Castellano's Mistress of Revenge (7 page)

Marc felt a frown pull at his brow as he sat watching her. The sunlight on her blonde hair highlighted its naturalness, the soft waves framing her face making her look like an angel. He had missed the sound of her voice. He hadn't realised until now how much. She had a softly spoken voice, her fluency with foreign languages giving her a cultured accent that was mesmerising to listen to. She could have read her way through the phone book and he would have gladly sat and listened for hours.

He gave himself a mental shake and took a deep sip of his coffee. ‘Perhaps you are right,' he said. ‘But then opposites attract. Like us,
sì
?'

‘You seem more intent on attacking me than attracting me,' she put in with a testy look.

Marc put his cup back down, his mouth tightening at her jibe. The truth was he was deeply ashamed of how he had inadvertently hurt her by kissing her so savagely.

‘I don't suppose people will take our reconciliation very seriously if we are forever sniping at each other,' he said, offering her a croissant.

She pushed the basket back towards him. ‘No, thank you,' she said. ‘I just want coffee for now.'

‘You haven't even touched it.'

‘I'm waiting for it to cool down.'

‘You should eat something,' he said. ‘You look thinner than when we were together five years ago.'

She gave him a flinty look. ‘Yes, well, after the little strip show you insisted on last night you could probably calculate my weight to the nearest gram.'

Marc suppressed a smile at the memory which had kept him awake for hours last night. He had enjoyed every second of seeing her in just her bra and knickers and he couldn't wait to see her in even less. ‘I know it is supposedly fashionable to be bone-thin, but personally I like a little flesh to hold on to,' he said.

She rolled her eyes in disdain. ‘If you think I am going to stuff myself full of sugar and fat just to please you then you will be waiting a long time.'

‘Are you on the Pill?'

Ava blinked at him, hastily trying to reorient herself before she answered. ‘Yes, not that it's any of your business.'

He gave her a smouldering look. ‘Soon will be,
cara
. We have a deal, remember?'

Ava crossed her legs and her arms, but even so her body still felt as if it had been set alight with longing. Just thinking about him making love to her made her skin tingle from the base of her spine to the roots of her hair. ‘You can hardly force yourself on me,' she pointed out.

He gave her a knowing smile. ‘I don't think there will be any chance of that being an issue for two
reasons. The first is I do not believe in forcing a woman to have sex with me, and the second is you are just as attracted to me as I am to you. That is one thing that hasn't changed in the five years we have been apart.'

Ava shifted agitatedly in her chair. ‘You're imagining it. I hate you. I detest every minute I have to spend with you.'

His mouth curved upwards into a lazy smile. ‘Then perhaps the sooner we make love and get it over with the better,
sì
? Who knows? Perhaps I will be bored by you within a week or two.'

‘I wish,' she muttered.

He reached across the table and took her wrist in his hand, his fingers overlapping her fragile form, reminding her yet again of how outclassed she was in trying to win a single battle with him, let alone the war. His eyes burned as they held hers, searing her to the core. ‘I think it's time you stopped playing games with me, Ava,' he said. ‘I know what you are doing. All those little secrets and lies are for a purpose, are they not?'

Ava gritted her teeth as she pulled out of his hold. ‘I am not playing any games. If anyone is guilty of that it is you, blackmailing me back into your life the way you have.'

He gave her a contemptuous look as he rose from the table. ‘You can leave any minute you wish, Ava,' he said. ‘But if you go you will not be taking a penny or a single possession with you. All you will be taking is a folder full of bills your husband left unpaid. Do I make myself clear?'

She sat fuming at him, stubbornly refusing to
answer, hating him with such intensity she was practically shaking all over with it.

‘I said, do I make myself clear?' he barked at her.

Ava rose to her feet in one stiff, angry movement which toppled her chair backwards onto the terrace tiles. ‘Don't you dare raise your voice at me!' she said, glaring at him.

Celeste came running at the sound of the chair crashing to the ground, but Marc sent her away with a look that would have stopped an express train in its tracks.

He turned back to Ava once the housemaid had scuttled away, his eyes still flashing their ire. ‘This is not how I wish our relationship to be conducted,' he said, lowering his voice with an obvious effort. ‘You will learn respect if I have to spend every hour of every day teaching you.'

