‘Do you like it when I do this?’ He rotated his finger inside her until she gasped and trembled, and then he slipped a second finger into her, moving his hand in an erotic rhythm while she curled her fingers into the sheet and made a guttural sound in her throat.
‘Please,’ she croaked. She was a slave to his mastery as he caressed her with consummate skill, flicking his thumb over the sensitive nub of her clitoris so that she arched her hips towards his hand, desperately seeking something that she sensed was near yet was frustratingly elusive.
When he withdrew his fingers from her, she felt a flicker of dread that he was about to reject her again. She closed her eyes, unable to bear the humiliation she had felt in Sicily.
‘Arianna, look at me,’ he bade her, his voice like rough velvet. Swallowing hard, she obeyed him and her heart missed a beat at the intensity of his gaze. ‘I have never wanted anything in my life as much as I want you right now,’ he said, and it was as if he was making a vow. She watched, dry-mouthed, as he unrolled a condom over the length of his erection, and understood why he had stopped caressing her momentarily. Her pulse rate accelerated when he lifted himself over her and nudged her legs open with his thigh.
And then he pressed forward so that the tip of his manhood pushed slowly, so slowly, into her as he claimed her inch by exquisite inch, filling her with his hardness. The size of him made her catch her breath, and he waited, his eyes burning into hers, while her internal muscles stretched to accommodate his powerful penetration.
‘Sei mio,’ he muttered, his mouth against hers, before he kissed her with an eroticism that made her tremble anew as he tangled their tongues. Distantly in her mind she seemed to recall that the Italian words meant ‘you are mine’. But then he withdrew from her a little way, and she lost the ability to think as he thrust deep and repeated the action again and again.
He took her with long, steady strokes and increased his pace when she lifted her hips to meet each devastating thrust. He drove her higher, higher, and she dug her nails into his back as the pressure inside her built to a crescendo. His mouth claimed hers again and the unexpected tenderness in his kiss crept around her heart.
‘Let go, cara mia,’ he whispered at the same time as he slipped his hand between their sweat-slicked bodies and unerringly found the tight nub of her femininity. The effect was shattering, the caress of his clever fingers combined with the relentless rhythm of his possession sending her up and over the edge. She cried out as she flew into the flames and burned. The intensity of her orgasm was indescribable, and when moments later Santino gave a harsh groan and collapsed on top of her, his big body shuddering in the throes of his climax, Arianna felt their souls connect as profoundly as their bodies were entwined.
* * *
Santino rolled onto his back, breathing hard, his heart still pumping like a piston in his chest. He had known that sex with Arianna would be good. The chemistry between them had always been white-hot, and all it had taken was one spark to set off an explosive reaction.
Initially he had been driven by his piqued male pride to demonstrate that there was nothing unsatisfactory about his skill as a lover. But somewhere along the way her ardent response, coupled with a faint uncertainty that revealed her inexperience, had blown him away. He’d found that he could not control his urgent desire. His blood had pounded in his veins, and when he’d entered her and felt how tight she was he had almost come right then. It had never happened to him before, and in the aftermath of their wild passion he wanted to understand why Arianna’s mix of innocence and sensuality turned him into putty in her hands.
Not quite putty, he thought self-derisively as he felt himself harden again. A ripple of tension ran through him. He’d had the best sex of his life with Arianna. But it was just sex, he reassured himself. His emotions were not involved, nor would they ever be. He had learned when he was a teenager that he was better off alone. Safer.
He turned his head and studied her when she sat up. The flush of rose on her cheeks was repeated on the tips of her breasts where his mouth had suckled her. He ached to curl his tongue around her pouting nipples, but the wariness in her big brown eyes stopped him from reaching for her. She lifted her hand to push her tumble of silky curls back from her face and the diamond bracelet twinkled in the light from the bedside lamp.
