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He had obviously just showered because tiny droplets of water were glittering in the thickness of his jet-dark hair and he was pulling a black T-shirt down over his rippling torso. And he was wearing jeans. Black jeans which hugged the powerful length of his legs. Lina had never seen him wearing anything so casual and he looked almost shockingly sexy. A low curl of heat began coiling itself tightly inside her, round and round and round it went, the pressure building and building with each second that passed. The spring of her nipples began to push almost painfully against the lace of her bra and she wriggled her shoulders a little. It felt as if she were dissolving with desire and she swallowed as she struggled to get the words out.
‘I think... I think I may have the wrong room,’ she said.
He looked right back at her and the silence which followed seemed to go on for a very long time.
‘Not necessarily,’ he said, at last.
Lina was no expert when it came to what men wanted, but maybe she didn’t need to be. She could see a pulse flickering at his temple and the almost imperceptible tightening of his lips. His smouldering blue gaze and
the unmistakable darkening of his eyes were sending out the unspoken message that he wanted her as much as she wanted him. But she had been the one to make the first move last time and since then Salvatore had made it very clear that their relationship was going to be platonic. And wasn’t that the best thing? Wouldn’t that help to protect herself from the way he made her feel?
She knew what she should do. Squeeze out a polite smile and excuse herself. Find the other bedroom and stay in there until all this inconvenient desire had left her. But she couldn’t. And if that could be described as a weakness in her character—Lina didn’t care. Because she had spent most of her life being a good girl. Who could blame her if she was enjoying this tantalising feeling of being naughty?
Was that why she just continued to stand there, drinking in his magnificent body with a sexual hunger which was growing stronger by the minute? And suddenly she was getting the distinct feeling that they were each fighting some kind of private inner battle, waiting to see which of them would break first.
It was him.
With something which sounded like a helpless groan, he walked across the cabin towards her and pulled her into his arms, looking down into her face for one long and searching moment—as if seeking the answer she was sure he could read there, before bending his head and blotting out the world with his kiss. And Lina kissed him back. Hungrily. Fervently—dimly acknowledging how different it felt from the first time he’d kissed her. That time it had been all about newness and discovery and his inevitable reaction to her virginity. He had been careful with her, taking his time to extinguish every last bit of apprehension so that she had been bombarded with pleasure, over and over again.
But now he was kissing her in a way which was raw and heightened with untempered passion and suddenly Lina felt more like an equal than a novice. Hadn’t he taught her how to enjoy pleasure last night and shown her some of the things he liked? So why not show him what an attentive pupil she’d been? Boldly, she slid her hand down the front of his T-shirt, and as she began to massage the hard contours of his torso through the dark material she could hear his slow expelled breath of pleasure.
‘Take it off,’ he urged her unevenly. ‘Undress me, Lina.’
It was empowering to register that note of undisguised need in his voice. But it was nothing but lust, Lina reminded herself as she pulled the garment over his head, though he seemed reluctant to allow her trembling fingers anywhere near his jeans. Quickly, he unzipped her cotton dress and tossed it aside, though he hesitated when he saw her plain white underwear beneath. What was it about that which made his rugged face darken, as if he were having second thoughts? Lina tightened her arms around him and could feel the hard spring of his erection pressing through their clothes, and as he gave what sounded like a soft moan of surrender, everything began to happen very quickly.
Peeling off his jeans, she saw he was naked underneath and very aroused and she let out a gulp of pleasure as he took off her bra and panties and pushed her down onto the bed. Her heart slammed against her rib-cage and already she was at such a pitch of excitement that she couldn’t bear to wait for a second longer. Was that why she opened her thighs to give him access to the engorged little bud which he began to strum with sweet accuracy, making her cry out with pleasure, so that he had to kiss her into silence.
‘Salvatore,’ she moaned, against his lips.
‘More?’
She ground her hips against the mattress. ‘Yes.’
His movement became more intense, the position of his fingertip uniquely provocative.
‘I’ve been thinking about doing this ever since you left my bed this morning,’ he bit out roughly.
‘So have...so have...’ But her sentence was destined never to be finished because an orgasm had begun to clench its way through her body and Lina cried out as she began to convulse with the first of those achingly sweet spasms.
The sound seemed to galvanise him into action but he waited until her body was no longer shuddering, before reaching for a condom and stroking it on. And then he moved on top of her and pushed deep inside her, his face dark with fierce concentration. At first, his movements were slow and considered and somehow Lina realised he was waiting for her to have another orgasm before giving into his own. That first fluttering realisation gave way to a heavy beat of expectation, which kept on growing and growing until suddenly her rainbow world was splintering all over again and he was choking out his own gratification.
Afterwards, her arms tightened around him until the sound of his breathing grew less ragged. Tentatively, her tongue flicked out to taste the salt of his skin and she could feel the hardness of one hair-roughened thigh as it lay sprawled over hers. It felt intimate. Intensely intimate—as if they were the only two people in the world. As if all that perfect physicality had forged a special bond between the two of them. As if all the barriers they had both erected around themselves had just slipped away. And somehow that made what had just happened seem perfectly acceptable. Did sex always make you feel like this? she wondered dreamily as she reached out her finger to trickle it slowly down his chest. But her innocent gesture seemed to stir him into action and, even though she could have stayed like that all day, he now seemed determined to move away from her. Suddenly he was rolling onto the other side of the bed and it was as if a giant canyon had sprung up between them.
‘Is everything okay?’ she asked, before wondering if that was the kind of thing you were supposed to say at a time like this.
Salvatore heard the soft uncertainty in her voice and guessed what she wanted. She was probably craving reassurance, keen for him to offer something tangible in terms of a relationship now that they’d been intimate again. But he couldn’t do that, and what had just happened should never have happened. He felt a surge of anger, knowing he should have left well alone. He should have blocked out her intoxicating allure, which had reeled him in for all the wrong reasons. He should have sent her away to the other cabin and ignored the urgent throb at his groin which had made him lose control. Because she was wrong on so many counts. Too sweet. Too trusting. Too innocent and untried for a man with his track record of emotional coldness. He would hurt her and he had no right to hurt her, though maybe he wouldn’t tell her that. Better she think of him as indifferent, rather than understanding.
Or try to change his mind.
‘We need to get a couple of things straight before we land,’ he drawled. ‘The sex we’ve just had was amazing, for sure, but it hasn’t actually changed anything. It was just a moment of physical desire which demanded some kind of release. That’s what sometimes happens between a man and a woman. Do you understand what I’m saying?’
‘I think I’d have to be pretty stupid not to,’ she said.
Salvatore hesitated. He was finding this much harder than he’d expected, mainly because she looked so damned beautiful lying there, her olive limbs sprawled against the sheets with indolent abandon. But he steeled himself against the sudden bewilderment which had clouded her lovely features. ‘You’re going to be staying in my home and that’s something which has never happened before. I like my own space and the idea of a lover being around all the time fills me with dread.’
‘I suppose I should thank you for your honesty,’ she said.
‘I am nothing if not honest, Lina.’ He swung his legs over the side of the bed. ‘Up until now your life has been protected—by your mother and by the constraints of a small community. But you’re going to be living in a big city from now on and you need to learn how to protect yourself. I’m not your guardian and I’m not your boyfriend.’ His mouth twisted as he stood up and looked down at her. ‘And a naïve young woman clinging to me like a limpet has never been on my wish-list.’
