Having her here wasn’t just good for easing his sexual frustration and digging out information on Calogero. It could provide other opportunities. After the difficulties of the last few years, being seen with his wife, albeit for a short time, could be useful.
Cesare smiled as he tucked her closer.
The compulsion he’d felt to possess Ida hadn’treallybeen a compulsion. Of course not.
Cesare didn’t let lust drive his actions. He wasn’t a slave to emotion. He wasn’t weak like his father.
He was being pragmatic. Bedding Ida had been beyond his expectations, but his aim was to excise these intense and disturbing urges. It was safer to sate himself with her now in order to distance himself later. To keep head and heart, or at least libido, separate.
Unlike his father, he’d never allow himself to be a slave to emotion or illusions of love. Because he’d experienced the fallout, seen the damage to family and business. Felt the rejection.
It was a trap Cesare would never fall into.
Ida woke to a delicious sense of peace and comfort. She was warm and cosy and...
Her brain jerked into full wakefulness as she realised her cheek rested on sleek, warm skin and that masculine chest hair tickled her hand.
Cesare.
The man she hated.
Except it wasn’t hate she felt.
He’d protected her from Bruno.
And made love to her last night until she saw stars.
Despite knowing it was just sex, it hadfeltlike making love. Cesare had been gentle as well as eager, breath-stealingly sensual and potent.
‘More.’ His deep voice was gruff.
‘Sorry?’ She hadn’t even realised he was awake.
‘Do that again. I like it.’
Ida hadn’t done anything but inadvertently slide her hand across his chest.
Daylight spilled between the open curtains and, tucked against his shoulder, she had a perfect view of his musculature, of the contrast of dark olive skin against pale, and the hard nub of his erect nipple.
A thrill ran through her. Cesare was aroused. She drew her hand back across that wide expanse of muscle and felt him tense.
‘I want you, Ida.’
She sucked in air, stunned at the impact of that stark admission. Men had wanted her before, but she’d never been tempted. Until Cesare.
This, whatever it was, felt perilous and profound. An elemental force.
Now you’re acting like a besotted virgin, confusing sex with something else.
Ida wasn’t looking for anything else.
But she did want more of what they’d shared last night. She’d take all the pleasure she could, hoarding it for the future when life would again be a grim struggle for self-sufficiency, trying to keep out of her grandfather’s reach.
She leaned down and licked Cesare’s nipple then closed her teeth around it, excited by his hissed exclamation and the way his big body rose against her.
An instant later she found herself above him, his hands at her hips, his bare body wonderful against hers.
Ida raised her head and met brown eyes that had turned so dark they seemed black. But there was light in them and a tortured smile on his face that she read easily. She must have looked that way last night.