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“That I don’t want to ravage you like some sex-starved bastard,” he told her. “That I don’t trust myself in the same room with you for more than five minutes.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “But you seem so detached.”
“Lilli,” he said, primitive need rising inside him, “I’ve been waiting to take you for a long time. I’m not sure how gentle I’ll be.”
Her gaze fixed on his, she licked her lips, sending another current of desire lashing through him. “So you really do still want me.”
“Yes,” he said in a voice he knew sounded rough around the edges.
Giving a sigh of relief, she moved closer to him and lifted her hand to his jaw. At her soft touch, he clenched his jaw. She rubbed her thumb over his mouth and he covered her hand with his. He slid that daring thumb of hers inside his mouth and gently bit the delicate pad.
He heard her soft intake of breath and put her hand away from him. “Don’t push me.”
She met his gaze for a long moment. “I go to the doctor on Friday.”
“For what?”
“My follow-up visit. It’s likely that I’ll be released for all normal activity.”
Wanting to remove any confusion on his part, he asked, “What does that include?”
“Everything,” she said and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Including sex.”
Max immediately felt himself grow hard with arousal. Friday. Two days. “I’d like you to give me a call after your visit,” he told her.
“I know you told me not to push you,” she said, moving closer to him again. “But can I kiss you?”
Max knew a cold shower was in his future tonight. “Come here,” he said and pulled her across his lap.
She slid her fingers through his hair and gently pressed her mouth against his.
Desire raged through him. Her lips were petal soft, her body deliciously pliant. He wanted to touch her and take her every way a man could take a woman. When she dipped her tongue into his mouth, he thought he would explode.
A simple kiss, he thought, and he felt like a raving lunatic. Her br**sts pressed against his chest and he wanted to tear off her dress, rip off his shirt and feel her ni**les against his skin. He rubbed his hands over the side of her br**sts and felt her shiver. With that small encouragement, he slid his fingers over her nipple and felt the stiff peak through her silky top.
Making a restless movement against him, she slid her tongue deeper into his mouth. His temperature rose and he began to sweat. She was so sweet, so tempting.
He knew he should stop, but he couldn’t resist going a little further. He eased his hands under her top, surprised to find that she wore no bra. He wouldn’t have thought he could get any hotter, especially knowing they couldn’t finish tonight, but he did.
Taking control of the kiss, he slid one of his hands over her breast and swallowed her delicious gasp of arousal. “Do you want me to stop?” he asked against her mouth.
She shook her head. “It’s been so—” She broke off and shuddered when he brushed her nipple with his thumb. “I never thought I could feel this way again.”
“You couldn’t have forgotten completely,” he said in disbelief, nibbling at her bottom lip as he continued to caress her breast.
“I think I must have,” she said and reached for the buttons to his shirt.
Not trusting himself any further, he covered her hand with his. “Later,” he said. “Later.”
Looking at her smoky eyes and lips puffy from their kisses, Max groaned. It took every ounce of fortitude not to take her mouth again.
She shook her head in disbelief. “After that last terrible time with Tony, I was sure I’d never want to be with a man again.”
Max’s arousal abruptly cooled. “You’ve mentioned this before. What was terrible about it?”
She glanced away. “I don’t like to think about it. I don’t like to talk about it. It’s just that everything is so different with you.”
“What happened with Tony?” he demanded.
She sighed. “He’s your brother. There’s no need to taint his memory any more than it already is.”
“Lilli,” he said. “I knew Tony had problems, most of which he made for himself. Heavy drinking, drugs, illegal deals. We weren’t close. I’m your husband, now. You can’t keep this kind of thing from me.”
She twisted her fingers together. “I had already broken up with him once,” she said in a low voice. “He promised things would be different, so I went out with him again. We went to a club and things were getting wild. I told him I wanted to leave. He begged me to stay for just one more dance, just one more drink. I just ordered soda.”
Max got a dark feeling about what had happened with Lilli. “And?”
She bit her lip. “He put something in my drink. I woke up hours later and he had—”
Max felt a rush of nausea. He couldn’t believe his own brother would do such a thing. “He took advantage of you without your consent?”
