Italian Boss, Proud Miss Prim
Page 14
‘So what would it take to bend you to my will?’ he suggested wickedly.
‘A miracle?’ she countered, deliberately provoking him.
‘A miracle?’ he murmured. ‘Or this…’
He claimed her mouth, teasing her lips apart—punishing her with kisses. As she responded he cupped her bottom and memories of sensation came streaming back. Was it only last night? How could she be so hungry? This wasn’t decent—she would go mad. She was composed of sensation and need, she was all hunger, all mindless, searching, craving, desire. ‘Oh, please…’
Briefly, he lifted his head to stare down at her.
‘Please, touch me…’ She was so swollen and aching. Winding her fingers through his hair, she dragged him close, demanding more, demanding everything he had to give her.
‘Is this any way to behave?’ he whispered with amusement.
‘Now…’ She cried out with frustration. ‘Don’t tease me…’ Edging her legs apart, she gave him the most brazen invitation yet. She had to have him. She had to draw him deep inside her. It was a primitive imperative she had no will to resist. Her inhibitions were cancelled out by the demands of a body that craved his touch. She needed more contact, more touching and stroking, more pleasure. Memories from last night were too vivid for her to ignore this opportunity.
‘Tell me what you want,’ he taunted her softly. ‘Direct me…’
‘I want all of you now…’
‘Explain.’ His voice was stern. He held back.
‘I want you to touch me again.’ She said this in a clear and lucid voice. ‘I want you to touch me exactly as you did before…’
‘Exactly?’
‘But this time I don’t want you to stop.’
There were no more words spoken between them. Rigo undid the fastening on her skirt and let it drop to the floor. Her new lace briefs followed. She closed her eyes as he enclosed the luscious swell between her legs. The touch of him there was indescribable.
‘More,’ she insisted in a groan, clinging helplessly to him. ‘Give me more—’
‘Like this?’
‘Oh, yes…’
But he was teasing her with almost touches. He would stroke her deliberately the way she liked and then return to a touch that was far too light.
‘Don’t tease me,’ she begged, and as her legs buckled he took her weight.
Somehow her legs were locked around his waist, and as he freed himself and protected them both, he insisted, ‘Use me.’
She gasped with shock as if the idea had never occurred to her. Rigo had given her the key to a new world, and one she had been longing to open since the moment they met. Taking him in her hands while he supported her, she touched him to her swollen flesh.
‘Again,’ he commanded.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
SHE used Rigo for her pleasure, not once, but many times, although there came a point where using him that way wasn’t enough. As her hunger rose Rigo backed her against the wall. ‘Yes,’ she groaned, clinging to him. ‘Yes,’ she husked gratefully on a long note of satisfaction as he eased inside her. Still cupping her buttocks with one hand, he added to her pleasure with the other and as he thrust deeper, faster, she arced towards him, urging him on with impassioned pleas. She had never thought, dreamed anything could feel so good, but this was more than a craving; for the first time in her life she felt complete.
He had never known sex like it. She was insatiable. She was passionate. She was perfect. But for him this was only the appetiser and now he wanted the feast. He wanted to take Katie to bed and make love to her all night.
He had lost count of how many times she had climaxed by the time he withdrew. He did so carefully, making sure she was steady on her feet when he lowered her to the ground. Embracing her, once, twice, his heart throbbed with unexplored feelings. The next step had to be bed, but to his astonishment when he suggested it she pushed him away. ‘Not again.’ He shook his head, refusing to believe she could do this a second time.
‘I can’t—’
‘What do you mean, you can’t?’ Drawing her close, he kissed her passionately, tenderly, but she wouldn’t or couldn’t respond. It made no sense. Anger grew inside him. She wanted him for sex—for instant gratification, but when it came to something deeper, more meaningful…
He had been used. A surge of disgust swept over him. Had he misjudged this? Was it all an act? Was Katie Bannister in love with someone else? He stepped back. Seeing his expression change, she reached out to him. ‘Rigo, please—you have to believe me when I say there’s a very good reason—’
‘For sating yourself and moving on?’ He shook his head in disbelief. He had only felt this level of betrayal once before, as a child whose pure love had been wasted on a man whose lust for a woman had taken precedence over love for his only son. ‘Give me the key.’
