Читать книгу Summer Loving - Ким Лоренс, Cathy Williams - Страница 17

CHAPTER NINE

AVA PACED THE length of the guest room, unable to calm her frenzied pulse or her mind’s racing.

First Cesare pushed her away, then he wanted her to fall into his arms. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to quell her body’s clamouring for what she’d stubbornly denied it. But her pulse wouldn’t quieten. The thought that she’d come within a hair’s breadth of making love to Cesare again after so long sent her pacing faster. She should be thankful she’d resisted him.

Yeah, right.

Truth was, she wanted to jump her husband so badly, she could barely think straight. The heat of his body, the intoxicating scent of his hard-packed muscles rose in her mind like the promise of a delectable feast after an endless famine.

Would that be so wrong?

She felt herself sway towards the door and dug her toes hard into the luxurious carpet. What was she thinking? Sure, he’d been shocked when she walked away from him. But he hadn’t followed. And he’s not exactly breaking down your door, is he?

While she was in here torturing herself, he was probably enjoying the view, nightcap in hand, or halfway to securing another multi-million euro deal.

Whirling, she stalked to the window.

The stunning vista of night time Rome lay before her. Cesare’s penthouse apartment sat atop a converted luxury villa off Campo de Fiori and commanded views as far as the Vatican and St Peter’s Dome.

Was he staring at the same view? Raising a hand to the window, she watched her skin heat the cool glass. The view outside faded when she caught a glimpse of herself in the reflection.

Wild, fiery hair, tangled into shameless disarray by Cesare’s seeking hands. Her eyes were wide pools of confusion and hurt she wanted to hide away from and her lips were swollen and bruised with Cesare’s kisses. She wasn’t surprised to see her chest rise and fall as if she’d run a marathon.

And all because of the man whose presence impacted her life and emotions as effortlessly as if she were a puppet on his string.

Her breath rushed out, frosted the glass, distorting her view as she remembered... In the fevered chaos of the kiss and the argument that had followed, they’d never got round to talking about the solution to their problems.

She eyed the door, then almost in a trance, her hand went to the button securing her dress at her nape. With one short fumble, it pooled at her feet. She contemplated taking a shower, but feared her resolve would desert her if she delayed for too long.

Padding to the dresser, she picked up her hairbrush. The rhythmic strokes reinforced her strength, which in turn abated the haunted look in her eyes. She hadn’t needed a bra with her dress, but she still wore her thong. The thought of going to Cesare naked heated up her blood, but she quickly abandoned the idea.

Crossing to the wardrobe, she selected a short forest-green silk night slip and matching gown of hers she’d found when she’d unpacked earlier. Shrugging them on, she tied the gown and quickly left the room before she lost her nerve.

The hallway was as quiet as when she’d walked down it a short while ago. The dimmed light in the living room revealed it as empty as the kitchen and terrace.

The idea of confronting Cesare in his bedroom sent a confidence-shaking shiver of alarm through her. Slowly, she walked towards his door and paused outside. Catching her lower lip between her teeth, she listened for sound within. What if he was asleep?

Or, worse, he’d reverted to the cool, distant man she’d grown to hate this past year? Fear of rejection dried her mouth but she didn’t back down. Inhaling deeply, she turned the knob.

He was lounging against the king-size bed’s intricately designed headboard, a glass of cognac in one hand and an electronic tablet in the other.

His gaze snapped and locked on hers. Slowly he placed the glass on the nightstand.

Ava’s eyes landed on his bare chest and hot air seared her lungs. She’d seen his naked torso many times but the sheer magnitude of his potent masculinity never ceased to raise her temperature.

‘To what do I owe the pleasure, cara?’

Her tongue darted out to moisten dry lips. ‘Our talk...I want to have it...now.’

He turned away from her, shielding his expression from her as he laid the tablet down. ‘Are you sure that’s what you come for? To talk?’ His eyes narrowed and he linked his hands together over his hard, ridged stomach. Despite his stance, he reminded her of a hunt-mode predator, ready to pounce with merciless precision.

Her fingers clenched on the doorknob. ‘Yes.’

He nodded, grabbed the corner of the sheet and drew it back. ‘Then, by all means, make yourself comfortable and let’s...talk.’

She didn’t need to look to know he was naked. Cesare slept in the nude. ‘Are you...are you going to put any clothes on?’

‘No.’

‘Cesare...’

‘I don’t know what that would achieve. I told you what happens to me when you enter my presence. Clothed or in flagrante, the effect is the same.’

Desire punched a hole in her belly. Dangerous, treacherous desire. She needed to leave, only she couldn’t move. ‘But...’

