AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He put his mouth to her, drank in her essence until he was so crazy with want he thought he might lose it. Palms pressed against her buttocks, he held her to him, dragged his tongue across her, inside her. Made her cry out and dig her hands into his hair. She murmured unintelligible things, begged him to slide his fingers deeper into her in a caress he now knew made her crazy.
“Dammit, Matteo—”
He lifted his mouth from her. Pushed to his feet and brought her hands to the waistband of his trunks. “Take them off,” he growled.
She shoved her fingers into them and ran them down his long legs. When she straightened and came back to him her face was pinched, expectant. He lowered his mouth to hers, sucked her bottom lip into his and kissed her until she was pliant beneath his hands. “Relax, bella. You say stop, we stop.”
She rested her forehead against his and nodded. He picked her up and set her down on the massive king-size bed, her dark hair fanning out against the white silk sheets. She was creamy-skinned perfection, had the most exquisite hourglass figure he’d ever seen. Somehow he had the presence of mind to rummage up a condom and slide it on before he returned to her and smoothed his hand down over the curve of her hip, between the juncture of her thighs. Where he wanted to be.
Her eyes went huge. He straddled her, holding her gaze the entire time. “Touch me,” he rasped. “I need your hands on me.”
She leaned forward and curved her fingers around the heated, throbbing length of him. He was sure he’d never been this hard, this aroused in his life. She was just that beautiful to him.
Her lips parted, the focus she devoted to his pulsing erection just about doing him in. He reached down, cupped her buttock in his hand and brought her thigh around his waist. “Take me inside of you,” he urged. “I need to be inside of you so badly, Quinn.”
She closed her fingers around him and guided him to her slick, hot flesh with that same intense concentration. He sank his palms into the mattress on either side of her and forced himself to wait. “More?”
“Yes.”
He sank into her just enough to find his place. She arched her hips against him. “Please—”
He gave it to her, excruciatingly slowly, an inch at a time, waiting for her body to adjust to his. Waiting for her to relax—fully trust him. Deeper and deeper she took him, flexing beneath him until he was buried to the hilt. The shocked, dazed pleasure in her eyes had him whispering mindless pleas in Italian for control. He had never felt anything so good in his life as she clenched her tight muscles around him.
He let out a husky groan. If this was hell, he never wanted it to end.
Quinn wrapped her leg tighter around him, brought him closer. “Tell me,” he said softly. “Tell me what you want.”
She lifted her hips. “More.”
He shook his head. “No. Tell me. I want to know what you like. What you need.”
She began with soft, breathy requests that were half shy, half eager. He gave it to her, easy, leisurely, leashing the hard demand of his body to give her the buildup she needed. She caught her lip between her teeth. Her cheeks turned rosy. He urged her on with husky commands, goading her, making her tell him more. Making himself half-crazy in the process. Her demands became more insistent, more graphic. He hooked her leg higher around his waist and stroked even deeper inside her.
Deeper, harder until he was shaking with the effort it took to hold back. She flung a hard, raw demand at him that was the end of him. He swore under his breath and set his thumb to her center.
“Come, sei bella, Quinn,” he murmured, dropping his mouth to hers. “Come for me.”
She moaned and closed her eyes, pushed up harder against his thumb. Something inside her was still holding back, unable to let go. He held his screaming body in check and took her apart with one firm rotation of his thumb against her clitoris. Her hot contractions around him set him off like fireworks.
He kissed her, hungry, wild, his hoarse cry spilling into her mouth. And then there was only the long, sweet road back, his body cradled in hers, their connection so complete, so inviolate, he knew he’d never experienced anything like it.
Neither of them dared say anything. It was that heavy in the air. He rolled onto his side, took her with him, loath to break the bond. Her hot tears dampened his cheeks. He brushed them away, murmuring soft endearments in his native language until she fell asleep in his arms.
Moonlight poured into the room from the skylight, bathing them in an otherworldly glow. He stared up at it, his arms tucked securely around Quinn. He was definitely going to hell. He’d definitely passed Go. He’d definitely collected the girl.
