by Various
He frowned. ‘You are cold—’
‘No, of course I’m not cold!’ Annie winced at the awkwardness of her reply. ‘I…well…maybe a little.’
It was just so eerily quiet in here—quiet and private. Annie doubted that anyone ever had reason to come down here at this time of day. ‘We should probably go back up to the villa now.’
‘Should we?’
Annie shot Luc a cautious glance. When had he moved so that he now stood so close she had to tilt her head back to look up at his face? More to the point, why had he moved?
She moistened her lips nervously as she took another step back. ‘I really think we should get back now, Luc—’
‘There is no reason to rush.’ His accented English had become more apparent as his voice lowered seductively. ‘I do not like your hair confined like this,’ he murmured softly even as his hand reached up and removed the clasp from the crown of her head.
Annie was aware both of her hair tumbling loosely onto her shoulders and the way Luc’s eyes had become darker still as he entwined his fingers in the hair at her nape and began to pull her slowly towards him.
‘I—What are you doing, Luc?’ she gasped.
He gave a wolfish smile. ‘Guess,’ he whispered, so close now that the warmth of his breath brushed against her lips.
‘I thought we had agreed that…that this only confused the issue.’ Annie could hear the desperation in her own voice as she tried to resist him.
‘This…?’ Once again his breath was a warm caress, against Annie’s jaw this time as he bent his head to place feather-light kisses along its length.
Annie raised protesting hands against Luc’s chest with the intention of pushing him away, those hands stilling instead, lingering to caress, as she felt the hardness of muscle encased in silk, his heart a wild and primitive beat beneath her fingertips. ‘You agreed we weren’t going to do this again.’
‘I have changed my mind,’ he murmured as his hands moved to cup her bottom and pull her into him, making her completely aware of the hard, urgent throb of his arousal.
An arousal echoed in the sudden explosion of heat between Annie’s own thighs. ‘But—’
‘Can you not see that this is the only way in which we seem able to communicate?’ He groaned even as his mouth took possession of hers, fiercely, hungrily.
Annie’s hands crushed against Luc’s chest as her lips parted to meet the full force of that kiss. A kiss that became more urgent still as his arousal hardened further until all Annie could think about was having him deep inside her.
She parted her legs as Luc pressed closer still in an attempt to fill her emptiness, the velvet hardness of his shaft a hard and rhythmic caress against the tiny nub nestled there.
This was madness. Pure madness. But it was a madness that Annie had no will, or desire, to resist.
Instead her hands moved up so that she could entangle her fingers in the dark thickness of Luc’s hair as he drew her bottom lip into his mouth, gently biting and then sucking that tender flesh. His hands moved up to slip the thin straps of her top down her arms before pushing the material down to her waist and baring her breasts.
Annie gasped slightly as the cool air caressed her heated flesh, the sensitive nipples already aroused, becoming even more so as Luc cupped those twin orbs, and the soft pad of his thumb swept lightly, teasingly, across those tender tips. Again. And again. Until Annie was lost in that mindless need.
She pressed herself against his skilful hands. ‘Please, Luc,’ she moaned.
‘Tell me what you want,’ Luc encouraged hoarsely. ‘Tell me, Annie!’
‘Harder,’ she pleaded encouragingly. ‘Harder, Luc!’ She arched her back, her breasts thrusting once again against his hands.
Luc’s eyes glittered darkly as he looked down at her breasts, the areolae surrounding the nipples a deep dusky pink, those nipples dark and swollen, like two ripe berries waiting to be tasted. Eaten.
His head lowered so that he might taste one of those berries, taking it fully into his mouth while his hand rolled its twin between thumb and finger. Annie groaned deeply and rubbed her thighs urgently against the rock hardness of Luc’s.
Luc transferred the attention of his lips, tongue and teeth to Annie’s other nipple before moving his hand down to the fastening of her shorts and sliding the zip down over silky panties to cup and caress the moist heat between her thighs.