Ava curled her top lip at him, even though she knew it was likely to stoke his anger towards her. ‘How is our relationship going to be conducted, then?' she asked. ‘With you insulting me at every turn, calling me every vilifying name you can think of as if you've never put a foot wrong in your life. Your hypocrisy is nauseating. You've made plenty of mistakes, Marc. The difference is you won't admit to them.'

When she moved past him to leave the terrace Marc let her go without a word. He picked up the lukewarm coffee and took a sip, frowning heavily as he looked at the sparkling blue water of the ocean below.

A
VA
spent the rest of the morning in her room, filling in time by sorting through her wardrobe, a task that she could just as easily have assigned to Celeste, but she wanted the mental space of a menial activity to calm her restive mind.

When she came downstairs for a light lunch Celeste informed her Marc had left the villa and would not be back until dinner. Ava felt her tense shoulders and the tight band around her head instantly relax.

The heat of the day drove Ava out to the infinity pool Douglas had installed in the terraced gardens at the back of the villa. It was one of Ava's favourite spots, for the screen of the shrubs gave her a sense of privacy as she swam lap after lap. The sun was warm, but the water spilling over her with each stroke she took felt like cool silk, the sensual glide of her body through the water making her feel weightless and free.

She wasn't quite sure of when she first realised she was no longer alone. At first it was just a prickling-at-the-back-of-the-neck sensation that she was being watched, but when she stopped at the end of the pool
she could see no sign of anyone about. However, it was on her last lap that she noticed Marc sitting on one of the sun loungers, looking magnificently male in nothing but his black close-fitting bathers. Every muscle of his abdomen looked as if it had been carved from dark marble. Not a gram of excess flesh was on him anywhere. She could see he was no stranger to the discipline of regular and hard exercise. If anything, he was looking even fitter and leaner than he had in the past.

‘You swim well,' he said, lifting his sunglasses to prop them just above his hairline.

‘Thank you,' she said and, using the steps at the side of the pool, came out of the water, trying not to feel self-conscious in her bikini.

She felt Marc's eyes on her as she went to the other sun lounger, where she had left her towel, the heat of his gaze warming her far more than the late-afternoon sun. She used her towel like a sarong around her body before she faced him. ‘Celeste told me you weren't coming back to the villa until later this evening.'

He placed his hands behind his head as he stretched out on the lounger, the action making every carved contour of his biceps bulge with latent strength. ‘I finished the business I had to see to earlier than expected,' he said.

Ava narrowed her gaze as she stalled in the process of wringing out her wet hair over her shoulder. ‘Were you checking up on me by any chance?' she asked.

He crossed his ankles in an indolent manner, his dark eyes still roving her form so thoroughly she felt her skin prickle all over with sensory awareness. ‘Were you thinking of an escape route?' he countered.

Ava pursed her lips, letting the damp rope of her hair go. ‘Is there one I could use that would succeed?'

He smiled a confident smile. ‘No.' He leaned back even farther in the lounger. ‘I have thought of everything,
cara
. You have no choice but to stay with me or face the consequences of your late husband's debts.'

Ava tightened her towel around her body. ‘If I am to be shackled to you indefinitely I would like something to do to fill my time,' she said. ‘While I was…' she hesitated ever so briefly over her choice of word ‘…living with Douglas I helped him with some aspects of the business.'

Marc rose from the lounger, dropping his sunglasses back over his eyes. ‘You can't have been keeping too close an eye on them, otherwise you would have seen the way things were and left him and his sinking ship long ago,' he remarked.

Ava felt her heart give a little flutter as he stepped closer. She had no way of escaping unless she stepped backwards into the pool. ‘Th-that's because towards the end when he became ill I left things to his accountants and business manager and instead looked after him myself.'

‘Why didn't you leave him while you had the chance, or didn't he give you a choice?'

‘It might surprise you, but yes, he did give me a choice, but I felt I owed it to him to stay,' she said. ‘He had no one else. He wasn't close to his children, which he regretted deeply. I felt sorry for him. He didn't want to die alone.'

