Her elbow slipped off the desk, bouncing her awake. This was ridiculous! She rang to ask housekeeping for a double espresso in the hope of waking herself up. It might have worked, if she hadn’t decided to move out of the direct line of the late sun streaming through the windows. She went over to sit on her enormous feather bed to drink it. The deep, downy softness of it was so comfortable and relaxing after racing through the streets all day that not even coffee could keep her from sliding gently into sleep…
Luca phoned down their order for dinner, but his mind wasn’t on the job. He even forgot his own rule about only eating food in season. Thoughts of Beth were filling his mind so completely his chef had to ask him if he really wanted fresh asparagus in autumn.
The way she looked at him today was so different from the feral mischief he had known in Balacha. All the fun had evaporated from her. She’d become so serious. Those big blue eyes were trusting now, rather than wicked. And the way her small, neat hand flew across the paper as she noted everything he had told her was amazing. He never imagined she could work so hard. It was as though she really meant it, when she said she wanted a real career. She was trusting him to teach her everything. After seeing the way she worked, he was beginning to wonder if it would be enough. It wouldn’t be long before she would have to move on, in search of paper qualifications. That would take money she didn’t have at the moment. Luca guessed she wouldn’t accept it from him, unless he put the case properly. She had tried to stop him buying that rug, after all, and the thing had cost less than a thousand Euros.
His conscience had been uneasy for a while, but today it was unbearable. There was only one thing to be done. He would go to her room now and explain that his impulsive offer to teach her might not be the best way for her to learn. She deserved a formal education. That needed money, and he was the man to provide it.
What’s the worst that can happen if I offer to help? he thought, but still hesitated. Beth was a proud woman. She would probably grab her things and storm out.
Luca considered the consequences of that—he’d be losing touch with her again, after she had started to show such promise…
Another sudden spasm in his back reminded him of Balacha. So what if she does walk out on me? Easy come, easy go, he told himself. And this time I’ll be in the comfort of my own apartment, rather than under fire in some God-forsaken corner of a foreign airfield. I’ve said goodbye to her once, and if it happens again…well…
He took his time getting to Beth’s suite. He half hoped to find her engrossed in one of her new glossy magazines, rather than working on one of the tasks he had set her. That would make her feel guilty, which would take some of the pressure off him. They would both be starting at a disadvantage.
Tapping on the door, he thought he heard a welcoming call. Opening it, he went inside and realised his mistake straight away. Beth’s lounge was deserted, but the CD was playing. Still expecting to catch her shirking rather than studying, Luca moved silently to the open door of her bedroom. He was ready with a quick remark about slacking, but forgot it the instant he looked into her room.
Beth was curled on her side, fast asleep. Luca stopped. When he saw what she had been doing, he could not resist moving closer. He was enchanted. Her head was pillowed on one of the books he had given her. Far from wasting time as he imagined, she must have dropped off while working. Luca watched, hardly daring to breathe in case it disturbed her. The curtains fluttered in a breeze and her skin rippled with the chill it brought. Silently, he fetched a blanket from the nearest armoire. After laying it lightly over her, he eased the textbook from beneath her head, a millimetre at a time. He thought he had got away with it, but at the last moment Beth stirred and whispered his name with such feeling he stopped and caught his breath.
There was no way on earth he could resist her now.
It was a wonderful, unforgettable, heart-stopping mirage of a dream. Luca came to her through the darkness, bringing that well-loved feeling of warmth rushing through her body once more. She felt the familiar urge low in her belly as her muscles tensed with excitement. He rolled her over in the bed, holding her so tightly she plunged straight over the waterfall of orgasm. Helpless, all she could do was gasp his name, over and over again…
She opened her eyes. The dream vanished, but Luca was still there. He was fully clothed and standing beside her bed rather than naked and lying in it, but he was as gorgeous as ever.
