She circled her hips again on pure instinct, wanting him to go higher, wanting more to the point of madness. Wanting it enough to be provoked into answering with all the rebellion she’d normally deny herself.
‘Are we not now married because I was ballsy enough to ask you?’
‘You were compelled to do that because you wanted to protect Susan.’ He stroked her higher, faster, and lowered his head until his mouth was tantalisingly close to hers. ‘But you didn’t want to marry anyone. Not Carl. Not me either. You did what you thought you had to, for someone else. When did you last do something for yourself?’
He was teasing, tormenting, pushing her, whispering provocation against her lips.
Silently she stared up at him and pushed her legs a little further apart, granting him unrestricted access. Wordlessly telling him what she wanted.
He slid his hand higher, almost to where she ached most.
‘You don’t do it often enough,’ Alessandro growled. ‘What do you want, Katie? Tell me.’
‘Kiss me,’ she whispered in a breathless rush.
In an instant her wish was granted. His kiss was carnal and hot, and at the exact moment his tongue plundered her mouth his fingers teased her secret, most sensitive spot. It took only that stroke and suddenly all the fireworks in the world exploded within her.
She screamed as intense convulsions radiated from where he cupped her core. She twisted in his arms but he didn’t release her. His mouth moved to her neck, kissing her while his fingers kept up the delicious torture that tore her into nothing but shreds of sensation.
‘So hot. So quick.’ A soft exultant laugh followed the last echo of her cries. ‘You can’t tell me you didn’t need that.’
She couldn’t answer because she couldn’t move. She couldn’t see how she was ever going to recover from something that felt so good.
He gently caressed her, keeping her close until the orgasmic quivers began to ease. She felt boneless, weightless, as if she were floating along a warm river of bliss. She opened her eyes and looked straight into his.
The remnants of his smile faded as he gazed down at her until lines of tension bracketed his mouth. When she arched her back just a little his jaw clenched. And as he lost the battle to mask his strain a new energy coiled within her—embers to spark that driving desire.
Not enough.
The sharp knife of need sliced through the last vestige of her relief.
More.
It should have been impossible—only a moment ago she’d experienced an intense orgasm, the most intimate embrace of her life. But he’d roused a hunger she’d never known she had, nor that she was capable of. She needed to know—to share all of herself with him and have him with her...in her. What he’d just done wasn’t enough, and she had not done enough.
But at the exact moment she realised that he pushed away from her, vaulting off the bed.
‘Where are you going?’ His vehement speed had shocked the question out of her.
‘Out. Before I do something I promised us both that I wouldn’t.’
‘Alessandro—’
‘No.’ He shook his head.
Her heart pounded. ‘But you...’ She trailed off, unable to say it. He hadn’t had the release she’d had.
His lips twisted as he read her expression. ‘I’ll survive.’
‘But—’
He stepped forward with a swift movement and pressed his hands into the mattress either side of her head, as if he didn’t trust himself to touch her again.
‘Don’t.’
‘But—’
With a growl he bent and caught her mouth in a kiss. She melted, opening to let him in, curling her tongue around his hungrily, the way he’d taught her. But too soon he tore away, with a choked noise in the back of his throat.
He didn’t speak until he got to the door. Even then he didn’t look back.
‘Sweet dreams, Katie.’
CHAPTER NINE
IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE to relax, to forget, to deny, because the bone-deep satisfaction didn’t stay—instead bitterness and confusion built.
But worst of all was the desire. It surged more powerful than ever, pacing within her like a creature of the wild, caged in a prison too small. It strengthened with every unstoppable memory—every caress, every kiss that she couldn’t forget—until finally it morphed into a fire of frustration that flashed through her system, rendering sleep impossible.
After a few burning restless hours she gave up trying. Needing to cool down, she walked out through the open doorway from her bedroom to the courtyard. The moon cast a silvery path on the darkened water and in the far distance moored boats gleamed in the moonlight. Gentle waves lapped against the beach below.
‘You can’t sleep?’
His low query didn’t startle her. Somehow she’d known he’d be out here too.
And of course she couldn’t sleep.
Alessandro was sitting at the table where they’d dined, his expression indecipherable in the shadows. But his tone held an edge of mockery. Her frustration flared but she refused to react. She wasn’t going to try to provoke him again. She was ignoring that shameless, wilful part of herself.
‘It’s beautiful,’ she murmured, turning back to the water and trying to think of something innocuous to mask her inner turmoil. ‘No wonder you come here as often as you can.’
Her tension pulled tighter when he didn’t reply. She wrapped her arms around her
waist, even though her new silk nightdress was already too hot. She was conscious of her breathing, aware of the distance between them, of the thrum of desire beating relentlessly in her veins.
She finally looked from the water back to him. She could see the gorgeous gleam of his eyes but couldn’t read anything in it. Earlier he’d left her so easily. Which meant he’d not really wanted her. It hadn’t even been a game for him, so why had he...?
She couldn’t hold back the question. ‘Alessandro—?’
‘Go back to bed, Katie,’ he forestalled her huskily.
‘No.’
‘Katie...’
She hated that tone. ‘You don’t want my gratitude?’ She tossed her head proudly. ‘Then I don’t want your pity.’
‘Pardon?’ A thread of molten steel had entered his voice.
Power flowed through her veins. Control. Pride. Dignity. This was what she needed to do. She needed to tell him what she didn’t want.
‘Don’t do me any more favours.’
‘Is that what you think that was?’ He pushed back from the table, his chair scraping loudly on the flagstones. ‘I can’t—’
‘You don’t want to,’ she snapped.
‘Katie—’ His muttered oath rubbished her accusation. ‘There’s no going back.’
Her anger sparked at his hesitation, at his treatment of her as a naive fool. ‘You told me to ask for what I wanted. I finally did. But then you walked away.’
He stood, planted his feet wide and stared at her like a determined statue. Too damned heroic.
‘I’ve been regretting it ever since.’
He regretted stopping? Excitement roared through her at his response.
‘Be very sure about your next move, dolcezza. Because if you ask again I’ll say yes. And I won’t leave. Not until we’re both done.’
Could she be this selfish—take more from him?
‘But I can’t give you everything you want,’ he added harshly. ‘I’ll never be able to do that.’
‘How do you know everything I want?’ she replied, her spirits rising. ‘I’ve never said I wanted “everything” from you. I just want now with you. Just for me.’