Tonight, however, was not an error. She was twenty-six, more than responsible for herself—and more than ready to experience lovemaking.
Renzo kissed her endlessly, tirelessly, as if he had all night to do so. The tension in her body wound tighter and tighter until she throbbed with it. She wanted him so badly that it hurt—physically hurt—not to have him.
She was on fire. She wanted her clothes off, wanted to feel the cool air wafting over her sweat-sheened skin. Renzo must have sensed it, because he stood then and pulled her with him. Without a word, they climbed the stairs to the second floor, where he tugged her into his arms and kissed her even while he moved her inexorably toward her bedroom.
A moment later, he scooped her up and carried her into the room—not hers, she realized, but his. This room was even bigger than the one she was staying in, and furnished with antiques, priceless art and a large bed with white linens that he laid her on before coming down over top of her.
Faith wrapped her arms around his neck, arched her body toward his. His arousal came as no surprise, considering the way she felt. He was big, hard, and he moved his hips against hers until she caught fire. Her body spiraled toward the peak, but he did not let her reach it. Before she fell over the edge, he stopped, moved down her body, kissed her throat, the exposed skin at the top of her dress.
Then he lifted himself onto his knees and shrugged out of his shirt while she bit her lip and stared. His eyes were so hot, so full of promise, as he gazed down on her.
“You could not have chosen a sexier dress, Faith,” he said, his voice rough. His fingers strayed to the tie at her waist. “You wrapped yourself up for me, and I’ve been looking forward to the unwrapping all night.”
CHAPTER TEN
RENZO TUGGED AT the knot at her waist until it came free. Faith held her breath as he undid the inner knot—and then he opened the dress as if he were opening a present, his eyes gleaming appreciatively as they slid over her.
She’d never been so open to a man in her life, and yet she didn’t feel exposed. She felt beautiful, desirable. She didn’t envy the Katie Palmers of the world at this moment. No, it was they who should envy her. Because this gorgeous, gorgeous man was looking at her like she was the only one in the world who could satisfy him.
It might only be temporary, might only be for this one moment in time, but she didn’t care. Right now, he was hers. She could see it in his eyes, in his beautiful masculine body. His entire focus was on her, and she knew she wouldn’t be the same after tonight.
Renzo shook his head slowly. “What have you been hiding from me, Faith? For six long months, you’ve been hiding this sexy body.”
He made her blush. “At this point, I’m a sure thing,” she said, her heart beating hard. “You don’t have to flatter me to get your way.”
He looked so serious. “It is not flattery, Faith. It’s truth. You are incredibly sexy.” He spread his hand over her belly. It wasn’t a flat belly, not like his, and she bit her lip as embarrassment sliced through her.
“Renzo—”
“I love your skin,” he told her, as if she hadn’t spoken. “So creamy and pale. And your curves.” He sucked in a breath. “Dio, Faith, your curves could kill a man if he weren’t careful.”
His hand slid down over her hip, skimmed over the silk of her panties, and then back up to cup a breast. His other hand went behind her back, unsnapped her bra, and then he was lifting it off her arms—along with the dress—and tossing it aside.
“They aren’t perfect,” Faith blurted. “They aren’t round and perky and firm.”
Renzo put a finger over her lips. “Don’t talk, cara mia. Feel.”
He bent until his mouth hovered over one stiff nipple. “I love your breasts. They are real. Round and firm, as you say, is usually made of silicone.”
He licked the tip of her nipple, and her sex tightened. “Renzo,” she gasped.
“Yes, amore, feel.”
He made love to her nipples then, licking and sucking the stiff little points until she wanted to scream. She’d never known that arousal could be painful until tonight. Because she burned for more than this, exquisite as it was. She burned for his body inside hers, for the sweetness of a shattering climax. She was gasping with need, writhing beneath him, and still he wouldn’t put her out of her misery.
When he moved down her body, his mouth skimming her flesh, she cried out. If this was what making love felt like, why had she waited so long?
Because this was what making love with Renzo felt like. It would not have been the same with another man.
He tugged her panties from her hips, sliding them from her legs, and then he brought her to his mouth and slid his tongue along the seam of her sex. She arched up off the bed when he did so, her entire body on fire in a way she’d never before experienced. Of course she’d had self-induced orgasms before, but she’d never felt this kind of excitement in the buildup.
Renzo spread her with his thumbs. The instant his tongue touched her soft, sensitive core, she came apart with a cry. The sensations had been building for so long, her body growing so tight with it, that she needed nothing else to send her plunging over the edge. He didn’t take his mouth off her as she shattered. Instead, he pushed her harder over the edge, kept the pressure focused on that one spot, his tongue darting and swirling long after she would have thought she had nothing left.
When it was over, she closed her eyes and turned her head into the pillow. Embarrassment echoed through her. And something else. Something hot and dark and ecstatic.
And yet she was surprised to realize that she wasn’t completely satisfied. She felt boneless, liquid—and edgy. There was more, so much more that she’d not yet experienced.
