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Natalie could smell the warm male scent of his body. She wanted to touch him, wanted to so badly it blocked out every other thought. Feeling bold and reckless, she laid a hand flat against his chest; through his shirt she could feel the heavy thud of his heartbeat. His body was solid muscle and bone, a long, lean and lovely body. She gave a shudder of sheer heady anticipation and let her hand slide boldly to his flat belly. She felt the sharp contraction of his stomach muscles as he sucked in his breath.
‘Sorry, I’m messing up your lovely clothes.’
She went to lift her hand but he caught it hard and held it there. His shimmering blue eyes scanned her flushed face. ‘To hell with my lovely clothes!’ he declared, releasing her, but only to tear the tie from around his neck. This followed the same path as her bra.
‘There’s glass everywhere—this is dangerous. You could cut yourself.’
No, you’re the dangerous one, she thought, looking at his stern, predatory profile. Desire kicked hard in her molten belly, she shivered and her eyes darkened dramatically.
Without saying a word and correctly taking her compliance as written, Rafe swept her up in his arms, and picked his way through the shattered mirror towards the bed. Before he placed her down he removed the top cover, which was covered in tiny fragments of glass, and flung it to one side.
‘Where are you going?’ she asked plaintively when he didn’t join her.
‘I’ll be right there,’ he promised. His bright-burning eyes didn’t leave her face for an instant as he stripped off his clothes with flattering urgency.
Natalie stared. She couldn’t help herself—he was beautiful in a way that made her throat ache. His skin was an even dark gold dusted lightly in significant areas by erotic drifts of dark hair. The impressive strength of his upper body and magnificent, tightly muscled shoulders was perfectly balanced by a hard, washboard belly and long, long legs. Greyhound lean, he moved with the perfect co-ordination and fluid grace of a natural athlete.
He certainly had a turn for speed—in a matter of seconds he was standing there in just his boxers. As he stepped out of them Natalie caught her breath. She looked away, feeling like a guilty schoolgirl caught peeking.
Rafe gave a wolfish grin of predatory satisfaction. ‘Don’t mind me, I like you looking,’ he confided with shameless candour.
The bed springs creaked as he landed beside her. There was no trace of laughter in his face as their eyes locked. Without saying anything he fixed his mouth to hers; it fitted perfectly. He continued to kiss her, deep, drugged kisses that sent her spiralling out of control and kept her there.
Natalie clutched at him, revelling in the smoothness of his skin and the hardness of his muscle. She didn’t connect the soft guttural sounds that she could hear with herself.
Hands cupping her buttocks, Rafe drew her body into his. ‘You can feel how much I want you…?’
Her body reacted as much to the sound of his voice as the erotic pressure of his arousal against her soft belly. Giving a fractured little sigh, she opened her eyes and tried to focus on his face…the outline was blurry.
‘Are you crying?’ Concern roughened his voice.
Natalie blinked and shook her head. The combination of lust and love was something she had never been exposed to before; she had no defences against the heady cocktail. ‘I want you, too,’ she whispered, touching him because she quite simply had to—not touching his silken length was no more an option than not breathing!
He groaned greedily and pulsed against the confines of her trembling hand. His uninhibited pleasure encouraged her to continue her erotic explorations.
It was Rafe who eventually stopped her teasing caresses.
‘My turn, I think,’ he announced throatily as he flipped her over onto her back.
Still ahead every step of the way, still anticipating what she wanted before she knew it herself, he slid down her body, caressing her with his hands, tasting her with his lips.
Her swollen, tingling breasts felt as if they were on fire after he had applied his clever tongue and hands to each quivering, pink-tipped mound in turn. She closed her eyes as he licked his way lower and when he reached the hot, drenched, sensitised region between her pale thighs her back arched, lifting her hips clear of the mattress.
Natalie hooked her fingers in his hair.
Rafe lifted his head. There were dark bands of colour high across his cheekbones. He took one look at her face and groaned. ‘When you look at me like that I just want to…’
‘So do I,’ she moaned. ‘So do, Rafe. Do it right now, you beautiful man!’ she cried brokenly.