Although Ava couldn't see Marc's eyes on account of his sunglasses, she could feel the cynicism of his
gaze all the same. ‘You expect me to believe you personally nursed him?' he asked.

Ava lifted her chin. ‘It was the least I could do. After all, he had been very good to me.'

‘Oh, yes,' he said with a lift of one side of his mouth. ‘He was very good to you indeed. He apparently paid you a minor fortune, didn't he? Where is it now, Ava? Where is all the money he paid you over the years?'

Ava felt a footstep of unease press on the base of her spine. ‘That is none of your business,' she said, instinctively stepping backwards, momentarily forgetting the body of water behind her.

She teetered for a nanosecond before Marc took her by the upper arms, his fingers warm and firm against her flesh. Her towel slipped to the pool deck, but Ava hardly noticed; she was far too aware of how close he was to her body and how hers was responding to him as if she had no choice in the matter. Her breasts pushed against her bikini top, the sensitive nipples tight with the ache to feel him touch her. Her hips were within touching distance of his, the temptation to press herself against him and feel his hardness was almost unbearable.

‘Large amounts of money have been going from your account to your sister's in London,' Marc said. ‘Do you want to tell me what that money was for or should I have someone investigate it for me at the risk of causing embarrassment to your sister or her husband or both?'

She glared up at him with stormy grey-blue eyes. ‘How dare you invade my privacy, not to mention my sister's, like that?'

His fingers tightened as she tried to sidestep his hold. Anger was on her side, however, and somehow he misjudged his footwork. With a tangle of limbs Marc found himself falling, taking Ava with him into the open blue mouth of the pool.

She came up spluttering, her arms flailing at him in fury, knocking his sunglasses off in the process. ‘You did that on purpose, you…you…beast!'

Marc captured her wrists and pulled her up against his body, his blood surging to his groin as soon as her pelvis rammed against his. Her body felt like silk against his, soft and sensual, her limbs curling around his to keep herself afloat. He took advantage of every sweet moment, relishing in the feel of her mound against the press of his erection. She was fighting herself rather than him, he realised with an inward smile of satisfaction. He could feel it in the way her body pressed and pushed against him simultaneously, as if she resented what she was feeling but wanted it anyway. In the end he made it easy for her—he bent his head and his mouth swooped down to cover hers, his tongue delving deeply to bring hers to submission.

Within seconds she melted with a sigh, her tongue dancing with his, her arms lacing around his neck as he nudged her to the edge of the pool where it was shallow enough to stand. He stood with his thighs apart, her slim form fitting perfectly against him, her mouth hot and wet and urgent under the heated pressure and exploration of his.

The blood roared in his veins, thundering in his ears until all he could think about was sinking into her slick velvet warmth. He had wanted to wait, to have her
begging for him, not the other way around, but his body was on fire with flames of need so intense he could feel them licking at him with long tongues of blistering heat. His whole body throbbed with it, the powerful attraction he had always felt for her seemed to have intensified now he finally had her in his arms. He had never been so close to losing control, or at least not since he was a hormone-charged teenager. The thought of exploding within her, feeling her convulsing around him made his blood sizzle as it raced through him. He ached with the pressure, the need so great he moved against her softness, searching for her, his spine tingling as she responded by whimpering with desire.

Ava felt the tiled lip of the pool at her back as Marc's body pressed against her searchingly, the heady, probing thrust of his arousal turning her bones to liquid. Her mouth was still locked beneath the mind-blowing passion of his, her hands threading through the wet thickness of his hair, her legs no longer touching the bottom of the pool but curled around the hair-roughened length of his.

‘I want you,' he growled against her mouth as he deftly untied the strings of her bikini top. ‘Damn, it but I want you.'

Ava was vaguely aware of her top floating away as Marc's hands cupped her already peaking flesh. She gasped as his mouth covered hers again, her inner core beating with a pulse that was as strong as it was exigent. His tongue stroked and stabbed at hers simultaneously, making her breath catch with anticipation. Her heart raced with excitement, the sheer thrill of being in his arms again was beyond what she had imagined it would
be. There was more heat, more urgency and more passion than ever before as kiss was exchanged for kiss, their teeth and tongues duelling until Ava had no idea who was in control any more.

