The Ultimate Playboy(98)

                Silver eyes gleamed at her. ‘We fit together perfectly, tesoro, remember?’ he encouraged gently.

                Nodding, she raised her hips and took him inside her.

                Delicious, sensational pleasure built inside her, setting off fireworks in her body. His face a taut mask of pleasure, his hands settled on her thighs and he allowed her to set the pace. But this new, deeper penetration was her undoing. Within minutes, her spine tingled with impending climax. She had no resistance when Narciso reared up, sucked one nipple into his mouth and sent her over the edge.

                She surfaced from the most blissful release to find their positions reversed. Narciso’s fingers were tangled in her hair and his mouth buried in her throat.

                When he raised his head, the depth of emotion on his face made her breath catch.

                ‘I need you, Ruby,’ he repeated his earlier statement. Only this time, she was sure he didn’t mean sexually.

                The knowledge that things would never be right between them sent pure, white-hot pain through her heart.

                Unable to find the right words to respond, she cradled his face. Locked in that position, his eyes not leaving hers, he surged inside her and resumed the exquisite, soul-searing lovemaking. Eventually, he groaned his release and took her mouth in a soft, gentle kiss, murmuring words she understood but refused to allow into her heart.

                Tears sprang into her eyes and she rapidly blinked them away, glad that he was rising and putting his clothes back on.

                ‘I can stay here, or we can return to my place.’ Although his tone wasn’t as forceful as before, she knew he wouldn’t accept a third choice.

                ‘I’ll come back with you.’ Despite all that had happened, she still had his dinner party to cater for.

                They dressed in silence and she studiously avoided the puzzled glances he sent her way.

                When he caught her hand in his in the lift on the way to the ground floor, she let him. When he brought the back of her hand to his lips and kissed it, she sucked in a deep breath to stop the tears clogging her throat from suffocating her.

                In his car, he pulled her close, clamped both arms around her and tucked her head beneath his chin. In the long drive back to the Upper East side, neither of them spoke but he took every opportunity to run gentle hands down her arms and over her hair.

                Unable to stop herself, she felt tears slide down her cheeks.

                Dear God, what the hell had she done? Of all the foolish decisions she could’ve made, she’d gone and fallen in love with Narciso Valentino.

                ‘Qualunque cosa che, oi facevo io sono spiacente,’ he murmured raggedly in her ear. Whatever I did, I’m sorry.

                The tears fell harder, silent guilty sobs racking her frame.

                He led her to the shower the moment they returned to his penthouse. Again, in silence, he washed her, then pulled a clean T-shirt of his over her head. Pulling back the covers to his bed, he tugged her close and turned out the lights.

                ‘We’ll talk in the morning, Ruby. Whatever is happening between us, we’ll work it out, sì?’

                She nodded, closed her eyes and drifted off to a troubled sleep.

                She jerked awake just after 5:00 a.m., fear and anguish churning through her body. The need to tell Narciso the truth burned through her.