‘Yes, but now I have a family again,’ he reminded her, his lean hands lifting to curve to her shoulders, long brown fingers flexing against her slender bones in a caressing motion.
‘I was going to spend time with Freddy,’ she murmured.
‘You’ve been with Freddy all day, nowIwant a piece of your time,’ Gaetano husked as he gazed down at her with mesmeric golden eyes under a canopy of lush black lashes. ‘Freddy has an entire nursery staff at his disposal and it’s not as though our son is shy or clingy, is it?’
‘No, it’s not. He’s like you...full of himself,’ she teased with a sudden helpless smile because when Gaetano looked at her in a certain way, the rest of the world just vanished along with every other concern.
‘And I’m allowed the occasional piece of you too,’ Gaetano reasoned huskily, tipping the coat off her shoulders and turning her around to run down the zip on the dress. ‘When I came to bed last night you were asleep and I had an early morning phone call I had to rise to take. That happens a lot in my life: I can’t do what I want to do.’
‘I suppose it goes with the job,’ Lara mused as her dress hit the splendid woven rug below her feet.
‘But now I have a private life and a good reason to free myself up more often,’ Gaetano pointed out.
‘I’m quite sure you had a private social lifebeforeyou found out where I was living,’ Lara returned quietly, wanting there to be no secrets between them and that included topics that she might feel that she preferred to avoid.
Gaetano straightened as he scooped her up and laid her down on the wide bed. ‘I haven’t had a single social engagement outside what I consider to be work.’
Lara’s brows knitted. It worried her that he didn’t feel he could be honest with her. ‘I did walk out on our marriage but then I did assume that, as Dario had said, it couldn’t have been legal for you to marry me without your brother’s consent.’
‘I have to admit that I don’t even recall Dario saying anything of that nature,’ Gaetano admitted as he wrenched off his tie and then paused to reflect on her words. ‘I was so devastated to hear of my brother’s sudden death that I barely recollect anything that anyone said that morning. I knew his illness was terminal, but I assumed he would be with us for many months more. Vittorio was virtually my father, and I had no other family. And the realisation that I was to become King without any warning...well, to be brutally honest, itoverwhelmedme.’
It was a moment of truth for Lara. She had been too busy that day seeing her own cosy little world with Gaetano destroyed to acknowledge the traumatic news that Gaetano had received at the same time. Although she had had all the facts, she had not put them together then, or afterwards, she conceded with regret. The sad truth was that both she and Gaetano had been too preoccupied with their separate concerns to think sensibly about their marriage.
‘AndIwas overwhelmed by who you really were,’ she confided belatedly, sliding off the bed to brush his stilled fingers away and efficiently unbutton his shirt. ‘Realising that you were rich and royal, and that you had this whole other important life in another country, scared the life out of me.’
‘But you’re not so scared now, are you?’
Lara fumbled with his cufflinks. ‘I’m working on it. I’m a bit gutsier now than I was back then.’
‘Stronger,’ Gaetano agreed with a smile. ‘I like that.’
‘You may not like it so much if I ever dare to use it against you,’ Lara contended with a glint in her aquamarine eyes.
‘Would you?’ he asked, shedding his shirt, toeing off his shoes, bending to peel off his socks. ‘Because two years ago, you wouldn’t have.’
‘Without you, I toughened up.’
Gaetano tugged her into his arms. ‘I like strong, independent women,’ he declared, crushing her parted lips hungrily with his, his breath fanning her cheek as he slid her back onto the bed with single-minded purpose.
‘I’m talking too much,’ she guessed.
Gaetano laughed and grinned down at her. ‘I missed your honesty but I’m not quite sure I like the fact that you can read me so well. I’ve never met anyone else with that ability and occasionally, it’s unnerving.’
‘You said it, Your Majesty,’ Lara whispered, running her hands down the sides of his lean thighs and then sending them up to rove across his hard stomach and his firm pectorals as she sat up and claimed his mouth again for herself. Every nerve in her body thrilled to that connection.
He groaned into her mouth, momentarily rigid with sexual hunger against her and it whisked her back in time because his response to her had not changed in the slightest. With impatient hands he removed the silk and lace lingerie she still wore. ‘I can’t get enough of you now,bambola,’ he assured her feverishly.
‘I think I can live with frequent ravishment.’ She laughed.
Gaetano spread her out on the bed as though she were a feast to be savoured. Expert hands traced her slender ribcage up to the pouting fullness of her breasts and tugged on the delicate peaks. He lowered his mouth there to toy with her until her hips began to shift and rise, the liquid heat at her core making her restless. She wanted more...oh,howshe wanted more, she reflected, helpless in the grip of the craving he was awakening inside her. He traced the delicate folds between her thighs and used his carnal mouth and fingers to incite a fire of need. For a long time, he teased her until her whole body was trembling on the sharp edge of delight. When a climax engulfed her in a blaze of intense pleasure she writhed and moaned.
‘You are the hottest, sexiest woman on this earth,’ Gaetano groaned into her hair, sliding over her and into her in one sleek, hard thrust of power.
A surge of renewed hunger washed through her as he pushed her knees back to deepen his invasion. Her body jolted with the driving power of his possession. Every nerve ending reacted, firing her response with an immediacy that was incredibly exciting. Her heart was racing, her blood rushing in her veins and then the excitement peaked for her, drowning her in blissful sensation until she lay limp.
As Gaetano released her Lara rolled onto him, determined to retain that intimacy. ‘I want a hug,’ she told him saucily.
And his immediate smile chased all the gravity from his lean darkly handsome face, his dark eyes tawny gold with satisfaction below the tousled black hair on his brow. My word, he was beautiful, she thought abstractedly, tracing the fullness of his pink lower lip, emphasised by the black veil of stubble beginning to frame it.