by Lucy Monroe
Chills of sensation washed over her from that tiny touch.
“Do you like that?” he asked in a hushed tone.
“I don’t know.”
“Let’s give it another test, then.” This time he teased the shell of her ear before tugging on her lobe with gentle teeth and then placing hot, wet kisses to the super-sensitive spot behind it.
She groaned. “I like it.”
A small huff of laughter sent air across the sensitized skin and left goosebumps in its wake. “You are very responsive, amore.”
“You are very practiced.”
“No lover is exactly like another, believe me.”
“You’re trying to say it’s different with me?” she asked in disbelief.
“Sì.”
She shook her head.
“Did we not just establish I would not lie to you?”
“But—”
“When I touch you, you are the only woman in my arms, the only one in my mind.”
Her throat constricted with emotion and she could find no words to reply, so she did the one thing she knew that to this point she’d been good at.
She kissed him.
He allowed it for scant seconds before taking over the meshing of their mouths, claiming hers with his tongue. His taste melded with hers, creating an addictive flavor.
They moved through the water, but she could not be bothered to lift her head and see in what direction they went. She trusted her body to his care as she melted into the kiss.
Water receded against her skin, indicating that they were moving into the shallow end of the pool. And then he shifted and she felt a solid sloped surface against her back. The pool steps were flanked by foot-wide ramps that could be used for a steadying hand to enter the water and he must have laid her down on one.
He broke the kiss to lean up, away from her. “Let me have your T-shirt.”
She didn’t think about denying him. It wasn’t as if the garment kept her modesty anyway. According to him, it was more exciting than if she’d simply left it off.
But he wanted it off now, and so did she. She craved the sensation of wet, naked skin against skin.
She took hold of her hem and began to peel the wet T-shirt from her body. He helped, his hands sliding against her skin. Whether by accident or design, she didn’t care. Every little touch excited, making her need more.
He did something with her T-shirt and then put it down behind her.
“I want to touch you.” His voice was thick with desire.
Unable to speak, she nodded.
His gaze burning into hers, he reached around behind her and undid the clasps on her bikini.
Her hands went of their own volition to her chest, holding the triangles of cloth in place. “What about your father? Will he come down here?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“He does not have access.”
“What about—?”
“No one will interrupt us.”
“What if—?”
He placed one masculine finger against her lips. “Shhh. This is my sanctuary. No one will bother us, unless there is an emergency even Devon cannot handle.”
“Is that your standing order for your time down here?”
“Sì, though I have a light on the access panel I can turn to green if I am merely looking to relax, not get away completely.”
“It’s not green right now.”
“No, amore, it is most definitely red.”
“Good.” Mustering her courage, she let her hands fall away from her bikini top.
The wet fabric clung to her breasts.
Vincenzo’s hands raised to hover a hair’s breadth from touching. “May I?”
“Yes,” she breathed.
He pulled the fabric away and tossed her top to the side of the pool, the blue fire of his gaze never breaking from hers. “Molto bèdda.”
“You aren’t looking.” Air rushed over her wet skin, making her already tight nipples tingle and sending arrows of pleasures directly to her core.
“Aren’t I?” he asked as his mouth drew closer to her own.
There was a message here, but she could not decipher it. Rather than trying to figure it out, she shifted her head so their lips met.
Vincenzo hummed in masculine approval as his arms came around her, his hands settling on her naked back. Her excited peaks brushed his hair-covered chest and she shivered in reaction to the cascade of sensation that caused.
He pressed their lips together more harshly than he’d ever done, his mouth possessive and insistent. The kiss was different than any they’d shared so far, and it required a response unlike any she’d given.
As demanding as the kiss was, there was also an element of seeking. Vincenzo wanted something from her and his sensual persistence indicated he was intent on getting it.
She didn’t know what he needed. Permission? Sexual submission? The release of the reins she held so tightly on her own passion? For the first time in her life Audrey wanted to give him all of it.
Winding her arms around his neck, she melted into Vincenzo, determined to hold nothing back.
His growl of approval sent pleasure zinging through her. Trusting him completely in this, she didn’t tense up as he tilted her back again.
Her nape settled against her T-shirt, her head comfortably held away from the hard slope she rested on. She vaguely realized in that small part of her brain still capable of logical thought that he’d rolled the wet cotton into a neck pillow.
The thoughtful provision for her comfort warmed her heart even as her body thrummed with sexual energy.
Vincenzo moved his mouth along her jaw, placing arousing kisses over her face and down her neck. Each caress of his lips felt like a brand, marking her as his.
A moment of chilling clarity washed over her. This would change her forever. Vincenzo’s lovemaking would ruin her for other men.
As if sensing the weight of her thoughts, he lifted his head, his handsome face set in stark lines of desire. “What is it, Audrey?”
No endearments. He wanted truth.
She couldn’t have dissembled if she’d wanted to. “I won’t be the same after tonight.”
