The Count of Castelfino (10 page)

‘Don’t stop…please, don’t stop…’

‘Don’t worry,
mio tesoro
, I’m not going to…’ His hands roamed over her willing body. His kisses worked their way up from her cleavage and over her neck.

‘And now…to make sure you really are as eager as you say, undress me.’ The words were growled into her hair. Tentatively, Meg’s hands went to the tiny pearl buttons of his shirt. As it fell open, the warm fragrance of his body tantalised her into diving her hands inside, encircling his waist with her hands. Leaning her head against his chest, she pressed her cheek against the soft fur covering it. For longer than either of them realised they clung together in the dappled darkness. Then Gianni’s hands stroked her dress up until he could reach the hem. From there he peeled it off over her head in one fluid movement. With it went her last inhibition. She stood before him proudly wearing nothing more than a few scraps of silk and lace.

He smiled.

‘You are lovely,’ he breathed.

Meg closed her mind to thoughts of how many other women he had spoken to like this. Tonight, he was hers. None of his yesterdays mattered. She could only focus on this moment, suspended in time among bowers of tropical luxury. She didn’t care about the shadows. For now a thousand tiny coloured lights illuminated her life.

‘This is going to be the best ever…’ Gianni whispered, in his element. ‘You will be totally mine.’

His gaze now went deeper than mere sexual gratification. He had taken plenty of women in his life, but none had given themselves to him so freely and so willingly. He
smiled to himself, fuelled by more than a hint of pride. The experiences she shared with him tonight would colour the rest of her life. She would measure any other man against him—

All of a sudden a frown flitted across his face. For some strange reason, he found the idea of Meg in the arms of any other man unthinkable.

‘You can never be anything more than a mistress to me, remember,’ he reminded her, caressing the sleek beauty of her hair. ‘There can be no strings on either side.’

‘I can’t think of anything more unlikely than a tethered Gianni.’ She chuckled, her voice rich with meaning.

Excitement burned in her eyes. His body sprang to life at the sight of it.

‘You’d better believe it,’ he growled, rising to the challenge.

Teasing her mouth with his lips, he fed her hunger with his own. She wrapped herself around his body, eager for the penetration of his tongue. The questing point thrust into the accepting softness of her mouth, blocking her moans of pleasure. As Gianni kissed her his hands roamed over the back of her head, twining into her thick silky mane of hair. Meg felt a rising pulse throbbing between them. It was him, it was her, it was both of them, melding in a frisson of excitement. Light-headed with arousal, she ground herself against his body in an ecstasy of anticipation. Gianni responded by trailing his touch down around the curve of her shoulder to mould her breasts with his hands. As his thumbs brushed her nipples a tightening low in her belly pulled breath deep into her lungs. She needed him. Reaching down, she returned his caresses by tracing the shape of his maleness through the soft fabric of his clothes.

Taking her hand, he drew her down gently to the soft mossy bed among the flowers. ‘This will be like making love in heaven,’ he murmured, his voice thick and low as he released her from his embrace. ‘And I shall make it heaven for you.’

Dragging off his shirt, he threw it aside. The sudden movement stirred the soft darkness of his curls into a tousle that Meg could not resist. She stretched out her hand to it. Gianni instantly buried his cheek against her palm, covering the inside of her wrist with a flutter of butterfly kisses. Pleasure danced in her eyes as he stripped off the rest of his clothes and she saw his arousal springing from the soft luxuriance of his body hair.

‘Now you’re the one who is overdressed,
carissima
!’ he purred softly. Meg trembled from head to foot. Her fingers stumbled to help him, but he stopped her. ‘No—this pleasure will be mine.’

With a teasing smile, he slid his strong brown fingers between her skin and the thin straps of her bra. Pulling them down over her shoulders, he exposed the glory of her breasts. Meg blossomed under his appreciative gaze. When he closed in on her lips again she moved forward, eager for his touch. As his fingers strayed down to the waistband of her panties she gasped. With infinite gentleness he traced the lace around her waist and over her hips. When his fingers finally insinuated themselves between the wisp of fabric and her skin, she gasped again. A throb of excitement was building up between her thighs. With a moan she felt him ease her panties down, leaving her naked before him.

