She pressed her lips together to stop them from trembling. ‘I don’t know…Sort of, I suppose…’
‘Would you like me to speak to your father?’ he asked.
Her shoulders went down in defeat. ‘What would be the point? He’s not going to change, not now. He’s always had it in for me.’
Patrizio looked at the worried pleat of her brow and the shadows haunting her blue eyes. She had that little-girl-lost look again, which triggered all of his protective instincts all over again.
There were undoubtedly some disturbing undercurrents in this household, which he had not really noticed to this degree before. He had certainly been aware that things were not always rosy, but he had assumed it was merely a clash of wilful personalities, but now he was not so sure…
‘I need some fresh air,’ Keira said and pushed herself away from the table.
Patrizio accompanied her out to the patio, where the lights of the city blinked in the distance and the rattle and rumble of trams and trains sounded on the streets and tracks below.
He put his arms around her and held her close to him, breathing in the gardenia fragrance of her hair, his body instantly stirring as he felt her press herself closer.
It was getting harder and harder to keep her at a distance, he mused ruefully. With her so childlike and trusting in his arms like this, it was hard to think of her as the same person who had given herself to another man.
He didn’t want to think of her as that person.
He wanted to think of her as his spirited but, at the same time, touchingly vulnerable wife, the woman he had wanted to spend the rest of his life with from the very first moment she had looked up at him at the boys’ sports day and smiled at him so radiantly.
She had made a mistake, but then who hadn’t? But, as she had said to his nephew the other night, it was hard to get through life without one or two regrets.
‘Patrizio?’ she murmured into the front of his shirt.
He tipped up her head with a finger beneath her chin. ‘What is it, cara?’ he asked.
Her eyes were like twin pools of dark blue water, their shimmering depths suddenly making it hard for him to breathe.
‘Do you really think I’m a talented painter or were you just saying that?’ she asked.
He brushed the pad of his thumb over the curve of her cheek. ‘Is my good opinion so very important to you, Keira?’
The tip of her tongue came out briefly to moisten her lips, her eyes still connected to his. ‘Yes…yes, it is.’
His eyes moved downwards to look at the soft contours of her mouth. ‘I think you are very talented at many things,’ he said, ‘painting being just one of them.’
‘What other things am I talented at?’
His lips curved upwards in a small smile as he brought his eyes back to hers. ‘You are very talented at making me wonder why I am standing here at your parents’ house when instead I could be in my own home in bed with your beautiful and sexy body writhing beneath me.’
‘Oh…’
He touched her cheek again. ‘You are blushing.’
‘I’m hot.’
He smiled again and brought his mouth to just a whisper above hers. ‘I know you are,’ he said and pressed his mouth to hers.
Keira gave herself up totally to his kiss, the sensation of his tongue probing for entry making her skin tingle all over in erotic anticipation. She pressed herself closer to his jutting erection, the hot hard heat of him thrilling her senses as she clung to him like a drowning person did to a rescuer.
‘God, you make me so crazy for you,’ he growled as he nibbled sensually at her bottom lip. ‘I want to tear off your clothes right here and now, even though the whole of Melbourne is probably watching.’
Keira touched his tongue with hers in a flickering come-and-get me movement. ‘I’m pretty crazy about you too,’ she breathed.
He stroked his tongue against her bottom lip, back and forth, until her lips were buzzing with sensation and then, just when she thought she could stand it no more, he took her mouth again under the burning pressure of his, his tongue tangling with hers as one of his hands went to the gentle swell of her breast. She shivered as he pushed the shoulder strap of her dress aside so he could be skin on skin, her lack of a bra clearly delighting him if the deep sound he made in the back of his throat was any indication.
She arched her back as he brought his mouth to her breast, his teeth and tongue such an intimate torture on her quivering flesh that she hadn’t registered they were no longer alone on the patio.