‘These have to go.’ His fingers came into contact with sheer tights, the cloth tearing easily beneath his rough fingers. He groaned her name as he came into contact with warm baby-soft skin. He flattened her against the wall, pressing into her. ‘You feel fantastic. So damned sexy.’
The lift juddered to a halt and Sebastiano shot his hand against the wall to steady them both, his breathing ragged. ‘Room. Now.’
Once inside, he shucked out of his jacket and threw off his shirt.
‘You are so magnificent,’ she murmured huskily, stepping forward to comb her fingers through the smattering of hair on his chest. ‘I wanted to run my hands over you that morning in your office.’
‘Do it now,’ he commanded, reaching around to slide the zipper of her dress down, going stock-still when she leant forward to press her lips against his pectoral muscles.
They clenched and he felt her smile against his skin. ‘I like that you’re so hard everywhere.’
Her lips drifted over his nipples and his breath rasped in his throat as she licked him. He forked his fingers in her hair, holding her lightly, letting her explore, but only just. Her lips drifted lower, tracking the trail of hair down the centre of his body, a trail that ended at his throbbing erection.
‘Poppy...’ He grabbed her arms and held her in front of him. ‘I need you, bella. Desperately.’
With swift, unsteady movements he divested her of her dress and scooped her into his arms, his lips finding hers.
As soon as he reached the bed he dropped her onto it and came down over the top of her, clamping his mouth over one of her gorgeous little nipples and feasting on it.
She cried out, music to his ears, and he didn’t hold back from delving his hand between her legs, moaning deep in his chest as he found her wet and swollen.
‘Poppy, amore mia...’ Senses overloaded, Sebastiano moved lower, peppering her silky abdomen with soft, open-mouthed kisses as he settled his shoulders between her thighs, urging them wider still.
‘Sebastiano, I haven’t—’ Her hands lowered to hold him off and he kissed the backs of her hands.
‘Now you want to be shy?’
‘I’m not shy.’ She moaned as he flicked her with his tongue. ‘But this is so intimate.’
‘More intimate than when I’m inside you?’
‘Yes, if you must know.’
He laughed softly. ‘You’re so sexy, Poppy mia.’ He gently shifted her hands and placed them on the bed beside her hips. ‘When it gets too much for you, grab the sheets.’
His nose nuzzled her silky mound. ‘You’re beautiful, Poppy. Like the Venus de Milo come to life.’ His mouth drifted lower. ‘Perfect here...’ He inhaled deeply. ‘And here where you’re soft and wet and waiting for me to fill you up.’ He licked her, moaning his pleasure at her taste. ‘Mine,’ he said, the word rumbling from deep inside his chest. ‘You’re mine.’
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
HOURS LATER THE pale light of the winter sun washed over Poppy, disturbing her sleep. Again she woke alone, the sheets beside her cool to the touch. Feeling a pang of anxiety, she reminded herself that Sebastiano was an early riser and she pulled on the hotel robe and belted it lightly, her feet quiet as she crossed the carpeted floor.
She found him outside on the small stone terrace, the faint strains of the dawn sun shimmering off the silvery green canal. The sky beyond looked clear, but it was the man filling the small space that took all of her attention.
A cold breeze ruffled his thick, dark hair and she remembered tunnelling her fingers into the lushness of it the night before as he took her to the dizzying heights of absolute pleasure and far, far beyond. The connection she felt with him when his body joined with hers indescribable and totally scary. It was everything she had unknowingly craved and more.
Her heart sped up inside her chest.
He was so powerfully male, standing there with his arms on the balustrade, his muscular legs tanned and long beneath the white robe. He was a miracle of manhood in the prime of his life and he was all hers—or temporarily all hers. Temporarily and fakely all hers.
Fakely?
It wasn’t even a word, but it described their situation perfectly. A situation that was fake but didn’t quite feel fake. At least not for her.
Or at least not right now.
When she had agreed to this deal over a week ago she had imagined her biggest challenge would be to convince his family that they were a couple. In the end that had been the easy part. The hard part was keeping her hands of her boss-cum-fake-boyfriend and in that she had most definitely not succeeded.
But she wasn’t going to dwell on that now. She knew what this was. She knew he was out of her league and that he had no long-term intentions towards her. Just as she had none towards him.