‘What is the problem we need to discuss?’ he said, standing so close, too close.
I knew I should step back, but the urge to feel those firm lips on mine once more was so overwhelming I felt weak with desperation. I struggled to get a grip on the conversation. To discuss his responsibilities to our son. But my reasons for being here suddenly seemed hopelessly confused. And premature. Why was I trying to force this relationship? The bed proved Alexi was thinking about his son—he wasn’t ignoring him. Or avoiding him. This was as big an adjustment for him as it was for Cai. I shouldn’t be here. Not when I’d clearly failed to get my hunger for him under any semblance of control.
‘It doesn’t matter. I should leave,’ I blurted out, the flight instinct finally taking root.
But as I turned to flee he snagged my upper arm in a firm, unyielding grip.
‘Don’t...’ The raw plea rasped across my senses, halting me in my tracks.
He tugged me round, his gaze dark with arousal as it met mine, and the hunger surged through me like a forest fire licking across my skin, and flaring deep in my sex.
‘Don’t go,’ he said, then lifted a hand and trailed a thumb down my cheek.
I shuddered, and his pupils dilated to black.
‘Tell me why you are really here, bella notte,’ he said.
I was left with no choice but to tell him the truth. Or rather, the truth I had believed until I had seen him in the moonlight.
‘I wanted to find out why you haven’t contacted me...’ I coughed, trying to release the tightness in my throat. ‘Why you haven’t contacted us,’ I corrected.
His touch trailed down to my collarbone, sending the sensations surging between my thighs. He brushed his thumb across the sensitive hollow where my pulse was hammering the skin. Could he feel it too?
I knew he could when his gaze focused on mine, so hot and devastating, seeing me and only me.
‘I haven’t contacted you because I knew if I saw you again too soon I would not be able to keep my hands off you,’ he said, his voice as hoarse and feral as mine. And I knew, with devastating clarity, that there would be no escaping this incendiary heat a second time.
There was and always had been unfinished business between us. Business I had tried not to acknowledge for five years. But I was forced to acknowledge it now as my sex swelled, the damp heat flooding into my panties.
I wore a silk summer dress, not unlike the cocktail dress I’d worn that night. Why had I changed into it from the jeans and T-shirt I’d worn on the plane? Why had I showered and put on make-up before climbing into the car tonight?
To feel strong, to feel in control, to feel as if I were a million miles away from that unsophisticated girl. That was what I’d told myself an hour ago. But I knew that for the lie it was when his fingers curled around my neck and he tugged me closer, his breath inhaling the perfume I’d dabbed at my pulse points.
‘You should not have come, bella,’ he murmured against my neck.
I know.
The thought reverberated in my head, but I couldn’t seem to regret the impulses that had driven me here any more, the lies I’d told myself.
I pressed my palms to his abdominal muscles, knowing I should push him back and step away from the fire.
He didn’t try to resist my touch, simply shuddered, as if waiting for me to make the choice for both of us.
But, instead of pushing him away, my head dropped back, giving him access to my pummelling pulse.
I could barely hear the harsh Italian curse because of the pulse thundering in my ears before his lips found the sensitive spot. He kissed me, sucking, nipping, devouring the sensitive flesh between my neck and my collarbone before his mouth captured mine—swallowing my sob of surrender.
The heat rioted over my body as I caressed the contours of his naked chest. Encouraging, enticing.
It was madness, but it was a madness I could no longer control.
Why couldn’t I have this just once more? I’d made a child with this man, I’d loved him once, but this was just hunger, desire. Perhaps I needed to give into it one last time to escape it for good?
If this was really why I had come to Nice, why I had driven along the coast road this evening, then maybe I owed it to myself—and my son—to get it out of my system. So we could both start concentrating on the only thing that really mattered: Cai.
Alexi’s tongue delved, devouring, possessing, even more demanding than it had been the last time we’d given in to the desire. But this time I knew instinctively there would be no going back until the hunger had been sated.
He tore his mouth away, gripped my cheeks. ‘Tell me you want this as much as I do.’