CHAPTER NINE
CORSOTENSEDAShe waited for Rosie’s answer, trying to ignore her pink and blonde beauty as she lay back against the pillows. Ravishing Rosie. Rumpled Rosie. Innocent Rosie. His groin tightened and he willed the exquisite aching to subside because this kind of thinking wasn’t helpful.
‘Why should I have told you it was my first time?’ she demanded. ‘I’m not sure how these things work because I’m a novice—obviously. Is it a prerequisite of having sex that you’re supposed to run through a list of your previous partners first? Bit of a passion-killer, I would have thought. Anyway, it’s not a big deal.’
Corso grabbed the bedsheet and hauled it over his throbbing groin, unwilling to let her see the evidence of his rapidly growing desire. He felt a multiplicity of emotions. Sated, yes. But he felt baffled too—and more than a little angry with her. And with himself. Because, without putting too fine a point on it—why her?
Having successfully resisted the lure of women far more appropriate than Rosie Forrester during the past seven years, he was wondering what had made him fall so eagerly into her bed just now. Maybe it was just a question of timing. Or the need for distraction as the meeting with his brother approached. Was that why all his control and determination seemed to have deserted him? He had hungered for her, and she for him—but she had neglected to tell him something vitally important. Why had she done that? To trap him?
Pernicious guilt washed over him, for no way could he underplay his own role in what had just happened. On the contrary. He should haveknownshe was innocent. Should have guessed. Should have run a mile from the indefinable allure she exuded and which had so effectively snared him. Were the clues there all the time and lust had simply blinded him to them? Or had he allowed their undeniable camaraderie to gnaw away at his defences, leaving him so vulnerable to her voluptuous blonde beauty that seven years of celibacy had been annihilated in the space of a few minutes?
‘Don’t try to be funny, because you’re not succeeding,’ he snapped. ‘Of course it’s a big deal. You were a virgin, for God’s sake.’
‘But everyone’s a virgin at some point in their life,’ she pointed out. ‘Even you. When did you first have sex, Corso? Why don’t we talk aboutthat?’
Impatiently, he shook his head. It was so long ago that he could barely remember the details. Only that the woman had been older and had known every damned trick in the book. And it had felt nothing like this. Nothing ever had.And wasn’t that the most galling thing of all?That this innocent young woman he’d known since she barely reached his elbow should have brought him to his knees. ‘Don’t change the subject, Rosie,’ he snapped. ‘I’m still waiting for an explanation.’
‘Which I don’t believe I’m contractually obliged to give you.’
He almost laughed but glared instead. ‘I’m waiting,’ he said, in his most frosty and regal tone.
She breathed out an unsteady sigh and shrugged her bare shoulders. ‘It just never happened for me, that’s all. Mum...she needed a lot of support when we first moved back to England, so there was always that. Obviously, I’ve been asked out on dates before but none of them, well...obviously none of them progressed to the stage where I might have been tempted to take it further.’ She pushed a handful of hair away from her flushed cheek. ‘You didn’t guess?’
Corso didn’t trust himself to answer immediately—afraid that to do so might reveal too much, for it was beginning to dawn on him that he behaved differently with her than he did with anyone else. Perhaps because he had known her as well as a prince could know any commoner—at a time in their lives before duty or age had imposed their particular demands on him. Just after his mother had died, when he had undoubtedly been vulnerable, she and her family had helped him sample a simpler life. And yes, he’d caught a glimpse of her undoubted innocence at his birthday ball—with her gawky and ungainly appearance—but he’d been so busy being angry with her that he’d imagined such a stage was only transitory.
One of the reasons he had considered her the perfect candidate for this role—apart from her undoubted knowledge of the subject—was because he’d never really thought of her as awoman. She had been the sweet daughter of his mentor. The girl who always had her head in a book. He certainly hadn’t been prepared for the tangible sexiness she exuded when he’d come to find her in England, even though she’d been wearing the most unflattering clothes he’d ever seen. Or for her behaviour when he’d turned up at her suite tonight.
‘Nobody would expect a virgin to conveniently produce packs of condoms!’ he snapped.
‘Really?’ Lying back against the pillows, she cushioned her head against her folded arms. ‘I thought that was the way things were done. Of course women must take responsibility for contraception and not just leave it up to the man. So why not carry some around—just in case?’
‘Is that the reason you had them, Rosie?’ he questioned moodily.‘Just in case?’
She shrugged again and he wished she hadn’t because it made her magnificent breasts wiggle in a way which made him want to lick his tongue all over them.
‘Actually, my sister gave them to me as a part of my birthday present, as a joke. Only it wasn’t really a joke.’ She hesitated. ‘She thought it was time I started doing things that other women of my age were doing.’
‘So you chose me as your initiation project?’ His mouth thinned. ‘Aiming a little high, weren’t you?’
‘Actually—’ indignantly, she sat up in bed to glare at him and the flicker of fire in her eyes was uncomfortably attractive ‘—ignoring the unbelievable arrogance of your last remark, I could say that you chose me. Or that we chose each other. This thing has been building between us for days now—even innocent little me was aware of that. Though I wouldn’t have done anything about it—on principle—and not just because your guards make it impossible for anyone to get near you. You were the one who made the running, remember?’
‘I came to warn you off,’ he raged.
‘Of course you did, Corso. You came to my room at midnight and told me we weren’t going to have sex, before taking off your clothes.’ Her lips twitched, as if she was trying not to smile. ‘But what’s happened has happened and there’s no need to worry about it. I know how these things work. I’ve lived around royals for long enough. I’m not expecting to become your queen.’
‘Because that would never happen!’
‘Obviously. Even if I wanted it to—which I don’t—you helpfully spelled it out for me in words of one syllable just the other day. I know you’ll be marrying a royal princess some time soon. Lucky woman!’ She pinned a smile to her lips. ‘So why can’t we look on what just happened as a very enjoyable interlude?’
Corso stilled. ‘Avery enjoyable interlude?’ he echoed softly. ‘Am I now to be damned with faint praise?’
‘I didn’t mean it that way.’
‘No?’
‘No!’ Some of her bravado left her and she hesitated, not looking at him now, but staring down at the edge of the sheet, which she was rubbing between her finger and thumb. ‘It was...amazing, if you must know. Totally amazing. For me, anyway.’
‘For me, too,’ he said into the silence which followed, then wondered why on earth he had been so unnecessarily transparent. Because she was inexperienced, that was why. Surely it was only fair to reassure her—so that with future lovers she would be filled with confidence in her own sexuality. And then Corso scowled, unprepared for the territorial twist of jealousy which clenched at his gut at the thought of her being in the arms of another man.