Font Size:  

And Raffaele was perfectly capable of doing something stupid to break himself out of the marriage he felt trapped in. It wasn’t the confinement of the apartment that was making him feel cooped up; no, it was the constraint he had put himself under since she had left the hospital.

‘I’ll text,’ Sal breathed curtly.

‘I promise I won’t tell him how I found out,’ Maya murmured gratefully.

Within minutes the text came, naming a fashionable nightclub that Raffaele owned. And as Maya headed for her room, a voice was screaming in her head that she couldn’t do this, couldn’t run after him, couldn’t force a showdown because that wasn’t the dignified way to deal with a husband who didn’t want to be a husband any more, who had probably never wanted to be a husband even at the start. But as stubborn, defiant and tough as Raffaele was, he was also stillherhusband.

Maya cursed as she rampaged through her elegant and restrained wardrobe because in the mood she was in, she didn’t want elegant and restrained. She dug out the outfit Raffaele had bought for her that first day and wrinkled her nose at the leather and lace corset top and the tight skirt before throwing both items out onto the bed. If that was what he liked, that was what he was getting, she decided, pulling out sky-high heels and hold-up stockings before heading into the bathroom to do her face.

She needed todosomething, not sit around wringing her hands being passive and letting Raffaele make all the major decisions. She was smart, she was strong and he did do crazy impulsive things, so she had to look out for him even if that meant sticking out a foot and tripping him up hard when he threatened to go in the wrong direction. He also needed to learn that she didn’t play games, didn’t close her eyes to avoid seeing what she didn’t want to see and that she wouldn’t dance around the truth when it came to laying down her boundaries.

When Raffaele saw Maya moving towards him in the club, his own security clearing a path through the crush for her benefit, he momentarily thought he was imagining her. How could Maya have found him? Why would she have followed him and why the heck would she be dressed in a way that was decidedly not her style? For some reason she was also sporting enough diamonds to sink a battleship. Maya, who was no fan of conspicuous consumption or showing off his wealth.

The short skirt put her outrageously long legs out on prominent display, legs that were incredibly shapely from slim knee to delicate ankle. Her round small breasts were swelling over the edge of the corset top in a most provocative show and Raffaele hated that he couldn’t drag his eyes from her. With her hair draped like a sheet of pale satin down her slender back and framing her beautiful face, her green eyes were glittering as brightly as the diamonds in her ears and at her throat, her sultry peach-tinted lips slightly parted. And he knew right then, if he had ever had any doubt, why not a single woman who had approached him had contrived to awaken his interest. No man went happily from a woman who was a hundred out of ten in the desirability stakes and readily settled for less. In the seconds it took Maya to reach him, Raffaele’s slumbering libido raced from zero to sixty, making his heart pound and his trousers tighten.

Rage shot through Maya the instant she saw Raffaele. He wasn’t alone in his VIP velvet-upholstered booth, which was cordoned off from the rest of common humanity. Of course, he wasn’t by himself, not a lone billionaire on the prowl for company. And when it came to company, Raffaele was surrounded by glamorous options. A half-naked redhead with all the chest development that Maya lacked was lounging up against the side of the booth trying to chat him up while stroking his arm, arching her spine back to ensure that her assets jiggled with her every excited breath. An exotic brunette was coiled sinuously up with a giggling blonde on the seat beside him. Maya wasn’t quite sure whether they were with Raffaele or with each other, but it didn’t matter, he was still breaking rules.

As far as Maya was concerned, he wasn’t allowed within twenty feet of a gaggle of sexy, beautiful women without her around or at the very least her permission. And no way was she giving him permission, not while they were married. The cordon was released to allow her free passage and Maya planted herself directly in front of Raffaele. ‘Get rid of your friends,’ she instructed quietly. ‘Unless you want an audience to what I have to say.’

Spellbound by her belligerent attitude, Raffaele dealt her a slow, assessing smile and dismissed the company he had gathered. ‘Madonna mia...To what do I owe the honour,bellezza mia?’

