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‘Please stop or I won’t be able to...to...’
‘To come against my finger?’ Mateo asked huskily and she nodded, face burning as she sped towards the point of no return. Their eyes tangled and he kissed her, a thorough, heated kiss while he continued doing what he was doing, bringing her to the peak of satisfaction until she spasmed in an orgasm that took her away.
Mateo let her cool down. He was so turned on, it was a physical ache. He forced himself to go slow, built himself up bit by bit in stages, stilling her hand when she wanted to touch him because he knew that, if she did, he would go the way she just had, and he wanted to be deep inside her for his release.
Maude’s body was so in tune with his.Shefelt so in tune withhim. She didn’t understand how that was possible. She didn’t get how he could make her feel so comfortable, so uninhibited, when everything inside her said it should be just the opposite.
She stroked him, she let him take his time, murmuring into his ear; and, when he reached for protection from the bedside drawer, she was blossoming once again inside, yearning for him, her body tingling all over.
He took her to heights she’d never imagined possible. Her fingers dug into his back as she writhed under him and, when he came, arching up and straining with the force of his orgasm, she followed shortly after.
Spent, she flipped onto her back and stared up at the ceiling.
‘Regrets?’
She turned when he asked this to find him looking at her with brooding intensity.
‘No.’
‘Sure?’
‘I’m not a kid, Mateo. I’m good at following through when I’ve made my mind up about something.’
‘I know.’ He smiled. ‘Just for the record, no regrets from me either.’
‘I guess I should head back to my room—or we could go downstairs and have something to eat. It’s still quite early.’
‘I’m relieved you didn’t suggest doing some work.’
‘Am I that boring?’ Her voice was light but there was hurt underlying it. He wasn’t to know thatworkwas the wall she had built around herself to protect her from the slings and arrows of doubt and uncertainty. It always had been.
‘Anything but.’ He smiled and tucked her hair behind her ear, then left his hand there to cup her cheek. ‘You can try as hard as you like to duck behind that professional mask you enjoy wearing, but I’ve seen behind that mask now and the woman there is the least boring woman I’ve ever known.’
Maude reddened.
‘I don’t duck behind anything...’ she protested, but feebly, and his eyebrows shot up.
‘Don’t you? I think, whenever you’re confronted with anything you find a little too much out of your comfort zone, you revert to work because that’s your safe place. I’m not sure you even realise it, Maude. Perhaps it’s a habit that’s become so ingrained that it’s part of you, but maybe it’s stopped you from the business of going with the flow and seeing what happens next.’
‘There’s such a thing as doing too much of thatgoing with the flowstuff,’ Maude muttered uncomfortably, because he had hit the nail on the head, and he burst out laughing.
‘My darling, you’re so very right.’
Which for some reason made her feel very good inside. He added casually, ‘Now that we’re engaged...and these are my personal thoughts, to be shot down in flames if you so wish... I think we should carry on with what we have here.’
But for how long...?
This was what Maude thought as she lounged back in her chair, Mateo next to her, both sipping iced coffee and people-watching, backs to the bustling chi-chi café as they looked at the people coming and going.
Both were behind dark sunglasses.
Undoubtedly, he looked considerably more sophisticated than her, his skin burnished bronzed from the time spent under Tuscan skies. She noticed how people, both men and women, slid sideways glances at him when they walked past, as though wondering whether he was famous, whether they should recognise him behind those dark sunglasses.
‘This is the longest I’ve ever been out of an office for a while,’he had confessed only the night before, lying in bed after a session of passionate sex.
They had only been in Tuscany for ten days, and it beggared belief how little time he seemed to spend relaxing.
But he was relaxing now. So was she—bliss. She was enjoying the heat of the sun and the pleasure of being in Siena, sitting in a mediaeval square surrounded by buildings that looked as though they had been there since time immemorial, all of them weathered and the colour of faded, water-coloured sepia, each so exquisitely fashioned that it was a feast for the eye.