‘Yes! Oh, yes, Luc!’ she encouraged breathlessly as she pushed those clothes down the length of her smooth legs before stepping out of them completely.
Her curls were silky soft to the touch as Luc sought, and found, the swollen bud nestled there, feeling it pulse beneath his fingers as he stroked her. He could hear the ragged sob in Annie’s breathing, her fingers tightening as she clung to his shoulders, and she arched into him in rhythm with those caresses.
Annie cried out as Luc slid first one finger, and then two, into her hot wetness, plunging into her again and again as the soft pad of his thumb stroked against her aching bud. He continued to tease her nipple with his teeth and tongue, taking Annie higher and higher until she knew herself poised on the edge of release.
‘Come for me, cara,’ Luc encouraged urgently as he raised his head from her breast. ‘Let me watch you as you come!’
His eyes glittered in triumph as she cried out suddenly, climaxing fiercely, endlessly, until she collapsed weakly against his chest.
She clung to Luc’s shoulders as he lifted her, wrapping her legs about his waist as his hands cupped her bare bottom and he carried her across to where some bails of hay were stored in one corner of the shed. His gaze held hers as he slowly lowered her to the floor and then ripped the shirt from his body and placed it on the hay. Then he carefully laid her down on his shirt before straightening to take off the rest of his clothes.
Annie’s breath caught in her throat when he finally stood naked above her. There was a silky covering of dark hair on his chest, the muscles deeply defined, his hips lean, the long length of his shaft jutting out in a hard, throbbing arousal that Annie longed to touch.
She moved up onto her knees in front of him, her gaze holding his as she reached out to cup him, her other hand caressing his silken length, and then running her thumb softly across its sensitive tip.
Luc groaned low in his throat as the muscles in his buttocks and thighs tensed and his back and neck arched. ‘No!’ His hands moved to cup either side of Annie’s face to hold her away from him as she would have taken him in her mouth. ‘I want to be inside you. I need to be inside you…’ he growled as he moved down onto the straw to stretch out and pull Annie on top of him so that several inches of him slid into her hot tightness. ‘Take me, Annie,’ he encouraged. ‘All of me…’
She looked magnificent as she raised herself slightly so that her hand could guide him deeper inside her, her hair a red-brown tangle about her shoulders, eyes sultry, lips swollen, and her breasts pouting temptingly.
Luc gave another strangled groan, and his eyes closed in pleasure as he slid inside her and he felt her wrap around him, taking him in until she sheathed him fully.
Luc took a few moments to just enjoy the sensation of being inside her. She was so hot. So wet. So incredibly, wonderfully tight.
And then she began to move. Lifting herself up to slide along the length of his shaft until the tip was poised at her entrance, before plunging down to once again take him fully inside her. Holding his gaze with hers, she repeated the movement, riding him slowly at first, and then faster, harder, her breasts moving in the same mesmerising rhythm.
Luc raised his head to kiss one breast as Annie continued to move over him. His hands clasped her hips as his thighs surged up to meet each downward stroke until he felt an unmistakable inner tremor.
That tremor became a full-blown quake as Annie’s climax claimed her, stronger, longer, than the last one, and Luc cried out as she finally took him over that precipice with her.
Only the ragged sounds of thei
r breathing broke the silence as Annie lay replete and exhausted on Luc’s chest, his skin warm and slightly damp beneath her cheek as his chest quickly rose and fell.
Dear God, after all they had said—all the insults—it had happened again!
Only this time it had been worse—or did she mean better?
Surely making love couldn’t get much better than this? It couldn’t possibly; if it had been any more enjoyable, if Annie had felt any more pleasure, climaxed any more intensely than she had, then she surely would have expired completely!
Yes, but what happened now? What did Luc think was going to happen after…after—Oh, dear Lord, she had all but begged him to take her, had let him gaze at her unashamedly as she’d writhed in ecstasy above him.
‘What?’ Luc looked up dazedly as Annie sat up, his hair falling endearingly over his forehead, dark eyes as warm as melted chocolate, and the hard sensuality of his lips relaxed into a half-smile.
