What an idiot I was.
A stupid, naïve idiot who, after reaching a climax in Gregorio’s arms while still fully clothed, couldn’t wait to experience that sexual release again.
David had always ensured he took his own pleasure, but what if she couldn’t satisfy Gregorio? What if—?
‘You think too much.’ Gregorio reached up and smoothed the frown from her brow. ‘First we will take a shower together.’
He clasped her hand in his as they walked down the hallway.
Was Gregorio expecting her to take all her clothes off and get in the shower with him?
Lia had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. She had seen photographs of the women Gregorio usually went to bed with, and although she took care of her body she knew she didn’t match up to those model-thin, toned-bodied blondes. Despite her weight loss, her breasts were firm and up-tilting, but a little too big for the slenderness of her waist. Her hips were too curvy—
‘You are still thinking too much,’ Gregorio murmured indulgently, turning to face her as the two of them stood in the middle of the terracotta-tiled bathroom. ‘You are very beautiful, Lia.’
He gently claimed her lips with his. Sipping. Tasting. Claiming.
Lia was so lost in her rising desire she wasn’t even aware of Gregorio removing her jacket, and then unfastening her blouse before dropping it to the floor with her jacket. Or of his unfastening of the zip of her skirt before that too slid down to join her jacket and blouse.
Heat blazed in her cheeks as Gregorio ended their kiss, stepping back, making her painfully aware that she was now wearing only a cream bra and matching panties, along with suspenders and stockings. And for some inexplicable reason she was still wearing her high-heeled shoes!
Lia wondered what Gregorio saw as his hands tightened about hers. His eyes were dark as he looked his fill of her from the top of her head to her ridiculous high-heeled shoes.
‘You are every one of my fantasies come to life,’ he approved darkly.
Lia somehow doubted that. ‘Aren’t you a bit overdressed for taking a shower?’ she said lightly, changing the subject.
He released her hands and stepped back and out of his shoes before stretching his arms out at his sides. ‘Undress me. No—keep your shoes on,’ he added gruffly as she would have stepped out of them.
‘Now who’s bossy?’ she teased.
‘Those high heels are very sexy.’
The burning in her cheeks seemed to have become a permanent fixture as Lia slipped the jacket from Gregorio’s shoulders and down his arms before placing it neatly on the vanity: the suit had probably cost more than Lia was going to earn in a month.
His eyes glittered down at her as she stepped forward to unfasten and remove his tie before undoing the buttons on his shirt.
Lia’s breath caught in her throat as she bared his chest, her fingers caressing lightly over that olive-toned flesh as she took off his shirt. His body really was beautiful—as perfect as any sculpture of a Greek god and yet, unlike a statue, warm and firm to the touch.
Her fingers were slightly clumsy as she unfastened the button of his trousers and tugged the zip down. The material slid down his hips and thighs before he stepped out of the trousers altogether, revealing that he wore a pair of black boxers beneath, the bulge of his arousal once again visible against the fitted material.
Forget all the gods: Gregorio was pure perfection.
Wide shoulders, toned pecs and abs, long muscular legs...
Just looking at him made Lia’s heart beat faster and louder.
‘Take them off.’
Lia’s breathing became ragged as she raised her hands to the waistband of Gregorio’s boxers, hooking a finger at each hip before slowly pulling the material downwards. Which, considering Gregorio’s large and obvious erection, wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
She had to ease and stretch the material over that pulsing flesh, before falling down on her knees in front of him as she slowly moved the material downwards and then off completely, along with his socks.
Her gaze returned hungrily to Gregorio’s fully engorged and fiercely jutting arousal.
‘Lia...!’
She knew what Gregorio wanted, what his husky voice was begging for. Not demanding. Begging.
Had Lia fallen to her knees deliberately? For just this purpose?
Absolutely.
She wanted to hear Gregorio’s groans of pleasure as she took him into her mouth. To taste and lick him. To suck him.
Just thinking of that, and of how the two of them must look right now—Gregorio completely naked and fully aroused, her wearing only bra, panties and stockings—caused her own level of desire to increase achingly.
