Chapter Three #3
He hadn’t planned to sleep. He had intended to make the most of the few remaining hours by exploring every inch of her body and satiating his lust for her until he had eradicated it completely.
But a strange contentment was whispering over his skin and there didn’t seem to be a thing he could do to stop it.
Irresistibly, he found himself being dragged into a deep sleep, and it wasn’t until he felt a movement beside him that he forced his eyes open and saw that Grace was no longer in bed, but in the process of picking up her discarded lingerie.
Strange, came his first inconsequential thought once he’d managed to drag his gaze away from the silky globes of her bare bottom.
He hadn’t noticed that her knickers were so plain when he’d been in the process of removing them.
‘What’s going on?’ he murmured, rolling onto his back and feeling the instant stir of an erection.
The sensible navy fabric of her panties hugging her hips, she glanced up at him, startled. ‘I didn’t mean to wake you.’
‘Well, you have.’ Pillowing his head on crossed arms, he yawned, watching as she walked over to where the rest of her discarded clothes lay in a billowing heap of scarlet silk, right next to his tricorn hat. ‘Where are you going?’
‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Ignoring the voluminous petticoats, she was shrugging on the red dress, fumbling to do up the hooks he had so painstakingly freed. ‘Home.’
‘Why?’ He slanted her a speculative look and patted the vacant space beside him again. ‘At least stay until morning.’
Grace hesitated under the influence of that sexy smile, torn between doing what she knew was sensible and what she really wanted to do, which was to climb straight back into bed with him.
But she carried on doing up the fiddly red dress, because she had no alternative, not really.
What could she tell him? That she’d glanced at her watch and been horrified to see it was four a.m. and she needed to get back before she was discovered?
That if she waited until morning, the hotel would be buzzing with life as people made their way towards one of the dining rooms for their breakfast. That right now the place was quiet and shrouded in welcoming darkness and nobody would be around to notice her drifting down the shadowed stairways in her bright silk gown.
That her everyday clothes were in the staff cloakroom and she needed to get changed before first light and then to slip quietly over the dusky bridges, through the narrow Venetian streets she knew so well, until she arrived at the place which was officially her home but didn’t really feel like home.
That if she left it much longer she wouldn’t be on hand to serve Signor Contarini his morning coffee and there would be all hell to pay.
Why ruin the gloriousness of what had happened with the dull reality of the everyday, especially as it was only ever intended to be one night?
‘I can’t,’ she said bluntly.
He looked surprised. No doubt he was. She couldn’t imagine many women choosing to leave in similar circumstances, not when he was lying there looking so delectable with invitation oozing from every pore of his spectacular body.
He obviously hadn’t had enough sex, but the weirdest thing was that neither had she.
How was that even possible? How had she gone from novice to addict in a few short hours?
He had awoken a powerful physical hunger inside her and satisfied it beautifully on three occasions, but she was left wanting more.
Grace would have given almost anything to have gone back over to curl her hand possessively over the hardening ridge she could see outlined beneath the bedding, and then to position herself so that he could push inside her again.
Almost anything.
But not her whole existence. She couldn’t risk her job and her reputation and her very livelihood. Not on something he’d told her at the outset wasn’t going to last.
‘I don’t know why you’re choosing to leave at this time of night,’ he said impatiently. ‘But if you won’t change your mind, at least give me five minutes to throw on some clothes and I’ll put you in a water taxi and see you home.’
‘No!’ The word came out more sharply than she had intended but the idea of him escorting her to the front door was making her feel almost dizzy with fear. ‘Thanks, but no, thanks. I can see myself home.’
Beneath that blazing blue scrutiny she did the rest of the buttons up and bent to put on her buckled shoes, glad to hide the flush of emotion from her hot cheeks.
She needed to compartmentalise this, she told herself fiercely, because that was one of her skills.
Putting things in their rightful place. Accepting situations for what they were and not what she’d like them to be.
So that by the time she straightened up to face his rumpled beauty, she had composed herself enough to present him with a smile she hoped held just the right amount of appreciation which was appropriate in the circumstances.
‘Anyway. Gotta go,’ she said lightly. ‘Great night.’
‘Come over here and kiss me goodbye.’
Grace was sorely tempted by his soft command. Especially when he moved one hard thigh beneath the thin sheet. She cleared her throat. ‘Better not.’
‘Why not?’ His voice was mocking. ‘Scared I might persuade you to stay longer?’
‘In a word…yes.’ As she grabbed her little sequined bag, she flashed him a rueful smile. It was fairly obvious that within a few seconds of being kissed she would be flat on her back again and there simply wasn’t enough time if she wanted to get back before the Contarini household woke up.
But it was more than that. She was scared of the way he could make her feel.
Scared of the mass of contradicting emotions he had stirred up inside her, like a hornet’s nest. In his arms, she had discovered a side of herself she hadn’t known existed.
Like one of those hard-boiled sweets which were meltingly soft on the inside when you sucked them for long enough.
She’d felt like a woman instead of a dogsbody.
A real person and not just an invisible functionary.
And she couldn’t allow herself the luxury of feeling that way because there was no future in it.
The sooner she got back to her humdrum existence, the better.
‘Thanks for the memory!’ Picking up her feathered hat and jewelled mask, she blew him a kiss, wondering if it was admiration or irritation which flashed so briefly in his narrowed eyes.
This is all for the best, she told herself fiercely.
But her heart was pounding with regret as she turned away and headed for the door.