick to the truth while talking about Clarissa?
‘Of course I she was behind the whole redesign,’ she said. ‘Clarissa is great at her job. I’m sorry if it came across as if I was responsible in any way. She came up with the ideas, and I was her assistant. A member of her team.’
‘You know her well, then.’ He leaned forward, his eyes slightly narrowed. ‘Tell me about her.’
‘She is very talented, for sure.’ Nervously Izzy’s fingers started to play with one of her locks. ‘A nice girl. Blond, tall, slim... Like me, basically.’
Izzy wished the ground would open up and swallow her. What on earth should she say to describe Clarissa, and what if Enzo realised how eager she was to avoid the topic altogether? He wasn’t easily fooled. One tiny speck of inattentiveness, and he’d instantly draw the conclusion that she wanted to hide something or, even worse, that Clarissa and she were the same person. In that very moment her whole tissue of lies would fall apart.
‘So there’s nothing more you have to say about her?’
She shook her head and fixed her eyes on the after dinner mint next to her coffee cup. ‘As I said, she is just an ordinary girl like me.’
‘An ordinary girl…’ He clicked his tongue, clearly annoyed with her reply. ‘Clarissa is incredibly gifted, warm-hearted and noble, Izzy. Even someone like you must see that.’
Izzy nearly winced under his assault. Even someone like you. So, although they’d chatted so amicably throughout their dinner, he hadn’t changed his views about her. Not one little bit.
‘A woman, who sets up a wonderful charity like My Greatest Wish is far removed from being an ordinary girl like you,’ he mercilessly went on punishing her. ‘How can you even compare yourself with her, a gold-digger with a saint? She’s one in a million, and I admire her endlessly for her kind heart and loving spirit, while… well, I guess you already know what I think about you.’
‘You don’t even know her, this… this saint,’ Izzy burst out. It took all her energy to hold back the tears. ‘You may be convinced that Clarissa is worth so much more than I am, but I doubt she would agree.’
He narrowed his eyes. ‘You’re right, she wouldn’t because she is kind and has more heart than you could even imagine.’
They passed the way back to the hotel in uncomfortable silence. Enzo broodily stared out of the window, and Izzy stared out of the other one. She should have marvelled at Rome’s spectacularly lit historic sites passing by outside, but she could concentrate on nothing but the man sitting next to her.
The spicy scent of his cologne engulfed her, and she closed her eyes in despair. She felt at her wits’ end and an emotional wreck. With a crystal clarity that shocked her to the core she understood now that she was still deeply in love with him, but there was no future for that love. And as for this overwhelming sexual desire she felt toward him, she didn’t even want to think about it. It was bad enough that Enzo visited her in her dreams, touching her, making love to her… Sweet tender love, not sex, but these were dreams and far removed from the bitter reality. Somehow he didn’t even speak to her now after the catastrophic end of the dinner.
Her head held high she followed him to the lift, relieved that he didn’t touch her this time.
Someone like you. A gold-digger.
How come he could hurt her so much with his words, but her body and soul still craved for him as if he were the only man on earth? The only one, who was right for her?
While the lift glided up to the top floor, she kept her eyes firmly on the ground, avoiding his angry stare. Or would it rather be deprecating, befitting the likes of a gold-digger?
Murmuring a hasty ‘good night’ she strode across the hallway and opened the door to her bedroom, but Enzo seemed to have other ideas. With two long steps he was by her side.
‘I don’t think so,’ he bid out and clasped his fingers around her wrist. ‘We’re not finished yet.’
Shocked Izzy twisted around to face him. ‘Let me go. I don’t want…’
His lips crashed down on hers, and she forgot everything she’d wanted to say and why. In a breath her weariness melted away like butter in the sun. All she could focus on was the urgency of his kiss, the delectable war of their tongues, the hot desire pulsing at the apex of her thighs.
‘Tell me you want this as much as I do,’ he whispered against her mouth while his hands stroke down her sides and across the soft swell of her hips. ‘Tell me, Izzy. I need to hear the words.’
