Kitabı oku: «The Complete Christmas Collection», sayfa 92
“You are very practiced.”
“No lover is exactly like another, believe me.”
“You’re trying to say it’s different with me?” she asked in disbelief.
“Sì.”
She shook her head.
“Did we not just establish I would not lie to you?”
“But—”
“When I touch you, you are the only woman in my arms, the only one in my mind.”
Her throat constricted with emotion and she could find no words to reply, so she did the one thing she knew that to this point she’d been good at.
She kissed him.
He allowed it for scant seconds before taking over the meshing of their mouths, claiming hers with his tongue. His taste melded with hers, creating an addictive flavor.
They moved through the water, but she could not be bothered to lift her head and see in what direction they went. She trusted her body to his care as she melted into the kiss.
Water receded against her skin, indicating that they were moving into the shallow end of the pool. And then he shifted and she felt a solid sloped surface against her back. The pool steps were flanked by foot-wide ramps that could be used for a steadying hand to enter the water and he must have laid her down on one.
He broke the kiss to lean up, away from her. “Let me have your T-shirt.”
She didn’t think about denying him. It wasn’t as if the garment kept her modesty anyway. According to him, it was more exciting than if she’d simply left it off.
But he wanted it off now, and so did she. She craved the sensation of wet, naked skin against skin.
She took hold of her hem and began to peel the wet T-shirt from her body. He helped, his hands sliding against her skin. Whether by accident or design, she didn’t care. Every little touch excited, making her need more.
He did something with her T-shirt and then put it down behind her.
“I want to touch you.” His voice was thick with desire.
Unable to speak, she nodded.
His gaze burning into hers, he reached around behind her and undid the clasps on her bikini.
Her hands went of their own volition to her chest, holding the triangles of cloth in place. “What about your father? Will he come down here?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“He does not have access.”
“What about—?”
“No one will interrupt us.”
“What if—?”
He placed one masculine finger against her lips. “Shhh. This is my sanctuary. No one will bother us, unless there is an emergency even Devon cannot handle.”
“Is that your standing order for your time down here?”
“Sì, though I have a light on the access panel I can turn to green if I am merely looking to relax, not get away completely.”
“It’s not green right now.”
“No, amore, it is most definitely red.”
“Good.” Mustering her courage, she let her hands fall away from her bikini top.
The wet fabric clung to her breasts.
Vincenzo’s hands raised to hover a hair’s breadth from touching. “May I?”
“Yes,” she breathed.
He pulled the fabric away and tossed her top to the side of the pool, the blue fire of his gaze never breaking from hers. “Molto bèdda.”
“You aren’t looking.” Air rushed over her wet skin, making her already tight nipples tingle and sending arrows of pleasures directly to her core.
“Aren’t I?” he asked as his mouth drew closer to her own.
There was a message here, but she could not decipher it. Rather than trying to figure it out, she shifted her head so their lips met.
Vincenzo hummed in masculine approval as his arms came around her, his hands settling on her naked back. Her excited peaks brushed his hair-covered chest and she shivered in reaction to the cascade of sensation that caused.
He pressed their lips together more harshly than he’d ever done, his mouth possessive and insistent. The kiss was different than any they’d shared so far, and it required a response unlike any she’d given.
As demanding as the kiss was, there was also an element of seeking. Vincenzo wanted something from her and his sensual persistence indicated he was intent on getting it.
She didn’t know what he needed. Permission? Sexual submission? The release of the reins she held so tightly on her own passion? For the first time in her life Audrey wanted to give him all of it.
Winding her arms around his neck, she melted into Vincenzo, determined to hold nothing back.
His growl of approval sent pleasure zinging through her. Trusting him completely in this, she didn’t tense up as he tilted her back again.
Her nape settled against her T-shirt, her head comfortably held away from the hard slope she rested on. She vaguely realized in that small part of her brain still capable of logical thought that he’d rolled the wet cotton into a neck pillow.
The thoughtful provision for her comfort warmed her heart even as her body thrummed with sexual energy.
Vincenzo moved his mouth along her jaw, placing arousing kisses over her face and down her neck. Each caress of his lips felt like a brand, marking her as his.