‘And now the teasing has to stop…’

Every inch of her skin was alight with desire for him.
Liquid longing spilled from her body as his fingers spread over her flanks and swept around to caress the sweet soft cleft of her sex. Meg’s breath locked in her chest. Driven by an instinct so basic she barely realised what she was doing, she reached out to encircle his erection. Hand over hand she caressed him until he shuddered with a life force as irresistible as her own.

‘Not yet,’ he growled, pulling her hands away. She moulded her body against his, half delirious with desire. In reply he pressed the length of his body to her nakedness and she gasped in a tumult of longing.

‘You must be quite sure—there can be no regrets,’ he warned.

‘No. As long as this is what you want, too, Gianni.’

He drew back a little, the usual teasing amusement dancing in his eyes.

‘Can’t you tell? Perhaps I should be asking you the same question!’ His touch danced over her erect nipples. ‘Although the reactions of your body tell me all I need to know…’

She cried out with pleasure as his fingers swooped down to slide along the crease of her femininity. A million stars exploded over her delicate rose-pink flesh as he sought her clitoris and rolled its tiny bead beneath his fingers with expert delicacy. Her body rose to meet him, pressing upwards against his touch. She was trapped in the promise of his eyes. With tigerish concentration he drew his hand up and over her belly again, resting it there as his other hand drew her face towards his for another long, lingering kiss. She wriggled still closer to him, so eager for the touch of his body against every inch of her skin. He drew shudders of pleasure from her again and again as his
kisses traced a line over her throat and across the creamy softness of her breasts. Desire bubbled in her throat and powered through her veins until she felt weak with longing. As his tongue rolled over her nipple, teasing it to a peak of perfection, she locked her fingers in his hair and cradled his head closer to her breasts. The warm glide of his hand swam over her body and she felt her legs part, enticing him further. The dense, soft curls hiding her sex nestled beneath his hand, filling it with warmth. She had known desire before, but never like this. No temptation had brought her to such heights, submerging everything beneath her naked desires. Gianni’s thumb nuzzled against the point of her clitoris again and she cried out with longing. His eyes were alight with a fire that burned as brightly as her passion. Mewing wordless arousal, she vibrated with the touch of his fingers. She was desperate with need. It sent her rolling over the bed of flowers with wild abandon.

Gianni was on fire. Meg was unlike any other woman he had ever known. She was so pure, and yet he could inspire all these feral reactions in her. It made her perfect in his eyes, and beneath his body, too. His finger sought out the tender tip of her femininity, circling it until she glistened with pleasure.

‘I need to see you—every part of you…’ he said thickly, lifting her thighs to rest on his shoulders. As the roughness of his stubble grazed her thin skin he tasted her arousal. It was indescribably good. He had to experience her with all his senses, her rich perfume powering him to still greater heights. He bent his head, running the tip of his tongue the whole length of her swollen creases. Plump with desire, her body spread eagerly beneath his touch. Impassioned
cries tore from her throat as she begged and pleaded with him to bring her to a climax. The desire to penetrate her overwhelmed him in a rush of male need. Easing his finger into her, he felt spasms of pleasure grip him again and again. His whole body reverberated with the thought that soon, very soon, she would seize the most sensitive part of his body with the same powerful movements. His heart went into overdrive and a slick of sweat broke out all over his body but he wanted to take his time. Drawing his long, lean finger back even as she clenched down on him, he insinuated a second finger into her willing body. Never had a woman responded to him so eagerly. Her hips thrust against his penetration in a rhythmic dance he longed to complete. Squealing with excitement, she arched her body, working her way beneath him as he pulled her closer. His muscles throbbed with the pressure of restraint as he forced himself to go slowly, extending the pleasure for them both. As the proud swell of his erection finally sought out her yielding warmth he felt her muscles open around him and then close with the pressure of ultimate pleasure. Suddenly, madly, penetration wasn’t enough. He wanted all she could give him and more. She was worthy of everything he could give her. In a wild ecstasy of realisation he filled her with every passion he was capable of experiencing. She responded with a primeval cry of pleasure that excited him beyond endurance. This was it, and as he held her in his arms he knew she realised it too.

