Dex's strong, masculine hand traced the indentation of her waist, down over her stomach and across her thighs, taking her briefs with it. She shuddered as his long fingers stroked across her inner thigh and tangled in the dark red curls protecting the core of her femininity.
Beth's fingers clenched in his hair and then slowly they unfurled. Her slender arms moved tentatively around his broad back, her fingers tracing the line of his spine. The brush of his chest hair against her sensitised flesh was a sweet agony as his lips moved over her throat and found her parted lips once again.
His mouth closed over hers, his tongue fierce and seeking, and her response was immediate. Her body writhed helplessly beneath him; her hands slid down his back and curved around the tight male buttocks. When had he removed his briefs? She didn't know, and was past caring.
Dex nudged apart her legs and Beth shuddered, and shuddered again as his lips ground against hers in a hungry, rapacious kiss, while his fingers found those other secret lips and teased and tormented the delicate moist flesh again and again.
Never had she known such delicious sensations. His hard male body, the musky smell of sex, the tactile delight she found in touching him, and the incredible quivering in the pit of her belly. Still, a tiny lone voice of sanity told her she must say no. But, God help her, she didn't want to. Her body screamed out to know where his delicious assault would lead.
Beth looked up into his silver eyes, only inches from her own, and her heart stopped; the ferocious gleam of unbridled passion—more a glint of scarcely controlled rage—got through her drugged senses for a second, and she tensed.
Sensing her brief withdrawal, Dex growled, 'No, Beth, not now,' and deliberately rolled over between her thighs. His powerful body trapped her beneath him and his strong hand clasped her shoulders, pinning her to the bed. He reared back, his glance skimming over the length of her, her lush, full breasts. Sliding his hands from her shoulders to her chest, he rolled the turgid peaks between his fingers and thumbs. Then his hands roamed on at will over her burning flesh, the hard rigid length of his manhood pushing against her groin but no further.
Beth looked into his face, her eyes clouded with passion. She saw his sensuous lips quirk in a wickedly determined smile as he slowly lowered himself down upon her, but still he did not claim her. Instead he kissed her love-swollen lips long and hard, his hands still caressing that very secret part of her. Beth's arms curved around his back, her nails sinking into his broad shoulders in mute appeal. She wanted him now, filling her, anything to assuage the red-hot fire that burned through every vein and nerve in her trembling body.
Dex raised his head. 'Whoever you saw earlier certainly did nothing for you,' he grated, masculine triumph edging his tone. Reaching out to the bedside table, he picked up the protection he had placed there. 'I wonder how many other men have seen you like this, with your luscious body begging for them.'
She wanted to say, no one. To tell him the truth. But one hand stroked up deliberately to the engorged tip of her breast, and once more his mouth descended to it. His teeth bit gently, and she jerked helplessly; she was drowning in a sea of sensual delight and only Dex could save her. His mouth once more sought hers, his tongue thrusting, but this time his mighty body picked up the rhythm. He broke the kiss and raised his head, his grey eyes almost black with desire, fixed on her wildly flushed face.
'What do you want, Beth?' He surged against her again, his hard arousal sliding through the soft curls and between her trembling thighs, but still not giving her what her body craved.
'Say it, Beth. . .' A hard sheen of sweat glistened on his tanned skin. 'Say, I want you, Dex.' All the while his glittering eyes seared into hers.
Green eyes wide with wonder and want, she stared up into his face. He had betrayed her, but she loved him so much; she ached for him. Surely she deserved this one night of love. Was it so wrong? Instinctivley, she knew she would never again want a man as she did Dex. Then his hand slid between their two bodies and he touched her intimately again, parting her legs further, sending shock waves crashing though her.
'Please. I want you,' she confessed in a whisper, allowing her instincts to take over. She closed her eyes, her small hand stroking down his shoulder and over his chest, her fingers catching a male nipple, hard like a pebble and buried in lush black curling hair.
'Damn it! My name, Beth. Say my name.' His voice was a deep growl of masculine frustration.
'Dex,' she groaned, and pressed tiny hot kisses on his chest, her small hand stroking down the silky Une of body hair to his flat belly.