Gregorio drew his breath in sharply, his knees almost buckling as he watched Lia’s fingers encircle him. She slowly licked her parted lips before bending forward to take him into the heat of her mouth.
His hands moved, his fingers grasping her bared shoulders as her other hand cupped him beneath his arousal. At the same time she took him deeper into the heat of her mouth. She pulled back again—slowly, firmly—her tongue a hot rasp over the sensitive tip, her cheeks hollowed as she sucked.
Gregorio thought the top of his head was going to explode as Lia set a tortuous rhythm. Taking all of him, deeply. Followed by the slow and tormenting drag of withdrawal. The continuous hot stroke of her tongue on his sensitised flesh. The rhythmic squeeze of her hands.
And all the while she looked so damned sexy in her bra, panties and stockings, her hair a wild tumble of auburn, gold and cinnamon about her shoulders, Gregorio couldn’t take his eyes off her.
He could feel the heat of his release building, every muscle in his body straining as he fought for control of that release. The pleasure was too much...too much—
‘No...!’ He pushed her away from him, fingers digging into the soft flesh of her shoulders when she looked up at him with sensual dark eyes. ‘Lia...’ He pulled her up to her feet, his arms going about her waist as he drew her in tightly against him. ‘That was incredible.’
Oral sex had been a definite no-no with David, so this was the first time Lia had ever...
Having no interest in exploring the boundaries of their sexual relationship was surely another sign that David had just been using her.
What an idiot she had been!
‘I liked it too,’ Lia acknowledged huskily.
‘I do not want it to be over too soon.’
Gregorio gave one of those sensual smiles that transformed his face from austere to breathtaking.
‘My turn,’ he murmured with satisfaction, and he reached behind her and unfastened her bra before removing it completely. ‘Dios!’ He spoke almost reverently as his gaze feasted on her pertly bared breasts. ‘I love these...’ His hands cupped beneath her breasts as he lowered his head to suckle each engorged nipple in turn.
Lia groaned, clinging to Gregorio’s shoulders as she was engulfed in pleasure, heat instantly spreading to her core.
‘I want to taste you...’
Gregorio straightened before lifting her up in his arms and carrying her out of the bathroom and down the hallway to his bedroom. He lay her down carefully on the bed, kneeling beside her to hook his thumbs in her panties, pulling them slowly down over her hips and thighs and then off completely, leaving Lia dressed only in the suspenders and stockings.
His eyes darkened as he looked at her. ‘You are the sexiest woman—’
‘You’ve seen today?’ she teased, sure that Gregorio had been with women a lot sexier than her.
He tilted his head as he studied her. ‘Why do you do that? Is it your way of pushing me away?’
She gave a splutter of laughter at the ridiculousness of that statement when they were both naked. ‘Do I look as if I’m pushing you away?’
Gregorio didn’t return her smile. ‘We both have pasts, Lia. I can no more take mine away than you can. But there is just the two of us here. Now. Together.’ He lay down on t
he bed beside her, his hand cupping her cheek as he turned her face towards him. ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Lia, and you are the most beautiful woman it has been my privilege to make love to.’
Her cheeks heated, although at the same time she still felt sceptical. ‘I think we’re both agreed that it’s best if we don’t talk.’
‘Because you do not believe me?’
‘Gregorio—’
‘It is okay.’ His thumb caressed her full bottom lip. ‘I have every intention of showing you how beautiful you are to me.’
And if that was Gregorio’s intention then that was exactly what he did as he made love to her tenderly, appreciatively, savagely. Squeezing and caressing her breasts as he drove her wild with his lips and tongue, driving Lia over the edge of release time and time again. Until she was so sensitised that his lightest touch inflamed her senses and she crashed into another orgasm.
And still she hungered for more. More of Gregorio’s lovemaking. More of him.
‘I need to be inside you now,’ he finally rasped, his hair tousled from where Lia had grabbed hold of its darkness at the height of her pleasure.
