by Lucy Monroe
“No.”
“Then your motives were as you described them. Your attraction to me made it possible to act on your desire to help your brother.”
“And Franca and Angilu. I thought I could make a difference for them, too.”
He nodded, believing that all too easily now he had gotten to know her.
Giving in to the urge that would not go away, he brushed Audrey’s lips with his own, knowing he could not afford to deepen the kiss yet. “We are done with this, sì?”
Her eyes widened with distress. “With making love?”
“With talking.” He shrugged off his own robe, letting it drop into a pile at his feet and giving Audrey an unblocked view of his arousal. “We have plans for tonight.”
“You’re very attached to your plans,” she teased, but her voice was breathy and her gaze kept getting snagged on his erection.
“I am.” Putting action to the sentiment, he led her back to the path of rose petals. “Come, we have many hours of pleasure ahead of us.”
She licked her lips and then smiled. “No early morning tomorrow?”
“No.” Mrs. Percy had already been warned not to expect him or Audrey to come for the children before lunchtime.
With the new game console Enzu had purchased for the game room, the teens had plenty to keep them occupied as well.
Enzu tugged Audrey along, the rose petals beneath their feet velvety soft against the deep plush pile of his suite’s wall-to-wall carpeting.
Audrey gasped when they came into the bedroom.
He stopped and let her take in her surroundings before asking, “You like?”
“Very much. It’s so…so romantic.”
“A woman’s first time comes only once.”
“Yes, but…”
“You will never forget this night.” He mentally shrugged off the arrogance he heard in his own tone.
She looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “It could have happened in a broom closet and I wouldn’t be able to forget it.”
“Because you love me?” he found himself asking, when he’d had no intention of doing any such thing.
He clamped his jaw on any further unplanned verbalizations.
“And because you are my first.” She didn’t deny the love thing.
He poured them each a glass of champagne and handed Audrey hers before offering his glass for a toast.
“To first times.”
The crystal clinked quietly, and then they both took a sip.
Audrey’s eyes slid shut and she hummed before taking another sip. “This is very good.”
“It is an excellent vintage from the South of France.”
She laughed softly as her eyes met his again. “Of course.”
“I thought a glass of wine would help your nerves.” And if they were going to imbibe it would be something worth drinking.
“I’m not nervous.”
The honesty of that statement was obvious in the sincerity of her tone, but also the relaxed lines of her body.
“Your trust in me is humbling.” And very little made him feel that way.
“It feels right.”
“Giving yourself to me?”
“Yes.”
Because she loved him.
He let her take another sip of her champagne before removing her glass from unresisting fingers and placing both flutes, still partially full, back on the small table beside the bed.
“After tonight there is no going back. You understand this?” Their futures would be set.
For the first time anxiety flickered in her chocolate gaze. “Yes.”
“Bene.”
His kiss was intentional and deep.
Melting into him, she opened to his questing tongue without even a token resistance. Pleasure coursed through him. This woman was so perfectly matched to him sexually.
He would show her how right she was to trust him with her body so completely.
He let the kiss build until the need to touch her had become acute. What many did not understand in the type of lovemaking that excited Enzu the most was that he got as much satisfaction out of challenging his own control as that of his partner.
But the time to move things to the next step had come.
He allowed himself to caress her body through the silk of her pajama top, mapping her body’s curves—the indent of her shoulderblades, the dip of her waist, the smooth outline of her hips, the soft expanse of her stomach, the gentle ridge of her ribcage, the pillowy curves of her breasts. He cupped them, squeezing and releasing until she made a restless movement with her hips.
Enzu moved on to tease her beaded nipples, sliding his fingers over the silky fabric covering them. He pinched them lightly, enjoying the way her pajama top encouraged his skin to slide off, and then repeating the maddeningly short touch again and again.
She moaned against his lips, the sound as exciting as if she had taken his rigid sex into her hand.
He ended the kiss, once again cupping her cheeks and forcing total focus between them. “I am going to take off your top now.”
“Yes,” she breathed.
He let his eyes warm with approval as he undid the first and second buttons in quick succession, caressing her breasts with the backs of his hands. The satin fell open to reveal smooth, creamy skin.
He leaned down and pressed sensual kisses to each gentle curve of her upper breasts. Letting his tongue flick out, he tasted the silken skin.
She gasped. “Enzu.”
He undid another button, widening the gap in the fabric. It caught on the hard peaks and he let it stay there, teasing them both with her almost-nudity.
He dropped to his knees and nuzzled the fabric aside so he could take one raspberry bud into his mouth. Suckling, he teased the tip with his tongue while he skimmed his hands up the backs of her thighs to cup her naked buttocks.
Her hands landed on his shoulders, fingernails digging in hard enough that he knew he would have crescent-shaped marks there tomorrow.
“Please, Enzu, don’t tease. I need you.”
He lifted his head, giving her his most wicked smile. “You have only begun to need.”