She closed her eyes and nodded. “I had told him I wasn’t ready to be intimate again, that we had to take it slow. After that night, I broke things off permanently. I realized I would never be able to trust a man who would do that to me.”
Max’s mouth filled with bitterness. He was so furious he wanted to break something. The strength of it caught him off guard.
Taking a mind-clearing breath, he reined in his anger and focused on Lilli. “I’m sorry he did that to you. I tried to steer Tony in the right direction, but he refused to listen.” He slid his hand under her chin and guided her so she met his gaze. “I promise you I would never do something like that to you.”
Her eyes were shiny with unshed tears. “You don’t have to promise. I already know.”
Max realized that Lilli would need to be seduced. It had been a long time for her and it would be his pleasure to remind her in every way that she was a desirable woman and that the passion between them would take her to a level she’d never experienced before. And as her husband, he would make damn sure no one ever hurt her again.
Chapter 11
Lilli envisioned that once she told Max the doctor had released her, the first thing Max would do was take her to bed. Instead he took her to dinner at the top of the premier Megalos-De Luca property in Vegas. With the baby in Maria’s care, Lilli was free to enjoy herself.
Steeped in luxury, the resort featured an outdoor restaurant with a prized breathtaking view of the strip and beyond. “This is beautiful,” she said for the umpteenth time after they enjoyed a delicious meal. “You really surprised me.”
“I thought we both deserved a night out,” he said, a cryptic grin crossing his face. “Think of this as the wedding dinner we skipped.”
“For David,” she said, laughing. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of Max seated across the table from her. Dressed in a black suit, black shirt and tie, he looked dark and devastating. Tension and anticipation hummed between them. Every time Lilli thought about how the evening would end, her breath stopped in her throat.
She looked past the other empty tables at the nighttime view of Las Vegas. “It’s so sparkly,” she said.
“So it is,” he said and poured her another glass of Cristal.
“Why are there no other people here?”
“I ordered privacy,” he said. “We can do anything we want,” he added in a velvet, seductive voice.
Her heart hiccuped and she stared at the table. It was the first possibility that came to mind. “Omigoodness, you don’t mean doing it here in public.”
He laughed. “I said it’s not public.”
She sputtered. “B-but—”
Rising, he extended his hand. “Let’s dance.”
She distantly heard the strains of a romantic melody being piped through an outdoor sound system and immediately identified it. She stood and walked into his arms. “It’s hokey, but this is one of my favorite songs.”
He drew her close to him. “Old Elvis song sung by Michael Bublé. ‘I can’t help falling in love with you.’”
“How did you know?”
“I swiped your iPod.”
“You are diabolical.”
“I’ll make you like it.”
She had an unsettling feeling he could make her like a lot of things. She felt an achy tug in the region of her heart as she breathed in his scent and clung to his broad shoulders.
He nudged her head upward and took her mouth with his. He slid one of his hands behind her neck and she felt a sensual possessiveness in his touch. Her body immediately responded to his.
The sexy romantic song continued to play and she couldn’t help feeling a little sad knowing that Max might want her, but would never really love her. The knowledge didn’t keep a fire from building in her belly. The touch of his tongue and the way his body skimmed the front of hers made her blood pump with a primitive beat.
He pulled back slightly. Although his eyelids were hooded, she could still see a n**ed passion in them. “I’ve never waited this long for a woman,” he said and dipped his open mouth to her neck. He drew her against him and she felt his unmistakable hardness. Sliding his hand over her bottom, he guided her against him.
“I want to taste every inch of you,” he muttered against her mouth as he lifted one of his hands to her breast.
Lilli gave an involuntary shudder of anticipation.
“You like that,” he said, more than asked. “I’m going to touch you all over.” He slid his hand down over her hip.
The prospect took her breath away and she instinctively tried to get closer to him. She wanted to feel his skin. She wanted to slide her mouth over his chest and taste him. She wanted to see if she could make him sweat a little. Her blood pounding through her body, pooling between her thighs, she pulled his tie loose and tugged at the buttons to his shirt.
“I want to be closer, as close as I can get,” she whispered breathlessly.