A moment of chilling clarity washed over her. This would change her forever. Vincenzo’s lovemaking would ruin her for other men.
As if sensing the weight of her thoughts, he lifted his head, his handsome face set in stark lines of desire. “What is it, Audrey?”
No endearments. He wanted truth.
She couldn’t have dissembled if she’d wanted to. “I won’t be the same after tonight.”
“No, biddùzza, you will not.”
“No other man will touch me like you do.” She didn’t mean technique; she meant in her soul.
“No other men.”
The harshness of his tone did not bother her. Though he didn’t mean it as a long-term declaration, she still wallowed in the possessiveness of the words.
“There is only us.”
“Yes,” she agreed.
Without another word he lowered his head again, his tongue flicking out to trace her collarbone.
Audrey’s entire body shuddered.
He slid his mouth down, kissing the top of her breast with suction that she knew would leave a mark. The thought of having proof of his touch on her body tomorrow made the flesh between her legs throb with pleasure and need.
The water lapped against her breasts, the waves caused by the movement of his body sending it over her nipples. Impossible to anticipate, each occasional caress of water over the highly sensitized flesh sent jolts of bliss through her.
Her hands scrabbled against the slick tile under her, but she couldn’t find any purchase to ground herself.
Vincenzo leaned back, a dark smile curving his lips. “Will you trust me, Audrey?”
“I do.” More than made sense.
The smile turned into something predatory, but there was also an unexpected vulnerability in the depths of his blue eyes.
He took both her arms and pressed them over her head, wrapping his own fingers around hers so that one hand clasped her other wrist. “Keep them there.”
Instead of anxiety, like she would have expected, peace settled over Audrey. Vincenzo expected nothing from her but her honest response to his touch. She did not have to wonder how to touch him, how to excite him.
His actions took the stress of her lack of experience away, leaving only desire behind. Unfettered by distress, her excitement broke over her in devastating waves.
He released her hands, clearly trusting her to keep them above her head. His fingers trailed down her arm and continued across her skin, leaving goosebumps of delight in their wake.
His hand stopped, fingers resting on her breast so lightly she shouldn’t be able to feel them.
But the barely-there touch felt like each fingertip kissed her skin with fire, licks of pure sensation radiating around her aureole. He drew his fingers together, converging on her nipple.
A moan of pleasure snaked out of her throat.
“You are very sensitive to my touch.” His fingers pressed more tightly on her peaked flesh, twisting gently. “I wonder how you will respond to my mouth.”
Heat flushed her body at his words.
His head lowered tormentingly slowly toward her breast. Their gazes locked.
The sight of him touching her so intimately mixed with the physical sensation, increasing her pleasure nearly beyond what she could stand.
She arched toward him, but he laid his other hand on her stomach, gently pressing down. Audrey let her body relax.
Vincenzo smiled. “Bene. Good.” His mouth finally covered her other nipple, his tongue flicking the tip before his teeth carefully worried it.
Audrey cried out, the sensation so intense it had to have an outlet.
His hand slid from her breast down her body until his fingertips rested against the top seam of her bikini bottoms. Vincenzo brushed his hand side to side, his fingertips slipping beneath the fabric.
“Enzu. Please…” She didn’t know what exactly she was asking for.
Thad had touched her down there, but she’d never felt so desperate for something.
He lifted his head, catching her gaze. “You will trust me to take care of you.”
“I will.” She did.
Her body reverberated with need and something deep inside her told her he was the only one who could meet it.
His gaze warmed with approval that increased her desire as much as the touch of his hand on her body.
She licked her lips, tasting Vincenzo and the slightly salty water of the pool. He made a primitive sound of arousal and his mouth descended on hers, his kiss just as primal.
She responded with all of the sexual and emotional need surging through her, allowing him access, but using every technique of tongue-play she’d learned kissing this master of sensuality.
He touched her clitoris, a swipe and circle of his middle finger against swollen flesh that he repeated over and over again.
She squirmed, her body moving restlessly in the water, her thighs parting of their own volition, but somehow her hands never came down from above her head. Dark delight coiled inside her, tighter and tighter, until it was a compressed ball of energy in her womb. It sent little electric shocks directly to her core, making her most intimate place pulse.
