Читать книгу The Gold Collection - Ким Лоренс, Maggie Cox - Страница 12

THE Bentley was waiting outside for them with the chauffeur holding the door open. Dante slid onto the back seat and held out his hand to assist Rebekah. No doubt his sophisticated mistresses were experts at climbing elegantly into cars, she thought ruefully, but her high heels somehow got tangled in her long skirt so that she tripped and landed practically in his lap.

‘Steady,’ he said with a soft laugh, as though he thought she was so eager to be in his arms that she’d deliberately thrown herself on top of him.

Flushing hotly, she tried to edge away, but he pulled her against him and claimed her mouth in a sensual kiss that left her breathless and trembling when he finally lifted his head. She felt a strange sense of unreality. Dante had dominated her thoughts from the day she had met him, and she could hardly believe she was in his arms and he was trailing a line of kisses down her neck to capture the pulse beating erratically at its base.

She had imagined moments like this so often, and had indulged in erotic daydreams that Dante was running his hands over her body. But now she discovered that the reality was so much better than any daydream. As the car threaded through the busy London streets it felt as though they were cocooned in their own private world. Outside was noise and bright neon lights. But inside the car the sexually charged silence was only broken by her soft gasp when he lowered his head to her breasts.

‘You have driven me mad all night,’ he growled in a gravelly voice that sent a little shiver of anticipation through her. ‘You were the most beautiful woman in the room tonight and every man had his eyes on you.’

Rebekah knew that was untrue and she was about to tell him that he did not need to win her over with false flattery, but she was distracted when he slid the strap of her dress over her shoulder and drew the fragile silk down until he had bared her breast. His harsh groan of feral hunger evoked a flood of heat in her pelvis. With a little spurt of shock, she realised he wasn’t playing a game or teasing her. His desire for her was real and urgent, and the hard glitter in his eyes warned her that he was serious about his intention to make love to her.

Her heart leapt into her throat. She knew the driver could not see them through the privacy screen but she felt exposed when she glanced down and saw her pale breast and the darker skin of her nipple. She caught her breath when Dante cupped the soft mound of flesh in his palm and lightly flicked his thumb pad over her nipple until it felt hot and tight and she longed for him to caress her with his mouth. Never before had she felt such an intensity of need, and she could not restrain a choked cry of disappointment when he drew her dress back into place.

‘We’re home,’ Dante told her softly. He found her eagerness such a turn-on. She looked unbelievably sexy with her long silky brown hair tumbling over her shoulders and her lips slightly parted and moistly inviting. The ache in his groin was building to a fierce throb of sexual need that clamoured to be assuaged. If they did not get out of the car right now he was in danger of making a fool of himself, he thought derisively.

As Rebekah followed Dante up the front steps of the house her heart thudded painfully beneath her ribs. The cool night air on her heated skin had restored a little of her common sense and made her question what she was doing. She had never had a one-night stand in her life, and she had only ever slept with Gareth. Didn’t that just sum up her life, she thought wryly. She was twenty-eight and had been single for two years, but she could write about her sexual experiences on the back of a postage stamp.

What if Dante found her inexperience a disappointment? Or what if he compared her curvy hips and unfashionably big breasts with the super-slim supermodels that she knew were his usual choice of women?

Maybe it would be better to stop this now, before she faced the humiliating possibility of being rejected by him. Maybe it would be safer to keep her fantasies intact and tell him she had changed her mind.

He opened the door and stood back to allow her to precede him into the hall. In front of her the stairs led to the second floor and his bedroom. She wondered how many other women had shared his bed, and she felt another pang of uncertainty.

Through an open door she could see the sitting room lamps had been activated by the timer so that the room was bathed in soft gold light. She spun round to face him, and thought with a touch of despair that he had never looked more gorgeous than he did right now. His white shirt was made of such fine silk that she could see the shadow of his dark chest hairs, and when she lowered her gaze the visible evidence of his arousal beneath his trousers evoked a fierce coiling sensation in the pit of her stomach.

She licked her dry lips. ‘Dante … I …’

‘Come here, mia bellezza,’ he said roughly.

