by Leanne Banks
Embarrassment and alarm hit her like a cold glass of water. “We just…” She groped for an adequate description. Made love wasn’t right. Everything else that came to mind didn’t fit. “We just did it in your mother’s office? How can you be so calm?” A terrible thought crossed her mind. “Or maybe this isn’t the first time you’ve…”
He shook his head. “This is the first time I’ve ever ‘done it’ in my mother’s office. It’s the first time I’ve ‘done it’ in my parents’ house. I’m damn well not calm, because I want you again. At the moment that desk is looking like a good place to start, but I think you deserve better than a desk for your second time. If you want to practice fifty wicked ways to seduce a man, then, cara, I’m your man.”
Twenty minutes later she stood in the middle of her bedroom with Nicholas, and she was still trying to gather her senses. She saw the undisguised desire in his eyes, and her chest felt so tight she wondered when she would breathe normally again.
He skimmed his hand down her arm, then twined his fingers with hers. “Are you okay?”
“I’m not sure. I haven’t had time to think.”
He slid his hand around the nape of her neck. “I’m going to give you some more time not to think,” he said, lowering his head and brushing his lips from side to side over hers.
Gail immediately felt a melting sensation. She fought it. “I, uh, I think I need to know the rules.”
His brow furrowed, but he continued the mesmerizing movement of his lips. “What rules?”
Gail swallowed. “Well, like, is this a one-night—”
“No,” he immediately said, then plunged his tongue into her mouth.
The possessiveness she tasted in his kiss made her light-headed. “Okay,” she said in a breathy voice.
“Then how long—” She broke off, uncomfortable with the question.
“We’ve got at least a list of fifty to get through,” he told her.
Her heart stuttered, and she bit her lip. “How are you going to get through a list of fifty with me when so many other women are panting to be with you?”
He leaned back slightly, and the intent, aroused expression in his eyes pulled her under again. “I’ve never had anyone just for me before. I want to keep this just between you and me. Exclusively.”
She had seen his strength, and she’d glimpsed his vulnerability, and although he wasn’t making any forever promises, she wanted to be with him more than anything. “I want to be just for you,” she said.
He took her mouth in a kiss that sent shockwaves of pleasure through her. Shaking his head, he seemed to try to pull himself under control. He lifted a finger to touch her swollen lips. “If you keep looking at me that way, it’s going to be hard for me to treat you like a virgin tonight.”
Another woman would have played it safe, would have walked away. After all, how could she possibly avoid heartache in this situation? Gail had no choice. Nicholas was everything she’d ever wanted in a man, but she’d always been too afraid to do anything more than dream about it. He was everything. Everything except forever. Even during their heated coupling at his parents’ house, she had never felt more desired, never felt more like a woman.
Swallowing her inhibitions and fears, she mentally stepped up to the plate. She slid her tongue over his finger. “Don’t treat me like a virgin,” she whispered.
It took only a second to register the passion her words unleashed in him. Gail felt the thrill of lighting an explosive device as Nicholas unbuttoned her jacket and tossed it aside, then quickly dispensed with her skirt. “As you requested,” he said, and ditched her bra at the same time he kissed her.
Their words, spoken and unspoken, surrounded them like a protective barrier against the outside world. He was safe with her. She would be safe with him. At least for now.
Allowing herself to sink into his kiss, into his seduction, she kissed him back, twining her tongue with his. She felt him touch her nipple with his thumb and forefinger, while he ran his other hand from the back of her head down to her bottom.
She started to step out of one of her heels and he shook his head. “Leave them on,” he told her, and the sexy order raised her temperature several degrees.
“You look great in a suit,” she said, “but I want to feel your—”
She didn’t even complete her sentence before he pulled loose his tie and shoved aside his shirt, kissing her all the while. The room felt as if it had turned upside down, and the air around her seemed to crackle with electricity. He moved against her and she felt his nakedness, his hard chest, flat abdomen and urgent arousal.