She couldn’t breathe, but she didn’t want the kiss to end. Her heart was beating so fast she was getting lightheaded and she didn’t care.
With a final swipe of his tongue, Vincenzo broke the kiss. He nuzzled her, placing open-mouthed kisses on her face.
His tongue drew a line up from first one temple to the corner of her eye and then the next.
“You cry with your pleasure,” he whispered into her ear.
She didn’t feel the tears, had none of the other indicators of crying, just drops of moisture leaking from her eyes. She hadn’t even known they were there. “I’m sorry.”
“No. You will not apologize for being so perfect. It is a rare woman who allows herself to feel so deeply when making love.”
“How could anyone hold back from you?” Least of all a twenty-seven-year-old virgin.
“All that matters is that you do not.”
“I can’t.”
“Then give your pleasure to me, amore. Come for me, now.” The demand was whispered against her ear as a second finger joined the first against her clitoris, the double stimulation on either side of the bundle of nerves too much to deny.
She climaxed with a scream, her entire body arching against him, the sensual joy too intense too contain. He lightened his touch, but did not remove his fingers, pulling her through aftershocks that made her cry out and finally whimper with the surfeit of pleasure.
The whole time he whispered into her ear.
“Bene. Sweet Audrey, you did so well.” And, as she floated on the euphoria following the cataclysm of her soul, “Molto bèdda. So very, very beautiful, my precious innocent.”
She let her eyelids flutter closed, floating on a cloud of exultation, at peace in a way she had not been in all her adult life.
Vincenzo tugged her bikini bottoms off and Audrey let him without a murmur of protest. The sound of the wet fabric hitting the floor beside the pool told her he’d tossed the bottoms to join the top.
Strong arms slid under her back and knees and then water cascaded off her naked body as he lifted her from the water to rest against his solid chest.
His heartbeat was heavy and fast, his breathing rapid like he’d been for a run. Because he wasn’t done yet. Not with her and not with his own pleasure.
A small secret smile curved her lips. They were not done.
He carried her to an extra-large lounger, laying her down on it before standing up.
She watched in sated expectation as he took off his trunks. His erection was dark with blood and so rigid the tip pointed upward.
Maybe it was her virgin sensibilities talking, but it looked like he had a loaded cannon between his legs. Thick and long, ready for action. The sight of him naked stole what was left of her breath.
Lassitude left her as excitement began thrumming through her blood again.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“YOU’RE BIG.” SHE licked her lips, the tiniest flicker of worry lighting inside her. “Maybe I should have had my first time with someone less impressive.”
“No,” he growled out, his expression going from lustful to saturnine.
Oh, he did not like that idea. Not one bit.
“I didn’t.” She pointed out the obvious.
His jaw hardened, a slight tick indicating her comment had not tamed the savage beast. At all.
“You gave me your trust?”
“Yes.”
“You will trust me not to hurt you?”
“First times hurt, Enzu.” She wouldn’t let him make a promise he could not keep.
“There are ways to mitigate that pain.”
“A lot of experience dealing with a woman’s virginity, have you?” she asked, irritation pricking the haze of pleasure in a way her anxiety had not.
“None, in fact.”
“Then how would you know?”
“Really? You must ask this?”
Once again she felt he was laughing at something she did not understand.
“Yes, I must.”
“Research.”
Speechless, she stared at him with all the undeniable hero-worship she felt. He’d researched how to make her first time best for her.
She narrowed her eyes, an idea coming to her. “Recent research?”
“Sì. I had no reason in the past to concern myself with such things.”
“Oh. That’s really sweet.”
His smile was as delicious as dessert, but without a bit of sugar in it. “Sweet is not a word to describe me, amore, believe me.”
“I believe you.” And she had no desire to have him feel the need to prove how not sweet he was.
The man was already overwhelming in his sensual mastery; she did not think she would survive him if he felt he had something to prove.
“Did you enjoy our time in the pool?” he asked, with every evidence of actually wanting her to answer.
“It wasn’t beyond obvious?”
“I prefer a direct answer, biddùzza.”
“You have control issues. You know that, right?”
“I run a Fortune 500 company and an international commercial bank. I would not get far if I was indecisive.”