Fumbling through her pockets, she finally found the door key and gave it to him.
Clutching it in his fist, he left the spa without a second glance.
As the door slammed behind Rigo Katie slowly crumpled to the floor. Burying her head, she sobbed in a way she hadn’t been able to cry since the fire. She had never grieved for what she’d lost. She had never let the feelings inside her come out. Only her love for Rigo could open those floodgates. She had never felt anything as life-changing as this before—or directed so much loathing at her scars. She was crying because they could never be together and because sometimes it was easier to be strong than to break down, because being strong meant putting on an act, but when the mask dropped and there was just Katie Bannister facing up to her new life Katie wondered if she was strong enough or if too much had been lost.
Strong enough? Dry your eyes this minute, Katie’s inner voice commanded.
Picking herself up from the cold tiles, she rebuilt herself breath by ragged breath. There was no reprieve, no easy way, because deep inside her was a determined little light that kept on shining however hard she tried to put it out. She would get over this. She would get over Rigo. She would go on living. Scarred or not, she knew there would always be problems. She could sit here on a hard floor in an empty spa, wailing for a past that had whistled away, or she could pick up her mental armour and go back into battle.
Which was it to be—wailing or winning?
She would do more than survive; she would make a difference.
‘What’s this?’ Rigo stared at the letter Katie had just placed in his hand. They were in the library where she had found him pacing.
After what had happened in the spa she had no option but to do this. ‘It’s my resignation…You don’t have to accept it, but I’ll understand if you do.’
‘That’s very good of you.’ He eyed her brown suit with distaste. ‘So, are we right back where we started, Signorina Bannister?’
‘Hardly.’ She had barely finished the denial when Rigo’s look communicated all he thought of her in wounding detail.
‘I don’t accept your resignation.’ He handed the letter back. ‘You agreed to stay until I could find a replacement.’
‘That was before—’
‘Before what?’ he snapped.
She looked away, unable to meet his gaze.
‘As you may be aware, I haven’t had time to find a replacement for you yet. So I’d be grateful if you’d stay.’
He sounded so cold, so distant and, yes, so contemptuous. She flinched as he threw himself from his chair and stalked to the window, where he remained with his back turned to her, staring out. ‘If I weren’t so pushed…’ he grated out, leaving Katie in no doubt that he would get rid of her the moment he could.
‘I could resign. I still have my open ticket home—’
‘You can do what the hell you want—and seem to do just that, from what I’ve observed.’ Rigo’s eyes were narrowed with fury and suspicion as he looked at her.
‘I’m sorry—’
‘Don’t even go there.’
‘You don’t make it easy, Rigo.’
Turn her back on him for ever? Face life with no possibility of seeing Rigo again? ‘Is there any way we can work together now?’
‘You tell me.’
Could he sound any more hostile? ‘If we kept it on a strictly business footing?’
‘Let me assure you right away there’s no chance of anything else.’
Less than an hour ago there had been fire in those eyes. And now…
Digging her nails into her palms, she agreed to stay on. ‘If you tell me what the job entails.’
‘That’s very good of you.’
‘Rigo, please…I’ve said I’m sorry—’
‘You’re always sorry—maybe once too often.’
‘I understand why you’re angry with me—’
As she said this he made a sharp sound of disbelief. ‘You understand nothing,’ Rigo assured her. ‘You’re a child.’
And he, with all his Roman passion in full flood, was a formidable sight. She had never wanted him more or felt so distanced from him. Feet braced against the floor, fists planted on his tightly muscled hips, Rigo Ruggiero was a force she should run from as fast as she could before her heart was lost for good. ‘If you won’t accept my resignation—’
‘Which I won’t. We have an agreement,’ he reminded her.