I
N THAT
moment, Gianni’s life began again. He was used to having the world. Now, with Meg as his mistress, nothing in the universe was out of his reach. The lovely little virgin he had lusted after was now his mistress. The responsibility gave him satisfaction as welcome as his physical release. The moment she went limp in his arms, he picked her up and carried her back through the garden. Taking her through the silent, watchful villa, he laid her gently in his own bed. There they entwined again and again until dawn coloured the skies.

Meg became his consuming interest. No woman had cast such a spell over him before. Her body was sheer magic. From then on, he made love to her at every opportunity. He took her into his bed each night, although it meant he got virtually no sleep. Even when she slept he woke a dozen times a night, simply for the pleasure of reaching out and touching her as she lay beside him. When the praise and orders flowed in after his magnificent banquet, Gianni let his army of personal assistants deal with everything. For the first time in his working life, routine was forgotten. Nothing was allowed to get between Gianni and his ultimate pleasure.

One morning they were lying in bed together, entwined in the warm afterglow of lovemaking. Gianni’s fingers were describing lazy circles on Meg’s shoulder as she gazed across to the open French doors. The warming dawn air gently moved the white gauzes draped on either side, giving tantalising glimpses of the blue, misty hillside beyond. The twitter of swallows clustering on sagging, swinging power lines was the only sound in the dreamy warmth of his arms. Meg sighed.

‘What’s the matter,
tesoro
?’

‘Nothing, really…I was only thinking that what you’ve told me about your life makes you sound like one of those birds. They’re always on the move. Until I came here to the Villa Castelfino I’d never been outside of England. My feet were always firmly rooted in my home patch, either waiting for the first swallow to arrive in spring or watching them all getting ready to leave in autumn, like they are today.’

Gianni stopped stroking her. Raising his head, he looked at her quizzically. ‘You mean to tell me that my new International Coordinator of Horticulture hasn’t been anywhere more exotic than Tuscany?’

Meg shook her head. With a smile of perfect bliss she closed her eyes and wrapped her arms more tightly around the expanse of his chest. ‘I don’t need to, either. I’ve got everything I want, right here.’

‘Yes…’

Gianni sounded thoughtful. Meg opened her eyes. That single word had a worrying note of qualification about it. From the first heady moment of his kiss, her mind had spun fantasies, possibilities and now the fantastic reality of being his mistress. But Meg was painfully aware that her position
came with a rigid sell-by date. No matter how lost in luxury she might be, she could not afford to miss the signs that her time was running out. Walking the line between delight and disaster made her sensitive to his every mood.

‘That is…for as long as this arrangement suits us both,’ she said, careful to sound as unsentimental as Gianni always did. ‘I get to network with your international clientele and show off my skills to them—’

‘While I get you,’ he said succinctly, delivering a loud kiss to the top of her head.

Meg smiled—almost. She had noticed that Gianni was only spontaneous when she couldn’t see his expression. He was always more passionate in darkness than in daylight. When, as now, her face was pressed against his chest she had to rely on the vibration of his diaphragm to discover when he was laughing silently. She raised her head quickly, but he was an expert in hiding his feelings. His face showed nothing but the warm satisfaction that had become his trademark since their first night among the tropical flowers.

‘Were you laughing at me?’

‘Never,’ he said in a way that did not convince her for a second. ‘Although you must admit,
mio dolce
, an expert on tropical plants—no matter
how
well qualified—who has done all her learning from textbooks ought to spread her wings before she can call herself truly experienced…’ he stretched out the syllables with a relish that didn’t need explaining. As he smoothed away her frown with kisses she couldn’t help smiling despite her private fears.

Outside a hawk streaked into the flock of swallows, sending them screaming in all directions. Meg started at the noise, but Gianni’s hand gently stroked away her fears.

‘That was why I was going to take you away from all this for a while. Madeira has everything we need. Luxury and opportunities, all set in a sea of flowers. What do you say?’

A paradise island, with the chance to have Gianni all to herself for a while without the daily distraction of his work? There was only one thing she could say. Tipping back her head, she gave him a long, lingering kiss before murmuring:

‘That’s fantastic. When do we leave?’