“It’s more than that. You like having major control in the bedroom.”
“Are you complaining?”
“No.” How could she after the mind-blowing orgasm and its extended aftershocks he’d given her in the pool?
“So you enjoyed it?”
“Yes.”
He nodded. “Good.”
It occurred to her that maybe the control thing was part of him making her first time good for her. She blurted out the thought as soon as it was fully formed in her mind.
Vincenzo joined her on the double-wide lounger before replying to it. “That is a real consideration, yes.”
“But it’s not all of it, is it?”
“No. I am most satisfied when my partner cedes control to me during sex.”
“You’ve had a lot of partners who did that for you?” she asked with irrational jealousy.
The man was thirty-six and had never claimed to be a monk.
“None who have given themselves so beautifully to me. You are something special, Audrey.”
She liked hearing that a little too much.
Unsure if she really cared, but wanting to move away from the dangerous thoughts and emotions trying to form in her mind, she asked, “Do you ever allow your partners to take control?”
“I never have.”
“Hmm.” That was an interesting way to put it.
If he never wanted to, wouldn’t he have just said no?
If intimacy could be this good all the time, she didn’t think it mattered to her who appeared to be in charge. Because there was no question in her mind that Audrey’s pleasure had driven every moment in the pool.
So, ultimately she had been the one in control. Not that she felt the need to point that out to him.
“It is possible I would be willing to explore things with you that I have not in the past,” he said, shocking her into silence. “But I can make no promises.”
“What about making love when no one is in charge?”
“Someone is always in control, Audrey, whether the participants acknowledge it or not.”
“But some couples share that control.”
He shrugged. “It is possible.”
“You don’t want to, though?”
“Not tonight.” He pushed her back onto the lounger, kissing her swollen lips softly. “Tonight you have put yourself in my hands.”
“Yes, I have.”
“No regrets?”
She almost asked him again how he could possibly doubt that, but stopped herself. He wanted a direct answer. No chance for any misunderstanding between them. “None.”
“Bene.” He began to draw lines down her body with his fingertips. “I am going to touch you.”
“Okay.”
He smiled. “Close your eyes and feel, amore.”
She did and he touched her. Everywhere. Alternating between soft skimming caresses and pressure that massaged muscles she hadn’t realized were sore in her post-orgasmic bliss, he mapped every centimeter of her skin.
From the top of her head, which he massaged with adept, masculine fingers, making her moan in pleasure, to her toes, which he sucked one by one, sending carnal delight zinging up her legs directly to that place in between, to all spots in between, Vincenzo claimed her body with his fingers, lips and tongue.
She was vibrating with the need to climax again when he was done. The leaking tip of his sex said he was feeling the same ache for completion, but he did not move between her legs.
Instead he lay back, his blue gaze holding hers hostage. “Do you want to touch me?”
“Yes.” Even more than she wanted that ultimate pleasure.
“You have ten minutes. You may touch me anywhere, any way you like.” He waited a beat. “But you cannot make me come.”
She nodded her understanding, reaching out immediately to caress his chest. She didn’t worry that she should start somewhere else. He wanted her hands on his body and that was all that mattered.
He’d taken the pressure off needing to bring him to climax by ordering her not to do so. And he’d shown her that every inch of skin could be an erogenous zone.
All she had to do was follow her own desires and he would like it. She wasn’t sure how she knew that, but it was an absolute certainty within her.
Maybe she was just too close to the edge sexually to stress about knowing how to do this right, but her lack of practical experience simply didn’t matter right then.
She traced the lines of his face, letting her fingertips trail down his neck. “You are so handsome.”
“Thank you, bèdda.”
She shook her head. How could he thank her for the truth? She used her whole hands on his chest, rubbing her palms over the small brown disks with tiny hardened nubs in the center before mapping each line of his six-pack.
If she let herself touch his arousal she wouldn’t touch anything else, so she skipped his pelvic area altogether and moved down his legs. She wanted to see if she could bring goosebumps to his flesh like he’d done with hers.
His olive skin did not pimple with sensation, but he shivered for her, his muscles jumping. She was pretty sure she was close to time when she bent over his weeping erection and licked the moisture drops right from the tip.