He kissed her neck as he settled over her. ‘Oh, my God!’ she moaned as he slid up into her, hard and hot. ‘Oh, this is…is…’ he rocked higher into her and she bit into the damp skin of his neck sobbing softly ‘…good…very, very good.’
‘It will be…’ he promised, thrusting hard. ‘Just let go, let it happen,’ he instructed, continuing to build a smooth, fluid rhythm.
Natalie didn’t know what he was talking about, but she did know that she wouldn’t mind if he carried on doing what he was for ever. A little while later she found out this wasn’t true—in fact she couldn’t bear it any longer. Just about that moment she discovered, in the most earth-shattering way, what he had meant—it happened!
In the aftermath of a climax that had involved her entire body from her toes to—well, she couldn’t discount the possibility her hair follicles had been involved—she lay there in a dazed glow, curled up like a sleepy, sexy kitten in his arms. The only sound was her occasional murmur of, ‘Wow!’ which made Rafe, who had his chin propped on top of her head, grin.
‘I think I’m going to fall asleep,’ she confided.
‘Nice idea, but we might miss the wedding photos.’
With a horrified cry Natalie leapt out of bed, ignoring his warning cry of, ‘Watch the glass!’
‘Oh, God, we’ll be late. Why didn’t you remind me?’ she remonstrated severely as she struggled into her clothes.
‘I had other things on my mind.’
They weren’t late and Natalie got to cry a little, seeing Rose looking sweet walking up the aisle behind the bride.
There was a certain novelty value attached to being the centre of attention. It aggravated the bride, too, which was a definite plus, but Natalie knew it wasn’t her stunning good looks or sparkling personality that were the draw. No, it was the man beside her. That Rafe would inevitably know and be known by people on this sort of celebrity guest-list had not even crossed her mind.
She had reached the point, after two glasses of champagne, where she was actually enjoying herself when Mike introduced her as Rafe’s fiancée. He did so in front of half a dozen people Rafe knew, one of whom, an opera singer of international fame, turned out to be one of his mother’s best friends.
‘Oh, Luisa didn’t tell me and I only spoke to her on Thursday!’ she exclaimed, kissing first Rafe and then Natalie on both cheeks.
‘Actually, Sophia, we haven’t told the families yet so I’d be grateful if you could keep it to yourself for a couple of days,’ Rafe requested smoothly.
‘But of course,’ she promised immediately. ‘And do your family know yet, Natalie?’
Natalie got the impression those bright, curious eyes were missing not a detail of her outfit.
‘There’s only my grandmother.’
‘Oh, how sad, but you have a little girl, I believe…? A readymade family—how nice for you, Rafe…but you have such a big family. Have you been to the palazzo in Venice yet?’
Natalie shook her head. Palazzo! That figured—blue blood on both sides.
‘We’d planned to spend our honeymoon there,’ Rafe slotted in smoothly.
‘Oh, you will love it. Come along and tell me all about yourself, my dear,’ she urged, drawing a reluctant Natalie away.
‘I have never been so glad for Valentine’s Day to end.’ Natalie sighed later as she kicked off her shoes in the comfort of th
e car. Rose was already fast asleep in the back. ‘I am so sorry!’
‘About what?’
‘About the fiancée stuff in front of your mum’s friend. What’ll you say to them?’ she asked worriedly.
Rafe dismissed them with a shrug. ‘Oh, I’ll deal with them, don’t worry.’
‘You’re being awful nice about this…?’
‘I’m a nice guy,’ he revealed modestly. ‘Once you get to know me.’
Natalie lowered her eyes to her hands, which lay primly in her lap. ‘I was wondering…’ Was she making a terrible mistake?
‘You were wondering what?’ he prompted.
‘I was wondering if you’d like to stay the night with me…if you’ve no plans, that is…’
There was a charged silence.
‘If I had any I’d change them,’ he told her with a grin that revealed his even white teeth. ‘You have absolutely no idea how happy I am to hear you say that.’
