Chapter Eleven
‘FLORA…’ VITO’S VOICE was unsteady as he halted his urgent examination of Flora’s silk-covered breasts—closing his eyes as another spear of lust arrowed through him, temporarily rendering him incapable of coherent speech.
Somehow they’d made it to his bedroom after some very hot and hungry kissing in the hallway, which had made him feel about seventeen again.
He’d heard Flora urging him on with slurred and broken entreaties as her thighs had parted, which had made him realise that if he wasn’t going to push her up against the wall and take her right there and then, then they needed to change the location.
Because, even though they were alone in the house he didn’t want this to be fast and furious, with her panties on the floor and his trousers around his ankles.
He wanted to take it slow. To revel in the delectable body which had been sending his blood-pressure soaring for days now.
Yet for the first time in his life, he felt at a disadvantage as he stared down into her upturned face. ‘None of the usual rules apply, do they?’ he husked unsteadily. ‘You’re pregnant and…’
‘And what?’ she interrupted, her voice as shaky as his. ‘Pregnancy isn’t an illness, Vito. I’m healthy and fit and young. The doctor I saw in England told me that it’s perfectly okay to have sex.’
‘You were told that?’ he questioned, a little outraged.
‘Of course. Don’t be such a prude.’
‘I have never been accused of that before,’ he objected.
‘There’s a first time for everything.’ She giggled as she stood on tiptoe and he could feel the warmth of her breath on his jaw. ‘I just want you to treat me normally, Vito,’ she whispered. ‘Please, don’t make allowances.’
But what was normal? Vito wondered dazedly—counselling himself against tearing off her dress, and instead sliding the zip down so that she stepped from within the concertinaed circle of green fabric and stood before him in her lingerie.
For a moment he just drank her in.
The soft curves and luscious flesh, fractionally more abundant than last time he’d seen her like this.
He removed her shoes and stockings and carried her over to bed and he thought he heard her purr with satisfaction, as if she were enjoying this macho display of masculine domination as much as he was.
She lay there watching him—her legs indolently splayed and her arms pillowing her head to showcase her pert breasts to their best advantage, as if she had just been reading a manual on how best to turn a man on without touching him.
‘I want you,’ he growled, as he kicked a shoe across the bedroom and tore off a silk sock.
‘I sort of gathered that,’ came her demure reply.
With another uneven laugh he removed his own clothes—though never had such a task seemed so onerous as he tugged them from his body with careless disregard.
At last he sank down beside her and unclipped her lacy bra—tossing it aside along with the matching panties.
And when she was naked he pushed the ruffled hair away from her cheeks so he could give his full attention to the rosy lips which were pouting in his direction.
He kissed her for as long as it took for her to grow restless, then played with her swollen breasts until she was shivering with need, but still he took it slowly, even though the effort of holding back was nearly killing him.
He drifted his hand over her belly—still very flat, he observed—until he had located the honey of her waiting folds and she almost leapt off the bed as he began to tease his fingertip over her tight little bud.
‘Vito,’ she whispered.
‘I like it when you say my name like that,’ he confided with satisfaction.
‘L-like what?’
‘Like I am your master.’
‘Th…that’s outrageous,’ she gasped, reaching down to encircle him within her fist, as if eager to demonstrate that she was perfectly capable of making him weak with longing.
And she was.
Santo cielo—was she trying to get him to come before he was even inside her?
‘I want you now,’ he declared hungrily, moving over her to ease himself inside her wetness and groaned as he felt her tight muscles contract around him. With a single stroke, he filled her completely and now she was moaning too as he began to move. ‘I’m not wearing a condom,’ he bit out.
‘I’d noticed,’ she whispered conspiratorially, her thighs tightening around his back. ‘We don’t need to, do we?’
‘No,’ he growled. ‘We don’t.’
It was the first time in his life he hadn’t used protection and Vito wondered if it was that which made what was happening feel so unbelievably mind-blowing.
It must be. What else could it be? But very soon he was past thinking, concentrating only on silencing his own carnal needs to focus on Flora’s pleasure before indulging his own.
But he was on a knife-edge of desire as he thrust deep inside her and never had it been so difficult not to come.
Even when she began to convulse around him, he held back—though whether that was to reinforce the mastery of his own body, or to enjoy the spectacle of watching her orgasm, he wasn’t sure.
