Blazing heat seemed to consume Valentina like a flash fire. Both her hands were around Gio’s where he held hers in a bid to stay upright as he all but pulled her from the tent. He stopped only momentarily to have words with one of his assistants and then he was striding out into the warm night air.
When she could see that Gio was heading in the direction of her rooms she found that she wanted to get away from here completely. She stopped in her tracks so Gio had to stop too. He looked back at her and the stark impatience on his face nearly made her change her mind. But she said, ‘Not here … somewhere else.’
Gio frowned down at her. A wary light dawned in his eye. ‘My castello is close …’
Where Mario died … Valentina waited for the inevitable pain to lance her but it didn’t come. It felt right to want to go there and she couldn’t explain it, but bizarrely it felt like a link to the past, a positive link.
‘Your castello … yes.’
‘Are you sure?’
Valentina nodded, impatience firing her own blood now. Abruptly Gio turned in his tracks and Valentina followed him to the private staff car park. He was unlocking his sports car but Valentina saw the huge monster of a motorbike beside it. She asked impetuously, ‘Is that yours?’
Gio followed her look from where he was undoing his bow tie with long fingers. ‘Yes, it’s mine.’
His hand stilled. ‘Why? Do you want to go on that instead?’
Valentina had a vivid memory of seeing Gio pull up outside her parents’ humble home shortly after he’d come back from Europe. In jeans and a white T-shirt. No helmet.
She looked at him. ‘Can we?’
Gio shrugged lightly. ‘Sure …’ He closed the car door and went to the bike, dislodging it from its parked position. With lithe grace he swung his leg over the pillion and settled into the main seat, his thighs straining against his trousers.
Looking back at Valentina he held out a hand. ‘Hold on to me and step up onto the side and swing your leg over.’
Valentina bent down and slipped off her high-heeled sandals and hitched up her dress between her legs. Infectious excitement flared in her belly. Holding her shoes and dress in one hand, she balanced on Gio’s shoulder with the other and felt his hand steady her, on her waist.
And then she was on the bike, nestled so snugly behind him that she could feel the indentation of his hard buttocks between her legs. A warm heat flooded through her. Gio was facing away from her again and then twisted back, holding out a helmet.
Valentina looked at it and then at him. ‘Do I have to?’
‘Yes,’ he said firmly. ‘If you want to go on this bike with me.’
Looking mildly amused at her mutinous expression Gio carefully put the helmet on her head and secured the strap before attending to himself.
Then he said over his shoulder, ‘Put your hands around my waist and hold on.’
Valentina leant into him and did that, her shoe straps dangling from one hand. Gio’s belly was hard and flat and she felt his muscles clench as he pushed forward and then back to get them moving. Her arms and hands tightened instinctively around him as the engine roared to life and suddenly they were moving out and into the darkness beyond the racetrack.
The ride was exhilarating through the inky night with the wind whipping past their heads. Valentina gave up worrying about her dress. Her thighs were completely bare by now, clenched tight around Gio’s hips.
Her hands were low against his belly and she could feel the tell-tale bulge of his arousal brushing her knuckles. Suddenly emboldened by the decision she’d made, Valentina’s fingers opened, exploring, finding Gio’s belt, opening it and sneaking her hand underneath to his hot skin.
His hand came over hers and Valentina held her breath thinking he would move it, but he held it there, o
ver his erection, which grew under the palm of her hand, separated only by thin briefs.
It was unbearably sensual, this dark ride into the night, feeling Gio’s body respond to her. When at last they turned into his driveway lined with tall trees, Valentina could have wept with relief.
When the bike came to a stop with a throaty roar outside Gio’s house, he sat there for a moment, holding her hand on him, before gently taking it off. He turned the engine off and the night was suddenly very still around them. Valentina felt him take a breath and finally unwelded herself from his back, taking her other arm away too.
Gio removed his helmet and then turned around and removed hers. She could feel her hair tumble down around her shoulders. He threw the helmet to the ground and cupped her face in his hands. She could feel the faint calluses against her cheeks.
‘What do you do to me, Valentina?’
‘The same as you do to me, I think,’ she whispered, before Gio slanted his mouth down over hers and kissed her.
When Valentina’s hips were rolling impatiently against Gio’s buttocks he finally pulled back. They were both breathing hard.