It was all Annie could do to stop herself from bending down and capturing those lips again with her own. ‘We need to get dressed, Luc,’ she told him instead. ‘Anyone might come in here and find us together like this.’
‘Not at this time of day,’ Luc reassured her huskily, his hands on her hips as he rolled slightly to the side, taking Annie with him so that she now lay beside him, one of her legs still hooked about his hips, their bodies touching from their chests to their joined thighs. ‘Lovemaking should be savoured. Enjoyed…’
‘I think we’ve savoured and enjoyed enough for one day,’ she said sharply as she attempted to extricate her body from his. ‘Let me go, Luc,’ she ordered as he only tightened his arms to keep her in place.
He frowned as he finally saw the fierce glitter of her eyes and the angry flush in her cheeks. ‘And if I refuse?’
‘Why would you?’ she asked sarcastically. ‘You’ve had me now, so there’s no reason for us to stay here any longer!’
‘Had you?’ he uttered incredulously.
Annie pursed her lips. ‘Had sex with me, then, if you prefer.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘And what if I wish to have sex with you again?’
She snorted. ‘I’m sure that wasn’t part of the plan.’
He drew in a sharp, hissing breath. ‘You think, as all my other arguments have failed, that it was my plan to seduce you into submission?’
‘Wasn’t it?’ she challenged accusingly.
Luc hadn’t been able to plan anything, it seemed, since meeting Annie Balfour again!
Even his work, his driving force, no longer held the same appeal when he knew she was somewhere near.
He certainly hadn’t planned to make love with her this afternoon; he just didn’t seem to be able to stop himself from touching her, taking her, whenever the opportunity arose.
So much for his decision not to do any of those things again until they had settled the question of marriage between them!
He reached out to clasp Annie’s arms so that he might lift her up and away from him, his jaw tightening as his body protested at being removed from the hot tightness of hers. He stood abruptly to pull on body-hugging boxers before speaking again. ‘I believe I might equally accuse you of endeavouring to seduce me into doing as you wish!’
‘Attempting to make you my sex slave, you mean?’ she retorted with obvious derision.
Luc made a dismissive movement of his shoulders. ‘I am sure that many men would agree to anything you asked of them if you rewarded them as generously as you have just rewarded me.’ His dark gaze swept lingeringly over her nakedness.
Annie drew in a sharp breath even as she stared up at him in disbelief. Luc couldn’t really think that; for heaven’s sake, she didn’t have enough experience with men to even contemplate attempting such a calculated plan!
‘Doesn’t that usually work better if the woman asks for what she wants before they make love?’
‘Usually.’ His mouth quirked. ‘But then our relationship has been…unusual, from the first.’
Annie felt the heat burn her cheeks at the memory of just how unusual it had been. That wild, impetuous night four and a half years ago. Their unexpected, tempestuous meeting again at Lake Garda. Luc’s demand, once he learnt of Oliver’s existence, that she become his wife…
Wasn’t all of that complication enough without her succumbing to his arrogant brand of seduction every time he so much as touched her?
She sighed heavily as she stood to begin pulling on her own clothes. ‘The only thing I want from you, Luc, is for you to leave Oliver and me to live our lives in peace, and I already know that isn’t going to happen.’
He gave a smug smile. ‘Not this side of the next millennium, no.’
Annie gave him a frustrated glare as she finished pulling on her top before once again looking on the floor for the clasp that had held her hair in place at her crown. ‘I would like to go back to the villa now,’ she said stiffly.
‘Of course,’ he accepted, just as distantly.
How had this happened? Annie wondered as she hurriedly preceded Luc up the steps to the villa. One minute they were as close as two human beings could possibly be, and the next they couldn’t be far enough apart. Emotionally as well as physically.
Physically!
She blushed just at the memory of the intimacies they had so recently shared. Squirmed inside because her body still tingled and ached from the force of their lovemaking. Was this how it was going to be between them? Mind-blowing hot sex followed by a return of the fraught tension that told Annie, at least, that they were actually worlds apart?