Her delight lasted only a few hours. While Gianni was in the shower she borrowed his laptop, ready to surf the Internet. The first page she opened on Madeira fluttered with a banner announcing it to be ’the perfect honeymoon isle’. That headline meant only one thing to her—disaster. She slumped back in her seat, staring at the screen. With an advertising line like that, the place was sure to be full of couples.
Married
couples. That would be the last thing he would want to see. Closing down the computer, she walked slowly across the bedroom, towards the en suite. Gianni was in the wet room. Instead of slipping into the shower with him, she paused outside, deep in thought. It was only when he turned off the monsoon downpour they both loved so much that he realised she was watching him. He chuckled. The sound was low with testosterone. It fuelled her own arousal as he murmured, ‘Can’t you wait, pretty one?’

Stepping forward, he took her in his arms. Pressing his wet body against her filmy, sheer negligee, he soaked her in seconds. Feeling his manhood spring impressively to life against the smooth plane of her belly, Meg wavered. It would be so easy, so lovely to suspend real life and let him carry her off to bed again, but she felt bound to question him first.

‘Gianni…have you ever been to Madeira?’ she asked between kisses.

‘Mmm…loads of times,’ he muttered through the filter of her hair.

‘And you like it there?’

‘Mmm.’ His reply was indistinct, but his caresses were full of meaning. She melted as he lifted her into his arms. ‘You’ll be perfectly at home,
tesoro
. For you it will be like living in a greenhouse, complete with warm, English-style rain.’

‘There’s nothing about the place that…worries you at all?’ she pressed on, thinking of all those legally happy couples. Gianni was concentrating on carrying her carefully back to his bed.

‘No. Not at all. If rain stops play outdoors, then we’ll simply have to find some way to enjoy ourselves indoors…’

For a long, leisurely time he showed her exactly what he meant. Meg soon forgot all her misgivings, and surrendered totally to the luxury of his caresses. When eventually she fell asleep in his arms, she was the happiest woman in the world.

Waking later to hear the movement of staff in the dining room beyond his bedroom, Meg reached out for him—and found herself alone. Hearing voices in the main body of the suite, she padded barefoot to the bedroom door. An empty breakfast trolley was being wheeled away, out into the upstairs hall. Gianni was on the far side of the room, his back to the door. Silhouetted on the sunlit balcony, he was chuckling into his mobile phone.

‘As I’m quite sure she’ll tell you herself—she graduated top of her intake,’ Meg heard him telling someone on the other end of the line.

‘There’s no stopping her. Yet look at me—I’ve never taken an exam in my life. It’s never done me any harm. My father’s obsession with these things has led to all this. He’s to blame. Yes, I know, I know! Unbelievable, isn’t it?’

She could hardly believe it—hardly bear to believe it. Gianni was laughing at her. Worse, he was laughing at her qualifications, behind her back, with a stranger.

Fury surged along Meg’s veins with all the power of a tidal wave. From their first kiss she had been bracing herself, ready to lose Gianni to another woman. This was a totally unexpected betrayal. He didn’t respect her career. He was humouring her over her work.

That was it. This was the end.

Meg stormed out to confront him. Hearing a disturbance, he swung around, smiling broadly.

‘Ah—
scusi
, Chico, something’s come up…something very important…’ he purred meaningfully, rippling an appreciative gaze all the way up Meg’s body as she advanced—until he reached her face. When her expression registered with him he stopped smiling.

‘Ciao.’
Barking the single word into his phone, he snapped it shut and threw it aside. ‘
Cara mia
—what is it? What’s the trouble?’

‘You are! I heard you, patronising me!’ Meg blazed.

When?’

‘On the phone—just then!’

‘Oh,
that
.’ He smiled easily, shrugging it off. He moved to take her in his arms, but Meg was having none of it. She backed off. Rigid with rage, she clenched her fists in impotent fury.

‘How
dare
you dismiss my work like that?’

Gianni had no intention of arguing with her. He began moving back towards the balcony. ‘My staff have set up a table out here. Come and have breakfast in the sunshine.’

His conciliatory tone only enraged her further.

‘Don’t change the subject! I’m responsible for everything that’s been achieved in the kitchen garden since I arrived. Do you always speak to other people about my job as though it’s nothing?’