Dex caught her hands and pulled them away from him, and, curving his large hands around her bottom, he drove into her with a fierce, thrusting, primeval power.
She felt a knife-like pain and cried out, but his mouth covered hers and swallowed her cry with a voracious kiss. Then, for a moment, he was still.
His molten silver eyes burned into hers and he spoke in a torrent of Italian, not one word of which she understood. But the pain she had felt at his possession had subsided and her muscles tightened around him. This was no forced lovemaking. Dex was right; she had asked him to take her. Then, slowly, he withdrew.
'No, please!' He could not stop now. She moaned, and suddenly she was clinging to him as he moved in her once again, his huge body moving in a hard thrusting rhythm that sent her to the edge of some unknown cataclysmic state.
Then she was crying his name, and tipping over the edge into free-fall, her whole body shattering into a million atoms and, by some miracle, clenching over and over, and reforming again in a shattering climax. She felt Dex's great body shudder convulsively as he found his own release. He collapsed on top of her, his huge frame jerking spasmodically, the rasping note of their breathing the only sound in the stillness of the small bedroom.
Beth did not want to move ever again. Still joined to Dex, she lay and wondered at the miracle she had experienced. None of the books she had read, or any girl- talk, had prepared her for the absolute awesome glory of making love, and she did love Dex. She moved her arms around under his, stroking up his back and hugging him to her. His glorious weight, the heavy pounding of his heart—every move he made was a source of delight to her. For a long time she held him, glorying in her love, completely forgetting the reality of the situation, until suddenly Dex rolled over onto his back.
'I need the bathroom. Where is it?' he grunted.
With his familiar weight gone and his prosaic words, the cold reality of her situation hit her like a bucket of iced water.
'Mine is a tiny apartment. I'm sure a man of your intellect will find it with no trouble.'
'Sarcasm does not become you, Beth.' Dex sat up, his muscular thigh pressed lightly against her side, and her face flamed as he leant over her to drop a swift kiss on her swollen lips. 'Besides, my little innocent, these things are not reusable, and I have a feeling you and I are not finished yet.'
It was only then she realised he had used protection. Her face turned beetroot-red, as did the rest of her body, and, grabbing at the sheet, she pulled it haphazardly up over her naked body.
'Too late, Beth, I've seen it all,' Dex drawled with mocking amusement, and, completely uncaring of his nudity, he stood up.
Her fascinated gaze slid over his broad shoulders, his wide chest, still glistening with sweat, and lower, to where his manhood nestled in a dense black brush of hair, and down his long, long legs. He was a magnificent male animal, even if he did have the character of a pig. No—that was probably insulting the pig, Beth thought, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from his naked form.
'But you have a good look, Beth. To my surprise and delight, you have no experience of men at all.' And he laughed out loud as she turned even redder with embarrassment. Lowering her gaze, she burnt with anger and humiliation.
CHAPTER SIX
Anger won. . . . A furious Beth picked up a pillow and threw it at Dex's retreating back, but it slid harmlessly down the door to the floor as he vanished into
the tiny hall where the door to the bathroom was situated. The sound of his laughter echoing in the quiet of her room only infuriated her further.
She clenched her small hands together in impotent fury and glanced wildly around her bedroom. She looked down at her entwined hands and suddenly the enormity of what had happened hit her like a punch in the stomach. She was naked, the bed was a rumpled mess, and that hateful man was in her tiny bathroom and would be back any second.
Blind panic engulfed her. She leapt out of bed and dashed to the wardrobe, from where she dragged out a blue woollen dressing gown and scrambled into it. Tying the belt firmly around her waist, she stuck her feet into a pair of old slippers in the shape of two basset-hounds. Her eyes caught the glimpse of red on the floor, and viciously she kicked her skirt and camisole under the bed. She would never wear the outfit again, Beth vowed. Then, another emotion lending her wings, she was out of the room, across the small hall and into her living room in a trice.