‘I wouldn’t take that tone unless you want to be drenched by a drink,’ Maya bent down to say.

Raffaele snaked out both arms and tumbled her bodily down on his lap. Maya fought that repositioning, which put her in a more submissive position, and wrenched herself over him instead, her tight skirt ripping at the split in the back as she knelt across him, green eyes angry and determined.

‘What’s the problem?’ Raffaele asked, carefully smoothing down the torn skirt as best he could because he didn’t want anyone else catching even a glimpse of her panties or her stocking tops.

Maya looked into gleaming golden eyes and spoke from the heart. ‘We’re married. You’re exclusively mine and you’re breaking the rules.’

‘We don’t have any rules now,’ Raffaele argued tightly, struggling to suppress the bold arousal her behaviour had induced, wondering if there was a streak of crazy in his bloodline because he was finding her take-no-prisoners public confrontation the sexiest move ever.You’re exclusively mine.Why did that outrageous statement turn him on even harder and faster? When had he ever wanted to belong to any woman?

‘You only get your freedom back if I’m pregnant,’ Maya reminded him. ‘And I’mnotpregnant!’

Sheer unvarnished shock reverberated through Raffaele’s big powerful frame.

‘And you’re in default in this marriage contract too,’ Maya added informatively. ‘You’re not eventryingto get me pregnant.’

‘In default? That’s an...interesting take on the situation,’ Raffaele conceded, seriously stunned by the dialogue. ‘I wasn’t aware that any further “trying”couldstill be on the agenda. In fact, for the first time ever with a woman, I was attempting to do the decent thing.’

‘I don’twantdecent. I don’twantapologies or pep talks or excuses from you. I want a baby,’ Maya interposed bluntly. ‘It’s very simple.’

‘Your grandfather can keep his technology company. I’m walking away from this unholy mess. I started it and I’m finishing it,’ Raffaele stressed in a driven undertone.

‘No, you’re not. You don’t get to make this decision for me. I still want a baby...yourbaby. Business doesn’t come into this for me,’ Maya protested. ‘That company has nothing to do with this any more. Try to keep up, Raffaele...you’re falling behind. If you try to walk away without fulfilling your obligations to me—’

‘Obligations?’ Raffaele growled.

Maya laced possessive fingers into his tousled black hair and ground down slowly onto his lap, discovering with secret satisfaction as she met the hard thrust of his arousal why he had been holding her off him. He wanted her, he was just fighting the urge and striving to hide his susceptibility from her.

He had married her, made her fall in love with him and given her a baby she had miscarried. Then in the aftermath, when she was at her most vulnerable, he had suddenly backed off, cruelly cutting the connection he had taught her to crave. Now all her hormones were in uproar and she wanted stuff she shouldn’t want but couldn’t help wanting. She loved him, she wanted him, oh, dear heaven, did shewanthim, and she also wanted another baby. Not as a replacement, because she would never forget the child she had lost, but she needed a child she could hold in her heart as part of them both after he had ended their marriage.

Big hands framed her hectically flushed face. ‘That’sreallywhat you want most?’

Her eyes stung with tears, but she blinked them back fiercely, a feverish glitter in her green eyes. What she wanted most was his love but that wasn’t a very likely development and she was willing to settle for the best she could get. Slowly she nodded in silent serious confirmation.

Raffaele crushed her soft mouth under his and kissed her breathless. And holy hell, he could kiss, she acknowledged.

Her heart was hammering so hard he could feel it against his chest. The hunger flooding him was overwhelming, almost unbearable in its intensity. This wasn’t what he had signed up for but giving Maya what she wanted most was what he wanted to do. That felt right, all of a sudden continuing their marriage felt right instead of wrong to him and he consigned every other concern to hell. He had overthought stuff, reached the wrong conclusions, somehow forced her to come to him with a demand. But if it put Maya back in his bed, did she really think he had been likely to argue? And why, underneath the seething hunger he was experiencing, did he feel hollow, even disappointed, when he should be on a high?

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
Articles you may like