The Temporary Mrs. Marchetti (Mills & Boon Modern)

by MELANIE MILBURNE

  How could it be possible to want any man more than she wanted this one? Was that why she had bolted when he’d pressured her to marry him in the past? Because he was the one man who could make her forget about her promise never to become enslaved to a man. Never to lose her autonomy. Never to need someone so badly they had the power to destroy her. Cristiano had the power to destroy her self-control. He only had to look at her and her self-control folded like a house of cards in a gale-force wind.

  Cristiano took one of her hands and threaded his fingers through hers. ‘I’ve been thinking... I don’t remember ever kissing you before without it ending in sex.’

  Alice ran her tongue over her lips, tasting him. Wanting him. Aching for him. ‘I was thinking the same. Freaky, huh?’

  His gaze searched hers for a long moment. A small frown tugged at his brow, making a two-pleat fold between his eyes. ‘I seem to remember we didn’t do a lot of talking back then, either.’

  Alice gave him a wry look. ‘I don’t know about that. I talked but you didn’t listen.’

  His crooked smile had a faint touch of regret about it. ‘We didn’t listen to each other.’ He released a long sigh and looked at their entwined fingers, his thumb rhythmically stroking the length of hers. ‘It was a long time ago, sì?’

  Alice settled into the seat, resting her head against his shoulder. ‘It sure was.’

  So much so I feel like a different person now.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  IT WAS CLOSE to midnight when they arrived at Cristiano’s villa in Milan. Stepping over the threshold was like stepping back through time.

  Alice swept her gaze around the stunning entry, taking in the marble floors and the grand staircase that led to the upper floors with its decorative black balustrading. There were priceless chandeliers and wall lights, the marble and bronze statues and artworks that would be the envy of any serious art collector. Some things were the same, and yet others were different. It had been redecorated and repainted but it was still Cristiano’s home—the place where he had spent the first eleven years of his life until the tragic death of his family.

  The villa had been rented out following his parents’ and brother’s deaths as Cristiano had lived in Stresa with his grandparents. But Alice knew how much this place meant to him. He had spent the happiest years of his life here.

  She had spent the happiest six weeks of her life here.

  Cristiano took her hand and drew her to his side. ‘Having second thoughts?’

  Alice turned in the circle of his arms and linked her arms around his neck. ‘No. Why would I? It’s just sex.’

  His gaze held hers for a long beat. ‘You’re not worried about the boundaries blurring?’

  Worried? Damn straight, I’m worried.

  ‘No,’ Alice said. ‘But clearly you are. What are you worried about? That you might fall in love with me all over again?’

  A steel shutter slammed down at the backs of his eyes. ‘I told you before—I wasn’t in love with you. I was in lust.’ He dropped his hold and stepped away from her. ‘I’ll take the bags up. You go on ahead. I’ll be up in a minute.’

  Alice stood without moving. Did he have to make it sound so...so clinical? He was making her feel like someone he’d picked up in a bar and brought home for a quick tumble. Where was the man who had once carried her up those stairs like an old-time Hollywood-movie hero? Who had treated her like a princess instead of a prostitute?

  ‘Are any of your household staff here?’

  ‘No. I gave them the night off. I called them before we left London.’

  Alice could sense he was annoyed with her. Every muscle in his face was pulled tight, especially around his mouth, leaving it flat and white-tipped.

  ‘Why don’t we go up together?’ she said.

  ‘You know where my bedroom is.’

  Alice lifted her chin. ‘Oh, I get it. You want to play I’m-the-John-and-you’re-the-hooker? Fine—I can do that.’

  She shrugged off her light coat and let it drop to the floor. Then she unzipped her dress and let it puddle at her feet before she stepped out of it, leaving her in bra and knickers and heels.

  His eyes turned black, his mouth compressed until his lips disappeared. ‘Don’t.’

  ‘Don’t what?’ Alice said, unhooking her bra and tossing it to the floor near his feet. ‘I’m having fun, aren’t you?’

