Castellano's Mistress of Revenge

by MELANIE MILBURNE

  She wasn’t quite sure of when she first realised she was no longer alone. At first it was just a prickling-at-the-back-of-the-neck sensation that she was being watched, but when she stopped at the end of the pool she could see no sign of anyone about. However, it was on her last lap that she noticed Marc sitting on one of the sun loungers, looking magnificently male in nothing but his black close-fitting bathers. Every muscle of his abdomen looked as if it had been carved from dark marble. Not a gram of excess flesh was on him anywhere. She could see he was no stranger to the discipline of regular and hard exercise. If anything, he was looking even fitter and leaner than he had in the past.

  ‘You swim well,’ he said, lifting his sunglasses to prop them just above his hairline.

  ‘Thank you,’ she said and, using the steps at the side of the pool, came out of the water, trying not to feel self-conscious in her bikini.

  She felt Marc’s eyes on her as she went to the other sun lounger, where she had left her towel, the heat of his gaze warming her far more than the late-afternoon sun. She used her towel like a sarong around her body before she faced him. ‘Celeste told me you weren’t coming back to the villa until later this evening.’

  He placed his hands behind his head as he stretched out on the lounger, the action making every carved contour of his biceps bulge with latent strength. ‘I finished the business I had to see to earlier than expected,’ he said.

  Ava narrowed her gaze as she stalled in the process of wringing out her wet hair over her shoulder. ‘Were you checking up on me by any chance?’ she asked.

  He crossed his ankles in an indolent manner, his dark eyes still roving her form so thoroughly she felt her skin prickle all over with sensory awareness. ‘Were you thinking of an escape route?’ he countered.

  Ava pursed her lips, letting the damp rope of her hair go. ‘Is there one I could use that would succeed?’

  He smiled a confident smile. ‘No.’ He leaned back even farther in the lounger. ‘I have thought of everything, cara. You have no choice but to stay with me or face the consequences of your late husband’s debts.’

  Ava tightened her towel around her body. ‘If I am to be shackled to you indefinitely I would like something to do to fill my time,’ she said. ‘While I was…’ she hesitated ever so briefly over her choice of word ‘…living with Douglas I helped him with some aspects of the business.’

  Marc rose from the lounger, dropping his sunglasses back over his eyes. ‘You can’t have been keeping too close an eye on them, otherwise you would have seen the way things were and left him and his sinking ship long ago,’ he remarked.

  Ava felt her heart give a little flutter as he stepped closer. She had no way of escaping unless she stepped backwards into the pool. ‘Th-that’s because towards the end when he became ill I left things to his accountants and business manager and instead looked after him myself.’

  ‘Why didn’t you leave him while you had the chance, or didn’t he give you a choice?’

  ‘It might surprise you, but yes, he did give me a choice, but I felt I owed it to him to stay,’ she said. ‘He had no one else. He wasn’t close to his children, which he regretted deeply. I felt sorry for him. He didn’t want to die alone.’

  Although Ava couldn’t see Marc’s eyes on account of his sunglasses, she could feel the cynicism of his gaze all the same. ‘You expect me to believe you personally nursed him?’ he asked.

  Ava lifted her chin. ‘It was the least I could do. After all, he had been very good to me.’

  ‘Oh, yes,’ he said with a lift of one side of his mouth. ‘He was very good to you indeed. He apparently paid you a minor fortune, didn’t he? Where is it now, Ava? Where is all the money he paid you over the years?’

  Ava felt a footstep of unease press on the base of her spine. ‘That is none of your business,’ she said, instinctively stepping backwards, momentarily forgetting the body of water behind her.

  She teetered for a nanosecond before Marc took her by the upper arms, his fingers warm and firm against her flesh. Her towel slipped to the pool deck, but Ava hardly noticed; she was far too aware of how close he was to her body and how hers was responding to him as if she had no choice in the matter. Her breasts pushed against her bikini top, the sensitive nipples tight with the ache to feel him touch her. Her hips were within touching distance of his, the temptation to press herself against him and feel his hardness was almost unbearable.