He propped her against the bed and leaned down to draw her nipple deeply into his mouth. “I want to touch you everywhere at once,” he muttered, sliding his hand between her legs. When he slid a finger inside her and rubbed his thumb over her most sensitive spot, she felt herself bloom under the caress. She instinctively spread her legs farther apart for his ministrations, and he groaned in approval.
“So hot, so sweet, so tight,” he said. He lifted his gaze to meet hers. “You told me not to treat you like a virgin.”
Her mouth went dry at the expression on his face. He looked as if he were going to consume her. She nodded.
He knelt down in front of her and pressed an openmouthed kiss on her belly, then moved his tongue lower and lower still. He consumed her intimately; his tongue and mouth sent her over the edge time and time again. She gasped at the sharp pleasure.
When she didn’t think she could stand another peak, he stood up and thrust inside her, his gaze making her feel as if she was some kind of prized captive. Shocked, but unafraid of her wantonness, Gail relished every move he made inside her. The sensations built again, but she wanted to feel his release, to see the pleasure on his face.
So hot she was burning inside and out, she clung to him and felt the instant his climax rolled through him into her. He stiffened and his eyes drooped to a sexy half mast, his gaze latching on to her. He swore, but it sounded almost like a prayer, and his pleasure sent her over the edge again.
He sank with her onto the bed, his body still joined with hers. A riot of sensations and emotions raced through her. She was so overwhelmed she felt the urge to cry. Alarm slammed into her. Heaven help her, she couldn’t cry. He would be horrified.
Shell-shocked, she focused on the hard strength of his chest against her breasts, the pounding of his heart against her rib cage and his fingers sifting through her hair.
“Are you okay?”
Her heart twisted at the gentleness in his voice. For all his fire and passion, Gail knew Nicholas couldn’t take without giving. It wasn’t in him. And she lo— She broke off that line of thought as quickly as possible. She took a careful breath.
He lifted up slightly to look at her. “You didn’t answer me.”
She inhaled again. “Give me a…”
“Minute?” he finished for her.
“Week,” she said around a soft chuckle.
He grinned, then turned thoughtful. “You told me not to treat you like a virgin.”
She heard the concern in his voice and couldn’t help falling for him even more. “And you followed instructions very well,” she said. “You consumed me and made me like it.”
“Careful,” he said. “Talking like that could get me started all over again.”
She swallowed and met the challenge in his eyes. “You consumed me and made me like it,” she repeated.
Eight
When Gail awoke the next morning, she immediately grasped the meaning of “love hangover.” Although she was an athlete and she’d strained muscles from overexertion before, her body ached in ways she’d never imagined.
She looked at the large vacant spot beside her where Nicholas had been and rubbed her hand over the pillow where he’d rested his head. A rush of conflicting emotions assailed her. She began to think about all she’d told herself not to consider last night.
She and Nicholas had stepped over the line, and now
they were lovers. Secret lovers. Sitting up in bed, she felt more twinges, some in her heart. In a way, she understood his desire to keep their relationship secret. Everything else in his life was so public. Plus, there was the fact that she worked for him. Part of her, however, couldn’t help wondering if he was, in some way, ashamed of her, or at least ashamed of his desire for her.
Gail felt a sharp jab of pain and closed her eyes against her thoughts. “You can’t go there,” she whispered. “You can’t think that way.”
From the moment she’d met Nicholas Barone, she had known he was way out of her league, but she was determined not to be a wuss about it. This was no Cinderella and Prince Charming relationship that would culminate in marriage, she told herself sternly as she rose from her bed.
This was the affair of a lifetime, and if that knowledge pinched her in hidden places, she was going to have to get over it. She might even fall in love with Nicholas….
Might. She glanced in the mirror over the cherry dresser and made a face. Her conscience mocked her. If she wasn’t already in love with Nicholas, would she have given herself to him so freely last night?