That got her a groan and the restless shifting of his hips.
She laved his entire shaft, returning again and again to the sweet, nearly clear fluid welling in his slit. She bathed him with her tongue, taking in his intimate flavor, breathing deeply of the male musk emanating from the heated skin.
She was so lost in her own pleasure at tasting him she did not register the hand gently pushing her head.
Not toward the masculine treasure, but away. “Your time is up, my Audrey.”
She lifted her head, her eyes unfocused so that he was a blur for the seconds it took her pupils to contract. “Another time I want unlimited minutes to taste and touch you.”
“Not tonight.”
She inclined her head in agreement. She’d promised him her trust tonight. That she would follow his lead.
“Come here.” He put his arms out in invitation.
She didn’t hesitate, but dove for that embrace, her body landing on top of his. She kept her legs together, the disparity in their heights making his truly impressive erection settle in the seam of her thighs, just brushing the apex.
“You are delightfully sensual,” he praised as he traced her lips with his fingertip.
“I’m not like this with anyone else.” Never had been with Thad, and no other man had tempted her out of her self-imposed isolation into anything like this.
“Then it is a precious gift I will treasure.”
The reminder that this was a test-drive for the job of his convenient wife flickered through her mind, but passion smothered it.
He rolled them, one strong thigh pressing hers apart.
Was it time? She was ready. More than ready. All trepidation at what was to come was drowned in the waves of bliss being touched by and touching him sent crashing through her body.
She allowed her body to soften under him, spreading her thighs to ease his access.
He leaned up, his hand reaching down to her moist intimate flesh and one finger slipping inside her very slick channel.
“You are very wet, biddùzza.” There was a wealth of satisfaction in his voice.
She just hummed her pleasure at the very intimate touch.
He spread the wetness up over her swollen clitoris until all of the sensitized flesh between her thighs was slippery with the inescapable proof of her pleasure.
He shifted his body, adjusting their positions so the bulbous tip of his erection sat against her clitoris. Then he pressed down with his pelvis and thrust upward, causing his entire length to drag against her slick folds and pleasure center.
“What…? This isn’t…” She couldn’t finish a thought, not with him stimulating her most sensitive spot the way he was.
“This is exactly what I wish to do right now. I will make it very good for you. Sì, amore?”
“Yes.” There could be no other answer.
He continued thrusting until she met him, movement for movement, pressing upward, the ball of pleasure building and centering inside her and then just hovering there, on the edge of bliss as he continued the maddening frottage.
“Please, Enzu! I need…” she begged, her body supplicating along with her words.
He thrust three more times, each glide of his hardened flesh against hers slower and conversely more powerful than the last.
Then he reared back, his hand going down, two fingers sliding inside her without warning, pressing deep.
She winced, her body jerking when they hit the barrier inside, but she told him, “Don’t stop.”
“I will not.”
He massaged her inside, pressing inexorably against the thin membrane that protected her sexual innocence. His other hand slid up her thigh and he cupped her mound protectively. “Mine.”
She nodded, her throat too tight and dry to speak.
He pressed his thumb against her clitoris, drawing tight circles over her aching nub.
Suddenly the pleasure inside her was acute, the climax that had hovered so close but just out of reach on the verge of exploding. Her body went rigid, every muscle contracting in anticipation of pleasure so big it would have frightened her with anyone else.
“Now, my Audrey. Come for me again,” he instructed as his fingers thrust deep inside her.
Ecstasy detonated and fireworks went off inside her, making her womb contract and every nerve-ending in her body explode. This time she screamed so loud and long her throat was raw with it.
His fingers pressed through the barrier of her body. The pain was there, but unable to break through the astonishing pleasure for dominance of her senses.
He had taken her virginity, but kept his promise. Vincenzo had not lost control, his beautiful sex had not breached her body, stretching her and tearing through the fragile membrane with inevitable pain.
He knelt there, between her legs, and took himself in hand. Once, twice and then his face twisted in a rictus of ultimate delight while he ejaculated onto her body.
When he was done, he used the same hand he’d touched himself with to rub his seed into her skin like lotion. The look in his Mediterranean-blue eyes made the act one of primal claim-staking she was not even sure actual intercourse could have rivaled.
