So she squeezed her eyes tightly shut and forced herself to swallow back all the words that wanted to spill out of her mouth.
And what was there to say anyway? What could words possibly add to what they’d just shared? Their connection had been total. Their intimacy complete. She’d expressed her feelings through her body. She’d given everything and he’d taken and given right back. Everything.
So in the end she hadn’t been able to have sex without love.
She hadn’t been capable of that.
Alessio lifted his head. She could feel him looking at her, but she didn’t dare open her eyes because of what she might reveal.
Then he rolled onto his back and pulled her firmly into his arms, his vastly superior strength giving her no opportunity to resist.
Her head was nestled against his shoulder and her hand lingered on the hard muscle of his abdomen. ‘I should go back to my villa—’
‘You’re not moving.’ His grip tightened on her. ‘Except perhaps to stand up and remove that dress. From now on when you’re in my bed, I want you naked.’
‘Alessio—’
‘I don’t understand you,’ he confessed in a raw tone. ‘You spend your whole life preaching about how sex should be part of a committed relationship and every time we make love, you try to dash off.’
‘We’re not in a committed relationship,’ she muttered, her heart thumping crazily. ‘You don’t do relationships.’
‘Neither do I do one-night stands.’ He turned onto his side and cupped her cheek with his hand, forcing her to look at him. ‘And you’re not doing them, either.’
She stilled. ‘I—I thought that was what you wanted.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘That’s why you were leaving? Because you thought it was what I wanted?’
‘Of course. I didn’t want to embarrass you by still being around in the morning.’
He gave a slow, devilish smile. ‘Do I look embarrassed?’
‘You hate morning-after conversation.’
‘Who said anything about conversation?’ he drawled softly, rolling her onto her back again and bringing his mouth down on hers.
* * *
This time she woke in his arms, feeling warm, safe and sexually sated. If it had been possible to stop time, then she would have picked that moment, because she couldn’t imagine ever wanting to be anywhere else.
Watching him sleep, her eyes drifted to the firm contours of his mouth and instantly she felt her body stir. Despite the physical demands of the previous night, she still wanted him.
Again and again—
Perhaps she was more like her mother than she’d thought.
Driven by an impulse that she didn’t even try and understand, Lindsay slid a hand over his bare chest, dislodging the sheet so that his body was exposed. Then she pressed her lips against his shoulder blade, slid lower and trailed her mouth over his nipple and down to his hard abdomen. For a moment she lingered in that dangerous, tantalising spot and then she moved lower and found him semi-erect.
Without thinking what she was doing, she took him gently in her mouth and felt him harden instantly. She heard his soft groan and felt the bite of his fingers in her hair as she explored his velvet thickness with her lips and tongue, totally addicted to his body.
The harshness of his breathing told her exactly how he felt about her bold exploration, and then he lifted her and she straddled him, her hair falling forward as she bent to kiss his mouth.
‘Maledizione—you’re incredible,’ he groaned and he captured her face in his hands, holding her mouth against his as he kissed her with explicit intent.
Her body was burning and she shifted her pelvis and lowered herself slowly onto his straining shaft, her eyes closing as he filled her. Then his hands dropped to her hips and he held her, guiding her into an erotic rhythm that sent them both rocketing towards another orgasm.
Lindsay flopped onto his chest and he locked his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. His skin was warm against her cheek, the dark hairs of his chest tickling her sensitised flesh.
‘Buon gi