ve taken more pleasure in the surreal beauty which surrounded her.
But as they walked along she found that she could scarcely breathe… She was so aware of him. Every single part of him. Her nerve-endings seemed to be screaming out to have him touch her. To follow up the unashamedly erotic promise of his words with his hands and his mouth.
She’d never been so glad—nor so sad—to see his gleaming sports car and as he bent to put his key in the lock of the passenger door he suddenly halted—as if someone had just told him to freeze.
‘Lily,’ he said softly.
Just that. Maybe if he’d said something clever or flirtatious, then she would have been left feeling cold. As it was, she just stared into his eyes, their darkness fathoms deep—and she was lost.
And Ciro D’Angelo must have instinctively known that because he made a throaty little murmur as he pulled her into his arms and began to kiss her.
CHAPTER FIVE
IT WAS a kiss like no other and it reeled Lily straight in. The first brush of Ciro’s lips against hers set off a sizzling reaction, which instantly made her want more. At first he teased her with the lightest of kisses and then he deepened it, provocatively licking his tongue inside her mouth—and it felt such a wickedly intimate penetration that her knees sagged.
Maybe that was the signal he’d been waiting for. The one which made him catch her by the waist while his other hand reached up to cushion her head, still kissing her with a thoroughness which took her breath away. She could feel his fingers impatiently weaving their way into her hair as he pushed her back up against the car. Suddenly, she was trapped, with no place to go—but surely this was a trap that no woman would want to escape?
Against her back was the coolness of the car and at her front was one hot and very aroused man. Her palms were splayed out over the smooth metal, she could feel the weight of his body pressing hard against hers—but not as hard as she wanted him. There was the sense that he was on fire, but was somehow managing to hold it back. As if he was deliberately banking up the flames of desire so that they smouldered away intensely.
And Lily couldn’t stop herself from responding. It had been a long time since she’d been kissed—and she realised that there was no feeling in the world like this. She’d forgotten that passion could swamp you with its powerful sweetness. Could make the rest of the world recede until it seemed completely inconsequential. His kiss made her troubles fade away until it was only her and him and a hunger which was building and building—making her body shake with longing.
She opened her mouth wider to give him better access and he moaned in response as if she had just done something very clever. I shouldn’t be doing this, she found herself thinking as his hand moved away from her hair to cup one aching breast. And I definitely shouldn’t be doing it with him. It took every bit of resolve she possessed, but somehow she tore her lips away from his and stared dazedly into his face.
Struggling to recover his breath, Ciro raked his gaze over her, taking in her darkened eyes and parted lips. The swollen thrust of her breasts strained towards him invitingly. He knew he should take her inside before things happened. Before they got so carried away that it would be as much as he could do to stop from unzipping himself and slipping aside her panties and just doing it to her there, right up against the side of the car.
He moved his hand inside the bodice of her dress where he could feel the peak of her hardened nipple against her bra and had to close his eyes briefly, seriously afraid that he might come there and then.
‘Let us go up to my suite,’ he said urgently as he drew his thumb over the sensitised nub and felt her shiver in response. ‘Before someone comes out and finds us and we get arrested for public indecency.’
The breath had caught in Lily’s throat and she felt as if someone were trying to tear her in two. On the one hand she had the sensation of Ciro playing with her swollen breast and the correspondingly acute shafts of pleasure which were shooting through her. While on the other…
She swallowed.
He was pressing his erection flagrantly against her belly! He was talking in a low and insistent voice about taking her up to his suite. And what would that involve? A dishevelled journey past the knowing eyes of the hotel staff, followed by a terrible walk of shame in the morning. What did she think she was doing?
With an effort she peeled her clammy palms away from the car and pushed them up against the solid wall of his chest.
‘I think you forget yourself,’ she said fiercely.
Ciro’s eyes narrowed and for a moment he thought she was joking—because surely she wasn’t pushing him away after the chemistry which had just combusted between them? But then he saw the mulish expression which had tightened her lips and it dawned on him that she might actually mean it.
‘You don’t want to make love with me?’ he questioned, his accent sounding far more pronounced than usual.
‘Make love?’ she snapped. ‘Is that how you describe doing it out of doors, up against a car?’
He thought her accusation a little unjust, considering that she had been a very willing participant—but his indignation was quickly replaced by another wave of lust. And suddenly he didn’t want her angry, with those darkened eyes spitting indignation at him. He wanted her soft and gentle again. He wanted to take her up to his suite and undress her very slowly. To lay her down on the bed and explore her body with his eyes and his hands and his mouth. He wanted to spread wide her beautiful thighs and slowly ease himself into her tight and waiting heat.
‘It is true that we got a little carried away,’ he said unevenly.
Lily shook her head, unable to believe that she’d behaved so badly—and after everything she’d vowed, too.
‘I th-think that’s something of an understatement,’ she said shakily, repositioning the pins in her hair with trembling fingers. ‘Now will you take me home, Ciro? Because if you won’t, then I shall just walk inside and order myself a cab.’
Ciro frowned with frustration tempered by a feeling of awe. Didn’t she realise that she was turning down a man reputed to be one of the best lovers in Italy? He thought about all the women who came onto him and shook his head in slight bemusement. It seemed that Lily Scott’s behaviour really did match her prim appearance—and that she had a steely morality about her.
‘Of course I will take you home,’ he said, pulling open the car door and meeting the look of suspicion which had narrowed her eyes. ‘Oh, please don’t worry,’ he added acidly. ‘I am not so desperate for a woman that I will leap on her after she has said no.’
Lily nodded, grateful she wasn’t going to have to hang around for a taxi—because what on earth would the hotel reception staff think?