  ‘Large amounts of money have been going from your account to your sister’s in London,’ Marc said. ‘Do you want to tell me what that money was for or should I have someone investigate it for me at the risk of causing embarrassment to your sister or her husband or both?’

  She glared up at him with stormy grey-blue eyes. ‘How dare you invade my privacy, not to mention my sister’s, like that?’

  His fingers tightened as she tried to sidestep his hold. Anger was on her side, however, and somehow he misjudged his footwork. With a tangle of limbs Marc found himself falling, taking Ava with him into the open blue mouth of the pool.

  She came up spluttering, her arms flailing at him in fury, knocking his sunglasses off in the process. ‘You did that on purpose, you…you…beast!’

  Marc captured her wrists and pulled her up against his body, his blood surging to his groin as soon as her pelvis rammed against his. Her body felt like silk against his, soft and sensual, her limbs curling around his to keep herself afloat. He took advantage of every sweet moment, relishing in the feel of her mound against the press of his erection. She was fighting herself rather than him, he realised with an inward smile of satisfaction. He could feel it in the way her body pressed and pushed against him simultaneously, as if she resented what she was feeling but wanted it anyway. In the end he made it easy for her—he bent his head and his mouth swooped down to cover hers, his tongue delving deeply to bring hers to submission.

  Within seconds she melted with a sigh, her tongue dancing with his, her arms lacing around his neck as he nudged her to the edge of the pool where it was shallow enough to stand. He stood with his thighs apart, her slim form fitting perfectly against him, her mouth hot and wet and urgent under the heated pressure and exploration of his.

  The blood roared in his veins, thundering in his ears until all he could think about was sinking into her slick velvet warmth. He had wanted to wait, to have her begging for him, not the other way around, but his body was on fire with flames of need so intense he could feel them licking at him with long tongues of blistering heat. His whole body throbbed with it, the powerful attraction he had always felt for her seemed to have intensified now he finally had her in his arms. He had never been so close to losing control, or at least not since he was a hormone-charged teenager. The thought of exploding within her, feeling her convulsing around him made his blood sizzle as it raced through him. He ached with the pressure, the need so great he moved against her softness, searching for her, his spine tingling as she responded by whimpering with desire.

  Ava felt the tiled lip of the pool at her back as Marc’s body pressed against her searchingly, the heady, probing thrust of his arousal turning her bones to liquid. Her mouth was still locked beneath the mind-blowing passion of his, her hands threading through the wet thickness of his hair, her legs no longer touching the bottom of the pool but curled around the hair-roughened length of his.

  ‘I want you,’ he growled against her mouth as he deftly untied the strings of her bikini top. ‘Damn, it but I want you.’

  Ava was vaguely aware of her top floating away as Marc’s hands cupped her already peaking flesh. She gasped as his mouth covered hers again, her inner core beating with a pulse that was as strong as it was exigent. His tongue stroked and stabbed at hers simultaneously, making her breath catch with anticipation. Her heart raced with excitement, the sheer thrill of being in his arms again was beyond what she had imagined it would be. There was more heat, more urgency and more passion than ever before as kiss was exchanged for kiss, their teeth and tongu
es duelling until Ava had no idea who was in control any more.

  Her hands left his hair and went to the cord of his bathers, untying it blindly as her mouth burned against his. She felt him spring into her hands as he stepped out of the bathers, the length of him heavy and hot with lust. She stroked him under the water, the rhythmic action as natural to her as breathing in spite of the five long years that had passed. She knew what he liked, how hard, how soft, how fast and how far she could go until he would check her movements before he lost control. She loved the feel of him; he was so strong and yet so vulnerable like this.

  When he untied the strings of her bikini at her hips Ava drew in another little hitching breath of excitement. There would be no going back now. She could feel it in his body as it thrummed with need against hers. They had never made love in the water before. It was such a sensuous experience, the hint of the forbidden about it only adding to the allure.

