Читать книгу Mills & Boon Stars Collection: Sinful Proposals: Seduced into Her Boss's Service / Wearing the De Angelis Ring / The Surprise De Angelis Baby - Кэтти Уильямс, CATHY WILLIAMS, Cathy Williams - Страница 14

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘WHAT ABOUT FLORA?’ It sounded like a last-ditch chance to back off and Stefano looked at her with a shuttered expression, as though he could read straight into her mind and pull the thoughts from her head.

‘Cold feet?’ he asked, without bothering to beat around the bush.

‘No!’

‘Sure about that?’

‘One hundred per cent sure.’

‘Even though I’m not the sort of person you should get involved with?’

‘This isn’t about involvement, is it?’ Sunny could scarcely believe she was saying this stuff. She’d done a complete U-turn in the space of a heartbeat. She would never have imagined for a second that lust could be this powerful—powerful enough to bring all her well-laid plans crashing to the ground.

But she was safe emotionally and for that she was grateful. Her body might be clamouring for adventure but her heart was still switched on enough to know that the real guy for her would not be Stefano Gunn or anyone like him.

‘It’s just...a one-night stand...’ She thought of her fumbling, embarrassing forays into sex, when she had been going out with John. If she’d had the slightest amount of experience she would have known that the missing link had been...this. The missing link had been the wild beating of her heart, the aching of her body, the searing excitement at the thought of being touched...

If she’d had the slightest amount of experience, she would have realised that what made perfect sense on paper didn’t necessarily translate into perfect sense in practice.

She was here, barely able to breathe for the excitement, and she knew that this would have to be part of the equation when she met any man she felt she could have a long-term relationship with.

It wasn’t just about personality but it was about this as well, without which the personality on its own didn’t stand much of a chance.

They were heading up the staircase, softly and quickly, her hand in his. At the top of the staircase, the broad, airy corridor went right for the wing of rooms in which Flora had her bedroom suite and left where Stefano had his rooms.

In her mind’s eye, she could picture his huge super-king-size bed and her heart skipped a beat.

She knew that Flora would be sound asleep. Once her head hit the pillow, she slept the deep sleep of a child but on the one occasion when she had had a broken night and Sunny had asked her, the following evening, what she had done, Flora had simply said that she had read until she had fallen asleep again.

His room was in darkness but, instead of switching on the overhead light, he turned on the lamp by the bay window, leaving the curtains open so that weak moonlight filtered into the room.

In the grip of nervous tension, Sunny hovered by the door, which he had quietly shut behind them.

She thought that she might have forgotten how to have sex. Was that possible? A bubble of hysterical laughter threatened...

Looking at her, Stefano could see that she was as nervous as a kitten. She wasn’t the sort of girl who moved from one guy to another with seamless ease and he got a disproportionate kick from knowing that she had been unable to resist him. It evened the scales because he hadn’t been able to resist her. Two controlled people losing it.

‘You’re beautiful,’ he said softly, beginning to unbutton his shirt, taking his time, exposing his chest sliver by glorious sliver.

Sunny bit back the temptation to tell him that he was as well. That was something he would know, something countless women had probably told him over the years. How could they not? When he was physically...so perfect?

She couldn’t stop staring. She didn’t care that he was looking at her staring at him, a smile tugging the corners of his beautiful mouth.

He shrugged off the shirt and she drank in the broad shoulders, the six-pack stomach, the ripple of muscle, the small flat brown nipples that she itched to tease with her fingers...

Her mouth went dry when he rested his hand on the zip of his trousers. Even from across the room, she could see the unmistakable bulge of his erection, pulsing under the trousers.

‘Having fun?’ Stefano shot her a wolfish smile that made her toes curl.

Sunny nodded.

‘Care to join me in the striptease or would you rather I took your clothes off for you...? I’m frankly not sure which would turn me on more so...your choice...’

Sunny slipped her fingers under the edge of her stretchy top, feeling as debauched as a stripper in a nightclub, and began slowly tugging it over her breasts and over her head to then toss it onto the ground so that she was now only in her bra and the short controversial skirt.

