When he didn’t release the glass to her, she brought her other hand up and slowly peeled his fingers away one by one. Sebastiano’s heart beat a primal rhythm in his blood, heat and need turning his muscles hard.
‘Or what?’ she asked, her voice low, the sexy cadence scoring his skin.
In one swift move Sebastiano straightened to his full height, turned her and backed her against the cabinet. ‘Or I’ll ruin you for any other man.’
Her breath hitched again, he
r gaze on his mouth. ‘Maybe your grandfather is right, Sebastiano. Maybe it’s time to create new memories tonight.’ Her blue eyes looked as luminous as the pearl nestled between her pert breasts. ‘Memories that conjure up pleasure rather than pain.’
‘You want pleasure, bella mia, I’ve got pleasure.’
He jerked her against him, the impact of her soft body against his like drinking water after trawling through a hot desert for months on end. The press of her round breasts against his chest shut down his reasonable, cool brain and replaced it with a greedy hunger that pushed at the limits of his civility.
She stared up at him, her hands trembling as they slowly pulled the short lengths of his bowtie from around his neck. ‘Sometimes you look at me as if you know how to give me more pleasure than I’ve ever experienced in my whole life,’ she said on a breathless rush. ‘I want that. I need that.’
A low growl rumbled out of his chest at her admission, and he scattered the pins in her hair when he fisted his hands in it, bringing her mouth to his. He kissed her the way he had wanted to kiss her all night. Hard and deep. ‘Dio, I want you,’ he murmured. ‘So much I ache.’
She moaned, her hands twisting around his neck, her hips lifting against his as if seeking something just out of reach.
Bending his knees a little, he pressed his erection between the juncture of her thighs, rewarded for his efforts when she opened her mouth wider, her tongue tangling with his.
Driven by a need he could neither explain nor resist, Sebastiano kissed his way down the tender skin of her neck. They were both unattached, consenting adults who wanted each other, and he was done fighting something that had started the minute he’d laid eyes on her.
She moaned softly, her hands moving over his chest, his sides, his back as she tried to shift even closer.
‘Poppy.’ Sebastiano swore under his breath as the need to be inside her drove all else from his mind. ‘I have to have you.’
‘Yes, yes.’ Her urgency drove his own and he released the snap holding her bodice in place, letting the twin sides fall so that only the iridescent pearl lay between her exposed breasts. Cupping her, he brushed the tips with his thumbs before leaning down to fasten his lips around one proud peak, laving it with his tongue.
She cried out and he hefted her higher, pressing her against the wall to hold her steady.
Some small semblance of sanity reached him and told him he couldn’t take her here against a wall, and he clamped his mouth over hers as he carried her into the bedroom.
She lay dazed, spread out before him on the large bed, the silky fabric of her dress falling between her shapely thighs like a silver waterfall.
Breathing deeply, he yanked his shirt open, uncaring that buttons scattered over the carpet. Shucking out of it, his hands reached for his belt buckle and he stilled. His raging hard-on pressed against his zipper as he drank her in: her hair now tumbled from its sleek knot and spread around her; her naked breasts rosy and full; her slender arms raised in supplication above her head.
‘You should come with a health warning,’ he growled. ‘One touch and you’ll be changed for ever.’
Her eyes lifted to his, scorching a path up over his stomach and chest. ‘That’s you, not me.’
Her legs shifted together and he ran his hand along the outside of her thighs, gentling her. ‘You’re going to have to open these, dolce mia.’ His eyes dropped to her legs. ‘If you want me to take care of that ache.’
He came down beside her and she squirmed against him, her nails scoring his shoulders. Her movements were almost untutored; her soft pleas for more sounding as if she had never had a man touch her like this before.
Knowing that couldn’t be the case in this day and age, Sebastiano reached for a condom and moved over her, his knee pressing high between her legs. ‘You like that?’ He nipped at the exposed skin above her hip, loving the way she moaned his name. ‘When I press here.’ He moved up to her breasts. ‘When I suckle you there?’
‘Yes. Please...’ Her hands reached for him, smoothing over his shoulders, following the line of muscle either side of his spine.
Feeling as if he was about to possess something rare and unique, Sebastiano planted a soft, pre-emptive kiss beside her navel and dragged her gown down past her hips. It slithered to the floor but his eyes were riveted to the tiny white thong covering her femininity. His finger slid down the centre of the lace, his eyes trained on her face. She bit her lip to stop herself from crying out, her hips jerking upwards. He’d been right. She was all fire and wild passion, and now she was his. One-hundred-percent his.
‘Sebastiano!’ Her fingers dug into his scalp and she writhed against the moist kisses he planted along her collarbone, his fingers finding her slick and hot and ready. Her cry of pleasure as her body opened for his touch almost wrecked his self-control.
‘Oh, yes, I know what you want.’
Nudging her legs apart, he ripped the thong from her body and rose above her. He settled between her thighs, latching on to a raspberry nipple as he pressed into the soft folds of her femininity, feeling her body give as it stretched to accommodate his.
Sweat broke out on his forehead as he eased inside her slick centre. She undulated against him, as if the pressure was too much, and he gave up trying to go slow and plunged deep, immediately stiffening as he felt her jerk beneath the power of his thrust.