And she knew with a deep, feminine certainty that she would walk through the doors of this enchanted place, give herself to this man, and be forever changed.
In this moment, gazing into his rich, golden eyes as a beautiful Italian morning danced all around them, that felt like a bargain.
“Ranieri,” she whispered. “I want you.”
And when he laughed, it was a dark, thrilling sound.
If there was vulnerability in him then, she did not see it any longer. He slammed out of the car and rounded the front of it, opening her door and pulling her out with so much obvious, leashed strength that it only made her aware of how in control of himself he’d been all this time.
How in control he always was.
Her feet hardly touched the ground before he swept her into his arms again, and then he was striding forward, shouldering his way into the house and carrying her over the threshold.
She clung to him, having no idea how she could focus on the details of the house as he moved through it so swiftly. He carried her up a set of stairs and down another corridor, but all she could really see was the stark sensuality in his expression. A certain kind of grimness that translated directly into a bright heat inside her, spiraling all around until she ached even more, there between her legs.
And then, suddenly, she was in the air. Then bouncing on a mattress, and she couldn’t help but laugh.
Ranieri followed her down, and then there was no more room for laughter. Everything crystallized into that blistering heat.
Finally, she thought. Maybe she said it.
Her clothes came off easily, soft cashmere and smooth wool no match for his touch, for the cleverness of his fingers. His mouth was on hers, then on her neck, and then he followed the curves of her body, pausing as he liked to taste her, to tempt her.
But before he could settle into any one of the places that longed for him, Annika was pushing against him. She made him sit up and then, however inexpertly, she set about pulling his clothes from his body until he laughed, pushed her away, and handled it himself.
Annika knelt there, gaping as he was finally revealed to her.
On some level, she had expected the perfection of his chest. The dark hair dusted over the impossible glory of his chest, his ridged abdomen. She’d expected that, yes—but she hadn’t really understoodhowperfect he was.
Or how the act of looking at him could make her whole body quiver with excitement.
Especially when her gaze was drawn to that male part of him, heavy and low between his legs. It made her feel something like drunk. And when she lifted her gaze to his again, he wore a grin that reminded her of nothing so much as a wolf.
“I intended to finesse this,” he told her in a low voice. “We will have time for that. Later.”
“I want you,” Annika said again, because she understood, now, the power in those words. The beauty in them. Their stark, simple truth.
Ranieri made a low, deep sound that seemed ripped from inside him. And then he was crawling over her, kissing her everywhere, his hands touching, taunting, tearing her into pieces, each touch making her want him more than the last.
She wrapped herself around him, and experimented with pressing her greedy breasts against his chest, rubbing them a little this way, then that, to feel his hard, hair-roughened muscles against them.
And she shuddered so hard at the sensation that she almost thought—
“Wait for me,” he ordered her, there against her mouth.
Annika was dimly aware of it when he reached for protection, and rolled it on, but everything was a clamoring riot within her now. Everything was so sharp, so hungry.
He reached down, guiding himself through her heat, a hard grin glimmering on his face when he made her moan. When he made her buck up against him, and try to force him to...do something. Because she knew there was something. Something more—
But then he thrust deep inside her, and everything shattered—
And she knew.
She finally knew.
Ranieri gathered her against him and held her there as he worked himself deep inside her, again and again.
And she couldn’t tell whatfinessecould have added to this, because it was everything he was—and more.