She had to get rid of Dex. That was the only thought in her head as mechanically she walked into the kitchen and switched on the electric kettle. She needed a drink, a cup of coffee, to calm her shattered nerves. But she had an awful premonition that it would take a lot more than a few cups of coffee to make her forget Dex and the turbulent feelings he had awakened in her tonight.
The kettle boiled, and, opening the cupboard where she stored her crockery, Beth took down a porcelain mug and spooned a large dollop of coffee granules into it from the jar of instant coffee on the bench. She couldn't stop her hand from shaking as she added the water, spilling some on the worktop. Reaction was setting in. But she refused to give in to it and, gritting her teeth, willed her hands to stop shaking. She opened the fridge, took out the milk, poured some milk in the mug and then added two generous spoons of sugar; she needed the energy, she told herself, to face Dex.
Dex! Beth stifled a groan of pure anguish. A few hours ago she had been the happiest girl in the world, engaged to the man she loved and eagerly anticipating going to bed with him. Well, she was no longer engaged to Dex, but she had been to bed with him. And now she felt like the stupidest, dumbest girl in the world. She couldn't find words to describe her own self-loathing. Naive did not begin to cover it. . .
But, a wicked voice whispered in her head, she was no longer naive in some respects. She had succumbed to his lovemaking with a wild passion she had not known she was capable of. A vivid image of his huge naked body entwined with hers had Beth reaching desperately for the coffee mug.
She took a great gulp of the hot coffee. How could she face him? Before she could answer her own question, the door swung open and Dex appeared. She glanced across at him, her huge green eyes warily following him as in a few lithe strides he covered the space between them, filling her small kitchen with his towering presence. He was dressed again, after a fashion. His jacket hung open across his broad chest and the silk shirt beneath fell loosely over the outside of his trousers. He looked what he was: a man who had just slaked his sexual appetite with his lady. His black hair was a tangle of curls over his broad forehead.
Beth blinked and glanced down, but seeing her ridiculous doggy slippers did nothing for her confidence. 'Damn Dex to hell. . .' she muttered under her breath. He had no right to look so virile, so disgustingly smug, and what had taken him so long in the bathroom? The inconsequential thought popped in her mind.
Glancing back up, she stiffened. His slate-grey eyes sought and captured hers, and his sensuous lips parted over perfect white teeth in a knowing, roguish smile.
'I'll take a cup of coffee, Beth, as it appears, by your hasty exit from the bedroom, that nothing more is on offer.'
Beth slammed her coffee mug down on the bench, the sheer gall of the man taking her breath away. Any faint hope that had lingered in her subconscious mind that maybe she could forgive him and they could stay together vanished. What Dex had just said convinced her absolutely she was not in his league, and could never in a million years inhabit his sophisticated world. She stared at him with wide angry eyes, as though she was seeing him for the first time.
What she saw was a devastating! y attractive, one- hundred-per cent powerful male animal—'animal' being the operative word. He had the sensitivity of a rhinoceros. It didn't matter a jot to him that he had seduced her and taken her virginity. In fact, according to Dex, he could take her, or a cup of coffee. . .either would do!
'Beth, are you all right?'
All right! she would never be all right again, but what the hell did he care? Fury such as Beth had never known flooded her whole being.
'Fine. I'm fine,' she snapped. 'But as for you, you can get out of here now, this minute. I don't want to see your conceited, arrogant face again as long as I live.'
Dex moved closer. 'Don't,' she said, holding her hands up to ward him off. 'Don't you dare come near me. Haven't you done enough damage for one night?'
Dex's eyes burned into hers. 'You don't mean that, Beth,' he said thickly, and reached for her. 'You're upset, emotional; it affects some girls like that the first time.' His hands closed over her shoulders and he pulled her to him. 'But the next time will be better, I promise.'
Beth almost choked. 'There is not going to be a next time, you great oaf. I don't want anything to do with you. I told you that an hour ago, but did you listen? No. You forced yourself on me.'
'Forced you! You were with me all the way,' he exclaimed, catching her chin and tilting her head back. 'You were begging for it.'
'No.' She shook her head. 'You forced me into it.'