  He kicked her bra out of the way and came to her before she could remove anything else. He took her by the upper arms, his fingers gripping her so tightly she was sure they would leave marks. ‘Why must you always fight me at every turn?’ he said.

  Alice glared back at him. ‘I’ll fight you until you start treating me as an equal.’

  ‘Then start behaving like an adult instead of a child.’

  She pushed her naked breasts against the hard wall of his chest. ‘How’s this for acting like a grown-up?’ She slid her hand down between their bodies to touch his swollen length. ‘And this?’

  His mouth came crashing down on hers as if some formerly strong leash of self-control inside him had finally snapped. It wasn’t a kiss of tenderness, of exploring and rediscovering, but a kiss of raw, rampant hunger.

  Alice kissed him back with the same frantic need, their tongues duelling, fighting—a heated, potent combat that made her senses careen out of control. She tore at his clothes, tugging off his shirt with no concern for the buttons. She barely registered the plink, plink, plink of them hitting the marble floor. Next she unhooked his belt and slipped it from his trouser lugs, letting it drop to the floor at their feet.

  His hands shoved her knickers down past her thighs, his fingers stroking her damp heat with devastating expertise. The pleasure came at her from nowhere, ambushing her, throwing her into a whirling tailspin that left her gasping.

  But no way was she allowing this to be a one-way affair. She ripped his zipper down and freed him into her hands, massaging him as she fed off his mouth, using her tongue against his to remind him of the sensual assault she had in mind for him. He made a guttural sound—a sound so utterly primal it made her insides quiver in excitement.

  He wrenched her hand away with a muttered curse, his mouth coming back down on hers with a fireball of passion. He walked her backwards to the nearest wall, part walk, part stumble, and roughly stepped out of his trousers and shoes.

  Alice broke the kiss to peel her knickers the rest of the way down her legs and kick off her heels. Cristiano tugged her by the hips back against him, letting her feel the full force of his arousal. Her hand went to him again, while her eyes met his. She loved watching the waves of pleasure contort his handsome features. It was the only time she had ever seen him lose control.

  ‘Wait,’ he said, breathing hard. ‘Condom call.’

  Alice would have thrown caution to one side like her clothes, but knew it would be irresponsible given their circumstances. Not that she didn’t allow herself a tiny moment, while he sourced a condom from his wallet, to wonder what it would be like to carry his child.

  Cristiano came back to her, one hand going to the wall next to her head, his mouth pressing a hot kiss to the side of her neck, and then over her collarbone and then to her breasts. His tongue stroked each upper curve before circling the nipple, in ever tightening circles until he took the nipple into his mouth, drawing on it in a sensual suck that made the hairs on Alice’s head stand on end as if pulled from above.

  He kissed his way back up to her mouth, taking it in a deep, plundering kiss that left her clawing at his body for the release she craved. He moved between her legs, lifting one of her legs up and anchoring it on his hip before entering her with a sure, swift thrust that made her gasp out loud.

  It had been so long!

  He set a fast rhythm as if he knew the sweet and savage agony her body was going through. He drove into her moist heat with determined purpose, his breathing just as ragged as hers. Alice gripped him by the shoulders, her fingers digging into his muscled flesh as the wave bro
ke over her. A smashing wave that tossed her into a spinning whirlpool that shook and shuddered through her body. And then another and another followed in its wake, leaving her boneless, spent and quivering all over with aftershocks.

  He continued to rock against her until he came with a deep groan of release, his body shuddering as it emptied, his breath hot and rapid against the side of her neck.

  Alice unlocked her fingers and slid her hands down his arms and back up again. ‘You certainly haven’t lost your touch. But I guess you’ve had plenty of practice.’

  He pulled away from her and removed the condom. Then he bent to pick up his trousers and stepped back into them. ‘I’m not going to apologise for having a life.’

  Alice stepped past him and scooped up his shirt and slipped her arms through the sleeves, drawing it around her naked body, figuring it was quicker than fumbling around the floor for her clothes, which seemed to be strewn from one end of the foyer to the other. ‘Are you suggesting I haven’t got one?’

  He gave her a levelling look. ‘You haven’t dated in over a year. Why?’