She shook her head. “No. You don’t understand. I’ve wanted you so long.”
“And you will have me, sweet Audrey. But in my time.”
He waited until he saw acceptance in her expression. Willing her to remain still with his eyes, he finished taking her top off. It necessitated removing her hands from his shoulders, but he gave up one pleasure for the promise of a greater one.
She stood silent, still, completely exposed before him.
He had never been so turned on, and if he was not careful he would climax before he ever got inside her.
In an explosion of movement that made her cry out in surprise, he surged up and then lifted her into his arms. Showing her trust in him, she did not scramble to hold onto his neck, though both hands touched his chest, fingers splayed as if she sought to maximize the connection.
He laid her against the pile of pillows, stopping to enjoy the way the royal-blue silk set off her milky skin. Her hair fanned out over the pillow under her head in enticing disarray.
“Molto bèdda,” he praised.
“The view’s not bad from here, either.” She smiled up at him, eyes half-mast with sensual appreciation.
She did not resist when he guided her hands to grip the iron bars of his specially designed headboard, stretching her body and arching her back so her breasts were on tempting display.
With careful hands he arranged her legs so they were spread wide and bent at the knees, pillows placed strategically for her ease.
“Are you comfortable?” he asked, his throat tight with intense desire.
She was blushing like the innocent she was, but she nodded.
“Words, biddùzza. I need actual words.”
“Yes, I’m comfortable.”
“Bene. If you become uncomfortable you can move, or ask me to move you.”
&nb
sp; “Ask you to move me?” she inquired in a tone laced with confusion.
“There is great pleasure in leaving the responsibility of every element of your comfort and pleasure up to me, amore.”
“It doesn’t seem fair.”
“If it is my own preference it is a fair exchange. Trust for trustworthiness. Ceded control for beneficial restraint. Pleasure for equal pleasure.”
“Yes,” she breathed out.
As he knew she would.
Goosebumps were forming on his skin at how well they fit. If he’d believed in such things, he would have thought they were connected on a soul-deep level.
“Thank you,” he said, breaking his own rule of not saying the words for something that felt so right.
Her expression said she remembered that injunction from Saturday, but she didn’t remind him of it. And for the second time in less than a minute he experienced profound gratitude toward the woman in his bed.
This time he was able to hold back the words, though. He leaned to the side and reached out so he could tug a silver tray with four porcelain dipping bowls within easy reach.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“I have two weaknesses,” he admitted, instead of giving a direct answer.
“I didn’t know you had any.”
“Sì. Even a control freak like me has his vices.”
“I bet you have more than two of those.”
He was impressed she’d immediately recognized that the two were not mutually inclusive. Not all vices became weaknesses. And he did not consider one of his weaknesses a vice. Audrey was simply Audrey, a woman like no other.
“I won’t take that bet.”
Her gaze flicked to the tray and then back to him. “What are your weaknesses?”
“These dipping pots are filled with four different kinds of chocolate.” Again he forbore from giving her a direct answer, but he was confident she would figure it out.
“You’re a chocoholic.” The laughter in her tone and merry eyes did not actually spill out.
“I am.”
“Good to know.”
“Is it?”
“I think so.”
“I am going to indulge, but there is one catch.”
“Yes?”
“I will indulge myself…and you…so long as you do not move from your current position. Once you move, whether it is letting go of the headboard or shifting your legs, I will know the time has come to press forward in tonight’s activities.”
“So, I can squirm? I just can’t break position?” she asked, to clarify.
“Precisely.” Did she understand the rest of what he’d said as well?
“You’re giving me the power to decide when we stop playing.”
“Mmm…” he said in approval.
“I get to say when the foreplay ends?” she asked, like she couldn’t quite believe it.
“Sì, but when you are making that decision be aware you are cutting off one kind of pleasure, delight that can lead to many wonderful things, in order to pursue another.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“YOU’RE A FIEND.” She did not sound like she was making a complaint.
He laughed, his amusement tinged with harsh desire. She would never know how close he’d come to forgetting the game and going straight to the copulating.
But she deserved to be seduced, not merely taken. No matter how much they would both enjoy the joining of their bodies when it came.
He dipped his finger in the milk chocolate and then painted her lips with it, grateful she’d washed away her makeup before coming to his room.
“It smells yummy.”
“It will taste even better.” He leaned down and gave her a chaste kiss, transferring the chocolate to his lips as well.
Then he deepened the kiss, licking chocolate from her and inviting her with his tongue to do the same to him. The kiss lasted until every bit of chocolate was gone and he was wallowing in a flavor that was pure Audrey.
Forcing himself not to get lost in sensation, he withdrew to dip his finger in the white chocolate this time. He painted her nipples, covered the aureoles completely.
He put his fingertip against her slightly parted lips. “Do you want to taste?”
In answer, she opened her mouth and took his finger in, licking and sucking with a natural sensuality that sent more desire raging through him.
