Page 141 of A Diamond Deal
‘There is no one from my past that would have been right for this. No one I could marry, without there being an answering expectation of intimacy. Affection. I am not interested in either of these things.’
Her eyes pinged open as her heart did a strange lurch. ‘Present situation excluded?’
‘This is part of our deal,’ he reminded her, moving his finger faster then, deeper, so her hips writhed against him. ‘We are both aware of the temporary nature of what we’re doing.’
‘Yes,’ she whispered, but it wasn’t really in response to his statement, so much as the way his touch was sending arrows of flame and fire through her body.
He leaned down, whispering in her ear, ‘When we get home, I’m going to strip you naked and kiss you all over. Starting here.’ And then she was tumbling over the edge of the earth, into a deep abyss of light and warmth, the soft sound of her orgasm swallowed by the white-hot heat of his kiss.
He had not done anything quite so reckless in a long time. Probably since his early twenties, when the first heady years of his success had kicked into gear, stress of his father’s crimes fading just enough to allow Massimiliano to enjoy the riches he’d earned. The women that fell into his lap because of them.
Then, he’d been careless often. Truly careless. He hadn’t cared about his own reputation, much less theirs. But Amelia wasn’t just some vain socialite he’d picked up in a bar. She was his wife, ostensibly the woman he loved. She was also a virgin.
Making her climax in the back of a restaurant shouldn’t have been part of it.Cristo.But he hadn’t been able to stop himself. He’d wanted her since the afternoon before. He’d wanted her all last night, during dinner, and beyond, when he’d gone to his own bed. And hell, he’d wanted her throughout the day, too, thinking of her when he should have been focusing on something else. Remembering the way she’d responded to him, the innocent, artless way she’d simply reacted to her first encounter of sex and sexual awakening.
It had been a long time since he’d been with someone inexperienced, since he’d seen sex as she must. Since he’d remembered the surprise of knowing your body to be someone else’s to command—and be commanded by.
As his car slipped through the streets of Rome, and his eyes glanced across the familiar landmarks, it was a sense of unfamiliarity that clawed through him. A feeling that marriage to Amelia, while practical and sensible, also had the potential to get out of hand, if he let it. Which he wouldn’t, of course. He was Massimiliano Moretti. He’d built an empire from the crumbling ruins of their family’s fortune, and he would never let anyone or anything derail his focus. Particularly not some young British woman he’d been required to marry.
Chapter Ten
HIS PROMISE HADbeen a whisper in her mind from the moment they left the restaurant, her cheeks flushed with remembered pleasure but also embarrassment as she looked around to see if anyone was staring at them. Knowing what Massimiliano had just done. He kept his hand pressed to the base of her spine as they stepped out onto the street.
The restaurant was exclusive, and, as befitted such a venue, there was a gaggle of paparazzi waiting to get pictures of whoever exited. The camera lights flashed and Massimiliano immediately pulled her closer to his side, holding her against him, shielding her, just as he had in the restaurant. Making her feel safe. Not alone. Making her feel dangerously close to belonging.
In the limousine, they were both silent, but for Amelia, every single instant was like the stretching of her nerves, so by the time they rode the elevator to his penthouse, she was a tangle of need. If anything, what he’d done in the restaurant had just stirred her up, so she barely managed to make it to the expansive lounge room, on legs that were not at all steady, before she spun around to face him.
But Massimiliano was regarding her with a quirk of his lips that told her heknewwhat he was doing, and she resented that. She wished she were more sophisticated. That she had at least some experience with men. She must have seemed so gauche compared to the women he usually slept with. Her stomach twisted for a different reason now, as self-doubt clicked into her brain.
Then, though, he was striding towards her, his eyes darkening as he got close. ‘I seem to remember making you a promise,’ he said. As though he sensed that she was suddenly riddled with uncertainty. He stopped, though, a few strides away from her, lifted his finger and crooked it. Inviting her to approach him. To be the one to initiate this.
With those still-trembling legs, she closed the distance between them, and then his hands found the bottom of the dress and began to lift it. As with the afternoon before, it was a torturously slow process. Where she wanted it removed swiftly and thrown to the ground, he delighted in inching it over her body, his hands touching her as it went, before discarding it. Finally.
‘I said I’d kiss you all over, I believe,’ he murmured, moving his mouth towards her but stopping short of doing any such thing. She tilted her face, silently inviting him to take her mouth with his own, to claim it. He lifted a finger between them, pressing it to her lips.
‘I also said I’d start here,’ he reminded her, dropping his other hand between her legs, so she yelped at the very welcome, yet unfamiliar, sensation of his touch.
‘Massimiliano,’ she groaned, tilting her head back.
‘Yes, Signora Moretti?’
Forks of awareness threatened to split her apart.
‘Please,’ was all she could say, even when she had no idea what she was asking for, exactly.
‘I promised you,’ he reminded her. ‘And I never go back on my word, Amelia.’
For the second time that night, Massimiliano did something unusual. Something he hadn’t felt an interest in doing with another woman. Not since he’d been a teenager, experimenting with sex. But with Amelia in bed, naked and begging for him, he ached to give her every single ounce of pleasure he could. To flood her body with sensations that were almost too powerful to bear.
‘Do you trust me?’ he asked, voice dark with intent.
Her eyes lifted to his, and, despite the tugging of her lips, she nodded. ‘Yes.’
Something flexed in his chest. ‘And what do you do, if you want me to stop?’
‘Tell you.’
‘Good girl.’