The husky Italian words shattered her fragile defences. She knew that although he had been educated in England, Italian was his first language and he often reverted to it when he was angry. But it was not anger that lent his gaze a silvery gleam. Desire blazed in his eyes. He was looking at her in a way that made her knees feel weak, and when he pulled her into his arms she clung to him and tilted her head for him to capture her mouth in a kiss that made her forget all her doubts.

She had never been kissed like this; never experienced such magic as Dante was creating as he slanted his mouth over hers and took without mercy—demanding, hungry kisses that were utterly irresistible.

She fell back against the wall and wrapped her arms around his neck as he pressed himself against her so that she was conscious of every muscle and sinew of his hard body. She felt the solid ridge of his erection nudge between her thighs, and the realisation that he was fiercely aroused increased her excitement. She might not be tall, skinny and blonde, but Dante did not seem to mind as he roamed his hands over her, exploring her contours with unashamed delight. He groaned his approval when he clasped the rounded cheeks of her bottom.

‘Dio, you are driving me insane. I need you now, cara. I can’t wait.’

Dante could not remember the last time he had felt so out of control. He lifted his mouth from Rebekah’s and dragged oxygen into his lungs. How had he not realised how beautiful she was? he wondered as he stared at her rose-flushed face and her violet eyes fringed by long dark lashes. Her lips were reddened and slightly parted, inviting him to kiss her again and, when he did, she responded to him with such unrestrained eagerness that his last vestige of restraint shattered.

His bedroom was too far away. Without lifting his mouth from hers, he steered her into the sitting room. He slid his hand beneath her long hair and found her zip. Deftly he ran it down her spine and peeled her dress over her breasts and hips so that it slithered to the floor. The big dark pink discs of her nipples contrasted with the creamy skin of her breasts and he could not resist touching them, stroking them until they hardened into tight buds.

‘Rebekah, you have a fantastic body. You are perfection, mia bella.’

His words, spoken in that hoarse, sexy growl, allayed the self-doubt that had swamped Rebekah when Dante had undressed her. She had felt painfully exposed when he had studied her body in the light from the table lamp that was not nearly as dim as she would have liked. It felt shockingly decadent to be practically naked in the sitting room. She had only ever made love with Gareth in his bedroom at his farm, always in the dark, and they’d had to be careful not to make any noise because his mother’s bedroom was next door.

She had never felt very confident about her body. Her breasts were too voluptuous, her hips too curvy and her bottom was too big. But Dante had said she was perfection, and the hot, hungry gleam in his eyes as he caressed her told her that he meant it.

‘It doesn’t seem fair that you’re dressed and I’m not,’ she murmured. Her voice emerged as a husky whisper because her heart was pounding so hard that she couldn’t breathe properly.

He gave her a wicked smile. ‘Strip me, then,’ he said, spreading his arms wide so that she had free access to his body. ‘I’m all yours, Rebekah.’

She felt a little pang inside, knowing that he would never be hers. It would take a very special woman to persuade Dante to give up his playboy lifestyle, and perhaps no woman ever would. She knew that all he wanted from her was sex, and that was all she wanted too, she reminded herself. Dante made her feel like an attractive, sexy woman and she needed this one night with him to restore her faith in her feminine allure.

But, although she was sure of her decision, her hands shook as she tugged his shirt from the waistband of his trousers and started to undo the buttons. When she reached the top one, she slid the shirt over his shoulders and stared at his broad chest and his satiny olive skin covered in whirls of silky black hairs. He had said her body was perfection, but the hard ridges of his pectoral and abdominal muscles could have been sculpted by an artist.

Her eyes followed the mass of dark hairs lower to where they arrowed beneath his waistband. He had invited her to strip him, but did she have the nerve to slide his zip down and touch the prominent bulge that was straining against his trousers?

‘Do you have any idea how much you’re turning me on just by looking at me?’ Dante demanded raggedly. ‘For pity’s sake, cara, touch me.’

Rebekah obeyed him, hesitantly at first, as she skimmed her fingertips over his chest, but growing bolder as she explored each ridge of muscle with a dedication that made him groan. It was intoxicating to roam her hands freely over his naked torso. His skin was warm and golden, and he smelled of soap and sandal-wood cologne and another subtly masculine scent that tantalised her senses. She had never been as intensely aware of the beauty of the male form and, acting purely on instinct, she pressed her lips to his chest, over the place where she could feel the hard thud of his heart.