Gail’s heart contracted, and panic sliced through her. She had fallen in love with him. Maybe it was a virgin thing, she thought desperately. Maybe all women thought they were in love with the first man.
But Gail knew better. Deep down she knew, and the knowledge rocked her. She was in love with Nicholas Barone. She had witnessed his strength and vulnerability up close and personal. She had experienced his humor and his passion. Sure, he was charming and knee-weakening gorgeous, but it was the private man who’d gotten to her. He was strong, but she felt oddly protective of him.
So she loved him, she admitted to herself unabashedly. Now she just needed to keep it a secret.
During the day Gail fought back her little doubts, but when Nicholas arrived home, he made all her concerns disappear. Every night. They shared evenings at home with Molly and one time even ventured to Baronessa Gelateria on Hanover Street in the north end.
The building maintained the look and charm of an old-time soda shop, complete with diner stools and booths. Gail loved it on sight.
Maria greeted the three of them with a wide smile. “It’s about time you visited. We even have hot chocolate or cappuccino if you’re feeling a little cold.”
Gail couldn’t help thinking about the hot kiss she and Nicholas had shared just before they’d left his town house moments ago. “I’m not cold,” she said, refusing to meet Nicholas’s taunting gaze. “Molly and I would love strawberry gelato.”
“Make that three,” Nicholas said as he followed Maria to a booth in the back of the moderately busy store.
“You got it,” Maria said, pulling out a high chair for Molly. “I’ll send Kyle to serve you.”
Nicholas tucked Molly into her chair, then sat across from Gail in the booth. “I’m surprised you didn’t ask for hot fudge sauce,” he said, rubbing his leg against hers.
She glanced up at him and felt her heart leap at the expression on his face. “You shouldn’t flirt with me in public if you want to keep our relationship a secret.”
“But it’s so hard to resist. Your face turns this lovely shade of—”
“Fire-engine red,” she said, glowering at him while she gave Molly a spoon to play with.
“And since I’ve seen you naked, I know the blush starts in your face and travels down your neck to your shoulders.” He lowered his voice, and his gaze took the same trip as his words. “Then your breasts turn pink and so do your nipples.”
Gail willed her cheeks not to heat. “My nipples do not change color,” she whispered.
“No, but they get hard when I look at them or put my mouth on them.”
Gail decided two could play this game of sensual torture. “Just as you get hard when I look at you, touch you or put my mouth on you.”
He held her gaze for a long moment. He slid his legs between hers. “You mean like I’m getting right now?”
“Are you?” she asked, amazed at how easily he aroused her. Suddenly warm, she pulled off her sweater as Kyle, their waiter, delivered the gelati.
Distracted by Nicholas’s gaze, she managed to respond appropriately to Kyle and cover Molly with a large bib.
“So what are you going to do about it?” Nicholas asked, feeding Molly a spoonful of gelato.
“What am I going to do about what?” she asked.
He nailed her with an expression hot enough to burn down the building. “About how you affect me.”
She lifted her spoon to her mouth and looked at the gelato. “You may not remember number thirty-seven on the list.”
“Probably not. My circuits were smoked by number twenty-nine.”
“Number thirty-seven involved ice cream,” she said, and licked the creamy dessert from her spoon.
“Ice cream and what else?”
“Something I would get arrested for if I did it in public,” she said with another long lick and a smile. He tugged at his collar and she could practically see the steam rising from his head. The knowledge that she could get him so worked up was deeply gratifying.
Serving another spoonful to Molly, he shot Gail a look that told her payback would be hell. “Speaking of the list of fifty, I disagree with one of them. I don’t like your lipstick.”
She blinked. “Why not?”
“Because I would rather you wear a lipstick that leaves a mark everywhere you kiss me,” he said. “Everywhere.”
Her belly tightened at the primitive prospect of marking Nicholas, of making him hers. “We maybe could add that to the list,” she said. “Would I get to choose where I get to kiss?”