It was a done deal.
CHAPTER NINE
QUINN WOKE WITH the birds, their boisterous song nudging her from a restless sleep that had seen her toss and turn most of the night. She wasn’t used to sleeping with anyone. She and Julian had occupied separate beds for the last few months of their marriage when things had become intolerable, and Matteo’s warm body wrapped around hers, his arm keeping her anchored securely against him was as alien as it was wonderful. She felt claustrophobic, secure and cherished all at the same time.
Light filtered through the skylight, sliding across the bronzed sinewy strength of Matteo’s forearm. Her stomach did a slow roll, her fingers twisting in the whisper-soft silk sheets. Last night had been incredible...unforgettable. But had her need to be human been worth the fallout that was sure to follow? Because she had to recuse herself from the committee now. There was no other option.
Which meant telling her father she had developed a personal relationship with Matteo De Campo.
A wave of perspiration blanketed her skin. Throwing off the sheet, she slid her legs over the side of the bed and slipped quietly to the floor. Pulled on her bikini and padded out onto the patio where the first signs of dawn were tracing a hazy pattern across the sky. It was warm already but she knew the slightly feverish sensation heating her skin was the thought of disappointing her father yet again. Watching the disapproval stain his blue-green eyes until she thought it would be easier just to turn around and take it all back. She pressed a hand to her stomach as her muscles tightened in a full-on revolt. Warren would not understand her letting her personal feelings get in the way of an assignment as big as this. He would be furious—questioning his decision to give it to her.
Standing there, watching the waves roll into shore, the surf rougher this morning after last night’s storm, remembering how slowly, how exquisitely Matteo had made love to her, using his body as an instrument of pleasure, not punishment as Julian had done, she knew she had the answer to her question. She would do it a million times over. She felt as if she had truly honored her feelings for the first time in her life.
Quinn raked her hair away from her face with an unsteady movement. It wasn’t as if she was ignoring the fact that she’d just made the career-limiting move of all career-limiting moves. It’s just that the emptiness wasn’t enough anymore. She’d had enough of it for a lifetime.
More troublesome, really, was who she’d just shared her soul with. Matteo De Campo, whose attention span with a female lasted about as long as his perusal of the morning paper.
She squeezed her eyes shut and breathed in the fragrance of frangipani, gardenia and magnolia. Matteo had said he wouldn’t have sex with her, he would only make love to her. But he didn’t love her. He lusted after her. And therein lay the real foolishness of last night’s actions.
If you were smart, you didn’t wait until Matteo ended an affair with you. You got out first before you were burned. Made a timely exit so the memories were good and the heart was intact.
The humid blanket of air bore down on her. She looked longingly at the clear, turquoise water. Maybe a swim would cool her overheated brain.
* * *
Matteo woke to an empty bed and an urge for a woman that would have been disconcerting if he hadn’t been wondering where in God’s name she was. Followed closely by the even more disturbing reality that he had well and truly crossed the line this time and there was no going back.
A throbbing pressure filled his head. Expanded in his skull until it drove him from the bed and onto the cool tile to look for Quinn. It was like déjà vu, her being gone like this again, except this time everything was different. This time he hadn’t slept with Quinn Davis in a self-medicating, over-the-edge fashion. He had made a conscious decision to be with her. To honor his emotions for her which ran so deep into uncharted territory he didn’t care to contemplate them at the moment.
He pulled on his boxers and strode out onto the terrace, but it, too, was empty. Where would she have gone at just after six in the morning? Was she coming down from the high of last night and realizing what she’d done?
He winced as his head throbbed. There were consequences for both of them. Extreme consequences. He was going to have to tell Riccardo what he’d done, and it wasn’t going to be pretty. But he couldn’t do it until Quinn told the board, he knew the lay of the land and he had all his ducks in order. His brother would not see it as the complex situation it was. He would see it as history repeating itself in the worst, most reckless fashion possible. Matteo playing with another multimillion-dollar deal that could make De Campo’s decade.