But he did watch her. Saw the way her lips opened in delight and her cheeks and breasts bloomed like roses.
Her arms tightened around his back and he could do nothing but give in to his own hunger at last, shuddering helplessly as his body jerked out his seed.
Afterwards he rolled off her and pulled her close, his arm locking comfortably around her waist as he felt the first velvety beckon of slumber.
He must have slept—he didn’t know for how long—only that when he opened his eyes the moon had moved across the sky and Flora was lying there, bathed in moonlight, a small smile of satisfaction curving her lips.
‘Did you enjoy that?’ he questioned, bending his mouth to one silver-tipped nipple which instantly puckered beneath his questing tongue.
‘Mmm.’ She wriggled a little, parting her thighs as if to encourage the hand which was resting on her belly to move downwards but her voice was a mixture of shy and curious. ‘What took you so long?’
‘You want me to be faster next time?’ Deliberately misunderstanding, he began to finger the honeyed folds, but if he thought pleasure might divert her line of questioning, he was wrong.
‘That’s not what I meant.’
He sighed, giving himself up to the inevitable. ‘I kept away from you because I figured that platonic was best for both of us, for all the very obvious reasons.’
‘And they are?’
‘Oh, come, Flora.’ He slid a finger over one slick fold, suspecting she knew his reasons very well. ‘You really want me to spell them out?’ he taunted.
‘Y-yes,’ she gasped.
‘Sex is a complicating factor in an already complicated relationship.’
‘I agree. So what happened?’ she whispered. ‘What changed your mind?’
‘Are you just angling to hear me say that I was wrong?’
‘Only if it’s true.’
There was a short pause. ‘Yes, it’s true. I can’t seem to resist you,’ he gritted out reluctantly. ‘Satisfied?’
‘Um…’
Vito was laughing as he bent his head to her breast once more but a momentary ripple of unease whispered over his skin, because he wasn’t used to humour in the bedroom.
Was it that which made him take it even slower than before, reassuring himself that his steely self-control remained intact—until Flora was writhing and whispering words into his ear which were turning him on even more?
‘Please, Vito,’ she gasped.
‘What is it that you want?’ he teased softly, and he could see she was very close to the edge…
‘You know what I want,’ she breathed. ‘You.’
‘Well, since you asked so nicely…’ With another hard thrust she began to spasm around his aching shaft and he was ambushed by his own release.
He found himself choking out incomprehensible words as he lost himself deep inside her and afterwards, he lay there, too dazed to think, or even to speak—because that had been sex on a whole new level.
He pushed a damp strand of hair away from her forehead.
‘Mmm,’ she murmured as she opened her eyes. ‘That was nice.’
‘Nice? Is that a classic example of English understatement?’ he demanded.
‘Okay. That was a poor choice of adjective. It was amazing. You know it was.’ She gave a big yawn. ‘But I guess I ought to think about getting back to my own room.’
His territorial instincts aroused, for women rarely took the initiative about absenting themselves from his bed, Vito edged his finger around the kiss-swollen outline of her lips. ‘Why?’
She gave the fingertip an absent lick before moving her head away. ‘Because if I don’t I’m going fall asleep and stay here all night and that might cause problems in the morning.’
‘What kind of problems?’
With difficulty, Flora held back an impatient sigh, wondering if he was being deliberately dense.
She wasn’t going to lie to him. Besides, it would have been difficult to fabricate anything when she felt as if he had stripped her bare in more ways than simply the physical.
Beneath his gaze and touch, she had felt completely exposed and that had been scary and wonderful, all at the same time.
It had been the most incredible sex of her life—even better than last time, though maybe that was because Vito had been more tender than she remembered.
Or was she guilty of seeing things she wanted to see, rather than things which were really there?
‘Because then your staff will get even more confused,’ she said. ‘They are used to us having separate bedrooms.’
‘So what? I don’t live my life pandering to the sensibilities of my staff.’
What about mine, she wanted to object, but that would definitely smack of neediness.
‘They’ll think we’re a couple—a real couple,’ she persisted. ‘And we’re not, are we?’
There was a pause and his eyes narrowed, as if she were laying down a trap he had encountered many times before. ‘You know the answer to that, Flora,’ he answered silkily. ‘But I see no reason why we can’t enjoy each other’s company while you’re here.’