‘Are you sorry?’ Halina blurted, opening her eyes. In the darkness of the car she couldn’t make out his expression.
‘Sorry...?’
‘That you slept with me. That I became pregnant. That I...that I ruined your life.’
‘Halina.’ Rico leaned forward so his gaze met hers and she could see how fiercely his silvery eyes glittered. ‘You have not ruined my life.’
‘But to be suddenly burdened with a wife and baby you didn’t want... And you had all those mistresses...’ A sudden, horrible thought occurred to her, one that now seemed appallingly obvious. ‘Are you...are you going to keep on with them...after we marry?’
‘What?’ Rico’s brows drew together in a ferocious frown. ‘Of course not. Do you honestly think I would?’
‘You didn’t ask for this, Rico.’
‘Neither did you. And, in any case, I believe I will be wholly satisfied in that department by my wife.’ His hand slid from her ankle to her knee, his fingers splayed across her tender skin as his gaze remained hot and intent on hers. ‘Perhaps I should remind you how good we are together, bella. How explosive.’
Halina’s breath came out in a shuddery rush and the sensitive skin of her knee tingled. His fingers felt warm and very sure as they started to slide upwards. ‘You’ve barely touched me in two weeks,’ she whispered. ‘Not since you saw me again.’
‘I wanted you to rest.’ His smile turned wolfish, his eyes filled with heat. ‘To regain your strength.’
‘Plus I looked like a worn-out dishrag.’
‘You have always been beautiful to me. Never doubt that.’ With his gaze still fastened on hers, he moved his hand to her inner thigh, his warm palm sliding upwards in a sure, fluid movement. Halina shuddered, every nerve on over-sensitised alert as his fingers skimmed along her skin.
‘We’re so good together, Halina,’ Rico murmured as he continued to stroke her thigh. ‘We always have been.’
‘You mean the one time.’
‘I am looking forward to many others. You have ruined me for other women.’
‘That’s what someone said about you.’ Her breath came out in jerks and bursts as his fingers crept even closer to her feminine centre. If he touched her there, she thought she might melt—or explode.
‘What do you mean?’ One finger skimmed the lace of her underwear, making her shudder. Halina slid a little lower down on the seat.
‘In the bathroom...that first night...some supermodel you’d slept with... The women said she’d been ruined for life by you, because you’re so...’ His fingers were becoming more insistent, more daring, sliding beneath her underwear, skimming her tantalised flesh and then going even deeper, with sure, knowing strokes. Pleasure swirled inside her, obscuring her senses so she could barely think, much less speak. ‘They said...they said you were so good,’ she half-moaned as her body arched upwards. ‘At sex.’ With a little cry she gave herself up to the pleasure crashing over her and felt herself go liquid and boneless.
As the last shudders of her climax rippled through her, Rico leaned over and pressed a hard kiss to her mouth. ‘Which I’ve just proved, I think.’
She opened her eyes, dazed and more than a little embarrassed to be slouched on the seat, her elegant gown rucked up halfway to her hips, her wanton pleasure so very evident.
She struggled up to sitting, pushing her hair out of her face. ‘I must look a mess,’ she muttered.
‘You look beautiful.’ Rico touched her chin with his fingertips. ‘Do you know how enflaming it is to see you come apart under my touch? Do you know what it does to me?’ Wordlessly Halina shook her head, shocked by the admission, by the blatant need she saw in his eyes and felt in the tautness of his body. ‘When we get back to the apartment,’ Rico said, his voice roughening, ‘I’ll show you.’
* * *
Desire thrummed through Rico, a slow burn that threatened to ignite into a full conflagration. Seeing Halina respond to his touch, her face and body both suffused with pleasure, had been a severe test of his self-control. He’d wanted to take her right there on the seat of his limo, in the kind of helpless display of overwhelming need that he never gave into.
So he didn’t. He wanted her—heaven help them both how much he did—but he still clung to his self-control, if only by his fingertips.
The limo pulled up to his building and without a word Rico emerged from the back, holding Halina’s hand as he drew her along.
‘My shoes,’ she protested, and he saw she was barefoot.
‘They don’t matter. Forget them.’ His self-control only extended so far.
With a little laugh Halina did, following him into the darkened foyer of the building and then into the lift. That was how far his self-control went; as soon as the doors closed, he pulled her into his arms, plundering her mouth as he backed her up against the wall.
She gasped, driving her hands through his hair as she surrendered to his touch, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him even closer.