‘Luca! What are you doing here?’ she squeaked, pink with confusion. Snatching up handfuls of bedclothes for cover, Beth threw herself over to the far side of the bed. Fantasy Luca was one thing—but to wake up with him bending over her…For an instant, dreams and reality mingled and she didn’t know which to believe. It was as though she could still feel the caress of his lips on her cheek.
She touched the place Luca had kissed in her dream. It was burning like fire.
‘I had to move this…’
Luca gestured to the workbook he had rescued and placed it on the table beside her. When he looked up she was caught in his gaze. He was poised, and she knew he was waiting for her. No language in the world could possibly convey the need and desire of that moment. Their minds and fantasies met and melded in silence. Too many words had passed between them already.
She shivered, and it broke the spell. Silently he turned away and went over to close the window. As she watched him Beth caught sight of herself in a mirror. What she saw there made her gasp. Her eyes were as large and dark as his, and there was a dewy glow on her skin. That only came from the sort of sex she had been dreaming about. For another wonderful, terrible moment she wondered if Luca had managed to ravish her as she slept. The idea made her smile. It was unthinkable. No woman could sleep while Luca was around! From behind her bundle of bedcovers, she became acutely aware of the warm perfume rising from her body. Beth’s dream had seduced her into expecting a real-life encounter. When Luca padded back, she was ready. She dropped her defence and accepted him into her arms. His body enfolded her. They fitted together perfectly, as always.
‘Let me warm you, carissima.’
His pupils were huge. A smile began playing around his lips, teasing her almost beyond endurance. As he held her against his body she could feel he was as physically aroused as she was.
She could hardly breathe with the excitement of it all. Her palms were damp, but she didn’t care. She was in Luca’s arms, and nothing else mattered. If only this moment could go on for ever…The suspense was wonderful and terrible at the same time. Would he walk away from her again? Would he stay? All the unspoken questions beaded her lashes.
His hands swept up to cup her head. And when he kissed her all her doubts and fears seemed a million miles away.
CHAPTER NINE
THEIR kiss was ten thousand times better than her wildest dreams. He overwhelmed her, and Beth was only too willing. Waking from her fantasy, she found that reality exceeded it. When Luca broke contact with her lips, he only stopped kissing her for long enough to murmur:
‘Beth…cara…tesoro…how have I managed to resist you for so long?’
His voice had the husky depth of a testosterone rush. Beth knew she had to make a gesture for the sake of her self-esteem, but it could be nothing more than a token. The only barrier remaining between them was her fear of rejection. It was going to fall any second. Then her heart, soul and mind would be wide open for Luca to do exactly as he wanted.
‘You took a risk, Luca,’ she whispered, almost shyly. ‘How did you know I wouldn’t scream blue murder?’
He threaded her golden hair through his fingers, caressing her. ‘You looked totally irresistible. How could you expect me to turn and walk away from such temptation, laid out before me? And we both know from experience exactly how good things can be between us. The need to be adored is so strong in you, it can’t be hidden by anything else.’
The smoky quality of his accent thickened to the texture of wild Maccia honey: rich, sweet and full of the memory of sum
mer.
Beth knew his touch came at a price, but she no longer cared. The same wisdom that made her desperate for him also warned she would be nothing more than his next conquest. Still she could not resist.
She would only be the latest in a long line. She had known that from the moment she’d seen him again. He makes love to them all, but loves none of them. Getting into his bed will be no real triumph for me, she thought bleakly. It will be sex played as a game to his rules, as always.
He moved against her, making no attempt to hide the ridge of his masculinity. Beth found it impossible to concentrate on anything else. With a superhuman effort, she managed to murmur something to remind them of the leap they were about to take.
‘But you’re the managing director of Francesco Fine Arts. I’m only your temporary PA. This must break every rule in the book—’ she managed faintly.
Luca was unfazed. ‘It’s my company. I’m the one who makes the rules,’ he said smoothly. ‘I want you, Beth, right here and now. And I’m going to have you.’
