Revenge (28 page)

“Ah.” He smiled, his heart beating at a fast
clip. He leaned toward her. “Were you thinking we should?”

She nodded, the red of her cheeks deepening,
spreading to her throat. “I was.”

“After you kissed me, you were all I could
think about in the car.”

She looked up at him then. He didn’t
hesitate. He took her face in both hands and brushed his lips
against hers, feeling their plump softness. She gave a little
whimper and threaded her fingers through his hair, her mouth
opening under his. He licked the bottom edge of her top lip,
pleased when her tongue finally reached out to his. Her touch was
unsure, shy, but increasingly bold as they continued to kiss. This
Kate, this demure creature, was new to him, and he wondered at the
change in her. Once again, he wished he’d killed Vincenzo Andretti
the first time they’d met.

They parted after some minutes, both
breathing hard. Her hair had fallen into her face, and he pushed it
back, so he could look at her. “What brought this on?” he murmured,
amused and deeply happy.

She smiled and looked straight into his eyes.
“I realized I don’t want to go home.” She said it lightly, softly,
but he could see the depth of emotion behind it. It wasn’t “I love
you,” but in a way, it was much, much more.

“I am glad to hear you say that,
cara
.” Perhaps, at last, he’d whittled a hole in her
armor.

Kate’s smile widened at the endearment.
Cara
. She liked the sound of it, his voice husky and sweet
when he spoke.

His eyes moved down to her lips. She lay back
against the cushions and he moved over her, pressing the length of
his body against hers. He kissed her harder this time, his touch
more urgent, and she could feel the bulge of his erection pushing
into her hip. He was too close, too heavy, too large. Her breath
caught, and an unfamiliar wave of anxiety crashed through her,
making her heart thrash against her ribs like a bird trying to
escape a cage. Panting, she pushed on his chest, needing space.

“Kate, what is wrong?” He shifted so he was
sitting on the coffee table in front of the couch.

She sat up and shook her head. “I don’t know.
I just felt… crushed.”

“We don’t have to do this now. It’s enough to
know you want to. When you’re ready.”

Her eyes grew hot with tears. Vince wasn’t
going to win, he wasn’t going to haunt her. “I
am
ready.”
She forced the words out, forced her voice to be steady.

“You don’t look it.” He leaned forward and
took her hands in his.

“Just… go slow.”

“
Cara
.” He turned one of her hands up,
kissing the palm, sending a tingle across her skin. He took her
face in his hands again, his thumbs stroking her cheeks, his eyes
locked onto hers. His lips hovered over her mouth for a moment,
then he feathered delicate kisses along its length, like a
butterfly fluttering over a bloom. When she let out a sigh of
pleasure, he put a few millimeters between them, his warm breath
washing over her skin when he spoke. “You are certain?”

She nodded, not able to say it. It wasn’t
just the roiling in her gut that stole her voice. Her desire for
him meant so much more to her now, and she was afraid he’d hear it
if she spoke, that he’d know the power he had over her. That he
would know how badly he could hurt her.

And yet, what had she been doing but trying
to seduce him since he’d walked into the room? And then pushing him
away. What a mess she was. But he was looking at her like she was
the greatest thing in the world. More precious than gold. Warmth
bubbled up in her chest and she took a deep breath. It was going to
be okay. She was with Enrico, and he would never hurt her. That she
knew with certainty, a certainty she rarely felt about anything.
But she felt certain about this man.

Enrico waited until he saw the change in her,
the tightness around her eyes and mouth receding, her shoulders
coming down, her breathing slowing to normal. He wasn’t surprised
she was struggling, but he could go as slow as she needed to. He
could spend hours just kissing her and doing nothing else. Now that
he knew she wanted him, that she wanted to stay, they had all the
time in the world.

Slowly, carefully, he kissed his way down her
neck, licking the notch at the base of her throat, mouthing the end
of her collarbone. She tasted like vanilla and honey. His fingers
traced where his tongue had tasted her, and he remembered the last
time he’d touched her, by the pool, the way he had ached then to
kiss her, to hold her, to have her. He could hardly believe his
good fortune now. She wanted him again. The way he wanted her.

He pulled down the neckline of her dress,
kissing the top of one breast, then the other. He smiled at the
light dusting of freckles; other than a few on her nose and cheeks,
it was the only visible reminder of their afternoon at the pool.
His hands looked so dark against her pale skin. He liked the
contrast, so different from any other woman he’d ever known.

He returned to her lips for a moment,
checking in. This time she kissed him back and moaned a little.
Encouraged, he pushed the straps of her bra off her shoulders,
freeing her breasts from the cups. They fit nicely in his hands,
the areolas a delicate pink around the nipples. He massaged her
breasts lightly, watching her face. The bite on her left breast was
healing, but it wasn’t gone entirely. Very carefully, he kissed the
mark. When she smiled at him, he returned it, relieved.

He circled his fingers over her breasts, but
avoided her nipples, watching as they stiffened, expectant. Finally
he took one in his mouth, then the other, swirling his tongue
around each one, sucking on it until she moaned and clutched his
shoulders. The sound made his cock jump and his heart soar. He
moved farther down her body, pushing the light fabric of her dress
up her thighs to her waist, exposing pale pink panties that clung
to her cleft like a second skin.