‘Please...’ She arched up, needing to be filled, needing to have Gregorio inside her as much as he wanted to be there.
Lia’s unease returned during the time it took him to open the foil packet he had taken from the bedside drawer and roll the condom on with an expertise that indicated he had done it many times before.
Gregorio frowned slightly, obviously seeing the uncertainty flickering across Lia’s face. ‘I realise this is not in the least romantic, but it is my responsibility to protect you.’
There was no arguing with that comment. None that made any sense in the circumstances, anyway.
And Lia totally forgot about that moment of unease as Gregorio knelt between her thighs and slowly, erotically, eased himself into her. Stretching her, filling her, as if they were two parts of a whole, finally joined together.
‘That feels so good,’ Gregorio groaned as he lay down on top of her, taking his weight on his elbows and claiming her mouth with his as he slowly began to thrust inside her. ‘You feel so good, Lia.’
Lia groaned as Gregorio’s movement sent off tiny explosions inside her, wrapping her legs about his waist and pulling him in deeper still. Their breathing became loud and ragged and those thrusts became less co-ordinated as the pleasure built, higher and higher.
Gregorio broke the kiss to groan, his body tense. ‘Come with me, bella. Now!’ he rasped, and he began to pulse inside her, taking Lia with him in an orgasm so strong and intense she screamed out her pleasure.
CHAPTER NINE
‘LUNCH HAS ARRIVED.’
Lunch? A glance at her wristwatch told her it was almost five o’clock in the afternoon, and Lia didn’t want to move out of the warm comfort of the bed where she and Gregorio had spent the whole afternoon making love. They had left the bed only once, to take the shower they had forgone earlier. Gregorio had made love to her again against the shower wall once they had soaped, washed and caressed each other all over. The third time had been just a few minutes ago.
Every part of Lia ached, but it was a pleasurable ache. An ache that came from knowing Gregorio’s possession so intimately, so many times in such a short time.
Which was surprising, because Lia hadn’t thought a man could recover sexually so quickly. David certainly hadn’t...
‘Whatever you are thinking about has put a frown on your brow,’ Gregorio reproved as he crossed the room to stand beside the bed, wearing a towel knotted loosely around his hips.
Probably so that he could open the door when Room Service delivered their late lunch, Lia realised.
‘It was nothing of any importance.’ And it wasn’t. None of it. David. Their less than satisfying relationship. Their broken engagement. My lucky escape—that seemed more appropriate. ‘I’m too comfortable to get out of bed.’ She gave Gregorio a satiated smile.
His smile was indulgent. ‘Would you like me to bring the food to you in here?’
‘That sounds like an excellent idea.’ Lia tucked the sheet about her breasts as she sat up against the pillows.
Gregorio sat on the bed beside her. ‘You are very beautiful to me, Lia.’ His fingertips ran lightly down one of her flushed cheeks.
Lia believed him this time. How could she not after the exquisite way Gregorio had made love to her for hours? After he had shown her time and time again how beautiful she was to him.
So why was he now the one frowning?
‘I want you to promise me you will not see Richardson alone again.’
Ah.
Gregorio’s eyes narrowed. ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’
‘Probably because I’m wondering if this is the reason you’ve made love to me all afternoon.’ She eyed him suspiciously. ‘To distract me, and also so I’d be more amenable to whatever you ask of me.’
He stood up abruptly. ‘You have never for a single moment been amenable, Lia,’ he bit out impatiently. ‘Dios mio.’ He ran a hand through his already tousled dark hair. ‘Is that what you think of me?’ He glared down at her. ‘That I would use sex to manipulate you?’
Exactly. Sex.
She had been making love...falling in love...while Gregorio had been having sex. Very good sex, but nonetheless it was just sex.
Lia wondered why some women—herself included, apparently—had to pretty it up by calling it ‘making love’. Maybe because that was exactly what it did—it prettied up what was basically a primal sexual urge. There was a much more crude word Lia could have used to describe it, but she was too much of a lady to use it.
