by Maggie Cox
Rising from her chair, she glanced over at the still open French doors leading back into the drawing room. A sudden doubt seized her. What was she doing? She really ought to be thinking about going home. Marco might be ages yet. What if after his meeting with Martine work dominated his mind? Maybe so much so that he wouldn’t want to spend the evening relaxing with Grace?
Recalling the look in his eyes when he’d told her that his meeting wouldn’t take long, and realising that she was probably being ridiculous, she breathed out a slightly more reassured breath and resolved to think about something else. But her mind seemed intent on revisiting the subject of Marco working too hard and rarely taking a break.
She was acutely aware that she was feeling unusually protective of a man whom the world undoubtedly viewed as incredibly fortunate and privileged, who surely didn’t have the same ordinary wants and needs of most humans—such as the need to slow down sometimes and take stock, or the desire for a loving relationship, supportive family and friends and children of his own? From time to time, when he’d unwittingly let down his guard a little and referred to his orphaned upbringing, Grace had glimpsed both hurt and loneliness in Marco’s eyes and it had made her insides knot in sympathy …
‘Senhorita?’
Inês stood in the doorway between the drawing room and the patio, a polite but warm smile on her broad open face. ‘Senhor Aguilar asked me to tell you that he will not be much longer now. He also asked me to prepare you some refreshments while you are waiting for him. I have served them in the courtyard garden. Can you come with me, please?’
With little notion of the delights awaiting her, Grace was happy to follow the friendly housekeeper down the long marbled corridor then through an airy vestibule that lead out onto a stunning sunken courtyard filled with lemon trees. In a private corner of the enchanting area a small wrought-iron table was laid with an array of appetising snacks, plus a beautiful crystal decanter of red wine accompanied by two matching glasses. The gently atmospheric lighting was provided by several pretty lanterns with candles flickering inside them. There was no evidence of a breeze here at all. Instead the air was sultry and still again, and the only sound to break the silence was the repetitive shrill of cicadas that Grace was becoming more and more accustomed to.
She turned to regard Inês smilingly. ‘This is wonderful. Obrigado … Thank you … thank you so much.’
The other woman beamed. ‘Enjoy,’ she said, then left her alone.
It wasn’t the same eating alone … it wasn’t the same at all. Although she’d made a valiant attempt at eating some of the delicious food, Grace realised it was almost impossible for her to enjoy it when her insides were seized with nervous tension because Marco was taking so long. Time seemed to pass agonisingly slowly, and when he still didn’t appear the tension inside her turned into fullblown anxiety that something must be wrong.
Had Martine perhaps brought bad news?
She had just decided she could no longer sit still and wait—she would go in search of her host herself to make sure nothing was amiss—when he appeared in the arched doorway. Its elegant stucco designs were just about visible beneath the heavy fall of red bougainvillaea that draped over it.
In the instant that she registered his arrival Grace detected a certain weariness and strain in his demeanour that made her heart race with concern. Before she knew it, she’d rushed towards him to clasp his hand. The hooded dark eyes that were so incredibly compelling flashed in surprise. When surprise turned to indisputable pleasure her heart raced not with concern but for a very different reason indeed.
He didn’t loosen her hand, or berate her for being so presumptuous, as had been her fear. In fact, he used it as leverage to impel her towards him. The sheer unadulterated joy of being near him again, of scenting his pro vocative cologne and feeling the heat that radiated from his body, went way beyond simple pleasure. The contact that she’d been longing for far exceeded all her imaginative secret hopes.
‘Is everything okay? I was worried,’ she admitted softly.
‘Worried … about me?’ Marco’s deep rich voice bordered on being amazed. ‘Why?’
‘I was worried in case Martine had brought you some bad news, or—or that you had to get back to work for some reason and I wouldn’t see you tonight after all. I’d have been seriously upset about that, because it’s becoming more and more obvious that you work too hard and clearly need some time off.’
Disconcertingly, he chuckled. ‘I’ve had no bad news, and neither do I need to get back to work. Is that why you’ve suddenly appeared in my life, Grace? To make sure that I don’t overdo things and work too hard?’