His fingers tightened on her chin, his grey eyes narrowing to angry slits on her flushed, furious face. 'Don't lie, Beth. You wanted me, you know you did, and I asked you every step of the way; you only had to say no.'
Tears stung her eyes, whether of anger or regret, she didn't know. She pushed his hand from her chin and closed her eyes for a second, breathing deeply to regain her self-control.
Beth didn't see the bitter anguish in his eyes as he looked at her downbent head and then stepped back.
She opened her eyes and raised her head. 'I tried,' she declared bluntly.
They stared at each other, the tension in the air electric. The anger in his eyes made Beth quake inwardly, but she refused to show her feelings. Then, abruptly, Dex straightened his broad shoulders; his lips narrowing in a tight line, his handsome face expressionless, he clasped her elbow in his strong hand.
'If you really think that, Beth, then we have to talk.'
'No.' She wrenched her arm free. 'I have nothing, absolutely nothing I want to say to you. Except, get out of my home and out of my life.'
Dex was silent for a long moment, watching her with narrowed eyes. 'I don't get it,' he said curtly. 'You break our engagement. Then you melt in my arms. Then you accuse me of forcing you into it and demand I leave?'
'So, go!' she cried, her throat closing up as his hard grey eyes came to rest on her swollen lips.
'Oh, no,' Dex drawled. 'Not until I have made you swallow your lies.'
Beth's eyes rounded as he suddenly drew her against him, one hand sliding around her tiny waist, the other cupping the back of her head.
'I don't lie,' she croaked, just as his mouth covered hers and his hand tightened on her waist. His thrusting tongue searched the moist cavern of her mouth with a sensual ease that overcame her pathetic attempt to resist him in an instant. Her tongue touched his and white-hot passion sent the blood pounding through her veins.
When his mouth finally lifted from hers, she moaned and stared helplessly up at him, her lips parted, red and pouting, her lower body pressing into his hard thighs with a desire she could not disguise.
Dex smiled, a devastatingly wicked twist of his mobile mouth. 'Force? I think not, my sweet Beth. You are mine for the taking,' he said in a dry voice.
Where she got the strength to push him away, she did not know. Maybe it was just one humiliation too much for her pride to take. But shove him away she did.
'So m
aybe "force" was too strong a word,' she said in a surprisingly calm voice, when her insides were shaking. 'But if you didn't force me, you certainly coerced me.'
'And you loved every minute. I have your claw-marks on my back to prove it,' he drawled silkily.
'Maybe so, but it was just sex, and I will probably have sex with a lot more men in the future. No big deal,' she said with a shrug of her shoulders.
She shot a quick glance at his face, and to her surprise she saw guilt and some other indefinable emotion on his harshly handsome features.
'Your prerogative, of course. You're a beautiful girl, and you obviously have a talent for sex. But—'
'Thank you,' she cut in sharply, with a voice dripping in sarcasm. He thought she had a talent for sex. Was that supposed to be a compliment? A red haze of rage blurred her vision. 'But I don't need your no doubt expert opinion. I simply need you to leave. What was it you said so crudely earlier? "I didn't know whether to jilt you or jump you." But it wasn't quite like that, was it, Mr High-and-Mighty-Giordanni? You jumped me, but I've been trying for the past two hours to jilt you, and for a sophisticated man you're being remarkably obtuse—you just will not get the message.'
'I got your message long ago, Beth. You're a gold-digging little tease.' He squared his massive shoulders, his silver eyes narrowed on her lovely face. 'Hanging on to your virginity as a bankable asset, hoping to sell yourself to the wealthiest bidder. But this time you tried it on with the wrong man.'
His last insult was too much for Beth's fragile self- control. Shaking with fury, she raised her arm and landed a cracking slap on his tanned cheek with the palm of her hand.
'Take that, you bastard, and get out,' she spat.
Dex lifted a large hand to rub the side of his face; with his other hand he clasped her wrist in an iron grip. The air crackled with undisguised animosity. She must have been insane to have ever felt she loved this man, she thought, as she furiously stared into his eyes.
Giorganni's Proposal Page 8