He growled something in Italian as he reached for his fly and yanked it open. ‘Let me help you,’ he muttered, as he pulled off the rest of his clothes.

Rebekah’s heart lurched as her eyes were drawn to his erection. He was indescribably beautiful, and huge. She was suddenly conscious that it was a long time since she had done this. Her uncertainty must have shown in her eyes, because he said harshly, ‘If you’ve changed your mind, you have twenty seconds to get out of the room before I lose what’s left of my self-control.’

She could not restrain a little shiver of feminine triumph that he was in danger of losing his control because of her. Desire throbbed hot and insistent between her legs. The notion that soon she would take his swollen length inside her made her tremble with excitement. ‘I haven’t …’ she began, but she had no chance to request that they take things slowly because he pulled her into his arms and she was blown away by the feel of his naked body pressed hard up against hers.

‘Thank God for that,’ Dante muttered as he brought his mouth down on hers. Heat surged through him when she parted her lips beneath his and kissed him back with passion and an evocative sweetness that made his gut clench. He loved the softness of her body, the way her skin felt like silk beneath his fingertips and the delicate rose scent of her perfume when he pressed his mouth to the sensitive place behind her ear. Even more of a turn-on were the little moans she made when he stroked her breasts and flicked his thumbs over her nipples.

He felt as if he were going to explode. The likelihood of him making love to Rebekah with any degree of finesse was zero, he acknowledged derisively. She was too much of a temptation. This first time was going to be hard and fast and he would enjoy taking the slow route later. Right now, all he could think of was burying himself deep inside her. The sofa provided the closest flat surface and would be more comfortable than the floor. He backed her towards it and tumbled her down onto the velvet cushions.

Rebekah could not restrain a low cry when Dante bent his head to her breast and closed his mouth around her nipple. Exquisite sensation arrowed down to her pelvis and she twisted beneath him as he licked and sucked the taut peak until the pleasure was almost unbearable, before he transferred his attention to her other breast.

She had known he would be a skilled lover. No doubt his expertise had been honed by experience. The thought evoked a sharp little pain inside her, but she blanked it out. She did not want to be reminded of his playboy reputation. The way he was kissing and caressing her and murmuring soft words in a mixture of English and Italian made her feel that she really was as gorgeous and sexy as he was telling her. As if she was the only woman he would ever want.

He trailed his hand over her stomach, continued lower and hooked his fingers in her knickers.

‘You are exquisite,’ he murmured as he removed the fragile wisp of lace and stared at her naked body.

‘Dante …?’ She felt suddenly vulnerable and stupidly nervous. She wasn’t a virgin, of course, but she was not one of the sophisticated and no doubt sexually experienced women he was used to. She was afraid he would be disappointed with her. It would be crushingly embarrassing if he found her relative inexperience a turn-off.

‘What’s wrong?’ he murmured when he sensed her tension. ‘Is there something you want me to do? Tell me how I can please you.’

Oh, Lord, she did not have a list of requirements. She stared at him and thought how achingly handsome he was. With a shaking hand she traced the hard line of his jaw and caught her breath when he captured her fingers and pressed his lips to them. ‘Just … kiss me again,’ she whispered.

‘With pleasure.’ His smile was unexpectedly gentle, as if he sensed she needed reassurance. He lowered his head and claimed her mouth in a deep, drugging kiss that banished her last lingering doubts.

‘I want to make this good for you, cara,’ he said softly as he slipped his hand between her thighs and gently parted her to slide a finger into the hot silken heart of her femininity.

Rebekah gasped and instinctively arched her hips. Molten heat flooded through her as he elicited an intimate caress that made her sensitive flesh quicken with excited desire. The dragging sensation in her pelvis became an urgent throb of need to feel more, to have him fill her with his steel-hard shaft that was now nudging against her opening.