‘I’m sorry if I sometimes speak my mind a bit too much.’
‘Never apologise for being honest—trust me, it is far better than being lied to. Now, you can tell me the truth about something else … You told me that you were exhausted when you came back from Africa, and this morning you overslept. Are you feeling any better now? If you need to see a doctor I can arrange it … even tonight, if need be?’
‘I’m honestly fine. I definitely don’t need to see a doctor. But thanks for being so kind and asking.’
‘Well, seeing as we are both absolutely fine, I think we can now relax and enjoy our evening together, no?’ He lifted a dark eyebrow. ‘Do you know, I can’t remember the last time anyone worried about me?’
The shrug of his broad shoulders when he said that was almost matter-of-fact … but the expression Grace saw in his eyes was anything but. That was the moment when she knew she couldn’t—wouldn’t—deny him anything.
‘Well, then.’ Gently tugging her hand free, hardly knowing what possessed her, she boldly traced the outline of his fascinating lips with her fingertips. ‘If that’s the case, then your friends can’t know what a special man they have in their lives.’
‘If you persist in saying such things to me … and touching me like that … then my promise to you to be patient will make a liar of me—because I won’t be able to keep it,’ he confessed, gravel-voiced.
‘Then don’t.’ She knew her transfixed stare devoured him, because her need to have him hold her right then, to make love to her, was so intense that Grace couldn’t begin to curtail it. It was akin to a swollen river about to burst its banks.
‘What?’
‘Don’t keep your promise. I no longer want you to. Be patient, I mean. Remember I asked you in the pool if we could try again later?’ she breathed in a velvet-voiced whisper.
He muttered something that sounded like the kind of curse a man might make when he’d been tested to the extremes of his endurance, and the ensuing kiss that claimed her lips was so hot, hard and hungry that Grace knew she didn’t have a hope of holding onto her balance. But at that moment she didn’t even care. Neither did she mind that the passionate caress was completely devoid of tenderness or finesse, because she knew it was driven by an elemental power strong enough and raw enough to knock her right off of her feet.
As a woman who had never experienced being desired with such hungry intent before, and who had never wanted a man more, in the most carnal way, she found Marco’s attentions more welcome than stunning cool rain on a baking hot desert that hadn’t seen the like for months. With no guilt whatsoever, she allowed herself to luxuriate freely in them, feeling nothing but gratitude …
The rough scrape of the chiselled jaw that was already displaying a five o’clock shadow and the scalding sensual demand of his lips and tongue stoked such a fire in her that in the future, when this incredible hiatus with him came to an end, she knew she would be deaf, dumb and blind to the attractions of any other man.
Breathing hard as he tore his mouth away from hers, Marco lifted his head so that he could study her. At the same time, his hands tightened possessively round her hips. ‘Are you telling me that you will let me take you to bed?’
‘You mean … right now?’ Grace knew her question inflamed him, because she saw the molten heat that was already in his ey
es flare passionately, like a fire that had just been doused in petrol.
‘Querido Deus! Yes, now … before this constant craving for you drives me completely out of my mind.’
Firming his arm possessively round her waist, he urgently guided her out of the arched courtyard like a man indisputably on a mission …
CHAPTER EIGHT
WITH his heart beating a throbbing tattoo inside his chest, Marco held onto Grace’s small slender hand and led her into his vast bedroom. The twin glass doors onto the wrought-iron balcony were open and a scented breeze blew in from the gardens below, making the cream-coloured voile drapes dance.
The heat that his body was gripped by hadn’t cooled in any way, but Marco couldn’t help remembering his vow to seduce Grace ‘subtly and artfully’ and not rush her. Especially when she had confided in him that her despicable ex-boyfriend had assaulted her. But the moment she turned her big blue eyes on him, and he saw her pretty, full upper lip quiver gently, every thought in his head disappeared except the one that urged him to love her long into the night …
‘Won’t Inês wonder where we’ve gone?’ she asked. ‘We just abandoned all the lovely food she’d prepared and came up here.’