Stefano walked slowly towards her. There was an innocence in the way she was standing there, hands at her sides, chin at a defiant angle, as though she was fighting against folding her arms across her breasts. And her body was...as spectacular as he had envisaged, long and graceful, with the supple sleekness of a ballet dancer.

His erection was painful, throbbing and pulsing.

‘I’m not very experienced at...this sort of thing...’ Sunny whispered.

Stefano was now standing directly in front of her and he placed his hands on her shoulders and gently massaged them, relaxing her. ‘Me neither...’

Sunny grinned and stole a shy glance at his darkly amused face. But the little teasing joke and the way he was ever so gently massaging her shoulders were doing what they were supposed to do; they were relaxing her. She could feel her whole body thawing out and her breathing slowing.

She sighed softly as she felt him reach behind her to unclasp the bra and her small, high breasts popped out, the rose-pink nipples stiff and pointed.

His low, husky growl of appreciation sent violent ripples of pleasure racing through her.

After a lifetime of playing down her body, it felt incredible to be standing here showing it off and thrilling in his delight.

He cupped them with his big hands and slowly roused both nipples with the pads of his thumbs until she was quivering with excitement, melting, desperate for him to do so much more than just tease.

He was taking his time, slowing his pace. Sunny could sense that and she was impressed by the level of thoughtfulness behind that because she could envisage him as a man who was probably accustomed to taking...fast and hard.

He backed her gently against the door and she stuck her hands behind her, flattened against the door as he began to suckle on her nipples.

Head flung back, eyes closed, Sunny could only whimper with pleasure as his moist mouth relentlessly sucked. Her hands balled into fists behind her back and the whimpers were deepening into moans. When he pulled away she wanted to direct his head right back from whence it had come. Her wet nipples were cooling quickly as he tugged down the skirt, allowing her to wriggle out of it, where it joined the little top on the ground.

Stefano stood up. This leisurely business was taking a lot out of him. He was still wearing his trousers, thank God, because if he had been able to press his erection against her bare skin he felt as if the unthinkable might have happened.

Even the squash of her soft breasts against his chest was teeth-clenchingly difficult to bear.

He cupped her between her legs and felt her wetness. Very slowly, applying just the right amount of pressure, he massaged her down there, watching her face as he did so, enjoying her helpless, heated response. Her nostrils flared and she wriggled against his hand, gyrating her hips.

When he pushed his hand underneath her panties, she drew in a sharp breath and held it as he inserted two fingers, feeling and finding her swollen clitoris and playing with it until she was begging him to stop and then begging him not to stop.

He didn’t stop. He kissed her, long and deep, tongues meshing.

‘You have to stop...’ Sunny gave a half-hearted push against his busy hand ‘...or I’ll... I won’t be able to stop myself...’

‘Good,’ Stefano murmured into her ear, which made her shiver. ‘I’ve always had a soft spot for a woman who just can’t stop herself...’

It was so unbearably erotic. The fact that he was half dressed...that his hand was there, pushed underneath her knickers...that his breath in her ear was warm and sexy...that her nipples were rubbing against his chest...

She came with a deep shudder that racked her body and then she fell limply against him and curved her arms around his neck. When her breathing was back to normal, she fell against his neck and nibbled it until he laughed and swung her up to carry her over to the bed in a couple of easy strides.

‘Very caveman...’ She smiled drowsily, replete with contentment and already looking forward to touching him and having him touch her again. She feasted greedy eyes on him as he stood by the bed to remove his trousers and boxers. His legs were long and muscular and she took her time appreciating them, took her time letting her eyes drift higher to rest on his impressive, hard-as-steel, erect manhood. The thatch of dark hair in which it nestled was intimidating in its naked virility. Her tummy flipped and she found that she was holding her breath.

‘You like that?’ Stefano paused to look at her. She was naked. She’d freed herself from her underwear and she was...spectacular. He’d had beautiful women before but she was...unique in a way he couldn’t quite put his finger on. There was something intensely alluring about her mixture of intelligence, savvy streetwise toughness and vulnerability.