He sighed. ‘I don’t want to have this talk with you all the way across the room, Ava. Come here, it’s much more comfortable, I promise,’ he murmured silkily.

She shook her head and pulled the door open, her bravado deserting her. ‘You know what? Maybe this wasn’t a great idea. It’s way past midnight and...I can’t deal with you this way. We...we both need to get some sleep. We’ll talk in the morn—’

Quicker than she’d ever imagined it possible for him to move, he sprang off the bed, shot across the room and slammed his hand against the door. Her gasp was strangled in her throat as he pressed his hot, bristling naked length against her back.

‘Oh no, Ava mia. You do not get to flounce off for a second time,’ he breathed hotly in her ear.

‘I don’t flounce!’

‘No. You sway. You mesmerise. You capture and hold my attention until I feel like I’m drowning in your seductive beauty.’

‘I don’t know what on earth you’re talking about...’

‘Oh sì, you do. Or you wouldn’t be here now. I’ll give you what you want, tesoro mio. We will have that talk. But there’s a very high possibility that you’ll hate me when we do.’

She gasped and turned within the circle of his arms. ‘Why would I hate you? You said there’d been no one else!’ A sickening feeling invaded her at the thought that he’d lied about that.

His eyes burned into hers. ‘I meant it.’

Relief poured through her. ‘Then what else could there possibly be? Unless you’re about to confess you’re some psycho serial killer?’

Her comment didn’t lighten the mood as she’d expected. Instead his jaw tightened, then released. ‘I did have homicidal thoughts about Mario tonight. In fact, I had unholy thoughts about every man at the party who dared to look at you.’

‘I’m surprised you had a chance to notice, seeing how you were so enamoured of Giuliana’s bosom.’

He shifted even closer until his granite-hard arousal pressed against her pelvis. He gave a low, deep laugh. ‘It seems we’ve both been clawed by the sharp talons of the green-eyed monster.’

Pain stabbed through her desire. ‘Jealousy would imply that we care for each other, Cesare.’

His smile slowly faded, replaced by a growing hunger as his gaze slowly raked her face as if imprinting it on his brain. ‘Sì, it would. I never denied that I care about you, Ava.’

‘But only sexually?’

‘Don’t underestimate the power of sex, mia cara. It has brought down kingdoms and ruined powerful men.’ As if to emphasise its power, he leaned into her.

‘So far you’ve managed to remain untouched by it,’ she croaked.

His thick arousal registered boldly against her belly at the same time as his mouth settled heavily over hers.

The power of thought instantly deserted her. This kiss was nothing like they’d shared in the car. This was a full, unapologetic assault on her senses, a bold display of Cesare’s power and the firm intent of what he meant to happen between them. His tongue stroked boldly against hers, performing a dangerous dance that had only one destination.

Heat swelled and rocketed straight to her core. The shock of how quickly her body reacted to him made her head spin, but even that reaction was ruthlessly swept aside under the torrent of need building inside her.

Her fingers encountered Cesare’s naked torso. Her nails bit deep and she revelled in the groan that shuddered through him.

He raised his head, his breathing harsh in the darkened room. With a quick dip, he licked her tingling lips. ‘I’m far from untouched, cara. Hasn’t it always been this way between us?’ he demanded thickly. ‘One touch and the whole world burns up?’ As if to demonstrate, he ran a lazy finger down the side of her neck.

‘Yes.’ Her moan brought a satisfied smile to his face.

Bringing his hands onto her shoulders, he eased the robe from her. The gown followed, but she barely felt it slither off her arms to fall to the floor, entranced as she was by the molten heat in his eyes.

With unsteady fingers, he traced a path from her neck, down between her breasts to her belly until he grazed the top of her thong.

Words, murmured in Italian appreciation, tumbled from his lips.

‘English, please. I need to understand what you’re saying.’

He repeated the raw, explicit words. When her face flamed, he laughed and reverted to Italian. Every syllable touched her skin like a kiss, making her limbs lust-heavy until all she could do was sag against the door as his touch drummed a beat of desire through her.

‘Cesare,’ she sighed, unable to form a more coherent sentence past the sweet benediction of his name on her lips. Gathering every last ounce of strength, she pulled back. ‘We...we still need to talk.’

He dropped another hungry kiss at the corner of her mouth. ‘We will. But I need...we both need this before we do. And, whatever happens, Ava, please know this now. I’m very sorry I hurt you.’

Tears gathered in her eyes and clogged her throat. When they spilled onto her cheeks, he wiped them away with his thumbs.

With a sigh, he scooped her in his arms and carried her to the bed.

Sheets warmed by his body immediately engulfed her in his scent. When he stepped back and she saw, really saw him—naked, magnificent and needy—desire dragged through her belly, amplifying the power of her own need, propelling her to reach for him, to make sure he was real and not a figment of her fevered imagination.