The sooner Luc accepted that Annie wasn’t going to marry him, the better it would be for both of them!
And what happened once he had accepted that? Would he then go ahead with his threat of a legal battle over Oliver? One glance back at the brooding coldness of Luc’s expression told her that he would do exactly that.
No doubt once again making a huge Balfour family scandal appear in the front-page headlines of all the newspapers.
Her father was just going to love that! He—
‘Signor de Salvatore!’ The elderly housekeeper hurried from the back of the house the moment Annie and Luc stepped inside the villa’s coolness, her face and hands animated as she continued talking to her employer.
Annie had studied Spanish, German and French when she was at school, her Italian only very rudimentary, but her attention was caught and held as she heard her own name in the older woman’s conversation, followed seconds later by ‘Signora Tilly Williams.’
‘Luc…?’ Annie prompted anxiously.
‘Grazie, Maria.’ He briskly dismissed the housekeeper before answering Annie. ‘Your mother rang while we were…out.’ His mouth firmed. ‘She asks that you call her back on her mobile as soon as you return.’
Annie felt her face go pale at the knowledge she had only talked to her mother a few hours ago, that something must have happened to necessitate Tilly needing to speak to her again so soon.
Chapter Ten
LUC paced the drawing room restlessly as he waited for Annie to come back from his study after returning her mother’s telephone call.
He had advised Annie not to jump to any conclusions, to just stay calm until she had spoken to her mother, but inwardly Luc was just as concerned by Tilly’s call as Annie so obviously was.
From the little Annie had told him of her mother, Tilly Williams appeared to be a practical as well as warm woman; the fact that she had married Oscar Balfour knowing it was a marriage of convenience spoke of her practicality, and that she had done so out of love for his three young motherless daughters was testament to her warmth of nature.
As such, Luc couldn’t imagine she would have telephoned Annie so quickly, when the two of them had only spoken a few hours ago, over some triviality.
One look at the pain and stress on Annie’s face when she entered the drawing room was enough to tell Luc that his surmise was a correct one. ‘What is it?’ he barked.
‘I hav
e to leave, Luc,’ she said. ‘I need to get back to England as soon as possible.’
‘We will both go to England once you have told me what has happened,’ Luc insisted.
She shook her head. ‘I don’t have time for another argument, Luc.’
‘There will be no argument if you just tell me what has happened!’ he demanded forcefully as he crossed the room to grasp her firmly by the shoulders. ‘Annie!’ he said, his own fear growing by the second as he saw the tears now balanced on her long, dark lashes.
Annie seemed to focus on him with effort. ‘I—’ She moistened dry lips. ‘Oliver accompanied Tilly to a gymkhana this afternoon. She only took her eyes off him for a second and—’ She broke off, pressing a trembling hand to the back of her mouth.
‘Tell me what has happened to Oliver!’ Luc begged, almost beside himself with fear by now.
Annie swallowed hard, and made an effort to pull herself together, still desperately trying to take in Tilly’s conversation herself. ‘He was kicked by one of the horses and—’ Luc released her so suddenly that she swayed a little. ‘What are you doing?’ she asked as Luc took out his mobile phone and began making a call.
‘Readying the de Salvatore plane for immediate take-off, of course,’ he said, turning away as his call was answered, to begin issuing a spate of instructions in Italian.
Annie was too worried and too full of self-recriminations to take too much notice of Luc’s telephone conversation.
The tears fell hotly down her cheeks as she realised that all the time she and Luc had been making love, their son was injured and being rushed to hospital!
Annie would never forgive herself if anything happened to Oliver. She should never have allowed her father to bully her into coming to Italy in the first place. She certainly shouldn’t have let Luc force her into remaining on in Italy. If she had gone home this morning, then she would have accompanied Tilly and Oliver to the gymkhana and probably none of this would have happened.
As it was, Oliver—small, sturdy, vulnerable Oliver—was now unconscious in hospital with a possible concussion and who knew what else wrong.