‘My housekeeper has four children … she’s a woman of the world. I don’t think she will wonder for very long about where we’ve gone, Grace.’
‘Oh.’
‘All I care about is that we are alone at last. We can forget about the rest of the world for a while and just concentrate on ourselves … agreed?’
‘Yes … all right.’
She visibly shivered as Marco calmly started to undo the buttons on her red and white bodice. But if he gave the impression of being calm and in control then he definitely wasn’t. It took every ounce of will he possessed to control the trembling in his fingers as he finished unfastening the buttons on her dress and helped her to step out of it. The prim swimsuit she’d worn in the pool had done its best to disguise the allure of her shapely form—and he had to say it had failed—but the lacy pink strapless bra that she wore now, along with matching cotton panties, didn’t. The word exquisite, used to describe a beautiful woman, was sometimes overused in his book … but he had no argument with the description in the present case. Grace’s body was slender and supple, but her figure also curved in and out like an hourglass, and her beautiful skin was flawlessly pale and smooth and instantly invited his touch.
Skimming his fingertips below her breastbone and down to her sexy little bellybutton, he held her wide-eyed gaze with a slow, teasing smile. ‘I was right,’ he said.
‘Right about what, exactly?’
‘That underneath that not-so-effective disguise of an “ordinary” girl that you frequently like to insist you are there resides the bewitching body of a very hot temptress indeed.’
Blushing helplessly, she knew her glance was adorably shy as she observed him. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘Yes, I think so,’ he insisted, chuckling softly. ‘But, as alluring as your pretty underwear undoubtedly is, I’m afraid I’m going to have to divest you of it if I want to accomplish what I have in mind right now.’
‘And that is …?’
‘To make love to you all through the night.’
The edges of her straight white teeth clamped nervously down onto her vulnerable lower lip. Glancing over at the emperor-sized bed with its oyster silk bedlinen and luxurious pillows and cushions, her soft cheeks bloomed again with the delicate pink of a summer rose. ‘That bed seems an awfully long way away,’ she commented, a distinct catch in her voice.
‘Not if I carry you there.’
There was something deliciously wicked and decadent about being transported across such a palatial room to an equally opulent bed covered in the finest silk by her handsome would-be lover. Indeed, Grace could have been forgiven for thinking she was dreaming the whole thing—except that the experience was light years away from any seduction her imagination could have contrived, even in the throes of the most erotic dream.
By the time Marco had lain her carefully down on the bed, kicked off his shoes and stripped down to his black silk boxers, she was shivering so hard with longing, anticipation and not a little apprehension that all she could do was stare mutely up at him. In her mind she silently paid homage to his beauty—the strong, clean lines of his hard-muscled shoulders and torso, the slim masculine hips and silkily hirsute powerful thighs—then automatically returned her gaze to his compelling, strong-boned visage to linger on his mouth … a mouth that could so easily have been sculpted by an Italian Renaissance artist it was so sublime. Lifting her glance higher, she fell into the seductive beam of depthless dark eyes that she already knew could make her dissolve with barely any effort at all.
‘I want you to sit up and kiss me,’ he told her, the usually resonant voice pitched a little lower because it was infused with desire.
Mesmerised, caught up in a hypnotic spell she knew she would never forget after this night, Grace did as he asked. Marco immediately circled her chest to unhook the fastening at the back of her flimsy lace bra. As soon as her breasts were freed, and she experienced the gossamer caress of warm air glancing against her skin, he claimed her lips in another long, melting kiss. After the initial urgent clash of teeth and tongues, the sensual quality of their mutual exploration of each other was akin to being bathed in moonlight and honey. As she lay down against the luxurious covers of the bed Grace knew it was a tantalising gateway to what was to follow.
When Marco planted his strong thighs either side of her, then bent his head once more to kiss and suckle her breasts, her body was seized by another bout of irresistible shivering.