Remembering how earlier he had asked her to touch him, she tentatively closed her fingers around his erection and began to stroke the hard length. She heard his swiftly indrawn breath and felt a little thrill of delight that she was able to arouse him as he had aroused her. She grew bolder and more inventive in the way she caressed him, but after a few moments he groaned and tugged her hand away.

As Dante lowered himself onto her, Rebekah caught her breath, feeling her muscles stretch around him as he pushed deeper and deeper until he filled her. She had forgotten how beautiful lovemaking was, she thought dazedly. But she could not remember that she had ever felt this sense of completeness with Gareth.

Dante began to move and withdrew almost completely, laughed softly when she protested, and repeated the process a little faster, thrusting deep and hard so that she gave a choked cry of pleasure and begged him not to stop.

But her husky plea had the opposite effect. He stilled and, with a savage imprecation, began to withdraw again.

Disbelief turned to panic when she realised he was actually going to stop making love to her. Was he turned off by her curvaceous body after all? She felt sick with humiliation and disappointment.

Her voice shook. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘I forgot to use a condom,’ he informed her tersely. Inwardly, Dante cursed himself. He always without fail used protection. It was another of his golden rules—never get emotionally involved, and never ever risk an unwanted pregnancy. He could not believe he had been so irresponsible. What the hell was he doing having unprotected sex with Rebekah? Just because he had been blown away by her lush, curvaceous beauty was no excuse.

But even now his body was battling with his common sense. The lure of Rebekah’s velvet softness made him want to keep thrusting hard and fast into her until he achieved the release he craved.

‘I’m on the Pill.’

Her words were like a siren’s song, and Dante could not control his body’s reaction. Damn it, he could not remember ever being at the mercy of his hormones the way he was with Rebekah. He did not like the effect she had on him, but his willpower seemed to have taken a hike and he could not prevent himself from pressing forwards and sinking deeper into her sensual embrace.

‘You’re sure?’ Stupid question, he thought grimly. She was hardly likely to admit she was lying. He either believed her or he didn’t—his choice. With good reason he had vowed never to trust a woman again, but as he stared into her eyes he felt certain she was telling the truth. He relaxed, and at the same time his muscles tightened in anticipation. ‘I want to reassure you that I’ve always used protection for health reasons as much as to prevent conception,’ he told her.

Oh, God. Why did he have to make it sound so clinical? Rebekah knew she was blushing and felt angry for being so stupid. Dante was being sensible, and she should be glad that he was so realistic. When he had first started to withdraw from her the sense of disappointment had been unbearable and she had been desperate for him to continue making love to her. She was still desperate, she acknowledged, her breath quickening when she felt him stir within her. It felt as though all her nerve-endings were taut with anticipation to experience the sexual release she sensed he would give her.

‘I’m … healthy too,’ she mumbled. ‘I’ve only ever had one other partner, and … and that was a while ago.’

Did she mean that the only other guy she had slept with, apart from him, was the ex-boyfriend she had mentioned? Or had she had an affair after she’d broken up with the Welsh guy? Why was he curious? Dante wondered impatiently. All he cared about was that with the contraception issue dealt with, there was no reason not to continue giving in to the passion between them.

He rested his weight on his elbows and circled his hips against hers, giving her a lazy smile when she drew a swift breath.

‘So, there’s nothing to prevent me doing this?’ he murmured as he thrust forwards, drew back a little and thrust again with deep measured strokes that sent ripples of pleasure through him—and, from her wide-eyed expression, her too.

‘Yes … I mean … no, oh …’ Rebekah dug her nails into Dante’s shoulders and writhed helplessly beneath him as he drove into her again and again. ‘Don’t stop,’ she pleaded, uncaring that she sounded desperate. Each devastating thrust felt like the sweetest torture that built her excitement to an unbearable level. He was a magician, a sorcerer, who was creating mind-blowing magic that made her body tremble. She had never known sex could be like this, so intense and all-consuming that she felt as though if she died now it would be the sweetest death. She understood now why the French referred to sex as la petite mort—the little death.

And then she stopped thinking, as each of her senses focused on reaching the climax that she knew from experience often remained frustratingly out of reach. Dante had increased his pace and she knew from the harsh sound of his breathing that he was close to the edge.

