Chapter Fifteen
Gio had found Paradise. He didn’t deserve it, he knew. But he was too selfish to deny himself.
Before him, Stella knelt on hands and knees.
Her beautiful back undulated as she moved to meet his thrusts.
His hips slapped her lush backside and her head arched up as if straining to cope with such pleasure.
Her little hums and the demanding way her pelvis rotated told him she was as close to completion as he.
With each surge he buried deeper in her slick warmth, felt her tight around him, pulling him nearer the edge.
He’d already been close from watching her climax minutes before. She’d writhed beneath him, thighs open across his shoulders as he used his mouth and hands to drive her out of her mind.
Her quivers of ecstasy, the scrape of her fingernails against his scalp and the tang of her on his tongue, were his idea of heaven.
Gio slid his arms from her shoulders. He cupped her sweet breast with one hand, the other splaying across the tight swell where their child nestled. Their child.
Exquisite pleasure-pain pierced him at the promise of her ripening body. That fascinated and excited him, but he knew, for everyone’s sake, he needed to resist. He couldn’t be the man she wanted.
But how could he walk away from Stella? They’d shared a month at his lakeside home and every day he bonded more closely to her and his child.
Instead of dulling, his hunger sharpened. He needed her more. Yet she, despite her passion, seemed somehow…apart. As if the generous heart he’d recognised in her was gradually withdrawing.
Was she tiring of him?
Gio anchored his hands on her hips and thrust hard, burying deep, as if by possessing her to the fullest he could obliterate the anxiety teasing him.
‘Yes, give me more.’ Stella’s throaty demand almost ignited the conflagration. Except he needed something else too.
He needed to look in her eyes as they came together. He needed, desperately, that connection, the wondrous sense of union that was more even than spectacular sex.
He needed Stella, soul and body. Needed the balm of a communion that felt more than physical.
Sliding back and gritting his teeth against the friction, he straightened away, growling, ‘On your back.’ Please hovered on his lips but his larynx stopped working as Stella twisted up, looking over her shoulder with a knowing gleam in slumbrous eyes that felt like her hand squeezing his erection.
Gio lost his breath on a shuddering sigh as she turned to lie on her back, legs splayed and hands high on the pillows. She should look defenceless. Instead, she radiated a sexual power that had him in thrall.
With her plump breasts and rounded belly, the rich scent of aroused female, and her beckoning, confident smile, she was as powerful as any earth goddess. The miracle of life quickening inside her only added to her allure.
He knelt between her legs, taking his weight on his arms as he guided himself to her entrance. He sucked in air as their gazes locked. For hers was so tender it made him hope the hints of distance he’d felt lately were imagination.
He palmed her cheek and when she turned her face into his hand, something in the vicinity of his heart melted.
His. She was his. For now at least.
Urgency returned and with one swift thrust he drove home, deep and sure. Her eyes widened and for the longest moment the world stopped in wonder.
‘Kiss me, Gio. Please.’
He covered her body, careful not to put too much weight on her abdomen even as she hauled him closer.
Then he kissed her, closing his eyes, the better to absorb her rich flavour and the feel of their bodies moving as one.
His hand was in her satiny hair, his mouth whispering praise against her lips as he took up the rhythm, deep and fast. She rose to meet him as her tongue caressed his and she lifted one leg over his hip, pulling him in hard.
He lifted his head, meeting her eyes as the tremors began, quickly becoming shudders. In him or her? It didn’t matter where it started for it encompassed them both. Flame ignited in his groin and his blood. A second later the world exploded.
Gio saw Stella’s eyes blaze with delight, felt her wonder, and rode the waves of ecstasy with her tight in his arms. Where he needed her.
Finally, spent, he rolled onto his back and fell into sleep, his arms lashing her close.
Gio ended the conference call and sat back in his office chair. There was a glitch in his plan to acquire the Malaysian property. Normally he’d devote all his energy to solving the problem. Today he couldn’t focus.
He was too obsessed with Stella and the possibility she planned to leave. Once that would have been good news because long-term relationships were dangerous. Now…
She hadn’t spoken of leaving, hadn’t said anything definite. Yet he’d sensed withdrawal. Sometimes she retreated into herself and he couldn’t follow. When he asked what was wrong she denied any problem.
He’d become used to her confidences. Over the last month they’d talked about all sorts of things, important and trivial, serious and amusing. With every day he understood her better, liked her more.
