Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
No matter how hard he tried, Gino couldn’t catch his breath. He knew he needed to shift his weight off her, knew he needed to dispose of the condom, but he couldn’t break the inertia that had gripped him any more than he could make his lungs work.
If he didn’t move soon, he would squash her. He might already be squashing her.
With a reluctance he had never before experienced, he moved his cheek from Francesca’s and lifted his weight.
Before breaking the last connection between them, he gazed down at her face. Her cheeks were heightened with colour, her eyes somehow both bright and dazed. Her lips were plumper than he’d ever seen them. Remembering all the kisses they’d shared, he thought his might be too.
He could do nothing to stop his mouth from pressing another kiss to hers.
Sighing softly, she stroked his cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered shyly.
His chest filling with an emotion he didn’t recognise, he kissed her again. “I need to use the bathroom.”
On his feet, he found his legs decidedly unsteady, and he finally managed to draw air into his lungs before heading into the bathroom.
After flushing the condom away, he splashed cold water on his face and concentrated on regulating his breathing. Regulating the beats of his thumping heart.
It was hard to concentrate his mind on anything but the woman in his bed.
He’d felt the exact moment she’d relaxed into his possession. He’d felt everything.
Splashing more water on his face, he patted himself dry and stared at his reflection.
Francesca’s virginity was always going to make the experience different to what he was used to.
He’d had to concentrate on making things good for her, and as a result, he’d had to tune himself into her in a way he’d never needed to do before, so of course it had all felt different.
It had been inevitable that taking her for the first time would feel profound. Meaningful.
And now the most significant part was done. He’d paid the first part of his forfeit for losing. In a few hours, the night would be over, and he would never have to touch her again.
In the bedroom, she was sitting up, the duvet clasped tightly around her. She looked up at him. Colour flooded her cheeks, and she quickly looked away before their eyes could connect.
“Are you okay?” he asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.
“I don’t know,” she whispered.
Her vulnerability moved him in ways it shouldn’t.
“You’re not supposed to have regrets for another ten years, remember?” he teased gently.
Her smile was tremulous, but she didn’t look at him. “I’m not having regrets.”
“Then what’s the matter?”
“I really don’t know.” How, Francesca wondered, could she even begin to describe what she was feeling when she couldn’t make sense of it herself? And even if she could make sense of it, he wouldn’t want to hear it. What they’d shared had been purely transactional.
She’d imagined that when it was over, she would feel glee at having rid herself of her virginity burden under her own terms. She hadn’t expected to feel bereft.
She hadn’t expected to feel Gino’s absence when he closed the bathroom door.
She hadn’t expected her eyes to flicker below his waistline when he came back out, and for heat to flood her system to think that he’d been inside her.
She could still feel him inside her.
They’d shared the greatest intimacy two humans could share, and…
And for him, it was an intimacy that meant nothing. That’s why she was feeling bereft, she realised sadly. The most intimate and significant event of her whole life had meant nothing to the man she’d shared it with. In reality, it should mean nothing to her either.
“I think I should go to my bed now,” she said quietly.
He was silent a long moment. “I promised you the whole night.”
“That’s okay. You’re not breaking it if it comes from me.”
He caught her chin and gently turned her face to him. “What’s wrong, Chicca? Did I hurt you in some way?”
“No.” She sighed and then attempted a smile. “You didn’t hurt me at all. You were very gentle with me, so thank you. It was… nice.”
Any hurt she was feeling was self-inflicted. She’d asked for this. He’d tried to dissuade her – tried hard to dissuade her – but she’d refused to listen to reason.
He raised an eyebrow. “Nice?”
Well aware that her cheeks had caught fire again, she attempted to brazen it out and lighten the atmosphere.
She didn’t want it to end on a sour note, not when it had felt so special, even if it had only been her who’d felt the specialness of it.
“When I leave my rating for my stay here, I’ll give a bonus star for virginity taking.
By the time I’ve posted my review, all the local virgins will be queuing for miles to be deflowered. ”
His smile at this made her heart swell. Eyes crinkling, he placed an elbow close to her and leaned onto it, murmuring, “Should I create a special deflowering room for them?”