‘You should only ever wear diamonds, cara,’ he murmured, running his finger over the sparkling stones around her neck, before he cupped one breast in his hand and succumbed to the temptation to close his lips around its tender peak. The faint gasp she gave fuelled his desire even more and he frowned when she swung her legs over the side of the bed.
‘I should go.’ She scooped up her knickers and dress from the floor, and stood there looking decadently sexy and oddly vulnerable, holding armfuls of tulle. ‘Taxi drivers often refuse to drive along the street where I live after midnight. Apparently it’s a no-go area controlled by drug dealers.’
‘I don’t want you to go back to your flat tonight.’ As he spoke, Santino decided that he did not want her to live in a notoriously rough part of London. He would find a place for her closer to his apartment, somewhere with a good security system and a concierge. His thoughts raced ahead. When this thing he had with Arianna had burned itself out, he argued with himself, he would still want her to live somewhere where she would be safe.
‘You are not my bodyguard and I am not your responsibility,’ she told him firmly. He recognised the glint of battle in her eyes and realised that she needed careful handling. Throwing back the sheet, he walked over to her, his heart contracting when he noted the pink stain on her cheeks deepen as she seemed transfixed by his unashamedly naked and aroused body.
‘You said you wanted me to teach you everything,’ he reminded her softly as he took her dress from her and threw it onto the chair before he lifted her into his arms and carried her back to bed. ‘We have barely started your lessons, cara mia.’
‘Oh.’ Her eyes widened when he laid her down on the sheet and proceeded to take a condom out of its wrapper and roll it down the length of his erection. ‘Do you... Do you want to do it again?’
That husky uncertainty in her voice was going to kill him, Santino decided. ‘What do you think?’ he drawled, kneeling over her so that his swollen tip pressed against her moist opening. He shoved her legs wide apart. She bit her lip and the beast inside him growled.
‘I think I’m ready for my second lesson.’ Her tremulous whisper increased his urgency. But, just to be sure that she was absolutely ready for him, he bent his head to the feminine heart of her and bestowed an intimate caress with his tongue that had her writhing as she sank her fingers into his hair. ‘Please...’ she moaned when at last he positioned himself over her.
She was so beautiful lying there with her legs open, utterly exposed to his hungry gaze. As he slid his shaft between her silken folds and drove deep inside her, he felt again the odd sensation of a hand squeezing his heart. But then she wrapped her long legs around his back, as he had so often imagined her doing, and he pushed everything out of his mind as he gripped her hips and began to move, taking them both to the edge of ecstasy, and they flew into the fire together.
Afterwards she curled up against him while her breathing, and his, gradually slowed. When she tried to move away he clamped his arm around her waist. ‘Stay,’ he murmured, ‘and in the morning I’ll cook you breakfast.’
She stretched like a sleepy kitten. ‘All right, but I need to take my necklace off. The clasp is delicate and I’m worried it could break.’
He unfastened the clasp and dropped the string of diamonds into her hand. ‘It clearly means a lot to you. Were you fond of your grandmother who gave you the necklace?’
‘I adored her. Grandma Charlotte died when I was twelve, a year after my mother went away. She was the only person who understood that my brattish behaviour was a result of missing my mum when she moved to Australi
a without me. I felt confused and angry.’
Santino remembered that he had felt those same emotions after his mother had died. ‘Surely your mother came back to visit you, or you visited her?’
‘No. My father paid her to stay out of my life and I had no contact with her until earlier this year. When we did finally meet again, we were strangers.’
While Santino went to the bathroom to deal with the condom, he found himself wondering if any of the tabloid editors who had labelled Arianna a spoilt socialite knew or cared that her childhood had been unhappy, despite the wealth and privilege she had grown up with. The hurt in her voice, when she’d spoken about her mother who had abandoned her and her father’s indifference, made him furious on her behalf.
