He rubbed his cheek into her neck and clasped her to him. His other hand gathered her hair together into a sheath and roughly, yet gently, he pulled her head back.
‘Now do you understand why we married?’ he asked coarsely. ‘That night we both drank more champagne than was good for us and I took advantage of it to kiss you, just as I did now, and you kissed me back.’
His hand holding her ground her to him.
She gasped to feel him huge and hard against her abdomen.
No wonder they’d married so quickly. If she’d felt even a fraction of the desire in that car as was swirling through her now...it was the headiest feeling imaginable. No wonder she’d demanded marriage. It was the only thing that would have a hope in hell of putting him off the idea and leaving her safe.
Yes! It wasn’t a memory that came to her then but a feeling, a certainty that this was how it had played out.
She’d had no idea the attraction she’d held so long for him would turn her into fondue at his touch. She would have had to scramble to hold on to her sanity. But Stefano’s own sanity had been scrambled too and he’d agreed to her flippant remark.
She didn’t need to hold on to her sanity now.
They had made love many times in their marriage, and now she would get to experience it for the very first time all over again...
Fresh sanity suddenly struck her.
She didn’t know what to do.
Stefano felt her hesitation.
Cupping her cheeks in his hands, he gazed deep into her eyes and saw nerves merging with the desire, just as he’d seen the first time they’d made love on their wedding night, and with it he remembered that she had no memories of their lovemaking. None at all.
Sex was the only aspect of their marriage he had no doubts about. Clever little liar that she was, no one could fake those reactions. It had never been a case of going through the motions for a quick release but a real, deep connection that had scorched them both. He knew he would never find that with anyone else and he hated her for it; hated her for destroying his faith in what they’d shared.
For a few more days he could enjoy it all again but this, their first time together in over a month, was the first time for Anna. He had to remember that. When she’d confessed her virginity, although shocked, he could not deny his primal reaction had been elation that he would be her one and only.
‘I’m not making love to you in here,’ he said hoarsely before sweeping her into his arms.
She hooked her arms around his neck but the trepidation was still there. ‘Why did you reject me last night?’
‘Because I was waiting for my Anna to come back. When you shouted at me so passionately...’ he kissed the tip of her nose ‘...I knew it was you.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
STEFANO SHIFTED HIS HOLD so she was secure in his arms and carried her up the stairs.
His Anna, he thought with a possessiveness that caught him off guard.
Only his.
But only for a few more days.
He couldn’t think of that right now. Right now it didn’t matter that the whole reason they were here was so he could seduce her so thoroughly that when he publicly ended things between them she had the added humiliation of knowing she had willingly lost herself to his touch and screamed out the name of the man who was playing with her all along. All he wanted at that moment was to sink himself into Anna’s tight heat and lose himself in her.
The bedroom door was open, the bed sheets still unmade from the frustrated, tortured sleep he knew they’d both shared.
Something more had made him wait until he’d been certain she would be asleep before joining her, and it wasn’t just that he’d wanted to be sure she was truly recovered and sober. It was that nagging in his guts speaking to him, putting doubts in his mind.
Now, having shared those searing kisses and felt her taut and hungry against him...
He laid her on the bed and in a moment had shed his robe and climbed on top of her.
Anna waited for him to kiss her again. He’d placed his hands either side of her head, his legs long and lean between her thighs, and he was staring at her...
He was staring at her as if he could eat her whole.