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Daniele slid a hand beneath her chin and tilted her face up. His amber eyes blazed, but no longer with anger. ‘It was dangerous for you to come to my room,’ he said thickly.
Paloma was trembling, but not from fear. It was the way Daniele was staring at her as if he wanted to devour her. ‘There was no intruder and no danger,’ she whispered.
He lowered his head, and she felt his warm breath graze her cheek. ‘I am the danger,cara,’ he warned her before he claimed her mouth in a kiss of savage possession.
CHAPTER TEN
PALOMAWASSOBEAUTIFUL, and he was coming apart at the seams. He had held it together for years, since he was a kid, but now Daniele found himself wanting things he’d told himself he could not have and did not deserve. He had been haunted by the belief that his life should have been taken instead of Gino’s. Two children had grown up fatherless, but nobody would have cared if he had died in Afghanistan.
His grandmother had been dead by then, but instead of leaving his mother’s letters for him to read, she had arranged for her deception to continue after her death. He did not understand why Nonna Elsa had prevented his mother from contacting him, and his sense of betrayal felt as if he’d been shot through the heart. Thank God that Paloma had tricked him into meeting Claudia Farnesi.
He broke the kiss and studied his wife. His. Indisputably. She had given herself to him and he felt possessive and something else a lot more complicated that he dared not define. Paloma was light in the darkness. The only person he had confided in about how his mother had abandoned him as a child—or so he’d been led to believe. And now because of Paloma the tight bands that had wrapped around his heart twenty-seven years ago were loosening.
Daniele stared into her eyes, the intense blue of lapis lazuli.Dio, she had feared he was being attacked by an intruder and had rushed to save him, armed with a flowerpot. What astonished him the most was that Paloma believed he was worth saving. For the first time since he was five years old, he wondered if maybe she could be right.
‘I want to make love to you,’ he told her softly, aware of an odd sensation in his chest when she blushed.
‘You were angry when you discovered it was my first time with you,’ she said in a low voice. ‘I assumed it was the reason we are sleeping in separate rooms.’
He sighed. ‘I was angry with myself. I had no idea you were so innocent, and if I’d known, I would have been gentler. I thought you might need time to recover, and I didn’t want you to feel under pressure to sleep with me.’
‘You didn’t hurt me.’ Her tongue darted over her lips. ‘I liked having sex with you.’
Dio!Did she have any idea how gorgeous she was with a pink flush on her lovely face and her mouth slightly parted in an invitation that made Daniele’s heart thunder in his chest? ‘This time will be even better,’ he promised. And set about proving it.
He pushed away the sheet and heard her indrawn breath when she saw how aroused he was. She’d had that effect on him for years, and suddenly it was important that he was honest with her.
‘Three years ago, I kissed you back because I couldn’t resist you,’ he said gruffly. ‘I had been aware of you all that summer when you were an intern, and I found myself making excuses to visit whichever department you were working in at Morante Group’s headquarters. At the ball you looked stunning and sophisticated in a sexy dress, and I couldn’t take my eyes off you.’
‘If that’s true, why did you push me away after one kiss?’
‘I knew you’d had too much champagne.’ He hesitated. ‘I also knew that you saw me as Prince Charming, which I certainly am not. You had hopes and expectations that I couldn’t fulfil. I still can’t.’ It was only fair to warn her.
Something flickered on her face, but it was gone in a flash and her eyes met his gaze steadily. ‘You haven’t a clue what my hopes are. I don’t think I even know any more.’ She gave a rueful smile. ‘My priority is to take my place as head of Morante Group and the charity foundation, as my grandfather wanted me to do. It’s why I married you. In my experience, expectations inevitably lead to disappointment,’ she said drily.
Daniele should have been relieved by her words, but bizarrely he wished he could be the man who helped her to realise her dreams. But there was one way he could be certain he would not disappoint her. He caught hold of the hem of her nightgown and pulled it up over her head. Her long hair spilled over her breasts. He threaded his fingers through the silken strands and spread her hair across the pillows before he bent his head and drew one dusky pink nipple into his mouth.
She gave a low cry and arched towards him as his fingers played with her other nipple. Paloma had given him a precious gift, and he wanted to show his appreciation and wonder that she had chosen him in the only way he knew how. This was all for her and, even though his body ached for release, his sole focus was on her pleasure. He claimed her mouth in a slow, sensual kiss and then trailed tender kisses over her throat and décolletage, working his way down her body until he reached the vee of tight chestnut curls at the junction of her thighs.
‘Daniele?’ she whispered uncertainly.
‘Trust me,piccola.’ He spread her legs wider and settled himself between them, and then he put his mouth on the sweetest part of her and used his tongue to give her the most intimate caress of all.
She trembled and curled her fingers into his hair, but she didn’t try to pull him away and her husky cries were music to his ears.She was his.The words beat inside his head and his heart, and he did not know what to make of them.
‘I’m going to...’ She gasped and shook as she climaxed against his mouth. When Daniele lifted his head, he knew he would never see a more beautiful sight than Paloma spread in front of him, her creamy skin and those rosy nipples that fascinated him, her eyes, wide and intensely blue, and her face flushed with sexual heat. His. And he made her so again, quickly donning protection before he positioned himself over her and surged into her.
It felt as if his shaft were encased in a tight velvet glove. It was the only place he wanted to be. He slipped his hands beneath her bottom and angled her hips so that he could drive deeper, and each thrust took them higher. But he made himself wait, although it nearly killed him. Only when Paloma sobbed his name, and he felt the ripples of her orgasm clench around him, did his control shatter and he followed her over the edge.
When he surfaced a lifetime later, she was still there, his wife, her gorgeous body wrapped around him and her head resting on his chest. Paloma was there beside him, and for the first time in his life, Daniele felt at peace.
Paloma opened her eyes to find sunshine streaming through the open blind. For a while she lay still and watched dust motes floating in the golden light. She had spent the night in Daniele’s bed, and they had made love twice more before falling asleep. Now she was alone, and the doubts that she’d ignored last night crowded her mind.
Sleeping with him had been a bad idea, but it had been inevitable after he’d admitted that he had desired her when she had been a twenty-one-year-old intern. Three years ago, he’d correctly assessed that she could not have handled an affair and he couldn’t live up to the romantic ideal she’d had of him. Now they were married, but romance played no part in their marriage bargain.
Daniele had left her to wake up alone. Maybe he was worried that she was still the girl who had worn her heart on her sleeve, even though he had made it clear that all he could offer was great sex. She was determined not to appear needy.
She would always need him. The thought slid into her mind and refused to budge. Daniele had been a reassuring presence in the background of her life since she was a teenager. He was the only person she had cried in front of after her father had been killed because she hadn’t wanted to upset her grandfather even more with her grief. Daniele had comforted her, and he had been her ally and protector when she’d needed him.