“Yeah, but I would try to influence you.”
She just bet he would. Gail resisted the overwhelming urge to apply the dish of cool gelato to her heated cheeks. The sensual images she and Nicholas had stirred had temporarily fried her brain.
“No hot goddess comeback?” he taunted.
“I always said I was out of my league with you,” she returned, thinking he had no idea how serious she was.
“You underestimate yourself.”
“We’ll see,” she muttered, wondering how much longer she’d be able to hold his attention.
His brow furrowed. Apparently he’d caught the serious note in her voice. “What do you mean?”
She shrugged and angled her head in the direction of Maria, who was coming toward them.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
“It’s fine. You’re running the show with the same finesse as Grandmother Angelica did.”
Maria’s lovely brown eyes softened. “That’s high praise coming from you,” she said.
“You’ve earned it.”
“Thanks. Are you sure everything is okay? Your conversation looked a little intense.”
“I was telling Gail that the gelato is actually made in the basement,” Nicholas said without missing a beat.
Maria nodded. “He’s right. We do it all right here on the premises. We’re committed to maintaining the atmosphere and quality of the original shop.” She threw an assessing glance over her shoulder. “I would show you the basement, but we’re getting more crowded by the minute. Next time,” she promised Gail, and whirled away.
“Excellent diversion,” Gail said to Nicholas.
“Maria is passionate about the gelateria. She worked here with Grandmother Angelica until Grandmother died last year.”
Gail looked up at the large black-and-white photo of Nicholas’s grandparents opening the shop. Love and hope were written on their young faces. “They loved each other very much, didn’t they.”
Nicholas nodded. “Marco loved her enough to steal her away from another guy. Then they eloped.”
“How romantic.”
“They had their share of struggles,” he said thoughtfully. “But they had one of those once-in-a-lifetime loves that not all of us find.”
Gail’s heart twisted at the closed expression on
his face. She wished he could feel that kind of love for her. She wished he would look at her and see how much she loved him. Her stomach turned. If he knew how strong her feelings for him were, he would probably drop her faster than gelato melted on the Fourth of July. Oh, her silly wishes. She needed to stop making them.
Later that night, after they’d made love in her bed, Gail flipped over onto her stomach to look at him. She rested her hand on his strong chest. “Tell me another Barone story.”
Nicholas groaned. “Not another one.” A family story had somehow become part of every evening they shared. She made love to him with the force of a tornado, then demanded a story.
She poked out her lip in a playful pout. “But you tell great stories. I love hearing about your family.”
“Why?” he asked, opening his eyes to study her.
She glanced away. “Because I don’t have much family and you do.”
Something about the heartrending expression she tried to hide from him grabbed at his gut. “You haven’t told me much about your childhood.”
“There’s not that much to tell. After my father died, my brainy brother, Adam, got a scholarship to boarding school here in Boston. Then he got a full scholarship to Boston College.”
“But what did you do?”
“I went to school, played sports and did a lot of baby-sitting before my mom got sick.” She slid a furtive glance at him. “I warned you that I didn’t lead a fascinating life.” She sighed. “There was this Greek family that lived down the street for a couple of years. I think they had six or seven kids, and they kind of adopted me while they lived close by. It was so noisy at their house and so quiet at mine.”
“You liked the noise,” he concluded, toying with one of her curls.
She nodded.
“You would have enjoyed dinner at the Barones, then. Just about any meal at the Barones,” he said, correcting himself. “Breakfast could get noisy, too. I remember how much I savored the peace and quiet when I got my own place.”
“Funny how you always want what you don’t have,” she murmured.
The faraway expression in her eyes tugged at something deep inside him. For all the forbidden heat of their sexual interludes, Nicholas hadn’t fooled himself into believing he wanted Gail just for the sex. He would probably die before he admitted it, but he felt safe with Gail. She wouldn’t turn on him. She wouldn’t lie to him. She would hurt herself before she would hurt him.