‘Then will you tell me what you plan for the palazzo?’
‘Do you really think I should trust you after what happened between us—not once, but twice?’
If they couldn’t move past the sex there was no hope of a working relationship and if she was going to stay she had to do so with her head held high. The only way to do this was not to blush and shrink, but to challenge Rigo as he had challenged her. ‘You threw down the gauntlet when you dared me to take a risk. I’m throwing that same gauntlet at your feet. Take a chance on me.’
Where had she come from, this female virago? Had he created her or were they equally guilty? Did they rouse such powerful feelings in each other that neither of them were capable of behaving as they should? He pointed to a chair. She sat while he paced. He was weighing up the potential of the palazzo for the scheme he had in mind—a scheme that would benefit his foundation—against his obligation to secrecy. Should he trust this woman? Could he trust her? What did his instinct tell him? ‘I’m going to outline your contract,’ he said, ‘so if you would like to take a note…’
She hid a smile. He let it go. He dictated a letter to his legal team asking them to draw up a contract for Katie Bannister that gave her cast-iron guarantees.
She turned to look at him halfway through. ‘I can’t sign anything until I—’
He swore viciously in Italian. ‘Must you argue every point? I want you to send the letter exactly as I have dictated it—’
‘Don’t I have any say in my own contract of employment?’
‘Yes.’ He was tired of playing softball. ‘You can sign it or not. You can go back to Yorkshire and look for another job, if that’s what you want, but I don’t think it is. Am I right?’
She ground her jaw and came right back at him. ‘I want a clause that allows for a time limit and fair notice to be given on either side—’
‘A quick fix?’ he suggested coldly. ‘Is that the type of thing you deal in, Signorina Bannister?’
‘Please don’t turn me down out of hand. Try to see this from my point of view—’
His hackles stood on end. ‘From your point of view? Isn’t all this from your point of view? And what do you mean, don’t turn you down out of hand? Caro Dio, what is this? I’m the one making the offer—’
‘And making no allowance for my feelings—’
‘You have too many feelings,’ he roared, only to realise she was in tears. ‘Don’t play that card with me,’ he warned, shaken to his core. ‘I know your type—’
‘My type?’ she exploded, rallying faster than he could ever have expected. ‘And what type would that be, Rigo?’
They were facing each other like combatants in a ring, but indignation gave way to amusement when it occurred to him that to any outsider Katie would appear by far the more dangerous of the two. With her hands balled into fists, her jaw jutting and mouth firm, her eyes blazing with the light of battle she was a magnificent sight, this woman of his—
His woman?
His woman.
The only woman he could ever want.
But his woman hadn’t finished with him yet. Not by a long way.
‘So I’m the type who can see you naked in a pool and make the mistake of thinking we could share something special—’ She broke off. ‘Oh, no, I forgot.’ She held up her hand as if to silence him, though he had no intention of saying a word. He was content to let her continue this one-way argument with herself and by herself.
‘I’m the woman who had sex up against a wall, and felt nothing, presumably? I’m a robot—an automaton.’ Her voice was rising. ‘I’m a frigid, sexless, boring spinster—’
‘Hardly frigid,’ he cut in mildly.
She made a sound like an angry bear, which made it all the harder for him to hide his smile.
Forget all things sexual? That had been her plan. She should have known Rigo would make this hard for her. His confidence was obvious in the way his lips tugged in anticipation of victory, as if nothing she could say would have the slightest effect on his arrogant assumption that she would sign his wretched contract without alteration or complaint. How dared he look at her and smile? How dared he use that look to stir erotic thoughts?
But—and it was a big but—he was offering her the chance to do something exciting and different. Living in Italy was that, even if she didn’t know the precise detail yet. Had she come all this way in attitude and distance only to wimp out now? She’d pin him down and then she’d decide. Drawing herself up, which brought her—well, almost to his shoulder, she suggested, ‘Can we sit down and talk?’
