She had never been kissed this way. It was as if she’d spent her life believing she knew all there was to know about her own body and now he was just tearing everything down.
Her mind screamed at her to slow down, to stop falling for this act they were putting on, but her body flat-out refused to listen. Already she could feel herself become embarrassingly aroused, heat spreading through her like wildfire. She reached up and spread her fingers through his hair, down to the warmth of his nape under the collar of his shirt, needing to feel more of him under her fingertips.
When her nail accidentally scraped his skin, the groan that came from deep in his throat shocked her to her core. It was quite possibly the most erotic sound that she had ever heard in her life.
Of course he would choose that exact moment to rip himself away from her. His eyes were wide with a mixture of shock and anger, and he watched her for a long moment, both of them breathing heavily as they became aware of their surroundings once more.
Dani fought the urge to pull him straight back, then felt her cheeks heat with embarrassment at how quickly she’d lost control. The whole thing had probably lasted no more than a minute and yet she felt as though time had ceased to exist.
The swing band resumed their music with a loud, jazzy celebratory number, and the guests began gathering inward, everyone bustling over to give them their good wishes. Flutes of champagne were handed out and soon they were swept away on an endless stream of toasts and congratulations.
And all the while Dani was painfully aware of the man by her side, of every small touch of his hand at her back or dip of his head to speak close to her ear.
She thanked the heavens when he finally moved away to another group of people, feeling as if she was pulling air into her lungs after being underwater. It had been far too long since she’d had any contact with a member of the opposite sex, she thought. She felt as though every nerve-ending in her body had been lit up like a firework. And now the mad urge to seek him out in the crowd every few minutes plagued her consciousness. She couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t relax with these knots in her stomach.
A few glasses of champagne later and she was significantly less wound up, but the exhaustion of the past twenty-four hours was crashing down on her like a freight train.
The more distinguished guests disappeared once they’d docked back at the marina, leaving a younger, energetic crowd, who seemed to be only just getting started on their evening of partying.
Just as she began to wonder if anyone would notice if she slipped away to bed, she felt two warm hands slide around her waist from behind.
‘I think it’s time for me to take my fiancée home,’ Valerio said, addressing the small gathering of remaining guests over her shoulder.
‘No, I can go alone. You should stay—’ She turned towards him, gently removing his hands from their possessive grip on her hips.
He simply tightened his hold, a low chuckle coming from deep in his throat as he leaned down, his lips so close to her ear it sent another eruption of shivers down her spine.
‘That’s not how a newly engaged couple should behave. At least try to act like you can’t wait to get me to bed,’ he said quietly, and then he raised his voice to address their remaining guests. ‘I believe Falco mentioned wanting to host an after-party back at his place—isn’t that right?’
Tristan Falco, who had been sitting with a beautiful blonde actress, stood up, a teasing smile on his lips. ‘Considering I’ve just put in an order for one of these wonderful vessels, I think I’ll stay on board tonight—if that’s all right with you?’
‘Stay as long as you need.’ Dani smiled. ‘If you have any problems, I’ll be sleeping just down—’
‘She’ll be unavailable because we’re going home.’ Valerio cut across her, one hand caressing her shoulder as he spoke. ‘Please take your time and enjoy the rest of your night.’
With barely a moment to protest, Dani felt herself deftly manoeuvred away from the group and across the empty entertainment deck.
‘Valerio, I’m not going home with you. For goodness’ sake...all my things are here,’ she finished weakly, a mixture of champagne bubbles and exhaustion weighing heavily on her brain’s ability to function.
‘I’ve already had them moved to my villa.’
She paused at the edge of the dance floor, narrowing her eyes up at him. ‘I get it that I should be grateful that you’re helping me. But the next time you decide to organise something that involves my active participation and my personal things, I’d appreciate if you clear it with me first.’
‘Dani...’
He began to protest, but she’d suddenly had enough of talking for the night. She stepped around him, moving down the lamplit ramp and into the dark confines of his chauffeur-driven car before he could see how completely unravelled she’d become.
If silence was a weapon, Daniela Avelar wielded it with damning precision. Valerio had spent the entire drive from the marina to his coastal villa on edge as she faced away from him. He’d expected her outrage at his heavy-handed behaviour, but this passive silence was something he had never experienced from her. It was unnerving. They still had things to discuss about their arrangement.
Once they were safely inside the foyer, he steeled himself for a showdown—but his housekeeper appeared and offered to show her to her room. Dani practically ran up the stairs away from him before he could wish her goodnight.
He fought the urge to follow her, to force her to meet his eyes. To acknowledge him in some way. They were about to be married, for goodness’ sake, and she was acting as if he was some kind of villain, trying to take away her freedom. Didn’t she see that everything he’d done had been with her at the forefront of his consideration?
And then there was that kiss...
He shook his head. He wasn’t going to think about the kiss. They’d both known it was just a part of the act they were putting on. It wasn’t her fault that he’d responded as he had...like a starving man with his first taste of sustenance... He’d wanted to devour her.
