Panting for breath, her rosy lips swollen from his attention, Kathy gazed up at him with anxious eyes. Even though she had never felt more naked or exposed, she made no attempt to cover herself up because she accepted that he wanted to look at her. She held her breath in fear that a shadow would cross his face as he suddenly appreciated that she was too skinny and lacking in curves to compete with tiny, curvaceous Grazia, and that her body was marred by the scars of her past and of childbirth.
‘You have the most wonderful figure.’ Wholly intent on her, Sergio skated an undeniably admiring hand down over her narrow ribcage to a slender thigh still clad in lace-topped white hold-up stockings. ‘Elegant, graceful…’
Kathy stretched so that he could better admire her from all angles and ready amusement curved his handsome mouth even as his gaze marked her every move with very masculine appreciation. He shed his boxer shorts without ceremony. She looked at him in turn, for he was beautifully built. The lean, hard, muscular lines of his powerful bronzed body bore out his reputation for being as super fit as an athlete. Her attention rested on his rampant state of arousal and colour warmed her cheeks.
‘This is the first place we make a deal, delizia mia,’ Sergio murmured, pulling her up against his long, sleek, masculine frame
‘A deal?’ Her green eyes flew wide.
‘While I concentrate on what pleases you outside the bedroom you can concentrate on what pleases me inside it.’
Kathy studied him in honest wonderment. ‘Are you really that basic?’
Sergio nodded affirmation without hesitation. ‘I want to spend the entire week in bed,’ he growled. ‘I am so hungry for you I almost dragged you off from the church.’
Kathy was blushing like mad. But she really liked the idea of being lusted after; a man making her the focus of his erotic intent was most unlikely to be thinking of another woman at the same time.
‘Under the table at the reception…into another room…up against the wall…on the floor,’ Sergio enumerated thickly. ‘In my fantasies you’re insatiable, delizia mia.’
‘Am I?’ Kathy whispered a split second before the hungry onslaught of his mouth silenced her.
Fizzing little signals of response darted through her bloodstream and fired inside her with every wicked probe of his tongue. Her body was hypersensitive and geared up for him. For the first time she was eager to touch him and conduct her own explorations. For the first time she was confident enough to be his lover. She traced the solid wall of his chest with admiring fingertips, traversed the taut flatness of his muscular stomach, and when she hesitated he took over to guide and teach her and she learned that it was astonishingly easy to make him groan.
‘Enough,’ he growled. ‘This is our wedding night. I want to give you pleasure.’
‘You’re so traditional.’ Eyes bright as stars, empowered by newly learned skills that had done wonders for her assurance, Kathy flopped back against the pillows. Breathless, she watched him, her gaze clinging to his lean, strong face. There was a wicked tight knot of longing clenched at the heart of her. All he had to do was mention pleasure and she was boneless with expectation.
‘No, I’ve waited too long to lie here and keep my hands off your beautiful body,’ Sergio breathed roughly.
Hot, hungry golden eyes assailed her and her mouth ran dry. He spread her beneath him and smoothed a possessive hand over the swollen pink peaks of her breasts. She shivered. A wicked smile of knowledge slashed his strong, sensual mouth.
‘You are so ready for me, amata mia,’ he told her, dipping his tousled dark head to lock his mouth to the tiny taut, straining buds that betrayed her arousal.
Kathy gasped out loud, her hips squirming into the mattress. With controlled passion and endless skill, he traced his sensual path down over her slender twisting length, deliberately not touching her in the one place where she most yearned to be touched. As if in compensation other areas seemed to become much more sensitive in response while the blood thrummed in her veins and her heart pounded faster and faster. A river of elemental fire was flowing through her, burning and scorching everything within its path.
‘Sergio…’ She almost wept with impatience.
‘No orders, instructions or even hints allowed, cara mia,’ Sergio warned huskily. ‘This is one of those occasions when I really do know what I’m doing.’
And she learned things she didn’t know about herself. She learned she liked things she had never dreamt she might like. She also learnt a level of response that was terrifyingly powerful. When she believed she could stand no more she found she had no voice to tell him so. He wrested all control, all reasoned thought from her. The ache of need was overwhelming. She was shaking with desire when he chose the optimum moment to take her enjoyment to its zenith. Easing her under him, he plunged into her tender depths with potent power.