‘Come closer.’

He complied. She reached up and traced the sculpted lines of his face, from hollowed cheek, over smooth lips to the rough shadow of his stubble. When she made another pass over his lips, he snagged her fingers in his teeth. Boldly, he sucked on her forefinger.

Fresh fires of desire licked through her. Her nipples, long puckered into nubs of excruciating need, hardened further. Without releasing her fingers, Cesare settled down beside her and placed one hand below her breast. Her temperature shot up another notch.

‘Touch me, please,’ she pleaded. But he just rested his hand there, under the curve of her breast, while he leisurely sucked on her finger.

Liquid heat oozed between her thighs. Her lids grew heavy as the motion of his mouth tugged her closer to the edge of ecstasy.

His hand edged closer to her breast.

Moaning with desperation, she tried to move closer to his touch. With a final, hot lick he released her finger. His gaze blazed down at her, dissecting her every reaction. ‘Not yet.’

Pressure built in her nipples, almost as painful as the relentless heat pulsing between her legs. Just when she thought she couldn’t stand the pressure any longer, his hand traced the underside of her breast. She jerked in protest and moaned as he started to perform slow, excruciating circles on her flesh. With every rotation bringing him close but not close enough to the aching pinnacle, Ava feared she would die from need.

Finally, at the point of begging, he slanted his mouth over hers, and closed his thumb and forefinger over her nipple.

Her cry was swallowed up into his mouth. Her orgasm slammed into her with the force of a tornado, twisting and tossing her high, leaving her no room to breathe.

Firelight exploded behind her lids as ecstasy awakened and tore through her. Through it all, Cesare kept his mouth on hers, lapping up her cries of bliss.

The intensity of his kiss lessened as she slowly floated back to earth. When she could bring herself to open her eyes, he was gazing down at her, his eyes full of heat and something close to wonder.

‘You’re still so responsive, tesoro mio,’ he rasped. ‘I thought my fevered imagination had conjured it up in the hallway two weeks ago, but I know different now. You’ve never lost it.’

‘Does that please you?’ she asked in a husky voice.

‘That sex between us has always been raw and intensely special? I’m a red-blooded Latin man, am I not?’ came the smug response.

Her fingers closed over his rock-hard bicep, renewed need clawing through her. ‘Maybe you should demonstrate, before I die of anticipation?’

A curious expression flitted over his face, gone quickly before she could decipher it. She started to ask him what was wrong, but lost her train of thought when he chose that moment to kiss her again.

By the time he raised his head to rasp, ‘Are you still on the Pill?’ she could barely string coherent words together to answer.

‘Yes,’ she croaked.

He recaptured her mouth, then rolled them over so she was on top of him. The first touch of his bare chest against her breasts sent her fevered pulse rocketing once more. Unable to resist, she rubbed herself against him. His deep groan only fed her hunger.

* * *

Against her thigh, Cesare’s erection pulsed, hot and insistent. She rolled her hips against him, the friction driving her quickly to distraction. His hands clasped her bottom, impatient fingers diving beneath the elastic to brand her flesh.

Another moan filled the room, her heart’s frenzied beats echoing in her ears until she could hear nothing but the promise of bliss, feel nothing but the equally intoxicating pounding of Cesare’s heart.

One hand fisted in her hair and drew her back. Tawny heat-filled eyes caressed her face. ‘Perdono, cara, but I have to do this.’

Before she could ask what he meant, the sound of tearing fabric ripped through the room. ‘God, that is so macho,’ she teased on a pant.

He grinned. ‘I don’t have time to ease it from your hips.’

‘What do you have time for?’

‘This,’ he whispered, raised his head and rolled his tongue over one nipple before sucking it into his mouth.

Her cry was loud, desperate and tinged with pain as pleasure arrowed forcefully through her. Her back arched under the intensity of her delight. Cesare suckled harder, then relented to lick her burning flesh. Before she could draw breath, he repeated the action. Her fingers convulsed in his hair as pleasure consumed her.

Once again bliss beckoned and she rushed blindly towards it. But, just as she was about to dive into the abyss, he pulled back.

With a quick motion, he flipped her underneath him and knelt between her thighs. He pulled open a drawer and extracted a condom.

Watching him rip open the contraception sent a bold thought through her head. Rising to face him, she placed her hands on his. ‘Let me.’

Cesare’s eyes widened. ‘You’ve never done that before.’

‘I’ve had a long time to think about us, like this. Will you let me?’

He nodded and handed it over. That her offer pleased him and intensified the fire of arousal in his eyes only spurred her on.