  She opened to him like a flower, gasping as he drove into her so thickly her back grazed the tiles of the pool. Her body clamped around him, waves of pleasure tingling through her with each deep thrust he gave. There was something so primal about his lovemaking; the pounding urgency of it made it her pulse soar. He was rough and fast, but she was with him all the way. Her body was humming with sensation as he drove harder and harder. She felt that delicious tight little ache start low and deep, the tight pearl of tension that needed just that little bit more friction for release to come.

  She wriggled against him instinctively, wantonly, recklessly as she felt herself reach the summit of human sensation. She bit down on his shoulder to block her gasping cries of ecstasy, shuddering and convulsing as his body continued to pump within hers.

  As she floated down from the heights of pleasure she heard him suck in a harsh breath before he gave a series of hard grunts as he spilled into her, his body tight as whipcord, his muscles clenched beneath her clinging fingers.

  She felt him sag against her momentarily before he stepped back from her, raking a hand through his wet hair, his dark eyes briefly meeting hers before looking away.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘That was not meant to happen, or at least not without protection.’

  Ava gathered her pride, no easy feat when both pieces of her bikini were floating at the other end of the pool like an ill-formed octopus. How had she let herself be used by him? Where was her self-control? He had proved what her place in his life was going to be: as a sexual plaything he could access whenever he felt like it and she had given him every reason now to think she was more than willing to participate. She hadn’t even had the presence of mind to insist he use protection. Didn’t that prove how wanton he thought her to be? ‘Wasn’t it your intention to show me my place?’ she asked with a flinty glare.

  The space between his dark brows narrowed. ‘Ava, this was always going to happen,’ he said, brushing his wet hair back again, his chest still rising and falling as his breathing slowly returned to normal. ‘Maybe it would have been wiser to have done it indoors and with less haste, but that’s not something that can be changed. I will make it up to you right now. Let’s go inside and I’ll show you.’

  She threw him a withering look before turning and climbing out of the pool. ‘No, thank you,’ she said, snatching up her towel off the deck and wrapping it around herself tightly.

  Marc vaulted out of the water and stopped her with a hand on her arm. ‘Wait, Ava,’ he said crossly, although he was annoyed with himself more than her. He had caught sight of a graze on her back, a reddened patch that made him feel ashamed of himself for losing control. ‘Let me see your back. It looks like it’s sore.’

  She tried to slap his hand away. ‘Get away from me. It’s obvious what I’m here for—your pleasure, in any way and any place and any time you like it. Douglas might have had his faults, but he never once made me feel the way you have just done.’

  Marc felt each of her words hit him like lethally aimed arrows, but he kept his expression mask-like. ‘You felt pleasure too, Ava, or are you going to deny it just to spite me, hmm?’

  She threw him an icy glare. ‘Think what you like. I might have been pretending for all you know.’

  Marc chuckled at her spirited defiance. ‘Then that was a pretty amazing performance, Ava.’ He rubbed a hand over the indentation her teeth had made on his shoulder. ‘But I know your body and I know an orgasm when I feel it, both yours and mine.’

  Her eyes glittered with hatred, her body almost vibrating with the effort of containing her anger, but he wondered if she was furious with him or with herself for responding to him so unrestrainedly. Perhaps she had wanted to insult his pride by withholding her pleasure, but it had been such a powerfully explosive moment it had taken her by surprise, just as it had him. God knew, his body was still humming with the aftershocks of having her in his arms again. He couldn’t wait to repeat the experience, time and time again.

  But there were questions that required some answers first.

  He reached for his towel on the sun lounger where he had left it earlier, and tied it roughly around his hips. ‘You never did give me a straight answer to my question. Why did you give your sister the bulk of the money Cole gave you?’

  She elevated her chin in a haughty manner. ‘That is between Serena and me.’

  Marc tightened his jaw as he held her fiery gaze. ‘Has she got some sort of drug or gambling problem?’

  She glared at him for suggesting such a thing. ‘That is exactly the sort of thing you would think, isn’t it, Marc?’ she said. ‘Think the worst before any other possibility comes to mind.’