But today she’d been distracted and edgy.
Gio opened a desk drawer and withdrew some folded paper as a knock sounded and his study door opened.
‘Excuse me, signor, but will the signora’s guest stay for lunch? I forgot to ask. I didn’t like to interrupt them and thought you—’
‘Guest?’ He lurched to his feet, shoving the paper in his pocket. Stella hadn’t mentioned a visitor. Had her father come unannounced? Or someone she didn’t want Gio to know about?
‘The man who arrived an hour ago. Ah, there he goes now.’ The sound of an accelerating vehicle broke the quiet. ‘Sorry for bothering you. That answers my…’
Gio didn’t hear more. He was loping out of the room and through the villa. The front doors were closed and there was no sign of Stella.
His lungs cramped as his breathing stalled. He lunged for the doors and pulled them open. No Stella.
Something plummeted inside him, like a lead weight falling from a great height. He couldn’t breathe. The cramp in his chest worsened.
Had she gone? Had her family abducted her? They wouldn’t dare. She’d have called for help.
Unless she’d gone willingly, with someone else.
Gio planted his hands on his thighs, bending as he dragged in air. Each breath like knives lacerating his chest.
He refused to believe it. Stella wouldn’t run from him, not now. If she wanted to leave she’d say. Yet what had begun as vague disquiet was now fear. It coiled in his gut, slithered through his veins, gripping him in a chill that threatened to freeze his marrow.
He strode away from the door. If Stella had seen her visitor off, there’d been no time for her to go inside.
She’s walking in the garden. You know how she likes it.
Yet he didn’t quite believe it, until finally he found her, sitting in a flower-covered arbour near the lake. He’d never felt such relief.
Until he got close and saw her mouth’s unhappy twist and the distant stare in her overbright eyes.
‘Stella!’
Her heart crashed against her ribs. Would there ever be a time when she didn’t react to this man?
She bit her lip, hating the upsurge of swamping emotion. She’d come here to brood on her mistakes and make some decisions. She hated him finding her with feelings so raw.
‘Cara, you’re upset.’ Gio sat and took her hand. Her racing pulse settled at his touch. That made her mood dip lower. She felt so much while he… ‘Was it your father?’
She frowned. ‘What about my father?’
Serious eyes held hers. ‘So he wasn’t your visitor.’
Now she understood. Gio didn’t love her but he’d vowed to protect her from her father. She eased her hand free and stood. The perfumed bower felt too confined with Gio.
Liar. You don’t trust yourself not to lean into him and never let go.
Maybe it was finally time to give up her fragile hopes and look to a new future.
‘Eduardo visited me, but he’s gone.’
Gio rose. ‘Morosi? What did he want?’ She met his intent stare and almost believed he felt as distressed as she. ‘To get you back?’
Stella looked away, unable to meet that scalding scrutiny when she felt so confused and guilty.
She’d been stunned when Eduardo had wanted to see her. More so when he’d downplayed the scandal of being jilted. He’d made light of the appalling situation she’d inflicted on him and his kindness worsened her guilt. She’d treated him badly and he’d been nothing but kind.
‘Stella? Does he want you back?’
She thought of saying it was none of Gio’s business. He didn’t want to marry her. He had no claim on her. But that was petty nonsense. He had the greatest claim of all, though he didn’t know it.
‘Yes, he asked me to reconsider marriage.’
That had floored her. Instead of his being cowed, the public scandal had strengthened Eduardo’s determination to shake off the expectations of his old-fashioned relatives.
He’d finally stood up to them, daring them to reject his leadership simply because he was single.
They, alarmed at the possibility of losing their brilliant up-and-coming CEO, had backed off.
‘He’s in love with you, isn’t he?’ Gio’s urgent voice dragged her from her thoughts.
‘No, he’s not. He just…’
But she felt guilty enough over how she’d treated Eduardo. The least she could do was respect his privacy.
Gio didn’t need to know about Eduardo’s confession that he’d never desired a woman enough to want marriage.
That he’d concluded the best he could hope for was to marry a friend, someone he trusted, rather than spend a lifetime alone.
Her heart twisted because despite everything he saw her as someone he could commit to for life.
‘Stella? What is it?’
Said the man who desired her but couldn’t conceive of making such a commitment himself.