He told her that there wasn’t an inch of her that he didn’t want to touch, although his words only half penetrated the haze of her own heated yearning. They were a low, husky rumble that sent her pulses leaping. He made her feel languorous and sexy and unashamed of her body and Katy, drinking at this fountain of desire for the first time in her life, lapped it up.
She caressed his head as he claimed her breasts, teasing them, sucking them, then moving lower so that he could trail wet kisses across her flat stomach. When he pulled down her briefs, she waited for him to enter her, knowing that she was no longer scared, but he didn’t. Instead, shockingly, he began to explore the very core of her with his tongue, sliding it along her moist crease and then pushing apart her thighs so that he could feast on her honeyed moistness.
Katy’s body jerked in immediate response and she arched back, writhing against his searching mouth.
When she half opened her eyes and saw the top of his dark head moving against her down there, his hands placed flatly on each of her inner thighs, she was so overcome by craving that she felt she might just pass out. She could feel her excitement building as he continued to lick her most intimate place.
Just when she thought that she wouldn’t be able to hold out any longer against the need to reach her own fulfilment, Bruno moved away briefly so that he could take protective measures. It was the merest passage of seconds, then he covered her body with his, guiding himself into her but very slowly and very gently.
‘Shh,’ he murmured, as if she had said something, then he covered her mouth with his and began to build a steady rhythm to his thrusts.
Katy’s body opened up like a flower to receive him and she began to move against him, picking up his rhythm until they were moving as one.
His body shuddered as he came into her and she responded with her own soaring climax that had her whirling away, flying out of space and out of time. When she finally landed and she opened her eyes, it was to find Bruno looking down at her with such tenderness that her heart constricted.
‘Was it okay for you?’ Katy ventured, with her usual honesty, and Bruno grinned and brushed some hair back from her face.
‘The earth moved.’ Literally. He couldn’t explain it but she had managed to transport him in a way that had never happened before.
‘Are you being sarcastic?’
He rolled off her and then stuck his arm under her head, pulling her close against him so that she was nestled into his neck.
It felt so comfortable that Katy promptly curved to her side and stretched her arm across his chest.
‘I could fall asleep,’ she confessed. In truth, she felt as if she were drifting along on ripples of contentment and peace.
‘Try and restrain yourself,’ Bruno said drily.
‘I know. I have to get back to my own room. If Joseph knew what had taken place here, he’d die a thousand deaths.’
‘What has happened here, Katy?’ Bruno asked in husky undertone.
‘You know as well as I do. We made love.’ She was bewildered that he would ask her a question with such an obvious answer, then her brain clicked into gear and she realised that what he was really talking about was what their love-making had meant. Good Lord, was he scared? Scared that she had given her virginity to him and might now be nurturing thoughts of relationships and commitment?
‘I mean,’ she expanded hastily, pulling back her arm only to find him replacing it, ‘we just gave in to…well, that lust thing…’
‘That lust thing.’
‘Right,’ Katy said eagerly. ‘When you touch me, I just melt. I can’t seem to help myself. You don’t have to worry that I’m going to do anything stupid, Bruno, like start having ideas about relationships or any such thing, because I won’t.’
He didn’t say anything for such a long time that she eventually propped herself up on one elbow and looked down at him. ‘I think I ought to get back to my bedroom now.’
‘We need to talk this one through a little more.’
‘Why?’ Did he think that he had to issue a few explicit warnings about not getting involved with him?
‘Why me?’
‘Sorry?’
‘Why me?’ He crossed his arms behind his head and proceeded to subject her to one of those cross-examination stares that always made her feel hot and bothered. ‘How is it that you never got around to sleeping with a man before?’
Katy could see where this was leading and it was exactly as she had feared. He would be thinking that he was special to her and he was trying to prise that confession out so that he could set the situation straight. She wished that she could get angry with the implication and storm out of the room, thereby terminating her discomfiture, but, like a fool, she felt so unbearably good lying next to him that she just didn’t want to leave. Well, not until she had ironed things out, she told herself.
‘I don’t know,’ she said truthfully. ‘I’ve really only had two serious relationships and neither of them got that far.’
Bruno gave a harsh, derisive laugh under his breath. ‘Well, those must have been sizzling relationships if you never got around to that lust thing.’
Katy reckoned she could detect sarcasm as good as the next person and she promptly sat up, faced him and glared.
‘They were very nice relationships!’ she retorted defensively.
‘So nice that you never managed to make it to the bed.’ He shot her a smug smile and in return got a frosty look. ‘It’s very hard to concentrate on being serious when your breasts are on display,’ Bruno informed her, and when she automatically raised her arms to shield them he pulled them down. ‘No, no. Too late for modesty, my darling.’ He touched the tip of one nipple with his finger and watched it tighten in immediate response.
‘Not fair,’ Katy protested.
‘Tell me what went wrong with those losers.’
‘They weren’t losers. Neil was a student and it just fizzled out because we ended up only seeing each other when he was back from university.’
‘You should have been panting to be in each other’s arms.’
‘We talked.’
