‘I want to be naked with you,’ he growled in her ear.
She hesitated for a heartbeat before she tugged the towel loose and it slipped to the floor. It was not the first time she had been this close to a naked man, she reminded herself. Daniele’s muscular, olive-sheened body was a work of art, but his size caused Paloma to doubt that she could carry through what she had started.
‘You can touch me as well as look,’ he murmured.
A memory flashed into her mind of her attempts to pleasure Calum and her sense of shame when nothing had happened. What if she was no good at this? Her eyes dropped to Daniele’s manhood that was already jutting proudly without her doing a thing. Fascination took over from her reserve and she reached out and ran her finger lightly along his hard ridge that swelled even more to her touch. He drew an audible breath, and she snatched her hand away.
‘Did I hurt you?’
‘Of course not.’ He pulled her into his arms and kissed the hollow beneath her ear. ‘You are a sensual siren,mia bellezza, and you turn me on more than any woman has ever done.’
He pulled her lacy knickers down her legs and slipped his hand between her thighs, smiling against her mouth when he discovered her slick heat. ‘Why are we standing here when there is an enormous bed waiting for us?’
Paloma’s heart thudded when he scooped her up in his arms and carried her into the bedroom. He laid her on the sumptuous gold velvet bedspread and knelt above her, his knees straddling her hips. He leaned forwards, his mouth claiming hers in a slow, erotic kiss. He pushed his tongue between her lips and coaxed her response, taking his time to seduce her with skilful caresses so that she relaxed, but at the same time she was aware of an urgent throb deep in her pelvis that she knew instinctively only his possession could assuage.
Daniele trailed his mouth down her throat and décolletage and paused to flick his tongue across one dusky pink nipple and then the other, sending starbursts of delicious sensation down to the heart of her femininity. Paloma let her mind go blank to everything but the insistent need that was building inside her.
She watched him reach into the bedside drawer and take out a condom and could not stop herself from tensing a little when she realised that it was actually going to happen. She was going to have sex with Daniele. She’d idolised him when she was a teenager, and she’d never completely got over her infatuation with him. He had not made promises that he didn’t intend to keep or pretended that their marriage was anything more than a business arrangement. She knew she could trust him, and it felt right to make love with him.
He lifted himself over her and supported his weight on one elbow while he skimmed his other hand down over her stomach. His thigh nudged her legs apart and his fingers gently parted her. When he eased one finger into her and then a second, she caught her breath, knowing that his manhood would stretch her even more.
‘You are ready for me,cara,’ he whispered against her lips before he kissed her deeply. He filled her senses: the heat of his body, the spicy scent of his cologne mixed with something indefinable and uniquely him. She felt the press of his erection against her opening, and he must have been aware of her slight hesitancy. ‘Have you had many lovers since your first marriage ended?’
Startled by the question, she shook her head. ‘N...no.’
Daniele smiled. ‘So it’s been a while since you have done this. We’ll take things slowly to start with,’ he assured her as he slipped his hands beneath her bottom and lifted her towards him. His eyes blazed into hers, and Paloma shivered with a mixture of anticipation and slight apprehension. She had often imagined the physical side of having sex for the first time, but she hadn’t expected to feel so emotionally overwhelmed. Her heart was pounding as Daniele moved and entered her slowly. He paused before sliding his shaft deeper inside her.
It didn’t hurt. She experienced a brief discomfort followed by a sense of being filled by him when he pressed forwards. Paloma did not know what she had expected, but a feeling of completeness stole around her heart, and perhaps more worryingly, she felt a sense of belonging to Daniele. He had been on the periphery of her life for ever, it seemed, and she had been intrigued by him and wished that he would notice her.
He withdrew a little way and thrust into her again, oh, so carefully. Once, twice, each leisurely stroke heightening the restless ache in Paloma’s pelvis. She wrapped her legs around his back and arched her hips to meet his thrusts that grew more powerful, more intense as he quickened his pace. The rasp of his breaths told her that his magnificent control had been replaced with a primitive urgency for release. She matched his pace and they moved together in perfect synchrony, two bodies as one, hearts pounding, breathing fractured.
‘Come for me,mia bellezza,’ Daniele said hoarsely.
‘I can’t.’ Tears of frustration filled her eyes. She should have known that she would be no good at this.
‘Relax and it will happen.’ He slipped his hand between their joined bodies and unerringly found her hidden pleasure spot. She gasped as he held her at the brink before he gave a clever twist of his hand and pleasure exploded deep in her pelvis. It was indescribable, wave after wave of exquisite sensation that rolled through her and caused her vaginal muscles to squeeze and relax in the most incredible orgasm that was far beyond anything she had experienced when she’d pleasured herself.
Daniele waited until the spasms that shook her body subsided before he began to move again. He stared into her eyes as he drove into her with hard, fast thrusts. His jaw was clenched, and the skin was drawn tight over his sharp cheekbones. The realisation that this powerful man was nearing the point of losing control evoked a rush of tenderness in Paloma. She clasped his face in her hands and pulled his lips down onto hers. He groaned into her mouth as he shattered spectacularly, and shudders racked his body.
For a long time afterwards, he remained slumped on top of her, and she buried her face against his neck and tried to ignore her certainty that nothing would ever be the same again, that making love with Daniele had changed her fundamentally.
Eventually he rolled off her and propped himself up on an elbow. ‘That was incredible,cara,’ he said softly. ‘You blew me away.’ He trailed his fingers over her stomach and lower to her thighs and froze. ‘Dio, there is blood. I must have hurt you.’ His eyes darkened with remorse. ‘I tried to be gentle, but you were tighter than I’d expected.’
Paloma could feel her face burning with embarrassment. ‘It’s nothing,’ she muttered. But as she shifted across the bed, she saw Daniele’s gaze focus on the small bloodstain on the sheet.
‘Bleeding after sex should be taken seriously. I will arrange for you to see a doctor first thing tomorrow.’
‘There’s no need.’ She huffed out a breath. Her conscience pricked that it wasn’t fair to allow him to think he had not taken enough care when he’d had sex with her. ‘It’s quite normal for there to be a little blood after...the first time.’
‘The first time?’ Daniele stared at her, and the confusion in his eyes changed to a shuttered expression that Paloma could not fathom. ‘Madre di Dio!You can’t mean that you were avirgin?’
CHAPTER NINE
ITWASIMPOSSIBLE, Daniele told himself. He would have known that it was Paloma’s first time. Surely he would have felt some resistance when he’d entered her. But he had never had sex with a virgin before and he wouldn’t know what to expect. The scarlet patch on the sheet was proof of her innocence. An innocence he had unwittingly taken. Guilt cramped in his gut, and he felt angry,furious, at her deception.
‘But you were married,’ he growled, unwilling to accept the truth of that bloodstain.
‘My husband was unable to make love to me.’ She avoided his gaze. ‘Do we have to talk about it? Why does it matter that I hadn’t had sex before? It was all right for you, wasn’t it?’ The uncertainty in her voice and the glimmer of tears in her eyes tugged on Daniele’s conscience. Paloma scrambled off the bed. ‘I need the bathroom,’ she mumbled before she ran across the room, closing the bathroom door behind her with a loud slam.