No way could she lie to him now.
‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘I want it, too.’
Her words were all the encouragement Enzo needed. His hungry lips never leaving hers, he opened the zipper of her dress with one swift movement and pulled it off her shoulders so that it pooled to the floor. Izzy faintly realised that she stood in front of him in nothing but her silk bra and knickers. It was the first time ever a man saw her like this, but with him this felt perfectly right, as if they were meant to be.
‘Undress me,’ he huskily demanded taking her slender fingers between his own and guiding them to his shirt front. Somehow his dinner jacket had already found its way to the floor.
Izzy shivered under his avid glance. The colour of his eyes had darkened to a deep midnight blue emanating pure desire, and in her eagerness to touch the hot skin under his shirt she struggled with the buttons.
‘Let me help you, amore,’ he grinned and opened the buttons himself. ‘We’ll never get there when you continue like this.’
Greedily she ripped his open shirt out of his trousers and pulled it off his shoulders.
‘You’re so beautiful,’ she whispered taking in the dark wiry ripple of hair covering his chest. Almost reverently she put her palms on his chest and touched one of his flat dark nipples with her lips.
‘You stole my line,’ he weakly protested and shuddered under her caress. While her mouth eagerly intensified the treatment of his nipple, kissing and suckling it before moving across to the other one, he cupped her bra with his hands. ‘Dio Izzy, you’re driving me crazy.’
Provokingly he strode his thumbs across the silky fabric until her nipples stood proud and firm in erotic invitation. Slowly he pushed the slim silk straps down her shoulders, first one, then the other, before he reached behind to open the fastening.
Izzy gasped when she felt his slightly calloused hands skim the bare skin of her breasts. Although small, they fitted perfectly into his palms, and the sensation in her lower belly caused by the soft stroke of his fingers against her erect nipples drew her almost delirious with desire.
He pressed his erection against her stomach. ‘Can you feel that?’ he breathed into her ear. ‘Can you feel what you’re doing to me?’
‘Please Enzo,’ she whispered. ‘Please, I want you naked.’
Immediately his hands went to his belt.
My God, he was huge. Izzy stared at him in awe, when she first glimpsed the sheer size of him. She had never seen an aroused naked man before, so she couldn’t compare, but surely Enzo was especially blessed in this department.
As soon as he had stepped out of his trousers, shoes and socks, Enzo joined her again. At once his kiss took her shyness away. Renewed desire instantly shot up like an all-consuming flame. Her most secret centre was wet with honeyed moisture, wet for him.
‘Touch me,’ he uttered hoarsely.
Although he hadn’t explained where he wanted to be touched, she instinctively circled her fingers around the pulsing thickness of his shaft. Carefully she moved them up and down along his length. Following a sudden urge to touch his magnificent arousal with her lip
s, she bent down on her knees and kissed him there. He tasted good, more than good. Eagerly she licked his engorged flesh while stroking up and down the length of his shaft and, feeling Enzo shudder under her caress, boldly took him into her mouth.
‘You have to stop this, Izzy,’ she heard Enzo gruff out. Seconds later she found herself being lifted into his arms, and carried across the room to the bed. ‘You’re killing me.’
He let her sink onto the bed and glared down at her, drinking in her near nakedness.
‘Those knickers have to go.’ He smiled and lowered himself over her to carefully remove them. When his fingers found the moistness between her legs and started circling around her most sensitive spot, Izzy closed her eyes in the sheer bliss of her arousal. She hadn’t known that something even close to feeling like this was possible, something so utterly and devastatingly wonderful.
Her lids flew open when she felt him lick her there at the delicate softness of her femininity. It was almost too much.
‘Enzo..,’ she stammered, lost for words. ‘Enzo, please…’
‘I know, cara,’ he whispered. ‘I know. Just let go for me and fly to the stars.’