  Alice pursed her lips, locking her arms even tighter around her body where she was trying to hold his shirt in place. ‘I’ve been busy at work. I’m always too exhausted at the end of the day for trawling around the nightclubs or online for a sex buddy. Thanks to your extremely generous grandmother, I can now indulge myself for the next six months with you. Lucky me.’

  A line of tension pulled at his mouth. ‘Is that all you want from men? Sex?’

  ‘Not all men,’ Alice said. ‘Only the ones I can bring myself to sleep with.’ She stepped forwards and trailed a fingertip down his bare arm. ‘You tick all the boxes. You’re rich, good-looking and you know your way around a woman’s body. Oh, and you always have a condom handy. That’s always a bonus.’

  His hand capturing her wrist, he searched her gaze for a long pulsing moment. ‘You’re twenty-eight years old. Don’t you want more for your life now than work and no-strings sex?’

  Alice closed her mind to the image it kept throwing up of a tiny dark-haired baby with raisin-black eyes. ‘Nope. Do you?’

  Cristiano’s frown made a roadmap of lines on his forehead. His hand fell away from her arm. ‘No.’

  Alice bent down and picked up her bra and knickers and bundled them into a ball in her hand. ‘Then we’ve got nothing to worry about, have we? We’re both in this for what we can get. You want your company shares and your share of the villa and I want the financial security my share in your grandmother’s villa will give me once we fulfil the terms of her will.’ She slipped on her heels before adding, ‘Although, I’m not sure why you’re insisting on having a church wedding. It seems a little over the top given the circumstances.’

  ‘I told you my reasons. I don’t want people thinking this is anything but a genuine relationship.’

  ‘All the same, it’s going to look pretty bad when we divorce in six months,’ Alice said. ‘Aren’t people going to speculate and wonder how genuine it was then?’

  He gave her an unreadable look. ‘Perhaps you won’t want it to end in six months. You might be enjoying yourself too much.’

  Alice laughed. ‘Funny man. You’re good in bed, but not that good.’

  He sent a lazy fingertip over the back of her hand where it was holding his shirt in place. ‘Speaking of bed... I hope I didn’t rush you just then?’

  ‘Did you hear me complaining?’

  A small smile lifted one corner of his mouth. He sent the same fingertip down the slope of her cheek, stopping beneath her chin to lift it so her gaze was on a level with his. ‘I want you like I’ve wanted no other woman.’

  Alice gave up trying to hold his shirt together and linked her arms around his waist instead. ‘I bet you say that to every woman you’ve brought back here.’

  He made a twisted movement of his mouth. ‘You might not believe this, but I’ve never brought anyone back here. For a drink or dinner, yes, but not to have sex. Not since you.’

  Alice did find it hard to believe. But why hadn’t he brought anyone back here? Did it mean he had loved her after all? That he couldn’t bear to have anyone here where he had made such passionate love to her? But he was so adamant now he hadn’t been in love with her back then. ‘But why not?’

  His eyes dipped to her mouth but whether it was because he was thinking of kissing her again or avoiding her gaze she couldn’t be sure. ‘Every room reminded me of you.’ He waited a beat before returning his eyes to hers. ‘It was...off-putting.’

  ‘It must have cost you a fortune in hotels,’ Alice said.

  His crooked smile made her insides shift. ‘The upside of owning hotels is I don’t get to pay for accommodation.’

  ‘Lucky you.’

  His hands went to her hips, holding her against the stiffening of his body. The sensation of him swelling against her stirred her blood, making her aware of the tingling nerve endings deep in her core. His mouth came down and covered hers in a long, slow kiss that ramped up her desire to a new level.

  Alice returned his kiss, her tongue tangling with his in a sexy tango that made him tug her harder against him as if he couldn’t bear to have any distance between them. She moved her hands up and down his back and shoulders, delighting in the freedom to touch him, to stroke him, to feel his sculpted muscles tense and flex under her caressing touch.

  She couldn’t get it out of her mind—he hadn’t brought anyone back here since her. Not one woman. No one had shared his bed with him but her.