Where she could think only of love, she new he focussed on sensations. And yet…She had been yearning for his touch constantly for five years. This would be a way of experiencing it, one last time. Here was a chance to recapture everything life could be, if only she could grab the moment.
But my heart will always want so much more…she thought. She tried to swallow and speak, but her mouth was dry.
Luca paused, but only until he realised Beth was in no state to reply. Then he continued, in a voice soft with seduction.
‘This was bound to happen in the end, carissima. There is no need to fight it.’
He arched his eyebrows in silent invitation and, as always, was in no mood to wait. He plundered another incredible kiss, and her final defences crumbled. She was all his. Her smooth, curvaceous luxury was soft beneath his hands. He had craved this for so long, after sending her away from Balacha. No woman had come close to satisfying him since then. No woman could match Beth, either in temptation or performance. There could be none better.
He’d proved it to himself dozens of times, but until this moment she had been nothing but a painful memory to him. Now she was here in his arms again, he could put reality to the ultimate test. Surely she could never be as good in bed as he remembered? This one emotionless burst of lust was calculated to satisfy his body, while easing his mind. Their kiss after the party had proved he could still resist her if he wanted to, but right now he didn’t want to. He was determined to have his way with her one last time. Then he could get on with his life.
He would cleanse himself of Beth Woodbury.
Beth’s mind was in free fall. All her worries had vanished under the pressure of his first, mind-altering kiss. Now he was in complete control of her body. She was in heaven. His fingers ran over her skin, setting light to every nerve ending. She tingled with anticipation, willing him to fly her higher, to a place where pleasure became almost too much to bear. She pressed her naked body against his clothed one, revelling in the friction of his cotton shirt and leather belt against her skin.
‘I thought you would never ask for this,’ she breathed.
‘You should know by now I take what I want. I don’t need to ask.’ He clamped one hand on her bottom while the other fastened on her shoulder. She was pinned to him like a butterfly, prized by a collector.
‘Not that you’re putting up much resistance,’ he growled into her hair. ‘Go on, fight me if you dare.’
His laughing challenge inspired her. Arching her back, Beth twisted in his grasp. He was not about to let her go, and they wrestled with a kiss full of the fierce joy of life. Lissom as a seal, she brought her body up, tempting him to lift her off the ground.
‘No—onto the bed,’ he ordered. Waiting until she settled provocatively on the spun silk of the duvet, he eased his body down next to hers. Then his kisses consumed her with fire, teasing her face and neck before encircling her breasts with a million stars of arousal. With a cry her head fell forward, her golden hair cascading and mingling with his raven waves as she curled her body around his and dug her fingers into the fine white fabric beneath his shirt. The cotton hissed as she dragged her nails across it in an ecstasy of delight.
‘Please—Take it off,’ she moaned, scrabbling to try and push her hands up beneath it. The crushing pressure of Luca’s palms stopped her.
‘I’m the one who decides when to do that,’ his voice rumbled softly.
With one hand he grabbed the remote control for the curtains from her bedside table. A single keystroke sent the green velvet drapes swishing over the windows. Beth’s room was transformed into a shadowy palace of secrets. Only a little sunlight filtered through, giving the room an air of underwater mystery. Dropping the remote, Luca began using both hands on her again. Gently appreciating her with the tips of his fingers, he stroked every inch as though her delicate skin held the promise of peaches. She revelled in his attention until the need to experience his body got the better of her. She reached for the buttons of his shirt but his hands dropped over hers, crushing them again.
‘No. It’s you who I want to be naked in this bed,’ he murmured. His breath hissed with suppressed sexuality.
In seconds, her fingers loosened his belt. He was already hot and hard beneath her hands. When she worshipped him with the warm insistence of her mouth, he responded with a moan wrenched from the very core of his being.