His eyes became points of laser light. ‘You’re the one who’s so quick to say it isn’t work to you. I was only repeating what you have said yourself, so often in the past.’

Meg tried to take a couple of deep, steadying breaths. It was no good. Her words, when they came, shuddered with suppressed anger.

‘I didn’t spend all those years at college for nothing.’

‘No, as you’re always so keen to remind me you did it to gain a clutch of qualifications and a string of letters after your name,’ he responded evenly.

‘They got me this job!’

Gianni’s expression was unforgiving as he shook his head. ‘No, you got this job because you impressed my father. You knew what you were talking about. You had a clear vision of what could be achieved. That was the only thing that secured you this job, Megan. You could have been as under-qualified as I am. We share the same objective, you and I. It’s to see the Castelfino estate become as productive and cost-effective as possible. I wanted to do it by expanding the wine business. You came at it from a different angle. I hadn’t thought of developing the amenity and visitor side of things until you started the job of restyling the gardens here. A job, I would remind you, that
should have died with my father and would have done, if it wasn’t for me indulging you to begin with.’

‘So you admit it!’ she raged. ‘You’ve got no respect for me at all! You’re humouring me, every minute of every day! I’m your trophy mistress in the bedroom, then let out to play in your toy garden. It’s all for show, isn’t it? The moment it suits you to get a wife, I’ll be nothing more than one of your outdoor staff again—and an expensive, unwanted one at that!’

She shoved past him blindly and started snatching up her clothes and shoes from where they had been discarded during their lovemaking of the night before. Gianni held up his hands, trying to calm her as she dressed in a fury.

‘You need to calm down, Megan. We both need to take some time out before we say something we regret. I’ll run us a bath, and light some of your special rose and lavender candles—’

‘Don’t bother. You won’t get the chance to sweet talk me back into your bed, Gianni. This is it. I’m leaving!’

He stared at her, incredulous. ‘You want to leave the Villa Castelfino, and all we have?’

As she dashed past, heading for the door, his hand shot out and grabbed her by the arm.

‘Then you’re mad.’

She pulled herself out of his grasp, desperate to escape. She wanted to get away from him before her memories of this glorious time together could seep in and change her mind.

‘What
is
your problem,
donna
?’

Flinging himself away from her with a curse, he began pacing the room, glaring at her. His fury wasn’t a thing to be roused lightly. The desperate need to make a clean
break for the sake of her sanity pushed her into a confession.

‘My problem is the same as it’s always been!’ she announced defiantly. ‘I came here to work, and not to become your mistress. I don’t want to be a second-rank player in the di Castelfino historical pageant!’

‘I don’t understand. What could be better than life here with me, with money no object?’ Gianni hunched his shoulders. ‘Women! They’re all the same! When it comes down to it, none of you are any better than
her
!’

He stabbed a finger in the direction of a life-sized portrait hanging on one wall of his suite. It was a picture of Gianni’s father as a young man, standing beside the most beautiful woman Meg had ever seen. She combined Gianni’s come-to-bed eyes and a raven tumble of hair. Her voluptuous figure sparkled beneath a waterfall of gold and diamonds. ‘Draped in Dior, weighed down with the priceless Bellini hoard, pregnant with me…yet it
still
wasn’t enough for her! My father gave her everything any woman could want, and more besides. In return she made a fool of him, drove him mad, broke his health and his spirit—so why the hell did I think
you’d
be any different? Go on, tell me! What more could you possibly want from me, Megan Imsey?’

Meg felt a pulse throbbing in her head. ‘The only things you will never give me,’ she said quietly. ‘And that’s respect. Respect and commitment.’

‘Oh, for goodness’ sake! This is the twenty-first century, woman!’ Gianni threw himself away from the confrontation again. Standing before the great windows of his suite, he seethed visibly. ‘Women want it all. With me, they are certain to get it. You’ve got my body, whenever and wher
ever you want it. Nothing else was ever on offer. I made that clear to you, right from the start. What’s so wrong with the arrangement? You’re a seasoned businesswoman, Meg. You must be able to see you’re throwing away a better life than you could hope for anywhere else in the world. As my mistress, I can give you everything. Believe me.’