‘If I’m the last sort of guy you would want to be involved with,’ he heard himself say in a roughened undertone as he slipped onto the bed next to her, pulling her into him so that their naked bodies were pressed together, ‘then I’m guessing that you’ve never had a caveman before...’ He moved against her and she parted her legs. He nudged his thigh between them and moved it slowly and absently.

Since when did he give a hoot what other men his previous partners had slept with? As far as he was concerned, all of that was an irrelevance.

But he was curious now. Was he the only inappropriate guy she had gone to bed with? Had there been others? She wasn’t married, she wasn’t engaged and she had no boyfriend so whatever touchy-feely soulmate types she might have encountered clearly hadn’t made it past the starting gate.

How come?

Sunny blushed, conscious of her inexperience. ‘I haven’t,’ she said shortly. ‘Let’s not talk.’ She placed a flattened palm on his chest and marvelled at the hardness of his hair-roughened chest. Just the right amount of hair, she thought distractedly, just the right amount to add to that intensely masculine aura.

She wasn’t a virgin but she might just as well have been and here she was, with a man with loads of experience and not just experience but experience with some of the most desirable and beautiful women in the world. Sunny wasn’t vain but she was honest. Yes, she knew that she had been born with a certain amount of looks, thanks to her gene pool, but she would still be gauche and awkward and she had no inclination to fill him in on her one and only sort of ex-lover. No way.

* * *

Why not? Stefano thought irritably, which was such a ridiculous reaction that he almost laughed.

‘You’re right...there’s a time and a place for talking and I’ve always found that that place isn’t in bed...’ He licked an erotic trail along her neck while he traced her delicate collarbone with one long brown finger and that finger carried further down to circle a nipple, teasing it with a feathery touch until Sunny could barely lie still in the bed.

She was positively aching for him when his mouth settled at last on one straining, tautened bud, when he pulled it deep into his mouth, licking the tip with his tongue while his other hand played with her other nipple, rolling over it and igniting a blizzard of heated response inside her.

She squirmed, determined that this time she was going to play with him as much as he was playing with her.

She traced the hard lines of his torso and then circled his hard length with her hand. The faint shudder that ran through his body quelled her nerves in a way no amount of soothing chat could ever have done because it proved to her just how much he wanted her. Whatever the length and width and breadth of his experience.

He wanted her.

Even though they came from different worlds...even though he could have had any woman on the planet he desired...even though she wasn’t posh or sophisticated. He wanted her. Right here and right now at this very moment in time.

The strength of their craving was mutual and she could easily lose herself in that knowledge.

Her body took over and seemed to know what to do or maybe, she thought, that was just how it worked when you were really fired up for someone.

Her legs wanted to part and to receive the ministrations of his mouth as he went down on her, licking and teasing and sucking, exploring her in a way that was unimaginable and unimaginably wonderful.

For Stefano, nothing had ever tasted this sweet. When he had begun nuzzling the soft down between her thighs she had automatically, with some embarrassment, protested, tugging at his hair, even though her legs had remained open, welcoming him to explore between them.

Had she never been caressed and kissed there before?

Curiosity had nudged once again past common sense and it had increased as he had felt her heated response to his intimate caresses, had known from the tremble of her slender thighs pressed against his face that she was loving every second of the experience.

Why had no man touched her there before? She’d been strangely shy to start with but there was so much passion there, passion that matched his, and it was like finding a gold mine that just kept on giving.

Had no man roused her to these heights before? It gave him an unholy kick to imagine that he might be the first even though logic told him that the chances of that were frankly non-existent. She was in her twenties and beautiful. She would have had lots of lovers in her past and he wouldn’t have been the first to fire her to these heights even though it might feel that he was.

She moved against his mouth and all thoughts vanished from his head as he lost himself in the taste and smell of her, musky...fragrant...perfume to make a man lose his mind...

It was sweet torture to take his time but he did, making sure to explore her and hanging on by a thread as she explored him.

He nudged at her, the blunt head of his penis tantalising her, but that required a level of self-restraint he found he didn’t have.