“Dio, you are sexy,” Renzo said, his voice roughened with passion. “The things I want to do to you, Faith. You tempt me beyond what is reasonable.”
She couldn’t speak as he stood and stripped off his trousers. She could only watch as his body was revealed inch by delicious inch, her breath catching in her chest at the sight of Renzo D’Angeli finally in the very naked and very hot flesh.
He knelt between her legs. He was big and hard and beautiful, and her heart thrummed so fast it made her dizzy. She reached for him, wanting to touch that part of him she knew nothing about. She’d never seen a man naked in the flesh before, and he fascinated her.
His breath hissed in as she tentatively stroked her fingers along his erection. He was hot. And very hard.
“Wrap your hand around me,” he said, and she obeyed. She could feel him pulsing beneath her palm. It made her feel powerful, sexy, to know she’d caused this reaction. He put his hand over hers, showed her how to stroke him. When he let her go, she didn’t stop. Boldly, she continued to stroke him, loving the way he groaned. A second later, he pulled her hand away, kissing her fingertips.
“Much more of that,” he told her, “and it will be like my first time again.”
He was far too experienced to lose control that easily, and yet it made her heart soar to think she could excite him that much.
He grabbed a condom from the nightstand and sheathed himself. Still kneeling, he lifted her hips and positioned himself at her entrance.
“If it hurts too much, you must tell me,” he said.
She nodded, and then the hot, hard head of him was pushing into her. It was a tight fit, but it didn’t hurt quite the way she’d expected it would.
“You are so ready for me,” he said, his voice unexpectedly raw, his eyes closing tight as the muscles in his neck corded.
He didn’t move for a long minute, and then he lowered himself on top of her. His mouth slanted over hers as he thrust completely inside her. Faith gasped at the fullness of his possession, at the heat and light shimmering through her, at this feeling of finally being joined with him. But there w
as no tearing, no pain.
Renzo lifted his head to look at her curiously.
“It happened at the doctor’s office,” she blurted, suddenly worried he might think she’d lied about being a virgin when there was no hymen. “My first exam.”
His thumbs glided over her cheeks as he held himself still while she got used to the feel of him inside her. “You are the most surprising woman, Faith… .”
“You believe me,” she said softly, her body trembling from nerves and excitement. She hadn’t much considered how he might react until the moment came. That he believed her without hesitation made her chest ache. It was more than her family had done for her when the picture she’d sent Jason went viral. They’d believed the worst from that moment onward.
“Of course I do,” he said, dipping his head to run his tongue along her lower lip. “Why wouldn’t I?”
Something inside her twisted. Faith glided her palms along the muscles of his arms, arching her body against him, shuddering as sensation rolled through her when he moved his hips just the tiniest bit. It was the most beautiful feeling.
And she wanted more of it. She wanted the physical so she could take her mind off the emotional, off the way he smashed all her misconceptions about him.
“Now,” she said—begged, really, “please, now.”
With a growl, he began to move, slowly at first, and then faster as she wrapped her legs around his waist and lifted her hips to meet him with every thrust.
It was a bold move, very unlike her in many ways, and yet she couldn’t help herself. Because it was a revelation, this feeling of having a man inside her for the first time.
It was raw and sexy and primal, but it was also beautiful. Faith closed her eyes. She’d never felt so close to another person in her life, never felt so cherished and special.
Renzo bracketed her face in his hands and kissed her, a hot, wet kiss that excited her almost as much as his body possessing hers so completely did. She was spiraling higher, her body catching fire with feelings she’d never experienced.
When his mouth moved to her nipples, she couldn’t keep her moans of pleasure locked inside any longer. She was losing control of herself—and she didn’t care.
Her hips thrust up to meet his, her body accepting—
demanding—the exquisite torment of his lovemaking. He answered her with an intensity she hadn’t imagined possible. Their bodies moved together, lifting and sinking and soaring, until stars exploded behind her eyes and she cried out.
He kept moving, kept thrusting, wringing every last moment of pleasure from her until a ragged groan tore from his throat. And then he sank down on top of her, his mouth taking hers again, before he rolled to the side and pulled her with him.
Faith lay against him, panting, her body still tingling and shuddering in the aftermath.
My God, what had just happened to her? She’d never flown so completely apart, nor wanted the feeling so desperately that she would have done anything to get it.
Renzo’s breathing was as hard as hers as his fingers skimmed down her naked back. A few moments later, he got up and walked into the attached bathroom, and her skin began to cool when he was no longer lying next to her. She lay sprawled on the bed, her body flushed and quivering and moist, and a sudden sensation of guilt pricked at her conscience.
She reached for the covers, suddenly acutely aware of her own nakedness. The room wasn’t brightly lit, but a lamp was on, spilling soft light over the rumpled bed.
She was not like Renzo, she thought. He was so beautiful, so perfectly made, muscles bunching and rippling as he moved.