Could they? He kept his expression carefully neutral.
A negotiation beckoned. Now that he’d woken the tiger inside Katie Bannister, there was no way he wanted to see her vulnerable again. This was his type of woman. The type of woman he would like working alongside him, he amended. Katie Bannister had passed the interview process with flying colours and was definitely the type of feisty, focused individual his foundation needed on the board.
She was sitting at the desk, waiting for him. He leaned his hip against it and looked down. She looked too, but not into his eyes. Not that he was any measure of propriety and chaste thought. ‘I’m going to tell you everything,’ he said, reclaiming her attention. ‘The club I run—’
‘The club?’ she interrupted, snapping into attack mode. ‘I would never leave England for Italy to work in a club, Rigo. I’m sorry,’ she said, standing up, ‘but I really don’t think there’s any point in continuing this conversation—’
He cut her off at the door, one fist pressed against it. ‘Now you listen to me.’ His gaze dropped to her lips.
‘And if I won’t?’
He might kiss her?
Mild eyes flashed fire. ‘Let me go, Rigo…’ She rattled the door handle.
‘Not until you tell me what you’re hiding.’
‘What I’m hiding?’
But her eyes told him clearly that she was. ‘I know you’re hiding something; you’re not leaving here until I know what it is.’
‘I’m your prisoner?’
He allowed himself a smile. ‘If you like.’
Her jaw worked and then she said, ‘All right—but not here, not now. Please, Rigo, let’s sort out one thing at a time.’
He ground his jaw as she stared unflinchingly into his eyes. Questions competed in his mind. Why the pretence? Why had she pulled back, not once, but twice when they were so heavily into pleasure? Katie had no difficulty enjoying sex. It was anything deeper she shied away from. So what
was Katie Bannister hiding from? Him? Men in general? Everyone? He had to remind himself how much she would benefit his foundation if he kept this rigidly confined to business. ‘Please sit down again,’ he said.
She still looked unsure. He could hear her thinking, work in a club? ‘Before you jump ship you should make sure you’re not jumping to conclusions. I’m going to tell you about my club and I’m asking you to hear me out. I think you’ll be glad if you do—’
‘So you trust me now?’
‘As much as you trust me. Shall we?’ He angled his chin towards the chair at the opposite side of the desk. He didn’t turn to see if she was following; something told him she would be. Katie couldn’t resist a challenge any more than he could and her curiosity was fully roused.
She walked towards him with her head held high until there was just the desk between them. Resting her fingertips on the edge, she remained standing. Leaning forward to make her point, she said, ‘When I was a girl saving up to go to music college I checked coats and served drinks and I considered myself lucky to have a job in a club, but that was then and, at the risk of sounding ungrateful, I don’t want to—’
‘Pole dance?’ he suggested dryly. ‘Why don’t you sit down, listen to what I have to say first and then give me the lecture?’
‘On one condition—’
‘Name it.’
‘You take me seriously?’
‘Believe me, I do take you seriously.’ He would like to take her very seriously indeed and the only reason he hadn’t taken the relationship to the next level was that Katie was holding him off.
Pulling out the chair, she sat down. ‘I promise to hear you out.’
He ignored the rush of interest in his groin and concentrated on the scrapbook in front of him. He spun it round so it was facing her. ‘This is my club…’
She went very still as she turned the pages and then she looked at him.
He shrugged. What could he say? This was his life’s work, and had been the only thing he cared about and worked for…up to now. The fact that he had never forgotten his roots, or that by assisting these children he was not only helping them but also somehow healing the child he had once been, was his concern, and his alone. The fact that he was sharing this with Katie was a measure of his respect for her. She must stay, and not because revealing this had bared his soul. He knew his secret would be safe with her, but he wanted her to stay because he couldn’t imagine life without her. She was a remarkable woman, this self-effacing, quiet, kind girl, and he knew he would never meet anyone like her again.