Returning to the bedroom, he was unsurprised that she had fallen asleep. It was two a.m., and he had been awake since six the previous morning, but he wasn’t tired. Arianna made him feel alive in a way he had never felt before. He did not make a habit of asking his lovers to stay the night, but he couldn’t find it in him to regret her presence in his bed when he slid in beside her and she immediately curled up against him. Her glorious hair rippled over the pillows and her long lashes made dark fans on her cheeks. Tomorrow he would deal with the complicated emotions she aroused in him and lay down some ground rules, he promised himself. But for now he was content to draw her soft, curvaceous body against him and count her eyelashes one by one.
* * *
When Santino woke the next morning it was to an empty bed and, he quickly discovered, an empty apartment. Checking his watch, he was astounded to find that it was nine forty-five. He never slept in. Even on the rare occasions when he asked a woman to stay over, he was always up early for an hour in the gym before his morning shower—his usual routine. Invariably he was keen not to prolong the night before for longer than he could help, and he was adept at evading awkward questions about future dates.
But Arianna had left without waking him or even leaving a note. As he slammed around the kitchen making coffee, he told himself he should feel relieved that she obviously understood the no-clinging and no-crowding rules that he insisted on in an affair.
Two cups of strong black coffee and a shower later, his mood had not improved and, when he arrived at his office and glared ferociously at a junior secretary who spilt a jug of water over his desk, he called Arianna simply to make sure she had got home safely.
‘I’m at my studio. I had to unlock the store this morning to let my assistant in,’ she explained in an airy voice that made him grit his teeth. ‘I didn’t want to wake you when I left your apartment.’
He waited for her to ask when they would see each other again, or at least drop hints that it would be lovely to meet up. ‘Look, I have to go.’ She sounded distracted. ‘I’m about to have a consultation with a client who wants several outfits for a cruise she is going on.’
‘Have dinner with me tonight?’ he said quickly. ‘I’ll pick you up from the studio at seven.’
‘I can’t I’m afraid.’
Santino’s jaw clenched. Was she playing games, playing hard to get? And, if so, why wasn’t he prepared to walk away? There were plenty of other attractive women he could invite to dinner. But there was only one Arianna, and she was the only woman he wanted, he acknowledged.
‘A client is coming for a fitting at seven-thirty this evening because it’s the only time she has available, but I should be free by nine o’clock, if you want to meet me then,’ Arianna told him.
Some of the tension drained out of him. ‘I’ll see you at nine.’
‘Okay.’ Her voice became husky. ‘I think I will be ready for my next lesson by then.’
Dio! He stared at his phone when she ended the call, not sure if he wanted to swear or laugh. She was a minx, and he spent much of the day devising suitable punishments, which involved him kissing every single inch of her body while she writhed and pleaded for his possession.
By nine that evening, when Santino parked his car outside the Anna store, he had got himself back under control, and he was determined to take control of his affair with Arianna. She would have to understand that he called the shots in their relationship—which wasn’t even a relationship. They shared an intense physical attraction, but passion like theirs couldn’t last, and he gave it a month before it burned itself out.
Her assistant seamstress was just leaving when he entered the shop, and after the woman had gone he locked the door and walked up the stairs to the design studio. Despite the late hour Arianna was still working and Santino paused in the doorway to admire the sight of her delectable derriere covered in tight black jeans as she bent over one of the big cutting tables. She must have heard his footsteps and she spun round, pushing a wayward curl off her face and giving him a wide smile that did odd things to his insides.
‘Guess what?’ she said, dropping her dressmaker’s scissors and running across the room to launch herself at him. He laughed as he caught her in his arms, fascinated as ever by her spontaneity. Her perfume teased his senses and he pressed his face into her hair as she wrapped her legs around his hips. ‘I had two new clients visit the store today and they placed orders for dresses. You were right about the importance of a visible presence on the high street. I wouldn’t have the Anna store and design studio without your financial support through Tiger Investments.’
She tipped her head back and the gold flecks in her brown eyes glowed. ‘You look very macho in black leather,’ she murmured, running her hand over his old biker jacket. ‘What will you do if I kiss you?’