“For sure. Get one of your staff to run the booking system for you.”
His smile widened before fading a little. “If you’re preparing to leave me such a good review, why do you want to go back to your bed?”
Arching an eyebrow, she somehow managed to keep the brazen lightness in her voice. “I didn’t ask to sleep with you, Gino.”
“Ah… You mean you only wanted me for my body?”
“Absolutely.”
“And now that you’ve had your fun, you want to cut and run?”
“You must think me the perfect woman,” she deadpanned.
“I shall insist all future virgins use you as a template for best practice.”
“I’ll write a pamphlet you can distribute in the waiting room, if you want?”
His eyes didn’t crinkle with his next smile, which fell quickly as he sighed and stroked her arm. “You know, for someone who only wanted me for my body, you’re not making very good use of it.”
All the amusement she’d managed to conjure in herself died away. “Please don’t compare me to your other lovers,” she whispered. She couldn’t bear that.
What amusement had been shining in his eyes died too.
Lifting himself, he gently smoothed her hair.
“I would never do that, Chicca.” And then he tilted his head and smiled again.
“All I meant was that I promised you the whole night. We still have some hours until the sun comes up, and there is still much to teach you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ah, my sweet virgin…” He leaned his face closer and brushed a kiss to her mouth.
Incredibly, the flame between her legs flickered back to life.
“What we did was only the beginning of what sex can be. You said you wanted me to teach you…” His lips skimmed over her cheek and nuzzled into her neck.
“So let me teach you.” Bringing his mouth up to her ear, he whispered, “The choice is yours, Chicca. You can spend the last hours of our night together in my bed learning what pleasure is all about, or you can go back to your bed and sleep…”
Francesca woke to a room bathed in sunlight filtering through the heavy drapes. There was a heavy arm slung over her waist. A warm body pressed into her back. The warmth of breath dancing on the top of her head.
A swift swell of emotion filled her chest and lodged in her throat.
The night was over.
Holding her breath, trying not to let the tears clamouring behind her eyes fall, she gently covered the hand attached to the arm around her and lifted it enough that she could slip out. Gino didn’t stir.
Her watch was in the bathroom. Only nine a.m. The sun had already started to rise when they’d finally given in to their bodies’ demands and fallen into an exhausted sleep.
Only hours since they’d been entwined together, and already it felt like a dream.
A beautiful, beautiful dream. If not for the strange, satiated weight low in her pelvis and the lethargy in her limbs that was unlike any lethargy she’d known before, she could fool herself into believing it had been a dream.
In the shower, she tilted her head and closed her eyes as the hot water poured over her face. Snapshots of their night shimmered through her mind.
He’d been so patient with her.
He’d kissed and caressed every part of her. Brought her to orgasm with his fingers. His mouth. And then he’d taken her again, with the same gentleness he’d taken her the first time. Held himself back. Made it all for her.
He’d asked for nothing in return.
She wished she’d found the courage to do it all to him in turn, and now it was too late.
He would never know he’d given her the best night of her life, and when she rinsed off the shower gel she’d lathered herself in, she tried not to cry at the feeling she was washing him off her skin. Washing the last of them off her skin.
It had never been about feelings. Not proper feelings, anyway. It had been about sex. Desire. Not real feelings.
After brushing her teeth, she looked in the mirror and gave herself a stern talking to.
She’d lost her virginity and had very little sleep, things that were undoubtedly affecting her mood.
In a day or two, after she’d caught up on her missed sleep and her hormones had settled down, she would feel like her old self again.
In a decade from now, she would look in a mirror, and she would smile at the joy she’d known for one night in her life.
She would think back on Gino with fondness…
That’s if he was still alive, a cruel voice in her head suddenly interrupted her internal monologue with.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she gripped her arms tightly and tried to shake off the cold panic that had snaked into her bloodstream.
She’d won their bet, she reminded herself. This was the loss that logic said he was due. Gino would win the gamble he’d made against her cousins because he was the consummate gambler. Her win had been a lucky fluke. Lucky for them both.
She opened the bathroom door quietly.
Her heart punched hard to find him sitting up in bed, tapping on his phone.
He looked over to her. Their eyes connected. Her heart ballooned.