“No, biddùzza, you will not.”
“No other man will touch me like you do.” She didn’t mean technique; she meant in her soul.
“No other men.”
The harshness of his tone did not bother her. Though he didn’t mean it as a long-term declaration, she still wallowed in the possessiveness of the words.
“There is only us.”
“Yes,” she agreed.
Without another word he lowered his head again, his tongue flicking out to trace her collarbone.
Audrey’s entire body shuddered.
He slid his mouth down, kissing the top of her breast with suction that she knew would leave a mark. The thought of having proof of his touch on her body tomorrow made the flesh between her legs throb with pleasure and need.
The water lapped against her breasts, the waves caused by the movement of his body sending it over her nipples. Impossible to anticipate, each occasional caress of water over the highly sensitized flesh sent jolts of bliss through her.
Her hands scrabbled against the slick tile under her, but she couldn’t find any purchase to ground herself.
Vincenzo leaned back, a dark smile curving his lips. “Will you trust me, Audrey?”
“I do.” More than made sense.
The smile turned into something predatory, but there was also an unexpected vulnerability in the depths of his blue eyes.
He took both her arms and pressed them over her head, wrapping his own fingers around hers so that one hand clasped her other wrist. “Keep them there.”
Instead of anxiety, like she would have expected, peace settled over Audrey. Vincenzo expected nothing from her but her honest response to his touch. She did not have to wonder how to touch him, how to excite him.
His actions took the stress of her
lack of experience away, leaving only desire behind. Unfettered by distress, her excitement broke over her in devastating waves.
He released her hands, clearly trusting her to keep them above her head. His fingers trailed down her arm and continued across her skin, leaving goosebumps of delight in their wake.
His hand stopped, fingers resting on her breast so lightly she shouldn’t be able to feel them.
But the barely-there touch felt like each fingertip kissed her skin with fire, licks of pure sensation radiating around her aureole. He drew his fingers together, converging on her nipple.
A moan of pleasure snaked out of her throat.
“You are very sensitive to my touch.” His fingers pressed more tightly on her peaked flesh, twisting gently. “I wonder how you will respond to my mouth.”
Heat flushed her body at his words.
His head lowered tormentingly slowly toward her breast. Their gazes locked.
The sight of him touching her so intimately mixed with the physical sensation, increasing her pleasure nearly beyond what she could stand.
She arched toward him, but he laid his other hand on her stomach, gently pressing down. Audrey let her body relax.
Vincenzo smiled. “Bene. Good.” His mouth finally covered her other nipple, his tongue flicking the tip before his teeth carefully worried it.
Audrey cried out, the sensation so intense it had to have an outlet.
His hand slid from her breast down her body until his fingertips rested against the top seam of her bikini bottoms. Vincenzo brushed his hand side to side, his fingertips slipping beneath the fabric.
“Enzu. Please…” She didn’t know what exactly she was asking for.
Thad had touched her down there, but she’d never felt so desperate for something.
He lifted his head, catching her gaze. “You will trust me to take care of you.”
“I will.” She did.
Her body reverberated with need and something deep inside her told her he was the only one who could meet it.
His gaze warmed with approval that increased her desire as much as the touch of his hand on her body.
She licked her lips, tasting Vincenzo and the slightly salty water of the pool. He made a primitive sound of arousal and his mouth descended on hers, his kiss just as primal.
She responded with all of the sexual and emotional need surging through her, allowing him access, but using every technique of tongue-play she’d learned kissing this master of sensuality.
He touched her clitoris, a swipe and circle of his middle finger against swollen flesh that he repeated over and over again.
She squirmed, her body moving restlessly in the water, her thighs parting of their own volition, but somehow her hands never came down from above her head. Dark delight coiled inside her, tighter and tighter, until it was a compressed ball of energy in her womb. It sent little electric shocks directly to her core, making her most intimate place pulse.
She couldn’t breathe, but she didn’t want the kiss to end. Her heart was beating so fast she was getting lightheaded and she didn’t care.
With a final swipe of his tongue, Vincenzo broke the kiss. He nuzzled her, placing open-mouthed kisses on her face.
His tongue drew a line up from first one temple to the corner of her eye and then the next.
“You cry with your pleasure,” he whispered into her ear.
She didn’t feel the tears, had none of the other indicators of crying, just drops of moisture leaking from her eyes. She hadn’t even known they were there. “I’m sorry.”
“No. You will not apologize for being so perfect. It is a rare woman who allows herself to feel so deeply when making love.”
“How could anyone hold back from you?” Least of all a twenty-seven-year-old virgin.
“All that matters is that you do not.”
“I can’t.”
“Then give your pleasure to me, amore. Come for me, now.” The demand was whispered against her ear as a second finger joined the first against her clitoris, the double stimulation on either side of the bundle of nerves too much to deny.