The tug of desire in his groin was so sharp it made him catch his breath. ‘Why don’t you find out?’ he said thickly, and couldn’t restrain a low groan when she covered his mouth with hers and kissed him with a sensuality that made him shake with need. ‘Do you have any idea what you do to me?’ he muttered against her throat while his fingers deftly unfastened the buttons on her pink silk blouse. The black bra beneath it was semi-transparent and her dusky pink nipples were visible through the sheer material.
She pressed her pelvis up against his painfully hard erection as he carried her over to the worktable, moving her hips sinuously to create a burning friction between their bodies. ‘I have some idea,’ she murmured and caught her breath when he sucked her nipples through her bra.
‘Good, then you will understand that I have to have you now. I can’t wait, cara.’ He set her on her feet and swiftly dispensed with her blouse and bra, cradling her bare breasts in his palms and flicking his thumbs over the taut peaks. He had never felt such an intensity of need as he did with Arianna.
A warning voice inside Santino’s head reminded him that he was supposed to be in control and establishing the rules and boundaries of their affair, but he shoved the thought away and slid his hand into the stretchy material of her jeans, rubbing his fingers over the panel of her panties and then slipping inside them to caress her wet heat.
Arianna was breathing hard, and when he eased back a fraction he saw that her eyes were half-closed and her mouth slightly open, her pretty face flushed with passion. ‘I want you too,’ she whispered, placing her hand on the bulge of his arousal beneath his jeans. ‘But how can we do it here?’
‘Like this.’ He kissed her hard on her mouth and then turned her round and gently pushed her down so that she was bending over the table.
‘Santino?’ She looked over her shoulder at him, her eyes wide with excitement and faint uncertainty that he was anxious to dispel.
‘It will be good, baby, trust me.’
‘I do trust you,’ she said softly, and something fierce and unexpectedly tender tugged in his chest. He feathered kisses down her spine and then gripped the waistband of her jeans, pulling them and her knickers down her hips. She kicked off her shoes and he helped her to step out of her trousers before he ran his hands greedily over the smooth, pale contours of her bottom. Hand shaking, he freed his rock
-hard erection from his jeans and nudged her thighs apart. He surged into her, feeling the faint resistance of her vaginal muscles at first as he drove in deep and filled her.
It was wilder and hotter than anything Santino had ever experienced, but it could not last. Jaw clenched, he held her hips tightly while he established a devastating rhythm, faster, harder, the soft moans of pleasure she made shattering his tenuous control. He thrust again, and her thin cry mingled with his harsh groan as they climaxed together, and the power of it sent shudders of aftershock through him.
Afterwards he held her in his arms and claimed her mouth in a slow, deeply sensual kiss that somehow seemed even more intimate than the mind-blowing sex they had just shared.
‘You’re coming back to my apartment tonight,’ he told her after he’d driven her back to her bedsit and clamped a protective arm around her shoulders as they walked past the gang of youths hanging around the front of the building. ‘You can’t possibly like living here,’ he said when she looked mutinous.
‘I don’t like the flat or the area,’ she admitted. ‘But at least I am independent of my father. Hopefully my label will start to sell and I’ll be able to afford a nicer place to live.’
‘You can take a salary out of the money I have invested in your business to pay for your living costs. In the meantime you need to stay with me so that we can continue your lessons,’ he murmured, pulling her into his arms and kissing the pout from her lips until she melted against him.
After she had packed a bag he took her back to his penthouse, and while she had a bath he ordered Thai food from his favourite restaurant. Of course, the sight of her all pink and flushed, smelling divine after her bath, aroused a different hunger in him and he had to have her again. It was nearly midnight when they finally ate the food straight out of the plastic containers it had been delivered in.
‘This is fun,’ Arianna said happily as she sat cross-legged on the sofa, eating noodles as gracefully as if they were dining at a five-star restaurant. Her smile faded and Santino discovered that he would give away everything he owned if he could put the smile back on her lips.
The Virgin's Sicilian Protector Page 14