And with a further flick of his tongue he catapulted her right into heaven in a mind-blowing vortex of delight and then slowly back to earth into his strong arms.
‘This was amazing,’ she breathed in wondrous delight. ‘Utterly amazing.’
‘And it’s not over yet.’ He carefully lifted her hair to kiss the tender spot behind her ear. ‘Are you ready for the ride?’
There was only one possible answer she accepted, once again drowning in the sea of desire emanating from his midnight blue eyes.
‘I’m ready for you, Enzo,’ she whispered. ‘I want to feel you inside me.’
His smouldering eyes never leaving hers, he sheathed himself with a condom and positioned himself in front of her moist entrance. Izzy felt the tip of his proud erection rub against the hot secret heart of her and slightly moved her hips towards him as if to welcome him. All she could think about was Enzo and her love for him. Her burning desire. Then, with one smooth stroke, he pushed inside.
Izzy gave a startled cry. She hadn’t anticipated her first time to hurt so much. She quickly braced herself and took a deep calming breath. Maybe Enzo hadn’t noticed her yelp in the throes of passion.
But no such luck.
‘What was that about?’ he inquired glaring down at her with suspicion. Even worse, he had stopped moving although he was still buried inside her. ‘Don’t tell me you were still a virgin.’
‘No…of course not,’ Izzy whispered up to him while hot embarrassment coloured her cheeks. ‘It was just a slight discomfort, nothing to worry about.’
The unbelieving look on his face told her that he didn’t buy any of this.
‘Dio, Izzy,’ he bid out. ‘Why didn’t you say something?’
His eyes scanned her face, and it hit her that they’d lost their dreamy midnight colour. Instead they glittered down at her in a bright azure blue.
He wanted to stop!
‘Please Enzo,’ she pleaded. ‘Don’t stop this now. Don’t let it end like this. It doesn’t hurt, I promise.’
To prove her point she started moving under him, and to her own amazement it turned out that she hadn’t lied. The sensation of his erect manhood moving inside her moist core was so far removed from hurting that she truly lacked the words.
‘Please Enzo,’ she repeated, her eyes never leaving his. Slowly she lifted her fingers to touch his cheek. ‘Can’t you feel this? Can’t you feel how much I need you?’
His pupils had dilated again, she realised while she kept moving along his rigid length. Groaning something in Italian he gave up his resistance and joined her in a slow forceful rhythm. Nothing could compare to this, Izzy thought while they rode together towards the heavens of desire, absolutely nothing. She felt so close to him, so perfectly in unity, and at the same time something urgent built up within her. Some elemental force that longed to take over, and explode and tie her to him for all eternity.
Her orgasm was the most beautiful thing she’d ever experienced, and as soon as she helplessly cried out his name she felt him spill his seeds into her, shivering under the power of his own fulfilment.
Wow! With her eyes closed, Izzy relived every treasured moment of their encounter. Every touch, and look and kiss. This hadn’t been mere physical fulfilment. This had been so much more than just sex. A contented smile slid across her face. They had made love, at least she had done so, and judging by the tender loving way he had caressed her, Enzo had loved her right back.
Her eyes still closed, she felt the mattress dip when he left the bed and heard him enter the bathroom, presumably to get rid of the condom. In lazy sated bliss she opened her eyes when the bathroom door opened again.
Instantly her heart froze. Enzo stood in the door frame like a dark avenging angel, his mouth pressed into a hard line and his eyes as cold as ice.
‘So let me guess,’ he snarled. ‘Your game is to drive men crazy with your refusal to sleep with them, isn’t it? You dangle your virginity in front of their noses like a juicy carrot, but you never let them close. That’s why they keep paying for your expenses – the flat, the diamonds... Is that how you do it?’
She bolted upright, covering herself with the tangled sheets.
‘That’s not true,’ she cried. ‘I haven’t even touched a man before you, believe it or not.’
He didn’t, by the looks of it.