Sunny stilled him. ‘I’m not on the Pill.’ She was almost at the point of losing control completely. Her body no longer felt like hers. This wasn’t the awkward, excruciatingly self-conscious body that had shied away from John’s touch, even though she had wanted so badly to be turned on by him. This was another body—a body that seemed to have a will of its own, a body that could melt and go up in flames at the same time. It was a body that excited and amazed and thrilled her.

She dreaded to think that he might pull away from her because she wasn’t on any contraception yet why should she be? She’d had no intention of jumping in the sack with anyone any time soon.

‘It wouldn’t matter if you were.’ Stefano reached to the drawer of the bedside cabinet next to the bed and felt for his pack of condoms.

‘Wouldn’t it?’

‘Of course not. Do you honestly think I’d be stupid enough to believe a woman who said that she was on the Pill and couldn’t get pregnant?’ His lips curled. ‘Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Trust me, you could pop a pill in front of me and I’d still use a condom because if it’s one thing I will never again take, it’s a chance...’

The depth of his bitterness shocked Sunny and for a split second she saw the man who had locked himself down emotionally, the man who had constructed a fortress of ice around his heart and whilst she knew that none of that should matter a jot to her because she certainly wasn’t in it for a relationship, it still was weirdly unsettling. Was this what John had eventually thought when they had both tried their best and come to the conclusion that they had to walk away from one another? That she was locked down emotionally? Frozen where she should have been alive? That she had nothing to give? Not even the generosity of her physical responses?

Stefano sensed just that fleeting second or two when she seemed to disappear, but then she curled her fingers into his hair and arched up to kiss and nibble the side of his mouth, laughing when he pushed her back to kiss her so thoroughly that she wanted to faint.

He was rock-hard as he slipped on the condom in one smooth expert movement, and then he was thrusting in her, loving the warm tightness of her and the motion of her hips as they picked up rhythm, moving under him as though their bodies had been made to do this, to join together in the act of making love.

Sunny clung.

She’d never clung to anyone in her life before. She had learned from an early age that clinging got you nowhere. But she clung now, wishing that she could keep holding him to her for ever, never wanting to let him go and absolutely loving the feel of his lightly perspiring, tightly packed, muscular body under her hands.

Her orgasm was an explosion that took her to another dimension. A slow build, getting faster until she couldn’t breathe as he pushed into her, hard, long strokes that drove her wild. She heard someone groaning and realised that it was her.

When they had both finally come back down to earth, with her head resting on his chest, she listened to the steady beat of his heart and the first thing that came to her head was that she didn’t want this to be a one-night stand and that was such a scary realisation that she wanted to whimper in panic.

It felt as though someone had pulled a plug she hadn’t even known existed and all of a sudden her prized self-control was slipping remorselessly through the plughole.

This wasn’t going to do! She’d made love and it felt as though she’d made love for the first time, felt that this was what the fuss was all about, this soaring, wonderful sensation of flying high above the clouds, a feeling of complete and utter union with another human being.

Had that made her vulnerable? Because, if it had, then she was going to have to find a cure pretty damn quick.

She yawned and sat up, slipping her legs over the side of the bed, and he caught her hand and gently tugged her back down.

‘Going somewhere?’

Sunny flipped her long hair to one side and glanced at him over her shoulder. ‘To get dressed.’

‘Why are you going to do that?’ He stroked the underside of her wrist lazily.

‘Because it’s after midnight and I need to get home.’

‘You don’t need to get home. There are too many bedrooms in this house to count. You can have your pick.’

Sunny noted that he hadn’t suggested she share his room with him but he wouldn’t, would he? He knew the lines that had to be drawn. Where she suspected she still had the capacity to melt, he was as hard as steel.

‘If Eric can’t drive me to the station, I can call a taxi.’

Stefano sat up and frowned. ‘You don’t want to do that...’ He tugged her a little bit more so that she fell back against the pillow and he cupped one breast with his hand, teasing the nipple into a stiff, throbbing peak. ‘And your nipple agrees with me...’

Sunny wriggled. Of course, this was his great strength, she thought. It wasn’t his looks, incredible though they were, or his bank balance or the house he lived in or the helicopter he owned or the cars he drove... It was his searing intelligence and his wicked sense of humour. Both those things could be her undoing.