She crawled on the bed until she was behind him. With an open-mouthed kiss between his shoulder blades that sent a fevered shudder through him, she took over the task. The powerful breadth of his shoulders meant she couldn’t see what she was doing, but her touch was enough.

Slowly, glorying in his potent, silky arousal, she slid the condom over his erection. Smooth, velvety skin veined with his thick blood surged underneath her fingers.

She bit the flesh she’d kissed moments before and felt her own fever rise as he trembled.

‘Tesoro, I fear your disappointment if you don’t cease this torture.’ His voice was pained, tinged with a desperation that matched her own.

Equally desperate for him, she completed her task quickly, but couldn’t resist a last caress of his hard flesh.

‘Per favore, I need you,’ he pleaded hoarsely.

Twisting around, he grabbed her and returned her to her original position.

Sure hands grasped her thighs and spread them wide. Her scent rose between them like a potent aphrodisiac. Cesare’s gaze dropped to her open sex and his eyes darkened to a burnished bronze.

Swallowing hard, he murmured, ‘I had forgotten how exquisitely beautiful you are down there.’

Sweet pleasure stole through her. Reaching up, she curled her hand into his smooth, hard chest. ‘I never forgot, for a single moment, how beautiful you are.’

To her he would always be a god among men, the powerful, captivating figure who had gripped her attention from the moment they’d met and had never let go, despite everything that had happened between them since.

He glided his fingers down her inner thighs, trailing a path of fire that threatened to ignite her very core. She bit her lip, fighting the haze that encroached, the promise of heaven suspended just out of reach. But this time she wanted more, wanted the power of Cesare deep inside her to be the only thing that triggered her ecstasy.

Which was why she wasn’t prepared for the skilled finger that slid inside her sensitive opening.

Her spine arched clear off the bed. ‘Cesare!’ His name was a cry ripped from her throat, a cry that sounded again when his thumb swiftly found her nub of desire. Blood pounded through her veins, crashed through her head until it was the only thing she could hear.

He groaned as her fingers bit into his shoulders. Her head thrashed against the pillows, fighting but knowing she was losing the headlong flight into rapture. The brief reprieve she experienced when he gently removed his fingers was easily lost again when the blunt head of his powerful erection replaced his fingers.

‘Open your eyes, Ava.’

Weakly, she obeyed.

Curling her legs around his hips, he plucked her hands from his shoulders and placed them both above her head. ‘Now don’t move.’

His gaze stayed on hers as he rocked forward. At the first thrust, every instinct urged her hips to move. ‘I can’t not...it’s too much...’

‘You can. Just do it.’ He fed more of himself into her, stretching unused muscles and sending her senses into near freefall. Her heart hammered, her lungs begged for air and the sheer pressure of being filled by Cesare threatened her sanity.

Finally, he was deep inside her. His gaze fixed on hers, he held still, allowing her to savour the full force of his possession. Time suspended between them, the only sound their shared breath as the power of being joined held them in thrall.

At last, he breathed, ‘Now.’

They moved at the same time, slamming together with a force that rocked worlds. His grunt of pleasure triggered her shuddering moan. Pleasure like she’d never known surged through her. Clamping her legs tighter around him, she met him thrust for thrust, falling into a long-forgotten rhythm like a song to a lark. The world fell away.

Nothing else mattered but Cesare, his sounds of ecstasy filled her ears as he thrust over and over inside her.

Her flesh welcomed him, enclosing him in a tight, silken embrace that gradually milked his pleasure. His face contorted in a mask of pained pleasure as he crept closer to the edge.

In the single moment before all became lost, Ava glimpsed a connection, an unspoken bond that drew at her heartstrings and made her catch her breath. Before she could analyse it, she was swept away. Holding back was not an option so she flew towards ecstasy and a release that annihilated every single thought. Unable to bear the assault, she clamped her eyes shut. Firelight rained again, showering her in pleasure so profound, tears prickled the back of her lids.

Above her, triggered by her relentless convulsions, Cesare hurtled towards his own release. For a split second, he stilled, his whole being gripped tight in indescribable sensation. Her legs around his back strained to keep him locked against her. With a final desperate groan, he gave up control, managing just in time to adjust his position before he collapsed on top of her.

Ava drew her arms around him, her fingers slowly caressing his sweat-slicked flesh as shudders chased through him. Somewhere in the lost minutes, he turned his head and planted kisses along her jaw, but no words were uttered. None were needed.

She couldn’t recall when he finally disengaged from her but she had a vague sense of being settled against him. But something different tripped her senses. It wasn’t until she was drifting off to sleep, his strong arms coming around to anchor her to him and soft words gently ushering her into sleep, that she realised what it was.

In the moments before his climax, Cesare had pulled out of her.