‘Why, I guess in that case congratulations are in order. The way you delivered that blow job certainly felt very intuitive for a novice.’ Furiously he picked up his clothes from the floor. ‘Hell Izzy, why do you keep lying to me when I already know what kind of woman you are? You don’t need to pretend in my presence and play the little innocent.’
‘Quite right,’ she hurled back. ‘Especially not now, as I’m no innocent anymore, thanks to you.’
Tightly clutching the sheet in front of her naked body, she jumped out of bed and rushed to the door. Blinking back the tears, she held it wide open for him.
‘Get out.’
Carrying his crumpled clothes in his arms Enzo stalked out of her bedroom and, judging by the fierce expression in his eyes, also out of her life.
She waited until the door had closed behind him. Then, sobbing inconsolably, Izzy sunk to the floor and drowned in misery.
***
After dumping the heap of clothes onto his bedroom chair, Enzo slipped into his pyjama bottoms and went to the living room. Passing Izzy’s bedroom door, he heard her sob. For a moment he stilled. Then, his mouth pressed into an unforgiving line, he went on, straight to the drinks cabinet. A whisky was just what he needed.
Damn, was he angry! The way she’d taken him for a fool…
Furious he downed the amber liquid and poured himself another one. Who’d have thought that she’d be a virgin? All this time she had made him believe that…
He swallowed hard. She hadn’t, it dawned on him. She hadn’t taken him for a fool and hadn’t even lied to him. He had been the fool all along for believing that she’d slept with her admirers while, in reality, she had never allowed them to go all the way. A clever move, all in all. She knew how to play her cards right.
To hell with the woman!
He downed the second whisky and still didn’t feel better. Restlessly, he put the empty glass back onto the drinks tray and paced up and down the tall windows, ignoring the view.
When they’d returned home and he had kissed her, he had desperately, urgently wanted her. Dio, he’d been close enough to just take her against the wall, not even bothering to take off her clothes – or his own, for that matter. To think how easily he could have turned her first time into a frenzied loveless act, because he believed she was sleeping around. But then his lips had touched hers, and his overwhelming need to have mind-blowing sex with her had turned into something else entirely, something sweet and lovely.
&nbs
p; He closed his eyes in the exquisite memory of their union. Every touch, every kiss had drugged him like a powerful love potion. Izzy’s erotic little moans and whimpers had turned him on like nothing before, and when he had finally entered her moist sweetness it had felt like heaven on earth – until she had cried out when he’d broken her hymen. Dio! He had wanted to stop right then, had wanted to do the honourable thing, but the way she’d pleadingly looked up to him and moved her hips under his weight had completely finished him. In that very moment, he had needed her so much that there had been no going back. Defeated, he had joined her, and together they had travelled to that other place, way up to the stars and back. Never in his life had he felt as emotionally replete as when he’d lain in her arms after they had made love.
‘Hell,’ he said, covering his face with his hands.
He loved her.
How a man could love a woman and want to throttle her at the same time was entirely beyond his understanding. As soon as he’d remembered her affairs with all these other men after their love making, he’d been engulfed in a bout of jealousy that he hadn’t been able to control. He had said unforgivable things to her. No wonder she had thrown him out of her bedroom and started crying as soon as he’d left.
He returned to the drinks tray, this time to fill his glass with icy water. He needed to get his thoughts straight.
So she hadn’t been sleeping around. She had still been a virgin until he had made love to her tonight. He sighed. How could he have got that so wrong? Nevertheless, she was still a gold-digger as far as he could see. When he’d met her two years ago, she’d been wearing self-made jewellery, created from shells and tiny twigs she’d found on the beach. No way could she afford the diamonds she was wearing now from her normal wages.
Enzo checked his watch. Knowing that she hadn’t lied to him about her innocence or at least the physical aspect of it, it was only fair to verify whether her other claims were true as well. First thing in the morning, he’d make the phone call. His cousin’s private investigator would soon find out who paid the rent for Izzy’s exclusive London penthouse. Then he would know for sure.