  Cristiano’s hands went from her hips to scoop her up in his arms. ‘Time for bed?’

  Alice played with the ends of his hair that brushed his neck. ‘You don’t have to carry me. I’m too heavy. You’ll herniate a disc or something.’

  He pressed a brief hard kiss to her lips. ‘You’re a lightweight. I lift weights that weigh more than you.’

  He had the muscles to prove it. She could feel them bunching and tensing under her knees and her back where his arms were holding her, a heady reminder of how strong he was and how potently male.

  He took her to his bedroom, which had been redecorated since she had last been there. Had he tried to remove every memory of his time with her? Tried and failed? It was now decorated in a soft mushroom grey on a feature wall behind the bedhead, with white walls and ceiling, and white linen on the king-sized bed with a matching grey throw placed neatly on the end. There was a grey velvet linen-box-like seat at the foot of the bed half the height of the mattress. The carpet was a soft cream that threatened to swallow her up to the knees when Cristiano placed her on her feet beside the bed.

  Alice kept her arms linked around his neck, pushing her body against the warm, hard frame of his. ‘You’ve redecorated since I was last in here.’

  ‘Yes.’ He nibbled at her earlobe, sending a frisson scooting down her spine. ‘Not that it worked. I still couldn’t bring myself to make love with anyone in here. I spent a veritable fortune for nothing. Like it?’

  ‘It’s gorgeous.’

  ‘Like you.’ He kept kissing her neck, nipping and licking at the sensitive flesh.

  Alice couldn’t help a thrill of pleasure at his compliment. She didn’t see beauty when she looked in the mirror. What woman did? She only saw the things she wished she could change. But when Cristiano looked at her with his dark eyes glittering with desire, she felt beautiful and desirable in a way she never felt with anyone else.

  His mouth came to hers in a searing kiss, his tongue delving between her lips in search of hers. She gave herself up to the kiss, a soft whimper escaping her lips when he peeled his shirt away from her body and took possession of one of her breasts in his hand. The warm expertise of his touch made her skin tingle and her nipples tighten into buds. He rolled his thumb over her nipple, his hand then slipping to the underside of her breast, pushing the globe of flesh upwards for the descent of his mouth. He suckled on her engorged nipples in turn, his tongue hot and moist as it moved over the curve of eac
h breast until her body was trembling with need.

  He knelt down in front of her, kissing his way from her breasts, down her sternum and to her belly button. He lingered over the tiny cave, dipping the tip of his tongue into its whorled pool before going lower. Alice sucked in a sharp breath as his tongue skated over her lower abdomen, his warm breath a tantalising caress on her most intimate flesh. He separated her folds with his fingers and then brought his mouth to her, making every swollen nerve ending vibrate with delight. The spiralling waves of sensation pulsed through her body with earth-rocking force.

  She tried to hold onto her consciousness but it was impossible to do anything but feel. Aftershocks of pleasure rang through her flesh, like a bell reverberating long after it had been struck.

  Cristiano got up and eased her down on the bed, only stopping long enough to dispense with his trousers and access another condom. Alice reached for him as he came down over her on the mattress, her hands running over his muscled biceps and then the back of his neck, lifting her head to meet the descent of his mouth.

  His kiss was long and deep, thrumming with a building urgency she could feel in every cell of her flesh where it was touching his. His erection probed her entrance and she opened to him, shifting her hips to accommodate him. It was like resuming a dance choreographed just for them. The fit of their bodies in that intimate embrace felt so right, so fluid and sensual—as unconscious and natural as breathing.

  Alice stroked his back from his neck to his lower spine, concentrating in the dip above his taut buttocks. She knew all his erogenous zones and it thrilled her to feel his earthy response to her touch. She cupped his buttocks, holding him, rocking with him as he set a rhythm that was in perfect tune with her needs. The feel of him moving inside her body sent her senses into a frenzy of excitement.

  No one filled her the way he did. No one knew her body as he did. No one else understood how much she craved this magic of motion, the friction that ruthlessly teased her sensitive flesh until she thought she would explode.