She awoke in a warm cocoon to the sensation of her sex being cupped in a possessive gesture while a large hand stroked the curve of her hip lazily. Emma realized she lay on her side, facing the windows while Vanni lay behind her, his long, hard body curling against her backside. His cock pressed against her ass, the only thing separating her from his stiff, pulsing erection a thin layer of cotton. Morning light filtered around the luxurious drapes. His fingers moved slightly on her sex and she purred sleepily.
“I haven’t slept that well since I was a kid,” he said near her ear, the deep, raspy sound making the skin of her neck roughen. “But even so, all night I dreamed about this.” His fingers moved again subtly on her pussy. “Are you tender?”
She bit her lip. “I’m fine,” she whispered. In fact, her sex ached with a dull throb. She wasn’t used to having as much sex as she’d had yesterday, nor was she accustomed to Vanni’s forceful, all-consuming manner of lovemaking. His hand stilled between her thighs. She felt his warm breath on her neck when he exhaled heavily.
“You’re lying, Emma,” he said, sweeping the hand that had been cupping her sex up her belly. Emma swallowed thickly when she felt the warm dampness on his fingers. His cock flicked against her backside. She tried to turn to put her arms around him, to assure him that she was fine, but he stopped her with a firm hand on her shoulder. “Trust me,” he said near her ear, his voice a dark, seductive threat, “you don’t want to test me. I felt you flinch just now. I’m going to go jump in the shower.”
“No, Vanni,” she protested when he moved away from her. She turned over and reached for him, but he was already standing by the bed. He looked down at her, his face rigid, his blue-green eyes glittering.
“You’ll have to have an exam in less than an hour with Dr. Parodas. Do you really think it’s advisable?” he asked, his handsome mouth quirking, one eyebrow shooting up and giving him a devilish demeanor.
“Maybe you’re right,” she said slowly, but her gaze sunk down his ridged, sun-bronzed abdomen to the vision of his erection tenting his pajama bottoms. “There’s something I should probably confess to, since you were being so honest last night,” she mused, stretching luxuriously so that the sheet slid below her nipples. His gaze darted downward hungrily.
“What?” he asked warily.
“I knew it was apricots.”
When he didn’t respond immediately, her gaze slid up to his face. He wore a storm cloud expression.
“Dammit, Emma, you’re going to pay for that,” he grated out, pointing a condemning finger. He came down on the bed next to her, his mouth set in a grim line, and her heart began to race. She tried to reach for his cock, but he caught her wrists and pressed them to the pillows. She couldn’t help laughing softly, even though he looked so fierce. “Don’t you dare look so smug,” he breathed out, and her laughter faded even though her smile lingered. “And don’t say I didn’t warn you, either.”
He dipped his head, immediately spearing her lips with his agile tongue, sinking into her, taking his fill. Her flesh turned to warm, sweet syrup beneath Vanni’
s angry, wild kiss, and she remained completely unrepentant.
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BECAUSE WE BELONG
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Francesca walked out of the dressing room carrying a blouse, jeans and underwear, pausing when she saw Ian enter the suite. Her fiancé met her gaze, somber as a judge, and locked the door. A smile pulled at her lips.
“I was about to shower,” she said.
His eyebrows went up, his bland expression conveying dry disbelief. You’re doing no such thing, she could just imagine him thinking. Francesca chuckled. She knew what he intended every time he locked that door. His actions would have made her smile—not to mention her heart begin to pound faster—at any time, but today, it made her uncommonly happy. He’d been so preoccupied and worried about his mother’s health, tortured that he’d made a wrong decision in regard to her medication and care, convinced there was something else he should be doing, but wasn’t. The care and protection of his mother had been ground deeply into his very bones since he was a child too young to be forced to consider such matters. He couldn’t escape the heavy responsibility as a man. Sadly, Helen Noble was making little to no improvements. Ian had been making frequent trips to London, crowding his already packed work schedule.
“Lucien and Elise are coming for dinner. We don’t have time,” Francesca reminded him.
He walked toward her. She wondered how long it would last—that shiver of anticipation she experienced—every time she saw that hungry gleam in his blue eyes and that predatory stalk. They’d been together now for over half a year, and her excitement had only grown. His recent preoccupation and worry only made that need to join with him sharper and more imperative.
“I called Lucien and asked them to come an hour later,” he said calmly as he removed the garments from her hands and set them on an upholstered chair.
“And Mrs. Hanson? She’s busy making roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.”
“She’s turning down the temperature in the oven. I told her I needed a nap.”
She studied him as he came toward her again. His lie to Mrs. Hanson, the housekeeper, was a true one. He looked as arrestingly handsome as usual, wearing a white and blue striped dress shirt open at the collar and dark blue trousers—casual wear, for Ian—but the months of worry over Helen Noble had taken their toll. His facial muscles were drawn tight from tension and there were shadows beneath his eyes. He swore he hadn’t lost weight, and his clothes hung on his tall, fit frame as appealingly as ever, but Mrs. Hanson and she agreed that he looked thinner. He’d been trying to diminish his anguish through his already rigorous exercise routines, the result being a leaner, harder . . . impossibly more intense man. She reached up and touched his jaw as his arms encircled her waist.
“Maybe you really should rest. It would do you good,” she said as he pulled her against him. A jolt of arousal awakened her body at the sensation of his masculine contours fitting against her so perfectly.
“It would do me much, much more good to watch your beautiful face while you’re tied up and helpless,” he said quietly before he leaned down and kissed her.
She opened her heavy eyelids a moment later, drugged by his potent kiss and the sensation of his body hardening against her.
“Helpless against what?” she murmured next to his plucking lips.