For tonight Audrey Miller belonged wholly to Vincenzo Tomasi. Full-stop.
They cuddled together in the warm humid air and she slid into a doze. Not sleeping deeply, but not fully alert, either. Tonight had been nothing like she could have ever expected or even dreamed about.
Maybe Toby had been right. Maybe Vincenzo was a superhero. He was certainly more man than any other she knew.
He woke her from dreams born of memories they’d made only that night with a kiss. “We must shower and return to our rooms to dress. Your brother will be arriving in less than hour.”
Nothing else would have convinced her it was a good idea to leave the security of Vincenzo’s arms. But at his words she forced herself to sit up, drawing away from him.
She shivered at the cold not touching him sent through her soul, despite their balmy environment.
He seemed to understand, putting his hand out to take hers. “Come, we will shower together.”
She wasn’t about to argue at the continued opportunity for closeness.
He led her to a shower tucked into an artfully arranged group of oversize leafy green plants between the pool and the grotto with the hot tub.
The hot water felt wonderful on muscles that were not used to the rictus of extended and multiple orgasms. Even more soothing were Vincenzo’s hands as they lathered and washed her body, gentle between her legs as he rinsed away the smears of blood left behind by her torn barrier. He let her wash him as well, his semi-erect manhood growing into full hardness even though it had not been her intention to turn him on.
He laughed when she apologized. “Do not worry about it, biddùzza. We will arrange a night when I can lose myself in your body until we both pass out from exhaustion.”
She gasped, a zing of desire sparking through her in response to his promise.
They donned their robes after they dried off, but Vincenzo tossed both of their suits with the used towels into a laundry bin.
He held her hand as they made their way in companionable silence along the path back to the sliding glass doors.
A happy yowl sounded, before two balls of fur streaked across the path only to collide into one mass of rolling, spotted fur.
Audrey yelped, but Vincenzo merely laughed. “Finally they decide to show themselves.”
“What in the world are they?” she asked, her heart still lodged somewhere in her throat.
Vincenzo grinned, his expression more open and relaxed than she’d ever seen it. “They are ocicats—a feline similar in coloring to the ocelot, but smaller and fully domesticated.”
“You have pets?” she asked in absolute shock.
“They were both damaged when their breeder’s facility was broken into.”
“Damaged? In what way?”
“I will show you.” Vincenzo whistled like he would to a dog.
Strangely enough the cats stopped their play and came trotting over. One had only three legs; the other had an ear that had been torn and had healed with ragged edges.
Audrey dropped to her knees and put her hands out for the animals. “You poor lovelies. What are your names, hmm?”
“Spot lost his leg to a glass shard. It was either amputate or lose the cat. Rover’s ear was either the result of his brethren’s stress at the break-in or more glass. The breeders didn’t know which.”
“How awful. Dog’s names, though?” she asked with teasing disbelief.
“Devon insisted.” Vincenzo’s lips twitched. “The ocicat is known for acting more canine than feline.”
“Your majordomo found them?”
“He learned the breeders planned to euthanize them. Spot and Rover cannot be shown competitively and therefore could not be sold for the usual exorbitant rate. They had already been spayed in preparation for transferring ownership, so there was no hope of using them to breed.”
“That’s terrible.”
“Devon agreed.”
“You must have, too, to take on pets.”
Vincenzo shrugged.
“They live down here?” she asked.
“They will not leave, though they have been given many opportunities to roam the rest of the house. They suffer a version of agoraphobia. The animal psychologist believes it is the result of their trauma during the break-in.”
“You took them to an animal psychologist?” she asked, giving up the fight against loving this complicated man to bits.
If there had ever been a question that he would own her heart completely, there wasn’t one any longer. She was head over heels.
“Devon had the psychologist come here.”
Audrey laughed as she straightened, having made friends with the two ocicats. “Of course he did.”
No wonder Vincenzo didn’t keep any birds down here. Even a contained aviary wouldn’t be safe against these two. “Are the cats the reason you don’t allow your family down here?”
“It is not my entire family. Only my parents.”
“Why keep this place from them?” Vincenzo gave so much to his family, even if he didn’t recognize that fact. “That just seems so out of character for you.”