He peeled them off, tossing the nearly
translucent cloth to the floor. He’d wanted to tear them off, but
he didn’t want to remind her of Vincenzo. He loved her, and he was
going to show her how much. He ran his hands down the insides of
her thighs in teasing strokes, inching toward his goal. Then he
fanned one hand over her sex, massaging it lightly, his fingers
caressing the lips of it, then slipping between them to the wetness
inside. When he touched her, she drew in a breath, and he looked up
into her eyes, waiting for her to smile again before he
continued.

As his thumb slowly circled her clit, Kate
closed her eyes and bit her lip to keep from crying out, to keep
from telling him she wanted more, more, more. But he knew by now
what she liked.

She felt him shift forward onto his knees and
then his mouth was between her legs. She gasped at the contact and
closed her legs a bit. It was too much, this pleasure. Enrico
planted a hand on the inside of each thigh and pressed them open,
giving him full access to her. As his tongue moved on her pussy,
she flushed all over, heat rising in her face, her chest. This was
madness. And heaven. What a shameless, wanton hussy she was,
raising her hips to meet his mouth, then pulling his head closer to
her. He slipped two fingers inside her, moving them in and out in
rhythm with his tongue, his fingers sliding easily in her slick
wetness. She came suddenly, the explosion of sensation surprising
her into a throaty cry.

He planted a kiss just above the mound of her
sex, then stood and pulled off his shirt, the muscles in his arms,
chest, and stomach flexing in the most appealing way as he grinned
at her. Then he kicked off his shoes and started removing his
pants. She lay slumped against the back of the couch, her legs
splayed open, a bit dazed, enjoying the tanned, well-muscled body
he revealed to her, until he said, “You are wearing entirely too
much.”

Kate smiled and rose, skinning off the dress
and unhooking the bra. As she stepped out of her heels, he sat down
on the coffee table and pulled her to him, his face level with her
breasts. He suckled them again, his hands cupping her ass as she
ran her hands through his thick black hair. Then he sat her down on
his knees. She reached between their legs, circling her fingers
around him, giving his cock an experimental stroke. She loved the
heft of it, a little longer and thicker than she could easily take,
but she was ready for him. He groaned when her fingers traced the
vein that ran along the underside of his cock, then he cupped his
hands behind her buttocks and urged her forward. She held his eyes
as she guided him into her. “
Madonna
,” he whispered as she
opened to him.

“‘Whore’ is probably more appropriate,” she
teased.

He stopped moving and took hold of her chin
so that she had to look at him. “
Never
say that again. I
never want to hear that word applied to you, do you hear me?” His
intensity surprised her.
What was
that
about
? He
kissed her, then let go of her chin. His lips trailed down to her
neck as he started thrusting inside her. “Not my woman, not my
wife,” he murmured, and her eyes popped open.
Wife
? She
looked at him, wondering if he’d confused her with Antonella. His
eyes were closed, and he seemed lost in the sensation of their
lovemaking. Which, considering how good it felt, was no
surprise.

She filed that comment away for later and
wrapped her legs around his waist, letting him in deeper. He
responded by moving faster, his hands tilting her pelvis up a bit
more, his fingers pressing into her buttocks as he forced her to
open wider. His breathing was ragged in her ear, and she bit down
on his shoulder as she came again. He groaned and his strokes sped
up, his hands moving to her hips so he could lift her up and down,
so he could make his thrusts more forceful. Thank God he’d stopped
treating her like a china doll.

Remembering the sweet torture she could
inflict on him, she clamped her internal muscles around him hard
several times in succession. He stiffened and cried out. After he
caught his breath, he kissed her again. Then he pulled back so he
could look at her, a grin on his face. “I cannot hold off when you
do that.”

His brown eyes seemed almost black as they
scanned her face. She reached up and traced his brows, then his
cheekbones. “Thank you for this,” she whispered.

“I should be thanking
you
.” His grin
widened. “At least we are not apologizing to each other
anymore.”

She looked at him for a moment more, wanting
to ask about what he’d said earlier, but not sure how, or if she
should. She stood up, but he pulled her back down onto his lap.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“What did you mean when you said, ‘Not my
wife’?”

Color rose to his cheeks. “That was… a
mistake. I want you to be my wife, but….” His voice trailed
off.

Did he just say he wanted to
marry
her? “But what?”

He pulled her closer. “I do not know how to
say this.”

Kate’s heart sped up. She wasn’t going to
like this. “Just say it,” she whispered, placing her head on his
chest.

His voice was low and unsteady. “Part of the
agreement with Carlo is that I have to marry his granddaughter,
Delfina.”

Her body went cold, then numb.
Oh God
.
So that
was
what he and Dom had been discussing when she’d
spied on them that first night. She wished she’d trusted in her
Italian. She was a fool.

“Kate, look at me.” He nudged her chin up,
and when she opened her eyes, she was horrified to see her vision
blurred with tears. “I am so sorry. I want to marry you, not her.
But I have to keep you safe.”

She sniffed hard, trying to hold back her
tears. “It’s okay.” But it wasn’t.

“No, it is not. Not now, not when I know you
have feelings for me.”

She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. You’re
still in love with your wife anyway. It’s not like there’s room for
anyone else.”

“That is not true.”

“It is, Enrico. You still can’t take off your
ring, can you?”