‘This is not your first time … is it?’ Immediately he raised his head to examine her, his glance both searching and concerned.
Moistening her lips with her tongue, Grace nervously held his gaze. ‘No. But I’ve only been with a man once before … when I lost my virginity.’
The unhappy memory of the occasion made her tense briefly. It had only happened because her university boyfriend had pressured her and the following day he told her he regretted it because there was another girl he liked more, and their fledgling relationship had come to an abrupt and humiliating end. So far, her experience of intimacy had not been great. But until now no other man she’d ever met had stirred the kind of powerful feelings inside her that Marco did. Instinctively she knew that making love with him would be wonderful … more than wonderful.
Making no comment, but with a provocative half-smile playing about his lips, he moved his hands down to her hips to remove the rest of her lacy underwear. Sucking in her breath, Grace held onto his toned bronzed biceps as he went about the sensuous task, her body trembling even more. He touched his mouth to the flat plane of her stomach, and her hands automatically fell away as he planted light but explosive little kisses all over its surface. When his lips moved lower down, and he began to kiss the delicate sensitive skin covering her slender inner thighs, she turned her head to the silk pillow behind her, closed her eyes, and willingly allowed the tide of heat that was building unstoppably inside to hold sway, fervently wishing that it might go on for ever …
As if intuiting her need, Marco let his hot silken tongue explore her more intimately, and suddenly the ability to think at all was replaced by a profound willingness to surrender, to allow this intoxicating pleasure to take her wherever it would. Grace no longer tried to still the trembling that grew more and more prevalent with every seductive volcanic touch that Marco delivered. It was a natural reaction, she realised, simply part of the erotic interplay between them. And suddenly the building storm of sensation inside her became molten lightning, an electrical conflagration bar none that had her totally at its mercy. Once again, all she could do was surrender. At the peak of the waves that flowed through her she cried out, then lay dazed and shivering as the torrid heat slowly started to ebb.
Marco’s hypnotic voice murmured something that she didn’t quite hear, and her
eyes flew opened as she sensed his body moving over hers. She saw that he too was naked now. Her heart began to thump hard. His eyes crinkled at the corners as he bestowed a sexy smile down upon her.
She reached out to touch her palm to his beard-roughened jaw and he turned his mouth towards it and kissed her there. ‘That was amazing,’ she told him softly.
‘It was amazing for me too. I fear I am becoming addicted to you, Grace … To your scent and to your touch. No matter how much you give me … I’m afraid I just want more.’
Sensing the tension in his body as he held himself above her, Grace instinctively raised her legs so that they clasped his slim, arrow-straight hips in a sensual vice. As she registered the uninhibited look of gratification on his face another ecstatic moan was punched from her lungs, and he plunged himself deep inside her. He stilled for a long moment, so that they both received the maximum enjoyment from the contact, their gazes meeting and locking in mutual wonderment as they did so. When Marco started to rock back and forth inside her she hungrily sought his lips, kissing him with the kind of passion and ardour that she’d never even guessed she might be capable of. Her own eager responses were a revelation to her.
And now, as her lover moved with even more ardour and intent inside her, the place the hard, scalding pleasure of his possession was taking her to started to imitate the electrical storm she’d succumbed to earlier, and she found herself tumbling into it without restraint, the ecstatic sensations that gripped her growing more and more wildly urgent. She buried her face in the warm sanctuary between Marco’s neck and shoulder as she flew free. At the same time tears flowed into her eyes and spilled over down her cheeks. Just before he thrust even deeper he wound his fingers through her hair, pulled back her head and kissed her hard. Then, with a helpless guttural groan, he too flew free …
The pounding wasn’t just inside his heart but in his head too, Marco acknowledged in alarm as he rolled onto his side, breathing hard. The shocking realisation of what he’d just done hit him like a hammer-blow. Had he somehow lost his mind? Dear God! He’d just made love to Grace without even the merest thought of protecting her. He’d been so caught up in the maelstrom of need and desire that had deluged him he’d simply lost the ability to think straight. It just hadn’t been possible.