Talked and talked and talked, Katy remembered. All about his new, exciting life at university, about the discos he went to, the thrilling people he mixed with. She had stopped being his girlfriend and had mutated into his confidante, sadly still stuck in their home town and lacking in the fun, fun, fun quality that every single university student appeared to possess. Katy hadn’t minded and what had that said about things?
‘Anyway, it just kind of faded away, then I met Paul…’
‘And you did lots of talking…’ For some reason this was music to his ears. He bounced one breast in his hand and then propped himself up so that he could suckle on a nipple that was just begging for a little attention.
‘Are you listening?’
Bruno glanced up at her. ‘Don’t mind me.’ Then he returned to the highly satisfying pleasure of sucking her other nipple. What was it about this woman that turned him on like an adolescent? Her body was as smooth as satin and perfectly formed. He felt himself hardening in anticipation of touching every inch of her all over again.
‘I met Paul when I came to London… Bruno, I can’t concentrate…’
‘Good. You don’t have to concentrate, my darling, on anyone aside from me.’
This time their love-making was slow and sensuous and Katy wanted it never to end. He guided her to him and then onto him, enjoying the delight she took in taking control. Her waist was so small that he could virtually span it with both his hands and aligned to her slightness was a suppleness and agility that he couldn’t get enough of. She moved as gracefully as a dancer. Finally, spent, she lay on top of him and he stroked her hair, her neck, her back.
‘I really must get back to my room,’ Katy murmured sleepily. ‘You should have warned me that making love consumed so much energy.’
‘You ain’t seen nothing yet, my darling,’ Bruno promised. ‘And you can’t go yet
. You were in the process of telling me about loser number two before you distracted me.’
‘Before I distracted you?’ She rolled over to his side and made a determined effort not to wish for the impossible, not to long to be able to stay where she was, to fall asleep next to him and wake up alongside him in the morning, and…and…
With dismay, Katy found that her imagination was gathering momentum and that the things she longed to share with this man were going far beyond the one-night stand he needed and entering into the dangerous relationship territory that she had firmly denied wanting.
‘Paul wasn’t content with the hours I could give him.’ She shrugged, winding up the explanation. ‘I was an au pair at the time and I only had a certain amount of hours off during the week. Look, I’m not saying that this was a mistake or anything…’
‘You seem to have headed off on another tangent.’
‘But I want you to know that this…what we did…’ She slipped her legs off the bed in one neat, unstoppable movement and stood up. If she had to gather her senses, then putting distance between them was step number one. Getting dressed would help as well. She didn’t look at him as she began flinging on her clothes, although she knew that he was looking at her.
‘We both gave in…’
‘To the lust thing. I know. You’ve said that already. And look at me when I’m talking to you!’
Katy looked at him. She could do that now that she was safely ensconced in her clothes.
‘I’m not going to hop into bed with you again, Bruno. Believe it or not, I’m not the kind of girl who does that…’
‘So I gathered.’
‘I know you think that because I’m attracted to you, I’m probably easy game…’
‘Don’t ever insinuate that I chase women just for the fun of it, Katy.’ Hadn’t he, though? In the past? Never getting involved, just enjoying the temporary pleasure and then moving on?
‘Of course you do,’ she answered and she could tell from his sudden dark flush that she had struck home. ‘And there’s no point trying to deny it. Bruno, your little escapades always made it to the gossip columns in the newspapers! You don’t want commitment. You want never-ending fun and that’s fine, but it’s not for me.’ His eyes were narrowing ominously as her speech progressed, but Katy knew that she had to speak her mind because if she left it all unsaid he would assume that he could pursue her while it suited him. She was attracted to him and, face it, she thought with brutal honesty, she was convenient. Here they were, both sharing the same house and, without Isobel on the scene to release his sexual energy, what easier than to turn to the little naïve country girl who had declared her weakness for him?
‘And what is for you?’ Bruno could feel her pulling away from him at a rate of knots and he didn’t like it. He swept out of the bed, pausing on the way to snatch up his boxer shorts, which he stuck on, and then made sure to stand with his back to the door so that he was effectively barring her exit.
‘You’re in front of the door and I want to leave,’ Katy protested with alarm.
‘It’s ridiculous to start running scared now,’ he said by way of response. ‘We’ve made love and why kid ourselves that it’s never going to happen again? We want one another and I don’t see anything wrong in that. What’s wrong in that?’
‘You’re trying to tie me up in knots.’
‘I’m trying to get you to see sense.’ Bruno wanted to shake her. Anything to make her see what was as plain as the nose on her face. They were consenting adults whose bodies made music together. He could discern that mulish stubbornness creeping over her and he knew with gut-wrenching certainty that she was digging her heels in.
‘You’re trying to get me to see your sense!’
‘This argument would be all right if we hadn’t just spent the past three hours in each other’s arms!’
‘I don’t want to be your plaything while you’re up here, Bruno. A little distraction on the side just for as long as you’re stuck here. Something to be tossed aside when it’s time to return to London and you spot bigger, brighter, shinier toys waiting to be played with!’
‘Whoever mentioned anything about tossing anyone aside?’