‘Please wait,’ she muttered, and then tensed as she realised with agonising embarrassment that she had spoken her thoughts out loud.

Dante gave a soft laugh, but the unexpectedly gentle expression in his eyes reassured her that he was not laughing at her. ‘Of course I will wait for you, cara. Do you think I would take my pleasure without first ensuring yours?’ Was that the kind of selfish behaviour she was used to with her ex-boyfriend? he wondered. He had heard the faint desperation in her voice and he was determined to make this the best sexual experience she had ever had.

‘Let me see if I can help,’ he murmured as he bent his head and flicked his tongue across her nipple, teasing it and tormenting it until she whimpered and he transferred his mouth to its twin.

The sensation of Dante sucking hard on each of her nipples in turn while he continued to thrust powerfully into her drove Rebekah wild. She arched her hips and gave a little sob when he slipped his hand between their joined bodies and found her most sensitive spot. The pleasure he induced when he caressed her there was so intense that she cried out. And suddenly she was at the edge of the precipice, suspended for a few breathless seconds before she tumbled into ecstasy. The explosive orgasm was unlike anything she had ever experienced. It blew her mind and sent convulsive shudders of pleasure through her so that she threw her head back against the armrest of the sofa and could not hold back her husky cries of amazement.

It was too much for Dante. Watching Rebekah come apart so spectacularly was highly erotic. He felt the pressure build inside him until it was intolerable and, with a final thrust, he reached the exquisite moment of release and gave a savage groan.

For a long time afterwards they lay with their bodies still joined, Dante with his head pillowed on her breasts while he dragged oxygen into his lungs. That had been good, he mused. He hadn’t had such intensely satisfying sex for a long while. Maybe never that good, a little voice inside his head pointed out. One thing he was certain of was that once was not going to be enough. His body was already stirring as he contemplated making love to Rebekah again. But, for now, curiously he was in no rush to move and break the languorous aftermath of physical pleasure that had left him feeling deeply relaxed.

Rebekah’s pounding heart gradually resumed its normal rhythm. A sweet lassitude made her muscles feel heavy, but inside her head a voice was saying wow! A rueful smile curved her lips. So that was what she had been missing all these years. Her sex life with Gareth had never set the world alight. Making love with Dante had been a revelation. But there was a danger that it could become addictive, which was why she could not allow it to happen again. The pang her heart gave at the thought that this was a once-only event was a timely warning that it would be far too easy to fall for him.

She pushed against his shoulder, wondering what the protocol was now. Presumably they would spend the remainder of the night in their own rooms. Should she put her dress back on or, God forbid, saunter out of the sitting room naked? She might have enjoyed wild and abandoned sex with him, but the idea of parading her wobbly bits past him made her shudder.

Dante lifted his head and gave her a lazy smile that evoked a curious little ache inside her. ‘Am I too heavy for you, cara?’ He pressed his lips to her breast before lifting himself off her but, instead of getting up from the sofa as she had expected, he settled on his side next to her and pulled her close. ‘That was amazing—you were amazing,’ he murmured. His thick black eyelashes brushed his cheeks.

The steady rise and fall of his chest told Rebekah he had fallen asleep. For a few minutes she gave in to temptation and snuggled up to him, loving the feel of his warm skin and the faint abrasion of dark hairs beneath her cheek. It would be so easy to pretend that they were proper lovers, to imagine that what they had just shared had been special and had meant something. She was obviously not cut out for casual sex, she thought ruefully. She was finding it hard to separate her emotions from the physical act of making love with Dante, but she did not kid herself that he would suffer the same problem.

Moving carefully so that she did not disturb him, she propped herself on her elbow and studied him. His hard-boned face was all angles and planes in the lamplight. But the lock of jet-black hair that had fallen across his brow softened his features and in sleep he lost a little of his arrogance and looked relaxed and so achingly beautiful that Rebekah longed to touch him and trace the sensual curve of his mouth. But if she woke him they would undoubtedly have sex again and her emotions would become even more involved.

It was best to walk away now. But it took all her willpower to extricate herself from his arms. He gave a little grunt of protest and she held her breath, but he did not stir as she gathered up her clothes and tiptoed from the room.