His fingers traced the outline of her face, lingering over the soft pleasure of her lips. She moved, and caught his thumb between her teeth. Nibbling her way along the skin at the side of his hand, she reached the soft sprinkling of dark hair beginning at his wrist. It held the sweet fragrance of his body and she paused to inhale as Luca rolled on top of her. He knew how much she enjoyed the weight of him bearing down on her. With a fierce kiss of possession he compressed the hardness of his body against hers. She responded, pushing upwards to caress the most delicate parts of her body against him. Feeling her arousal grow, he dipped his head and took the peak of her nipple between his teeth, grazing it gently until she shuddered with anticipation. Her hands swept down to grip his hips. As she held him he rolled again, pulling her over on top of him so he could carry on caressing her bottom in the way she loved. Beth was hungry for his body. She wanted to savour it in every way. She swivelled her body around so she could pay more attention to his towering maleness. There was nothing Luca loved more than the sensation of her tongue playing over him, her kisses teasing him into a thrashing frenzy of arousal.
‘Nobody does this as well as you…I was so wrong to think they could.’ He sighed. Suddenly, everything was right between them, and always should have been. Beth felt the familiarity of his lust while he revelled in her willingness. The temperature rocketed, their bodies twining and dancing in white-hot desire. First she caressed him with her hair, twining its silken softness around him until he moaned with pleasure. When he could not stand it any more, he caught her shoulders and pulled her up the length of his body. She was as light as air, but the effect of his erection nuzzling against the soft warm folds of her femininity was too much for them both. With a surge of ecstasy their bodies united. Swept along in an eternity of desire, they rode the tidal wave of need together.
Luca exhaled and pushed his hand into the glory of her hair, twining it through his fingers. It was what he always used to do. Beth’s smile faded. Those five painful years divided them. Their worlds had been spinning apart for all that time. She had lost her only chance to love, and he had spent the time discovering new pleasures with dozens of other women. She knew that much from office gossip. There had been no one else for Beth, and never would be. The last waves of pleasure lapping through her body were stilled by the knowledge this was the very last time she would experience such physical satisfaction. No man came within a million miles of Luca. If she could not have him, then she was doomed to live her life alone. She desperately wanted to put her arms around him now and hold him close for these last few momen
ts together. It was impossible. He was sure to mistake the gesture. He would think she was trying to cling onto him. That would send him leaping out of her bed, and Beth wanted to treasure every possible second of his presence. It was so sad to think that keeping her hands off Luca at a time like this was the only way to keep him at her side. Any tiny gesture of affection might repel him.
Disappointment and desire escaped from Beth in one long sigh. ‘It’s such a shame to think we’ll never experience any of this again, Luca.’
He stopped stroking her hair. Gradually, his hand rested a little more weight against the side of her head. And a little more…She held her breath. When he replied, his voice did not have its usual brisk edge.
‘Beth, what we’ve just experienced was far too good to waste.’
Puzzled, she raised herself up on one elbow and looked into his face. He reacted with a wry smile.
‘On this trip, Beth, I want you in my bed every night.’
Beth could hardly believe what she was hearing. He might not be giving her his heart, but just being close to him was something. ‘You mean…we can do this again?’
‘Of course.’
She could have kissed him, but did not dare. She made herself count to ten, slowly. Then she added another ten, desperate not to sound too keen. In Balacha she had made the mistake of giving him an ultimatum—marriage or nothing. Over the intervening years she had cross-examined herself a thousand times, trying to work out where it had all gone wrong. Eventually, she realised Luca was like a wild stallion. To tell him he must be roped and tied by marriage had been so wrong. If she’d used a different approach back then, they might never have parted.
As they lay together in today’s soft shadows, she began to wonder. After all she had done, might there still be a chance for them? If she could manage to treat all this as casually as Luca, he might realise she had changed. He could become curious enough to care, despite the mess she had made of everything in the past. If Beth could convince him she didn’t want to tie him down, he might realise commitment didn’t need to be stifling. But it would mean keeping her desperate need for him under total control. Beth ached to nestle further into his touch, but she was so afraid he might take it the wrong way. Instead, she rolled off his body and backed against the warm security of him. He responded by encircling her with his arms. She smiled into her pillow, but did not move.
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