‘You don’t have to!’ Katy cried with heartfelt emotion. ‘Your history speaks for itself!’ She sighed and looked down at her feet and willed herself not to cry. It took a lot of effort, but eventually she looked up and said in a calm, controlled voice, ‘You can’t stand there blocking that door for ever. It’s time for me to get back to my room and there’s nothing more to be said.’
‘You’re living in the wrong era,’ Bruno said brusquely. ‘Love, marriage…waiting for Mr Right to come along…doesn’t happen, Katy.’
She shrugged and he wanted to bellow at her that he hated it when she ducked out of confrontation with one of those evasive shrugs of hers.
‘I don’t mind what lifestyle you choose, Bruno. You can work your way through the entire female population for all I care, but I’m not going to start giving myself away just for the fun of it!’ Had she just told him that she didn’t care? If he was even a little bit tuned in to women then he would see that for the nonsense that it was. She cared. Oh, how she cared.
Bruno slowly stepped aside, leant against the wall and folded his arms, like a dark Lucifer waiting to lure her back under his spell.
When Katy was right next to him, he said under his breath, ‘We live and die by the choices that we make, Katy. Remember that. You may feel very virtuous and saint-like denying yourself a taste of fun in your zeal to find the right man to slip a ring on your finger, but be careful you don’t end up wasting your life in one long, futile search.’
Katy’s head filled with images of herself getting older, looking for Mr Might-be-just-round-the-corner and wishing that she’d been wise enough to take the offer Bruno had extended. He had a golden tongue and he had managed to paint her destiny in a frightening light. She swallowed down the temptation to give into the promise of sexual fulfilment that he had offered to her.
‘Will you want me to work for you tomorrow?’ she whispered miserably instead.
Bruno scowled and restlessly raked his fingers through his hair.
‘Maybe in the afternoon,’ he muttered grimly. ‘I’ll be out in the morning.’
Out? Katy thought. Out where?
‘If you let me know what time—’
‘I don’t know what time!’ Bruno exploded. He strode over to the easy chair by the window and deposited himself in it although his posture was far from comfortable. Every fibre of his body was giving off signals of frustrated, impotent rage. Katy found it hard to believe that those narrowed black eyes had softened with teasing tenderness on her only a short while earlier.
Where had it gone? she thought wretchedly. She left the room with a miserable feeling of having won the battle but lost the war. And it was made worse the following day because Bruno was nowhere to be seen.
‘Business in London,’ Joseph told her, when, at four in the afternoon, she casually mentioned his absence. ‘Why?’
‘Oh, no reason!’ They were enjoying a walk in the garden. The weather was beautiful with the smell of early summer sifting through the trees and mingling with the smell of freshly mowed grass. Katy tried to enjoy the perfume and found instead that she was glaring down at the beds of flowers and thinking tortured thoughts of what precisely Bruno was doing in London.
‘He was supposed to come back up at lunch time, but he phoned me earlier to say that he’d been delayed. Meetings, I expect.’
‘I expect so. He’s been here quite a while. He’s probably getting back into the swing of things in London.’ Fixing up hot dates with hot babes, she thought sourly, now that this damp squib had given him a resounding red light.
‘Probably,’ Joseph agreed. ‘Guess you’ll miss him being around when he finally does leave?’
‘Oh, no! You and I can get back to normal, then. Carry on with the memoirs. We haven’t visited the library in ages
. Maybe we can go at the end of the week.’ She was dreading getting back to the normality she had previously relished. Bruno had swept into her life like a tornado and shattered her peace and she didn’t think she could ever get it back again.
If it had just been a question of lust, then, yes, this painful ache inside her would gradually ease and life would go back to what it had been before. Or something very similar anyway. But it wasn’t just about lust, not for her. It was all about love and need and every other ludicrous word that she could never dare breathe to him. She had made the fatal error of falling in love with him and it served her right. Instead of recognising what she felt from early on and taking the necessary precautions, just as he had taken the necessary precautions when they had made love, she had hurled herself off the cliff with a great shout of joy and now she was left staring at a blank abyss for her sins.
‘And we’ll have to pick up the memoirs,’ she said brightly to Joseph as they strolled towards the greenhouse. ‘My typing skills are pretty good now. We can cover lots more! Well, I can type up what we cover a lot faster anyway!’ She listened to herself babbling away frantically as they inspected the tomatoes and the grape vines and finally the orchids. By the time they made it back to the house she had covered every topic under the sun and Joseph had managed to slip in only the occasional word edgeways.
She found herself going back to the original topic they had briefly discussed earlier and, partly for Joseph’s benefit but mostly for her own, she gravely reminded him that Bruno’s extended day in London was the prelude to him leaving for good.
‘He’s probably missed the cut and thrust of big city life,’ she expanded, imagining him cutting and thrusting with a series of dashing six-foot Isobel clones. ‘This country life probably stifles him. No feverish excitement in the office, no phones ringing all the time, no important people calling in for…for financial advice or whatever…’ No clubs, she amended in her head, no sizzling night life, no expensive restaurants full of famous, beautiful people who would naturally be on first name terms with him…
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