Lowering his head, he showed her he could play that game, too. First he gave each breast a tongue bath, knowing the soft caress would be enough to tantalize, but not enough to satisfy.
She moaned around his finger, the sound part frustration, part pleasure. That was when he set about suckling the rest of the sweetness from her already tasty nipples. When they were clean of the candy he nibbled each nipple in turn, worrying them with his teeth as Audrey started to squirm, her sounds growing increasingly desperate.
He continued to paint her body with the different flavors of chocolate, letting her taste each one, either from his finger or his lips.
She seemed to like the dark chocolate the best, so he used it on her inner thigh, moving steadily closer and closer to her private, enticing musk.
He didn’t put any chocolate on her sex before he tasted it. Her feminine essence needed no enhancement to be entirely alluring. He laved her lips and then pressed his tongue inside her, loving the way her entire body went rigid at this most intimate of kisses.
He moved up so that he could tease her clitoris with his tongue, pressing two fingers inside her and curling upward to stimulate her G-spot.
She gave a strangled scream, pressing her pelvis upward and her clitoris harder against the rigid tip of his tongue.
“Enzu, if you don’t stop, I’m going to…” She didn’t finish the thought.
But he had no trouble understanding what she meant. Did she think her warning was an incentive to actually withdraw?
He already knew she was close because her clitoris had gotten swollen and shifted infinitesimally upward, indicating her body’s primal sexual reaction to his ministrations.
Knowing the time had come, he reached up with his free hand to pinch her nipple and roll it between his thumb and forefinger.
She screamed, climaxing with a whole-body convulsion, her inner walls contracting around his fingers, moisture gushing forth to make her so silky-wet he knew he was going to slide into her like melted butter.
He kept licking, but softened his tongue so her pleasure was prolonged, but not amped to the point of pain.
Suddenly her hands came down and pulled on him. “Inside me. Please, I need you inside me, Enzu.”
He reared up, triumphant and so very pleased with his più amato.
For the first time in his life he resented the need for a condom, but that did not stop him from putting one on.
“Sunday night.”
“What?” he asked, with no idea what she meant.
“We can go without a condom Sunday night. I inserted a vaginal ring on Monday afternoon. The information on the ring said we only had to wait seven days for the birth control be effective.”
Just the thought of making love to her without a condom almost had him exploding. He didn’t bring up the usual tests that should be done before allowing unprotected sex. He knew she was free of anything because she’d never been with anyone else, and Enzu had not had sex since his last physical with blood tests and an all-clear.
“I will eagerly look forward to Sunday night.” Even if he had to fly with her back to the city Monday morning in the helicopter and send the others back by car on Sunday night, she would be in his bed.
Placing the head of his erection against her hot, tight and extremely slick opening, he waited for that addictive gaze to meet his.
“Do it,” she pleaded.
He pushed inside, going slow, but not stopping. She stretched around him, her body flushing with the effort of taking him inside her completely.
He took his time with the first few thrusts, spreading her body
’s natural lubrication until the drag of her body against his sex was not quite so tight.
Calling on a lifetime of self-control, he proceeded to make love to her with long, slow strokes until it was obvious from the way her body moved beneath him and the sounds she was making that she was building back toward another climax.
He pressed first one and then her other leg straight, making her even tighter, making it possible with an adjustment of his hips and swiveling his pelvis on each downward thrust to stimulate her clitoris.
“Oh! Enzu, yes…that’s…I can’t…”
Her incoherent ramblings drove his lust to heights he’d never experienced and soon he was slamming in and out of her, his mouth claiming hers in a kiss that told her everything about what he was feeling.
If she was listening.
His balls drew tight and he knew he was going to come very soon. He broke the kiss and moved his mouth to her ear to demand, “Come with me, più amato. Now.”
He swelled, going hard as steel, and then white-hot ecstasy exploded out of him. She turned her head, catching his lips in a desperate kiss as her body convulsed, her second orgasm ripping through them both.
She went completely boneless beneath him, her eyes shuttering closed. “Amazing,” she slurred.
“Sì. Unlike anything else.”
She nodded drunkenly and he smiled, though he barely had the strength to pull out of her and roll to his side. He would deal with the condom in a moment.
She reached out and he met her questing hand with his, lacing their fingers. His concept of life and himself was in a shambles around him, shattered by lovemaking that for the first time in his life had actually been that.
The prospect of having to admit that truth to himself, much less aloud to Audrey, made Enzu break out in a cold sweat right there in his thoroughly debauched bed.
*
Audrey lay awake in Enzu’s arms in the early hours of the morning.
It was more than a month since their first time together, but Enzu had not officially told her she was his chosen candidate.
He hadn’t mentioned any of the other candidates since before he’d blown her mind that first time in the pool, though. In fact, he hadn’t mentioned the whole looking-for-a-wife-slash-mother-for-his-children thing since Thanksgiving.