Gregorio scowled his impatience at Lia’s lack of a reply. ‘I do not remember having to force you into doing anything this afternoon.’
On the contrary, after her initial shyness Lia had proved to be a very adventurous lover. Satisfyingly so.
So why were the two of them arguing again?
Because their conversations always—usually sooner rather than later—became an argument. One of them would take umbrage at something the other had said, and a disagreement would ensue.
‘I think I should leave.’ Lia avoided his gaze, keeping the sheet wrapped about her breasts as she moved to swing her legs out onto the carpeted floor on the other side of the bed.
‘Is this how you usually behave?’ Gregorio snapped in frustration. ‘You run away whenever you are confronted with a situation you cannot control?’
Her eyes flashed as she turned to glare at him. ‘I don’t have control over a single part of my life right now. Including this part, it seems,’ she added vehemently, standing up and taking the sheet with her. ‘I no longer think I should leave—I am leaving.’
She kept the sheet wrapped around her as she marched over to the door.
‘Lia!’
She turned in the doorway. ‘Let me go, Gregorio.’ Tears glistened in her eyes.
Gregorio’s shoulders dropped in defeat. He knew he had no desire to force Lia into doing anything. ‘As long as you agree not to see Richardson again on your own. My investigation into his lifestyle, and the money missing from your father’s company, is still ongoing.’
And Lia’s interference would not only put that investigation in jeopardy but also Lia herself.
‘You really believe he did it?’
‘I do, yes.’
‘And that caused my father’s heart attack?’
‘Yes.’
‘Very well.’ She nodded. ‘But you’ll keep me informed?’
‘I will,’ he conceded tautly. ‘Now I insist you allow Silvio to accompany you home and remain outside your apartment building.’ After what she had revealed during her conversation with Richardson earlier today, he believed it was now even more necessary that Lia be protected.
She breathed deeply as she obviously fought a battle within herself. ‘Do you really think David would hurt me?’
Gregorio’s mouth tightened. ‘I believe that tod
ay you challenged and cornered a man who does not like to be thwarted in any way. By meeting him, saying the things you did, you have now made Richardson aware of some of your suspicions regarding him—if not all of them. It is never a good idea to allow the enemy to know what you are thinking or feeling.’
Lia eyed him quizzically. ‘Is that how you’ve become so successful? By treating everyone else as the enemy?’
He breathed in deeply. ‘You are angry with me and deliberately twisting my words.’
Lia was angry with herself—not Gregorio. After all that had happened these past few months she had still allowed herself to be a naïve romantic where Gregorio was concerned. She was twenty-five years old, and had already been used and manipulated by one man for his own selfish purposes. It was time she stopped romanticising and accepted that she and Gregorio had simply spent a pleasurable afternoon in bed together.
And now the afternoon was over.
She forced the tension from her shoulders and half smiled. ‘Let’s not part as bad friends, hmm, Gregorio?’
Gregorio’s eyes narrowed. Friends? Lia believed the two of them to be merely friends? After the afternoon they had just spent together?
‘Will we be friends with benefits?’ he mocked harshly.
‘No.’ She kept her gaze downcast. ‘What happened this afternoon will not happen again.’
‘You truly believe that?’ he scorned. The sexual tension between them crackled and burned even now. When they were arguing or when they weren’t.
She raised her chin as she looked at him, her gaze clear and unwavering. ‘It’s time I took charge of my own life, Gregorio,’ she stated flatly. ‘And that includes who I go to bed with.’
‘And it will not be me?’
‘No.’
Gregorio nodded abruptly. ‘Silvio will be waiting downstairs to accompany you when you are ready to leave.’
‘Thank you.’ Lia disappeared into the hallway, and there followed the sound of the bathroom door closing seconds later.
Gregorio made his call to Silvio and then turned to stare out of the window at the London skyline, his reflection showing him his expression was grim. This afternoon with Lia had been a revelation. She was correct in her belief that in the past twenty years he had bedded many woman. So many he had forgotten some of their names.
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