He groaned in victory and maneuvered her into a closer alignment with his hard angles, backing her into the fridge so he could press his weight into her.
She released a sigh of deep relief and she climbed her hands up to his neck, weaving her fingers into his short, silky hair, encouraging him with the pressure of her touch against his warm scalp to kiss her harder. Deeper. She opened her mouth unreservedly to his and their tongues tangled in delicious reunion .
It wasn’t enough. When he nudged his knee between her thighs, she let him in, giving over to his natural need to dominate without a second thought. She ached to feel him take over her body.
He ceased massaging her hip to slither his touch restlessly into her clothing. His expertise made her heart contract with both delight and a poignant awareness of how practiced he was. She broke out in shivery bumps from the sweet caress of his palm over her navel, measuring the expansion of her waistline before he stroked up her rib cage.
He was only going through the motions to taunt her, she reminded herself. It was galling to be so incapable of resisting him, but she couldn’t escape the grip of desire for his touch. She wanted to weep, she felt so defenseless.
He growled something approving as his hand splayed over the growing abundance of her breast. Unerringly, he found her nipple with his thumb, circling and inciting sensations through the cup of her bra that were so intense they were almost painful. Lauren groaned in protest and wriggled against him. Paolo firmed his hold on her and intensified their kiss while he slid his touch inside her bra, his caress the work of a connoisseur that brought the tip to a screaming pitch of sensitivity.
Unbelievably, a shower of tingling sensations raced down her abdomen and into her loins, gathering into a knot of joyful anticipation. She clenched internal muscles, trying to resist what was happening, but her body knew what it wanted.#p#????#e#
She was going to climax right here, fully clothed in the kitchen.
Aghast, she fought free of his kiss and covered his hand to still his fingers, gasping, “Paolo, stop. Now. Please.”
“I adore the way you feel when you’re aroused, cara.” His strong hand resisted the stilling press of her own while his breath stirred the hair at her temple, fanning the burning need inside her. “Dio! I’ve never known a woman so responsive. Let me take you to bed.”
“No!” She covered her face to hide that she was near tears and pivoted away, leaning her shoulder heavily into the cold wall of the fridge door, dislodging his touch so his hand fell to her waist. He continued to stand behind her, his grip twitching through degrees of strength on the sensitized skin of her waist, as though he wanted to grip her harder and was fighting the urge. Desire to turn back into him nearly overwhelmed her.
“Lauren, you want this. You want me.”
“But I don’t want to prove I’m the easiest woman you’ve ever met! What a horrid thing to say to someone. Shall I tell you how you rank in my vast experience?”
His hand dropped away and he retreated a step so cool air swirled down her back, making her shiver. “That isn’t what I was saying.”
“Yes, you were. You kissed me to prove I can’t control how I react to you, and that’s just mean. I’ve tried not to be attracted to you, Paolo. God knows I’ve tried. I know I behaved badly in Charleston. That’s why I don’t expect you to marry me. But taking advantage of my weakness so you can notch your belt is not nice. And refusing to admit Ryan was cheating was cruel. I could be divorced and married to a man who genuinely loves me, expecting his child, rather than wading through this mess.”
Paolo took everything she said like a series of heart punches, taken aback by her claim that he was only toying with her. Did she really not have any idea how powerfully attracted to her he was? He might have been a playboy once, but this wasn’t like that.
Yet he’d thought the same of her. He’d written off her signals of interest as deliberate flirtation, but as he looked at the back of her bowed neck, so vulnerable and conquered, he remembered the innocent who’d sat beside him in a bar five years ago, so uncomfortable with her own sexuality she’d never stopped tugging at her short skirt or low neckline.
He suddenly saw the truth. Lauren had been fighting this same attraction he’d been struggling against for the very same reason: they’d had spouses to consider.
That he’d been so successful in hiding the true depth of his attraction took him aback, especially today. She ought to realize by twenty-five how alluring she was.