She heard his breath hiss from beneath his teeth and would have smiled if her own desire wasn’t suddenly burning her alive, making it almost impossible to inhale and exhale normally.
This was her plan, but she was still totally unprepared for how it would feel when he touched her. The contrast of the cool lotion with his warm hands, and the flames that seemed to leap through her body, setting her alight piece by piece until she was almost melting.
His touch was light at first, almost hesitant, which she hadn’t expected, and didn’t want. She pressed back a little, and he expelled another sharp breath.
“Allegra.”
His tone was a warning and a plea. She bit down on her lip, stayed silent. His hands were still but then, they started to move again, rubbing over her back, towards her sides, then higher, over the strap of her bikini to her shoulders. She turned slowly to face him, holding her hands out, silently encouraging him to spread lotion there, too. Even though she could easily have done so for herself.
He hesitated, staring at her for a beat before pouring more lotion into his palm then tossing the bottle down, onto the shirt she’d discarded. His eyes were on her skin as he worked, first one arm, then the other. When he was finished, he dropped his hands to his side but stayed where he was, right in front of her.
She wanted him to kiss her. She wanted to kiss him. But she was scared he would reject her again, as he had the night before. She had to make him admit that he wanted her and then act on it; she had to get past his defences. Or maybe she just had to reassure him.
“I don’t want to be a virgin, Luca.” Her voice was a soft purr. “Not anymore. I promise you, we could sleep together and it wouldn’t change anything between us.”
His eyes lifted to hers; his expression was a forbidding mask. “With respect, you don’t know that.”
“Because of my inexperience?”
He dipped his head once.
“But you don’t really know me,” she pointed out. “What if I’m not like other women?”
“You’re not. At least, you’re not like the women I usually fuck.”
A soft moan escaped her at that visceral language—and the visual it sparked in her mind, of him doing exactly that to her. Animalistic, coarse, just two bodies driven together by mutual need.
“Enjoy your swim, Allegra.” He still didn’t move.
She took a step closer, pressing a hand to his chest, emboldened by the fact he was holding his ground, despite his words. His head and body were at war. “You don’t want to join me?”
“I think we both know that what I want, and what I’m doing, are two separate things.”
Uh huh. Just as she’d suspected. “It’s up to you,” she said, with a lift of one shoulder. “I’m going to go work on my tan.” She leaned closer, so her voice, even when whisper quiet, would still reach him. “And I do intend for that to be all over. Can’t have bikini lines at our wedding party.”
She felt his rush of breath and smiled to herself as she stepped backwards, eyeing him thoughtfully. Crouching down, she picked up both the lotion and the shirt, aware that she was at eye height with his cock. A cock that was visually hard, showing her what he’d already admitted.
He wanted her; he was doing what he thought was right, not what they both needed.
“I’ll be at your beautiful pool.” She eased herself to standing, put her hand back on his chest, felt the hard throbbing of his heart. “Feel free to come say hi.”
All she wanted to do was lift up onto the tips of her toes and kiss him. She no longer feared rejection. But she didn’t want to push him too hard; she was coming to understand that if this happened, it had to be because he let it. Because he admitted he wanted it more than he thought he shouldn’t.
And so she dropped her hand and turned, slowly, moving through the door with an exaggerated wiggle of her hips andsmiling to herself at his low, husked out curse. Hook, line, and sinker.
He lasted three hours.Three hours of dealing with a raging hard on and remembering the imagery she’d easily planted in his mind of her sunbathing topless, before he’d finally gone in search of her. Turns out, the imagery was nothing compared to the reality.
Luca had two pools. One was a large rectangle for swimming laps; he used it for exercise when he was at this property. The other was a more freeform shape, built to harmonise with the landscape at the clifftop, to complement the Tuscan garden beyond. He found her there, on a lounger, a hat resting over her face, so she wasn’t aware of his arrival. So he could have turned and left, run away, like he’d been metaphorically doing this whole time.
But running away was not his stock in trade, and Luca knew enough about challenges that the only way to fight fire was with fire.
Allegra talked a good game, but he could handle her.
At least, that’s what he told himself as he crossed the pool terrace, the midday sun warm on his body, until his long shadow fell over her.
She was not topless, and he couldn’t say if she ever had been, but her bikini straps had been unfastened and tucked into the cups, to avoid the straps she’d mentioned. He stared at her with a voice in his mind telling him it wasn’t too late to turn and run; yet he stood his ground.
He watched as she lifted a hand and pulled the hat off her face, blinking up at him, her full lips parting as her eyes landed on his face.