His body responded to the memory so powerfully that he jumped when his phone began to ring and shook him from his erotic thoughts. Looking at the number on the screen, he steeled himself for more bad news.
The call from his private investigations team took less than five minutes and told him everything he’d already suspected. Someone on the board at Velamar had applied for Duarte’s death certificate without any clearance from him.
He felt a sick twist of nausea in his gut at the realisation that someone close to Velamar was behind all this. He remembered the look in Angelus Fiero’s eyes as he’d moved away from Daniela on that darkened deck earlier. How pale she’d looked. He needed to share this information with her...ask her if Fiero had mentioned anything suspicious.
He thanked his housekeeper as she locked up for the night, then shrugged off his jacket and folded it over a nearby chair before climbing the stairs. To his surprise, the door to the main guest room was slightly open, a glow of golden light shining out onto the darkened hallway. She was still up.
He paused outside. He needed to press her further about Fiero... He had a feeling that there was something she wasn’t telling him. And it had nothing to do with wanting to ask her why she had kissed him back so passionately. Or the fact that the memory of the way her fingers had slid up through his hair refused to shift from his mind.
He knocked once on the door, opening it a little more, then froze as he took in the sight before him. Dani sat fully dressed on the chaise in the corner of the room, her tablet computer glowing on her lap but her head thrown back at an angle in peaceful sleep.
Guilt assailed him; she probably hadn’t got much sleep with all the dramatics the night before. She must have been exhausted and yet she hadn’t complained once.
She would ache in the morning if he left her in her current position
... He took a few steps closer, clearing his throat in case he startled her. ‘Dani...?’
She didn’t move. She looked as utterly composed in sleep as she did when she was awake—no snores escaped her lips, and even her legs were tucked perfectly to one side.
He gently tapped her shoulder, repeating her name once more. She was completely out.
Making a snap decision, he set her computer aside and lifted her from the chaise, depositing her gently on top of the bed. Her eyes drifted open, her hands moving up to touch his face.
‘You kissed me tonight...’ she slurred softly, eyes half closed.
‘I did,’ he said stiffly, removing her hands and pushing her down to the pillows so that he could pull up the bedcovers and leave.
‘I usually hate kissing,’ she mumbled. ‘But you’re really good at it.’
‘You’re not so bad yourself.’
‘It’s okay. I know I’m terrible. I’m awful at everything bedroom-related—it’s a curse of some sort.’ She made a sound halfway between a giggle and a hum.
Valerio froze, staring down at her as he processed her nonsensical words. ‘What makes you think that?’
‘My ex was very honest. Oh, wait—you’re supposed to take off my dress.’ She closed her eyes, raising her arms above her head. ‘I can’t sleep in it. Hermione will kill me.’
‘I draw the line at undressing unconscious women, even to save a designer dress.’
He’d gritted his teeth at her mention of her ex, but now he sucked in a breath as her hands began pulling at the hem of the dress and moving it upwards. He averted his eyes, steeling himself against the flash of delicious caramel skin in the lamplight. A tiny squeaking sound caught his attention, and he looked back to find her trapped inside a swathe of green fabric, her hands fumbling over her head.
Of course she wore no bra.
Cursing, Valerio pushed her hands away, then gently pulled the gown the rest of the way up over her shoulders and arms. The tension in his body mounted with the effort of trying not to notice the delicious curves revealed with every pull of the fabric. He averted his eyes as much as possible, fighting the flare of heat in his solar plexus at an unavoidable glimpse of a tiny pair of lacy red knickers.
Biting his bottom lip, he quickly covered her with the bedsheet and sat back, his breath coming fast, as if he’d just run a marathon. He was not any better for that three-second sight of her naked breasts. He imagined they would spill over his palms, perfect twin globes, with dusky tips just begging to be kissed. His heartbeat thundered in his ears, a fine sheen of sweat was forming on his brow, and his blood pressure was likely rising through the roof.
But then Dani sighed, and he couldn’t stop himself from looking down at her as she stretched out like a cat in sunshine. He had never seen her so still. The woman was a force of nature—always on the move. He wondered when she’d last taken a vacation, or even a day off.
He eased back, planning to slip out, but she opened her eyes again, narrowing them on him.
‘I want to kiss you again.’ She reached for him, her fingertips sloppily tracing the column of his throat where his shirt hung open.
‘I can’t tell if you’re drunk from too much champagne or overtiredness.’ He tried to ignore the rush of pleasure her words gave him, knowing that the sober Daniela would be mortified. ‘I need to go.’
‘Don’t leave me.’ She opened her eyes more fully, their whisky-gold depths suddenly shimmering. ‘Just lie here for a little while.’
Valerio felt the air in his lungs go cold at the vulnerability in her eyes. He had only ever seen her cry once, in the entire time they had known one another.
He sat back down on the bed, taking her hand in his and pressing her fingers to his lips. ‘I’ll stay a moment if you promise to sleep.’
