Chapter Six
WHERE WAS HE?
Vito opened his eyes and blinked against the intense brightness, his eyes narrowing as he stared out of the window.
Outside the world was white and cold, while inside it was vibrant and warm.
And right here beside him was the source of all that warmth…ripe and sweet and soft.
His gaze drifted downwards, to where Flora’s shiny curls were resting against his chest, her face buried against his nipple so that he could feel her even breathing against his skin, which was still damp with sweat. Unsurprisingly.
His mouth dried. If sex were a sport, they’d be in line for a gold medal.
How many times had they done it? Not as many times as he would have liked, but he had been woefully underequipped.
If he’d known that he was going to end his year-long bout of celibacy in such an unlikely way, he might have taken time to pack more condoms.
As the automatic jerk of yet another erection made itself evident beneath the bedclothes, he wondered whether the snow had started melting, but going over to the window to find out would wake her. And he didn’t want to do that.
Not yet.
Not until he had come to terms with the crazy events of the previous night.
He gazed up at the ceiling. They’d finally made it to bed when the fire had burnt down, rushing upstairs to avoid the icy temperatures in the rest of the house and brushing their teeth with some bizarre tasting toothpaste before finally settling down in the big, brass bed for the night.
Not that there had been very much settling involved…
What had followed had been the stuff of his wildest fantasies.
It just hadn’t been what he’d been expecting—in any way.
Flora had been eager and ready for anything, yet there had been something curiously wholesome about having sex with his secretary.
She hadn’t demonstrated a series of sophisticated sexual techniques intended to physically ensnare him.
On the contrary, it had been her total lack of guile which had made that first time so incredible, though her tears had taken him by surprise.
And then she had confided in him, those long lashes fluttering down over her wet eyes.
That he had been responsible for her first ever penetrative orgasm should have filled him with a swaggering kind of masculine pride, yet it had made him feel curiously protective.
And cautious. Because a disclosure like that had all kinds of implications, not least that she’d felt relaxed enough to tell him.
Was she imagining a special bond between them because he had given her such pleasure—and would she let that imagination run away with itself?
He didn’t want her thinking he was some kind of superstud, or imagining that their one night could be extended.
Because she was too sweet for a man like him.
Her face had been so open and vulnerable, her lips trembling with soft joy at the discovery of how fantastic sex could be and he had felt the unwanted twist of his heart, which had concerned him.
‘Vito?’ she murmured sleepily.
He had been planning to get up and take a shower in that icy bathroom—not least to kill his desire—but the brush of her warm body against his was too powerful an enticement to resist. He started to kiss her, her lips automatically opening beneath his and she gasped as he deepened the kiss.
Her soft curves were moulding themselves into his rocky flesh and her curls were tumbling through his hands like satin.
She was still half-asleep, he realised as her eager little fingers curved possessively around the steely length of his erection and she guided him towards her waiting wetness.
‘Wait,’ he mumbled reluctantly as he felt the press of her silken heat. Blindly, he reached for the last condom and slid it on with difficulty and she giggled as she assisted him and that made him harder still.
Lifting her up he brought her slowly down onto his waiting cock, feeling her molten slickness as he felt that first sweet connection.
And then he was properly inside her and she was as tight as he remembered.
So tight, he thought hungrily—like a velvet vice.
She hadn’t been a virgin but she might as well have been.
She was moaning softly as he moved, her lips against his ear as he made each powerful thrust and her murmured words of incitement were turning him on even more.
He could feel her body tense and change and then she made that breathless little cry he’d grown to know so well, as she began to contract around him.
And something about the way she was making him feel—almost as if he were out of control—made a flicker of resentment wash over him, which was immediately obliterated by a powerful rush of desire.
Somehow, he maintained his steady rhythm until he felt the last of her tiny tremors and then gave himself permission to come—shudderingly helplessly as his orgasm sucked him under and seemed to go on and on.
He wasn’t sure how long it took for him to drift back to consciousness, only that when he finally opened eyelids which felt as if they’d been weighted with lead, it was to find Flora lying there, just watching him.
Propped up on one elbow, her eyes were glittering, her cheeks all flushed and there was a dreamy smile of satisfaction on her lips.
Had she been watching him while he slept?
he wondered suspiciously—and why did that suddenly feel like an intrusion?
‘Good morning!’ she said softly.
Vito’s heart sank as reality hit him like a sledgehammer.
Oh, hell. All that sweetness and trust, so glaringly apparent in the shining of her eyes.
As if he were some kind of god rather than a mere mortal.
He wanted to tell her not to look at him like that.
That he didn’t deserve her adoration or regard.
That his conscience was heavy with the weight of all that he had done—or failed to do.
That he was nothing but a cold hard-hearted bastard and she would be better off forgetting all about him.
She might need a little guidance with that particular strategy, he realised suddenly.
He might need to give her no choice other than to forget him.
‘Sleep well?’ he questioned conventionally.
‘Well…eventually.’ Her eyes danced with conspiratorial glee as her finger located his belly-button and slowly began to inch down towards the stirring throb of yet another arousal.
Vito’s throat dried as he found himself growing hard again, despairing of his instant capitulation to her feathering touch.
He had to call a halt to this right now.
Up until yesterday she had been his secretary!
And yet today she had become the instigator of the kind of desire he hadn’t experienced since…
Since when?
He swallowed.
He couldn’t remember.
As a teenager his libido had naturally been fierce and intense, though inevitably lacking the finesse brought about by experience.
Over the years his reputation as a lover had been legendary and women had always made themselves available to him.
But Vito was choosy—if he’d taken up all the offers which came his way he would have spent his life in bed.
Yet his more recent sexual experiences—admittedly over a year ago now—had left him feeling distinctly jaded.
Even—dare he say it—bored? As if he’d seen it and tried it all before.
Sometimes sex had seemed more like a purposeful workout at the gym than…
What?
Hadn’t there been moments when Flora Greening had clung to him, that the world had felt like it was tilting on its axis and threatening to spin out of control?
And he needed to stop thinking that way.
He closed his eyes as he felt the purposeful tiptoeing of her fingers, resenting the spring of his erection and wanting nothing more than to flip her onto her back and push inside her again.
She would love it. She would make that throaty little sound of delirious joy, which only enhanced his own fierce rush of pleasure. And he would love it too.
And that would be wrong—and not just because he was right out of condoms. He scowled.
No way should he be in this position. Naked in bed with Flora Greening?
Santo cielo! Yes, it had been spontaneous and amazing but it had also been a very stupid idea and he should have used his legendary powers of self-restraint to stop himself.
But now was not the time to compound his transgression by feasting on her body again.
They had both agreed this was a one-off.
And even though he suspected her agreement might have wavered this morning—judging by the way she was currently kissing the roughened shadow of his jaw—he was determined to honour the agreement they’d made.
There wasn’t going to be a repeat. From here on in he needed to act like nothing had happened and ultimately, he would be doing her a favour.
Removing her hand from his belly, he couldn’t miss the flare of disappointment in her eyes as he leaned over to glance at his watch. ‘I need to go and find out what’s happening,’ he said thickly, as he willed the terrible aching to subside.
‘But surely the Laird will come and tell us if there’s any news about the airport being cleared?’
The note of frustration in her voice was apparent and Vito’s lips curved with disdain.
Did she imagine he was going to spend the entire morning in bed with her—rising like some walking wreck when the guy in the skirt came to find them?
‘I’m not sitting waiting around for someone else to use their initiative, Flora,’ he clipped out.
‘Surely you must have realised by now that I’m not that kind of man? ’