  ‘If there is nothing to hide then why not tell me what she has needed your financial help for?’ he asked, fighting down his frustration. She was so wilful and defensive he couldn’t get a straight answer out of her. He hated not knowing all the facts. It made him feel as if she had the power to tug the rug from under his feet. He was certainly not going to allow her the chance to do that again. Not in this lifetime.

  She held his gaze for several taut seconds before lowering hers, a whoosh of a sigh passing through her soft lips. ‘Serena can’t have children,’ she said, ‘or at least not naturally. I’ve been helping her and Richard pay for repeated IVF treatments.’

  Marc absorbed the information for a moment. He wondered why Ava had been so determined to keep such a thing quiet. It was a wonderful gesture on her part and, given how she had been painted in the Press, he couldn’t understand why she hadn’t used her acts of goodwill to whitewash her reputation. Surely it would have gone a long way to turn the public’s opinion around. But then her sister’s privacy probably had a lot to do with it, if not Serena’s husband, he thought. Marc had only met him once and only briefly at that, but Richard Holt had struck him as a rather conservative English gentleman who would no doubt be appalled at having such sensitive private issues hung out in public.

  ‘Thank you for telling me,’ he said. ‘It will go no further than me if that is what you wish.’

  Her grey-blue eyes came back to his, a shadow clouding them. ‘My sister has suffered a lot over the years,’ she said. ‘Not just with the fertility issue, but long before that. Losing our mother was hard for both of us, but I think Serena, being that bit younger, felt it more, especially when our father remarried so quickly. I tried to protect her as much as I could but I didn’t always succeed.’

  Marc frowned as he took it all in. Ava seemed to be blaming herself for not doing a job she was far too young to be doing at that time. No one could replace someone’s mother. He should know—the loss of his had deeply affected him, even though the circumstances were totally different. It made him wonder how far Ava would go to protect her sister, if in fact her marriage to Cole had been for exactly that purpose and no other. It was an uncomfortable thought that Marc himself had acted no less ruthlessly by forcing her into a loveless union for his own ends. Ava had sacrificed herself all over again in order to bring about her sister’s happiness. Marc had always known Dougla
s Cole was a shady character who thought nothing of the odd dodgy deal, but what he couldn’t stomach or even bear to think about was how Ava had been used as a pawn and he had added to her suffering by insisting on her becoming his mistress again. He was so used to looking upon her as the guilty one: the betrayer, the harlot who had stomped all over his pride by leaving him for another man, he hadn’t stopped to think what other motive she might have for acting as she had. No wonder she hated him with such vehemence. She might have capitulated to primal desire as he had done, but it didn’t mean she cared anything for him. Why would she? He had judged her without mercy, blackmailed her and virtually stripped her of her freedom for the sake of his pride. How he would ever make it up to her was beyond him at that point. He needed time to think. He was not used to being flooded by such a tidal wave of emotion, guilt being the primary one. It made him feel defensive, as if he needed to build a wall around himself until he could navigate his way through the mess he had made, to make some sense of where to go to from here.

  He watched in silence as Ava gnawed at her lip and continued, ‘I just want Serena to be happy. She had a terrible experience when she was a teenager. On her very first date she was sexually assaulted. It took years for her to get over it. I was worried she was going to…to…end it all, but thankfully I finally managed to get her the help she needed. Throughout the whole time, our father was next to useless and our stepmother even worse. They thought she was making it up to get attention.’

  Marc felt a gnarled hand clutch at his insides. ‘You are indeed a very devoted sister,’ he said. ‘I hadn’t realised how much you had done for her over the years. I am sorry.’

  She gave him a fleeting look before turning away. ‘Serena wants a baby more than anything. She’s finally found a man who absolutely adores her. Richard is so gentle and loving, so perfect for her. He would love her with or without having a family, but she is so very determined to give him a child.’

  ‘I would imagine it would be a big thing for a woman,’ Marc said. ‘It’s the sort of thing one takes for granted—fertility, I mean.’