He wrapped a strand of her hair possessively around his finger as he felt her tighten around him. ‘Is that good?’
‘It’s…’ But then he moved and the words were forgotten, her nails digging into his shoulders and her legs wrapping themselves sinuously around his back, pleased when he gave a low moan of pleasure.
‘And that?’
‘Yes!’
He moved inside her until she felt that she would die with the sheer pleasure of it, and when finally the slow stealth of pleasure exploded into unstoppable fulfillment she was taken aback by the sheer, devastating power of it. Her body continued to tremble as she felt him shudder helplessly in her arms.
They lay there for a while, sweat-sheened bodies locked in the trembling aftermath, until eventually he raised his dark head, kissed the tip of her nose and looked down at her, a rueful smile touching his mouth.
‘Well?’ he sighed.
She met his eyes. ‘Well?’
He laughed, and while the rich, warm sound made her feel safe, it also made her aware of her own insecurities. But that was what happened, wasn’t it? She didn’t know his sense of humour, or his favourite colour or even where he lived. You met a man and you began an affair with him, and there was always uncertainty about what the future would bring.
He kissed her, his body beginning to ache again and, instinctively, he moved once more, but Eve stilled him with a cautious finger to his lips. ‘Be careful.’
He understood immediately and slowly withdrew from her, and the regretful little sigh he made at leaving her made Eve lie back against the pillows, a contented smile of satisfaction on her face. She pillowed her head on her hands and her hair spilled over her like syrup.
‘Let me use the bathroom,’ he groaned as his eyes lingered on her rose and white nakedness. ‘Stay right there.’
Wild horses couldn’t have dragged her away. She wasn’t going anywhere, she could never imagine wanting to leave until she had to and she wasn
’t even going to think about it. Dreamily, she gazed up at the high ceiling until Luca came back into the room and joined her on the bed.
‘You,’ he murmured, kissing her shoulder, ‘are amazing. Beautiful.’
She pulled him fiercely against her, and he entered her quickly, but the love he made to her was long and slow and indescribably sweet, and when it was over she snuggled against him, fighting sleep.
He shook her gently. ‘Don’t you have to catch a train?’ ‘No.’
‘Oh, I see,’ he murmured. ‘So the train was your escape route, was it, Eve?’ ‘Mmm.’ But now she had no desire to break free. She rested her head against his chest, but he reached over to lift his watch from the locker and gave her a brief smile.
‘Forgive me, cara.’ He yawned. ‘I must make one very, very quick phone call. Don’t go away.’
But the phone call brought her crashing back down to earth as she lay there and listened while he spoke in rapid Italian. God knew what he was saying or whom he was speaking to. It was only a little thing, but maybe it helped her not to start dreaming impossible dreams.
Luca had another life in another country and she was only a tiny part of it, and who knew for how long?
Maybe for no longer than the morning.
CHAPTER SIX
EVE opened her eyes and in the split-second moment between waking and sleeping she found herself wondering where she was. She saw the rooftops of a London skyline through the uncurtained window, and a man asleep on the bed beside her, and felt the warm laziness which bore testimony to a night of rapturous love-making.
Quietly, she turned her head to look at him. He was truly beautiful in sleep, the deep, regular breaths making his hair-roughened chest rise and fall. He was lying on his side, one hand cupping his face, the long lashes making two ebony arcs which contrasted against the olive-gold of his skin. He looked innocent and indolent.
Turning back to study the ceiling again, she let out a tiny sigh, satisfaction mingling with regret that the night was over.
She hadn’t been in this situation for a long, long time, and in fact she had never been in this particular situation, having shed all inhibitions and taken as a lover a man who was, to quote Luca’s own words, ‘nearly a stranger’.
In fact, she hadn’t been in a relationship for almost… She frowned, shocked to realise that it was almost two years. And that had been so different. A slow build-up to a romance that she had known from the beginning would end yet with this one she had absolutely no idea what her feelings were.
It was out of character for her—the cool, calm and considered Eve Peters—to have fallen into bed simply because she found him irresistible. But it must happen to him all the time, she thought.
‘So why the frown, cara? I thought I had kissed that goodbye, last night.’