And she was softer than she should be, padded. She was definitely not underwear model material. She yanked the covers to her chin as the heat of embarrassment infused her. Renzo had been too preoccupied before to really notice the flaws in her body—but now? Now he would
notice everything.
Faith would have shot from the bed and grabbed her clothes, but he returned too quickly. As he strode toward the bed, she got her first good look at his injured leg. There was a long scar down one side of his thigh and along the side of his knee. The scar was faded, but still noticeable.
He stopped and glanced down at his leg, and she realized she must have been frowning. She tried to wipe the look from her face, but he wasn’t fooled.
“It was a long time ago,” he said. “And yes, it was bad. So bad they said I would never race again.”
Faith bit her lip. She hated to think of him in so much pain, being told he couldn’t do the one thing he loved to do, the thing he had been the best in the world at. For the first time ever, she had an idea of just how hard he must have fought to prove them wrong. And how much it frustrated him to be dealing with it again now when he thought he’d conquered it.
“But that is unimportant at this moment,” he said, joining her in the bed again. His fingers hooked into the covers and tugged gently. “Let me see you, Faith.”
“You already saw me.”
He laughed. “It’s a little late for modesty, don’t you think?”
Her ears burned. It was a little late for everything. Where was her decorum, her sense? Her self-respect? She’d
tumbled headlong into carnality. If she was sorry now, it was no less than she deserved.
Except that she wasn’t sorry. Not for what they’d done. If she was sorry for anything, it was that she’d given herself to him and erased the mystery. How soon before he tired of her? How soon before she was looking for another job?
She’d done the one thing that she’d sworn she would never, ever do. She’d had sex with her billionaire boss, and become one of those women who seemed to think they could sleep their way to a better job or a better life. She knew women like that, women she’d met who worked for powerful men and thought that sleeping with them would lead to love.
Elaine had never admitted it, but Faith was convinced that’s why her roommate left the city and returned to Ohio. She’d had an affair with a man in her office who, while not her boss, was in senior management and quite wealthy. And married, it turned out. The affair had been over for a while, but Elaine had never quite gotten over it.
Renzo leaned down and kissed her, and Faith’s body started to melt. It surprised her, how she could respond so instantly after what they’d just done. She should be replete, too satisfied to react.
And yet she wasn’t. It was a shock to realize that if he wanted her again, right now, she’d happily wrap herself around him and go along for the ride.
And it was terrifying, too. If she couldn’t control herself now, what would happen later, when she was so accustomed to his lovemaking that the inevitable breakup would crush her? She’d be one of those pitiful women who kept calling his office—except that she was the gatekeeper.
Faith wanted to whimper and wail—and surrender to his touch.
Renzo was oblivious to the feelings crashing through her as he kissed her, and the covers inched down until she could feel the air sliding over her breasts, her torso.
“Beautiful,” he said, his hot mouth kissing a trail to her breasts. “I think I should keep you naked at all times.”
“It would make getting work done a little difficult,” she said, trying hard to be sophisticated and cool.
He propped himself on an elbow, his gaze smoldering. “Not if you worked in here.”
She reached for the covers again, and this time he did not stop her. “I—I think I should go back to my room now.”
His brows lifted in surprise. And then drew down as his features clouded. “Why would you want to do that?”
She couldn’t look at him. Her heart was pounding, her stomach flipping. What was she doing? “Thank you for showing me what it was like. For being my f-first. But I still work for you, and if I’m going to do my job properly, then I should go back to my
own room now.”
His face was a thundercloud. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him so angry. Not even when Niccolo Gavretti had tried to kiss her. He swore in Italian—and then in English, shocking her with the coarseness of his words.
He shot from the bed and stood there in all his naked glory. “Fine. Go then.”
Misery sliced into her. They’d been so close, and now she’d done this. She’d alienated him when all she wanted to do was turn into his arms and sleep the night away. “You need to turn around.”
“No.” His voice was hard, cruel. “We just had sex, Faith. I think I know what you look like. What you feel like. If you want to leave, get out of the bed and get dressed right now. I’m not going anywhere.”
She hesitated a minute before climbing from the bed and dragging the top cover with her. Renzo wrapped his fists in it and stripped it away, forcing her to stand there naked and exposed.
Like he was.
She wrapped her arms around her torso, turning in a circle while she searched for her dress. It was on the other side of the bed. She went to get it but before she could bend down, he was there, jerking her into his arms, pressing the full length of her naked body against his.
“You don’t want to go,” he said harshly. “You’re only doing this because you think you have to. Because you think I won’t want you anymore. But I do, Faith. I do.”
Faith shivered. Her hands were fists against his pectoral muscles, her forearms resting against his chest. And she was softening inside, aching and wanting and needing. When he held her, she wasn’t embarrassed or afraid. She simply wanted him, wanted this man she cared for more than she should.
It was already too late to protect her heart, she realized. She was falling, falling hard, and there was nothing she could do, short of leaving now. Leaving, going to the airport, climbing on a plane, and flying back to New York, where she would get another job and never, ever see Renzo again.
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