She was tough. She had survival skills. Emmanuelle and the others were teaching her how to not only get better at defense and offense but also be better at handling people. She was learning the skills necessary to fit into the places the family went, their charity events, the clubs, the places she would never have considered going. Now that she was Taviano’s wife, she would learn faster. Lucia would help her, and Francesca was an amazing tutor. Before, Nicoletta detested asking for help; now she had a perfect reason.
She had no idea how she was going to fit in to Taviano’s world, but she was going to do her best, because someday she would have his children, and they weren’t going to be ashamed of their mother. She drifted off to sleep, determined to find a way to make things work with Taviano, to make their relationship strong and very real.
* * *
Taviano woke to the angry vibration of his watch. It took only a moment of inhaling and becoming aware to know Nicoletta was in his arms. She hadn’t moved. For once, she’d slept quietly, his larger body surrounding hers. He found himself smiling as he gently and very carefully pulled his arm from around her waist and rolled to the side of the bed. Raising one of the many privacy screens to allow some light to spill into the room, he saw it was a beautiful morning.
Three messages had come in while he slept. Typically, he awoke when he received a text, but he hadn’t. Two were from Eloisa. One from Stefano.
I will not tolerate this, Taviano.
This had better not be true.
Stefano’s message followed: Eloisa is in an uproar.
Taviano found himself grinning for no reason at all. He looked down at the woman lying motionless, curled up like a little kitten in the middle of his very large bed. There was his reason, right there. She had given him a reason to make his world right again.
Nicoletta turned her head and lifted her long lashes. He loved those lashes. The way they were so thick. The way they curled at the tips. “What?”
He caught up his phone and showed her the text messages. “Eloisa is on the warpath. She will not tolerate this. I suppose our marriage is the ‘this’ she is referring to.”
Nicoletta sat up immediately, pushing at stray strands of thick, dark hair falling around her face. She didn’t seem to notice the way the strap of the tank on the right side had fallen off her shoulder and most of the top curve of her right breast was exposed, a tempting allure that drew him like a magnet.
“Oh, no, so early in the morning, too.”
He turned, put his knee on the bed and leaned into her, brushed a kiss on her lips and then bent his head to that curve there was no way to resist. He was gentle, his mouth moving over her breast, tongue tasting, teeth easing the material down until he uncovered her nipple. If she had moved away from him, he would have stopped. She didn’t. If she had stiffened, he would have stopped. She didn’t.
Her gaze met his, searched his. He let her see his desire. He wanted Nicoletta to know that no matter what, he found her attractive. More than attractive. He took his time lowering his head a second time, waiting for her to pull back. His mouth closed over her breast, drew it into the heat of his mouth. He was careful to be gentle, not let the wildness in his nature and his need of her get the upper hand, not even when hot blood rushed through his veins and hit his cock like a fireball.
He didn’t use his hands. He didn’t in any way act possessive, when he was all about possessive. He was born for this woman. His soul matched hers. Fit hers like a key. His body was made to pleasure hers. He knew it as surely as he knew he was a Ferraro. Still, he was careful, because Nicoletta had to know she was safe with him, especially when they came together in their bed, no matter how they came together.
He lifted his head, kissed the red mark he’d made and then brushed another kiss across her upturned lips. “Good morning, tesoro. You’re irresistible with the light shining on you that way. And it really isn’t all that early. It’s close to noon. You take a shower while I see what I can find us for breakfast.”
Nicoletta touched the mark on the curve of her breast with her fingers. “She’s going to come here. Eloisa. She’s probably already on her way.”
“No doubt.” He couldn’t look away from the way her fingers held his mark to her, almost as if she were protecting it. Then she stroked a little caress across it. His heart reacted with a strange jerk.