“I didn’t mean to do that to you. It just happened,” she protested, shifting and trying to decide if she really wanted to fight him. He traced one fingertip along the edge of her undies, then in a delicate line down her center. She gasped and held her breath, pulsing, aching, literally throbbing for him to touch and satisfy her.
“Do you think I don’t know that when you’re that aggressive, you’re so aroused you barely need more than a kiss? Here. Just like you did to me, bella,” he coaxed with sultry command, sidling one fingertip beneath the narrow lace at her hip, pulling her panties askew just enough to expose her to his caress.
She held her breath as he took his time petting, parting, one fingertip gathering moisture and circling...
“Oh,” she breathed.
“Let go,” he whispered, covering her mouth with a tender kiss as he explored more intently.
She sobbed with pleasure, not realizing how aroused she was until she found release under the lightest of caresses, losing control in an abrupt shiver of pure ecstasy. Oh, she had missed this. So much, so much.
Their kiss continued with both of them making satisfied noises in their throats as he continued to caress her, soothing and bringing her down from the heights.
“Now sleep, before I eat you alive,” he insisted, replacing her undies and drawing her body tight against his. He was aroused again—still?—but only tucked her head under his chin. “You’re delicious, my adorable wife. I’d make love to you the rest of the night, if I could.”
She wanted to keep making love. By the end of their honeymoon, they’d been insatiable, sometimes spending all day in bed pleasuring each other to exhaustion.
Had she really believed she could leave him and never know this again?
For the first time in months, her heart felt full and her ache of scorn dissipated. Her lashes dampened with relief at being held this closely against him while the tingles of climax left her floating. She fell asleep feeling treasured and safe.
Then rose to feed Lorenzo early in the morning, coming back to their room to find Alessandro showered, shaved and dressed in a suit and tie.
Leaving.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“YOU’RE LEAVING?” SHE SNAPPED out of her sleepy state, forgetting about crawling back into their warm bed and rekindling that close feeling from last night, so angry, so betrayed, she could only stand there hugging her arms across this stupid, flimsy nightgown she’d let him lift last night.
“If you hold off reacting until—”
“Don’t tell me not to react! Failing to tell you how I felt left me stuck in London with the wrong baby! No, Sandro. Not fair,” she railed. “You’re treating me like a woman you picked up for the night, tearing out of here without even a promise to call.”
“I’m going downstairs,” he said through his teeth. “For breakfast. You don’t trust me at all, do you?” He was affronted, glaring as though he really expected better of her.
So maybe she was going zero to sixty and should slow down. “You’re not going into the city?”
His gaze shuttered and he tugged the cuff of his suit coat. “Not until later.”
She moved to pick up the silky wrap that matched her nightgown, pulling it on in a swirl and tying it off. “I’m not a bitch to be left in the kennel, you know.” Oh, it felt good to say what she thought. “What was that?” She pointed with accusation at the twisted sheets. “Was it just something to sweeten me up so I wouldn’t be upset this morning?”
“You started that,” he shot back. “And I am more than happy to stage a do-over if it will sweeten you up.”
She glared daggers into him, letting him see every last ounce of her fury.
The tails of his suit jacket bunched over his wrists as he pushed his hands in his pockets, but he wasn’t as unperturbed as he was trying to pretend. His hands had formed fists in those pockets and his jaw was like iron. He was just as mad and refusing to show it.
“I wasn’t going to leave this room until I’d spoken to you,” he said, tone pithy, then firm. “I’d like you to come down, too, as soon as you can be ready.”
“Why?” She glanced at the clock. “It’s not even seven.”
“I know, but Nonno is making an announcement once everyone else comes down. I want us there when he does. We’re not going back to the town house, cara. We’re living here from now on.”
“What?” Of all the things he might have said... “Are you serious?” She moved to the bed and sank onto the edge, drawing the blankets over her legs, feeling cold. Stunned. “Really? What about...?” She couldn’t even compute how many people this would affect. “This is not going to halt a mutiny,” she told him.