Her eyes drifted closed and she sighed, the evidence of her sadness trailing from the corner of her eyes and down her cheeks. ‘Everyone always leaves...’ she whispered, half asleep.
Valerio felt something deep inside him crack at the pain in her words and he reached down to wipe the moisture from her cheek. He closed his eyes, inhaling once before looking down at her sleeping form. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’
He shed his shoes, wincing at the stiffness in his injured leg as he lay back on the bed alongside her sleeping form. His fiancée had revealed far more tonight than she would likely have preferred.
He thought of her words—‘my ex was very honest’. His fists tightened by his sides and he resisted the urge to wake her and demand to know exactly what her idiotic English lawyer ex had said. He had never met the man, couldn’t even recall his name, but he had heard enough from Duarte to know that Dani deserved more.
Still, the violence of his outrage on her behalf was enough to stop him in his tracks. But it was entirely appropriate for him to feel protective towards the woman he’d vowed to protect, wasn’t it?
There had been nothing ‘appropriate’ about his reaction to their kiss earlier. Nothing innocent or protective in the way he’d fought the urge to haul her towards him and devour her. Claim her as his own in front of the entire party—including Tristan Falco.
But he knew that he was not the kind of man she deserved, either. She needed someone whole. Someone who didn’t abandon her and keep secrets. He had always been happy to live the life of a bachelor, thinking that maybe one day he might settle down. But now he knew that day would never come.
He wasn’t built for family life the way his father and brother were. The Marchesi men were known for their reliable leadership and level-headedness. Somehow Valerio seemed to have missed out on that genetic component and that had always been fine with him. He was the wild one...the joker.
Cursing under his breath, he closed his eyes and saw again Daniela’s golden gaze meeting his as he slid that ring onto her finger. For that split second she hadn’t looked as if she hated him quite as much.
They both knew that even if it was only a legal arrangement this marriage needed to look real. Neither of them could afford any bad press, and the distraction of their supposed romance would work in their favour. He needed to make sure she understood what that meant. He needed to know she understood that while she might deserve better, for now he was the only man she would be seen with.
Forcing himself to look away from her sleeping form, he rested his head back against the pillows. He would stay until he was sure she was asleep—surely he owed her that much?
Not for the first time since he had woken up to see her furious form twenty-four hours before, he wondered how on earth his life had become so complicated.
Dani awoke with the most painful headache of her entire life, inwardly cursing whoever had thought endless flutes of champagne was a good idea—then realised that it had, in fact, been her. She rolled over in the bed, freezing, and realised she was wearing only her underwear. Not only that—she wasn’t alone in bed.
Valerio lay on his back, one arm behind his head as he slept. Fuzzy memories of him helping her to bed came to her, making her flush with embarrassment. She had practically ordered him to take her clothes off and then begged him to stay. Good grief, had she really told him about the things Kitt had said to her?
She stared at his sleeping form for a long while, noting the deep frown line between his brows and the sharp staccato of his breathing. There was nothing peaceful about the way this man slept—it was as though he were in pain. Even as she watched, he kicked out one leg at some invisible form, and a deep rumble sounded from his chest.
She sat up, clutching the covers to her bare breasts, and laid one hand on his chest. His hand shot up to grab hers so fast she jumped with fright.
It seemed one moment she was staring at him, the next he was gripping her shoulders painfully tight and pushing her onto her back. He loomed over her, caging her with his arms, and for a moment she felt a flash of unease at the zoned-o
ut look in his eyes.
She pushed at his chest, feeling the silk of his shirt and the heat of his hard muscles under her fingers. It was like trying to shift a hulking great pillar of marble. Had he always been this physically defined? She tried to find words, only managing a tiny gasp in the tense silence.
He watched her through hooded eyes, barely controlled violence in the tension of his shoulders. But when she let out a small whimper from the force of his grip, something finally seemed to shift in his eyes, as if he had only just awoken.
‘Dannazione...never touch me while I sleep,’ he rasped.
‘You...you’re the one in my bed.’ She pursed her lips, all too aware of her lack of clothing and the intimacy of their position. The thin sheet was the only thing covering her body from his gaze.
Her mind went back two nights, to when he’d attacked her bodyguards on his yacht in Genoa. He had been awoken from sleep then too. His eyes had been wild and unfocused, as though he had been possessed.
‘Did I hurt you?’ he asked quietly, his eyes scanning the bare skin of her arms as though he expected to see something terrible there.
She watched as he swept his fingers up her arms, seeing the faint red skin on her shoulders from his grip. He tucked his fingers under her chin, gently tilting her face up to look at him.
‘No, you were just startled. It’s fine,’ she said shakily. ‘I’m fine.’
His head momentarily sagged against her, his forehead pressing gently on her collarbone as he let out a long, shaky breath.
‘Do you see now? This is why I stayed away for so long. Every damn time I feel like I’m getting it all under control...’
She felt every breath he took fanning gently against her skin. It was shockingly intimate.
The Vows He Must Keep (Mills & Boon Modern) (The Avelar Family Scandals, Book 1) Page 6