Her hands left his hair and went to the cord of his bathers, untying it blindly as her mouth burned against his. She felt him spring into her hands as he stepped out of the bathers, the length of him heavy and hot with lust. She stroked him under the water, the rhythmic action as natural to her as breathing in spite of the five long years that had passed. She knew what he liked, how hard, how soft, how fast and how far she could go until he would check her movements before he lost control. She loved the feel of him; he was so strong and yet so vulnerable like this.

When he untied the strings of her bikini at her hips Ava drew in another little hitching breath of excitement. There would be no going back now. She could feel it in his body as it thrummed with need against hers. They had never made love in the water before. It was such a sensuous experience, the hint of the forbidden about it only adding to the allure.

She opened to him like a flower, gasping as he drove into her so thickly her back grazed the tiles of the pool. Her body clamped around him, waves of pleasure tingling through her with each deep thrust he gave. There was something so primal about his lovemaking; the pounding urgency of it made it her pulse soar. He was rough and fast, but she was with him all the way. Her body was humming with sensation as he drove harder and harder. She felt that delicious tight little ache start low and deep, the tight pearl of tension that needed just that little bit more friction for release to come.

She wriggled against him instinctively, wantonly, recklessly as she felt herself reach the summit of human sensation. She bit down on his shoulder to block her gasping cries of ecstasy, shuddering and convulsing as his body continued to pump within hers.

As she floated down from the heights of pleasure she heard him suck in a harsh breath before he gave a series of hard grunts as he spilled into her, his body tight as whipcord, his muscles clenched beneath her clinging fingers.

She felt him sag against her momentarily before he stepped back from her, raking a hand through his wet hair, his dark eyes briefly meeting hers before looking away.

‘I'm sorry,' he said. ‘That was not meant to happen, or at least not without protection.'

Ava gathered her pride, no easy feat when both pieces of her bikini were floating at the other end of the pool like an ill-formed octopus. How had she let herself be used by him? Where was her self-control? He had proved what her place in his life was going to be: as a sexual plaything he could access whenever he felt like it and she had given him every reason now to think she was more than willing to participate. She hadn't even had the presence of mind to insist he use protection. Didn't that prove how wanton he thought her to be? ‘Wasn't it your intention to show me my place?' she asked with a flinty glare.

The space between his dark brows narrowed. ‘Ava, this was always going to happen,' he said, brushing his wet hair back again, his chest still rising and falling as his breathing slowly returned to normal. ‘Maybe it
would have been wiser to have done it indoors and with less haste, but that's not something that can be changed. I will make it up to you right now. Let's go inside and I'll show you.'

She threw him a withering look before turning and climbing out of the pool. ‘No, thank you,' she said, snatching up her towel off the deck and wrapping it around herself tightly.

Marc vaulted out of the water and stopped her with a hand on her arm. ‘Wait, Ava,' he said crossly, although he was annoyed with himself more than her. He had caught sight of a graze on her back, a reddened patch that made him feel ashamed of himself for losing control. ‘Let me see your back. It looks like it's sore.'

She tried to slap his hand away. ‘Get away from me. It's obvious what I'm here for—your pleasure, in any way and any place and any time you like it. Douglas might have had his faults, but he never once made me feel the way you have just done.'

Marc felt each of her words hit him like lethally aimed arrows, but he kept his expression mask-like. ‘You felt pleasure too, Ava, or are you going to deny it just to spite me, hmm?'

She threw him an icy glare. ‘Think what you like. I might have been pretending for all you know.'

Marc chuckled at her spirited defiance. ‘Then that was a pretty amazing performance, Ava.' He rubbed a hand over the indentation her teeth had made on his shoulder. ‘But I know your body and I know an orgasm when I feel it, both yours and mine.'

Her eyes glittered with hatred, her body almost vibrating with the effort of containing her anger, but he
wondered if she was furious with him or with herself for responding to him so unrestrainedly. Perhaps she had wanted to insult his pride by withholding her pleasure, but it had been such a powerfully explosive moment it had taken her by surprise, just as it had him. God knew, his body was still humming with the aftershocks of having her in his arms again. He couldn't wait to repeat the experience, time and time again.