‘So pretty,’ he murmured again, as he slipped a finger under first one velvet shoulder strap then another, drawing them down her arms.
But he wasn’t looking at the dress. He was staring at her. Then his mouth was on her shoulder, and she was arching towards him.
Cesare’s kisses were unhurried and thorough. He moved to her collarbone, to the upper slopes of her breasts and across to her other shoulder, where he nipped at the curve of her neck. Ida’s bones turned to liquid.
Her eyes were closed when he pulled back and it took a moment to realise he’d drawn her dress down to her waist. A gentle tug made her lift her hips then she felt the swish of fabric against bare skin as he dragged it off her completely.
Her eyes snapped open. Cesare was surveying her with a curiously shuttered expression. But the throbbing pulse at his temple belied his stillness.
Ida wore a strapless bra and knickers of matching ivory lace. She told herself they were no more revealing than a bikini but the fierce gleam in his eyes told another story. To her surprised delight, she revelled in Cesare’s response.
He said something fervent in Italian that curled around her like smoke, feathering her skin and making her shift as an insistent pulse beat between her legs.
‘Your turn.’
But he shook his head. ‘Not yet. Not if you want us to go slow.’
The way she felt she wasn’t sure that slow was an option any longer. But before she could voice that, Cesare lay down beside her and the feel of his hot, bare torso against her stole her breath.
As did his zephyr-light touch, skimming the top of her bra from one side to another, back and forth and back again, making her want more. One finger dipped below the edge of the fabric, sliding across her breast. Her jaw gritted at his teasing and she reached down, towards his belt, only to falter when Cesare pulled the bra cup down and buried his face at her breast.
Was that high, keening note from her? Ida rose off the bed, her hands buried in his hair as she held him to her, afraid he’d stop.
The sensations were incredible. First that exploratory flick of his tongue that shot lightning through her and now... He drew on her breast and it simultaneously pulled her whole body taut yet made a vital part of her melt.
Nothing had ever felt like this. As if he tapped into a vein of raw need.
She slid against him, rocking her hips, needing to feel him against all of her. Then through the haze of wonder came something new: Cesare’s hand slipping deftly under the lace at her hips. There was no hesitation, just an arrow-straight dip straight to the hidden cleft where...
‘Cesare!’
She shuddered as hot, bright sensation arced between her breast and his questing fingers.
She’d expected this to be good, but she hadn’tknown.
Ida snapped her eyes open and there was Cesare, his mouth locked around her nipple, his black-as-night eyes hot with passion as he circled then pressed just at the place where sensation centred.
Again Ida lifted off the bed. Lightning forked inside her and she hovered, strung out on a peak of incredible ecstasy until, in a blast of blinding delight, everything else fell away.
The only thing anchoring her to reality was Cesare. The warm weight of him solid and reassuring against her as she soared in a sky full of shattering stars.
Finally Ida became aware of the sound of panting. Swift, shallow breaths and the hard pump of her overworked lungs. She trembled all over. Surely her bones had disintegrated in that white-hot light?
Cesare kissed her breast, a tiny caress, but to her overwrought senses it was too much. She shuddered, echoes of bliss still coursing through her.
Did he understand? The next thing she knew he was lying full length beside her, his arm around her shoulder, holding her close to his collarbone, his other hand rubbing gently between her shoulder blades.
Ida sank into him, trying not to feel overwrought by the roaring rush of ecstasy that had engulfed her.
Would it have felt the same with any other man?
Stupid question when she’d never had the least desire to let any man but Cesare this close.
It dawned on her maybe this whole experience was a dreadful mistake.
Too late now. No time for regrets.
Ida’s mouth curved against hot, salty skin. Even reeling from her first sexual experience with a man, she realised that thought was solely so she’d stop worrying and lose herself in what Cesare had to offer.