She climaxed with a scream, her entire body arching against him, the sensual joy too intense too contain. He lightened his touch, but did not remove his fingers, pulling her through aftershocks that made her cry out and finally whimper with the surfeit of pleasure.
The whole time he whispered into her ear.
“Bene. Sweet Audrey, you did so well.” And, as she floated on the euphoria following the cataclysm of her soul, “Molto bèdda. So very, very beautiful, my precious innocent.”
She let her eyelids flutter closed, floating on a cloud of exultation, at peace in a way she had not been in all her adult life.
Vincenzo tugged her bikini bottoms off and Audrey let him without a murmur of protest. The sound of the wet fabric hitting the floor beside the pool told her he’d tossed the bottoms to join the top.
Strong arms slid under her back and knees and then water cascaded off her naked body as he lifted her from the water to rest against his solid chest.
His heartbeat was heavy and fast, his breathing rapid like he’d been for a run. Because he wasn’t done yet. Not with her and not with his own pleasure.
A small secret smile curved her lips. They were not done.
He carried her to an extra-large lounger, laying her down on it before standing up.
She watched in sated expectation as he took off his trunks. His erection was dark with blood and so rigid the tip pointed upward.
Maybe it was her virgin sensibilities talking, but it looked like he had a loaded cannon between his legs. Thick and long, ready for action. The sight of him naked stole what was left of her breath.
Lassitude left her as excitement began thrumming through her blood again.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“YOU’RE BIG.” SHE licked her lips, the tiniest flicker of worry lighting inside her. “Maybe I should have had my first time with someone less impressive.”
“No,” he growled out, his expression going from lustful to saturnine.
Oh, he did not like that idea. Not one bit.
“I didn’t.” She pointed out the obvious.
His jaw hardened, a slight tick indicating her comment had not tamed the savage beast. At all.
“You gave me your trust?”
“Yes.”
“You will trust me not to hurt you?”
“First times hurt, Enzu.” She wouldn’t let him make a promise he could not keep.
“There are ways to mitigate that pain.”
“A lot of experience dealing with a woman’s virginity, have you?” she asked, irritation pricking the haze of pleasure in a way her anxiety had not.
“None, in fact.”
“Then how would you know?”
“Really? You must ask this?”
Once again she felt he was laughing at something she did not understand.
“Yes, I must.”
“Research.”
Speechless, she stared at him with all the undeniable hero-worship she felt. He’d researched how to make her first time best for her.
She narrowed her eyes, an idea coming to her. “Recent research?”
“Sì. I had no reason in the past to concern myself with such things.”
“Oh. That’s really sweet.”
His smile was as delicious as dessert, but without a bit of sugar in it. “Sweet is not a word to describe me, amore, believe me.”
“I believe you.” And she had no desire to have him feel the need to prove how not sweet he was.
The man was already overwhelming in his sensual mastery; she did not think she would survive him if he felt he had something to prove.
“Did you enjoy our time in the pool?” he asked, with every evidence of actually wanting her to answer.
“It wasn’t beyond obvious?”
“I prefer a direct answer, biddùzza.”
“You have control issues. You know that, right?”
“It’s more than that. You like having major control in the bedroom.”
“Are you complaining?”
“No.” How could she after the mind-blowing orgasm and its extended aftershocks he’d given her in the pool?
“So you enjoyed it?”
“Yes.”
He nodded. “Good.”
It occurred to her that maybe the control thing was part of him making her first time good for her. She blurted out the thought as soon as it was fully formed in her mind.
Vincenzo joined her on the double-wide lounger before replying to it. “That is a real consideration, yes.”
“But it’s not all of it, is it?”
“No. I am most satisfied when my partner cedes control to me during sex.”
“You’ve had a lot of partners who did that for you?” she asked with irrational jealousy.
The man was thirty-six and had never claimed to be a monk.
“None who have given themselves so beautifully to me. You are something special, Audrey.”
She liked hearing that a little too much.
Unsure if she really cared, but wanting to move away from the dangerous thoughts and emotions trying to form in her mind, she asked, “Do you ever allow your partners to take control?”
“I never have.”
“Hmm.” That was an interesting way to put it.
If he never wanted to, wouldn’t he have just said no?
If intimacy could be this good all the time, she didn’t think it mattered to her who appeared to be in charge. Because there was no question in her mind that Audrey’s pleasure had driven every moment in the pool.
So, ultimately she had been the one in control. Not that she felt the need to point that out to him.
“It is possible I would be willing to explore things with you that I have not in the past,” he said, shocking her into silence. “But I can make no promises.”
“What about making love when no one is in charge?”
“Someone is always in control, Audrey, whether the participants acknowledge it or not.”
“But some couples share that control.”
He shrugged. “It is possible.”
“You don’t want to, though?”
“Not tonight.” He pushed her back onto the lounger, kissing her swollen lips softly. “Tonight you have put yourself in my hands.”
