Summer Loving
Liquid heat oozed between her thighs. Her lids grew heavy as the motion of his mouth tugged her closer to the edge of ecstasy.
His hand edged closer to her breast.
Moaning with desperation, she tried to move closer to his touch. With a final, hot lick he released her finger. His gaze blazed down at her, dissecting her every reaction. ‘Not yet.’
Pressure built in her nipples, almost as painful as the relentless heat pulsing between her legs. Just when she thought she couldn’t stand the pressure any longer, his hand traced the underside of her breast. She jerked in protest and moaned as he started to perform slow, excruciating circles on her flesh. With every rotation bringing him close but not close enough to the aching pinnacle, Ava feared she would die from need.
Finally, at the point of begging, he slanted his mouth over hers, and closed his thumb and forefinger over her nipple.
Her cry was swallowed up into his mouth. Her orgasm slammed into her with the force of a tornado, twisting and tossing her high, leaving her no room to breathe.
Firelight exploded behind her lids as ecstasy awakened and tore through her. Through it all, Cesare kept his mouth on hers, lapping up her cries of bliss.
The intensity of his kiss lessened as she slowly floated back to earth. When she could bring herself to open her eyes, he was gazing down at her, his eyes full of heat and something close to wonder.
‘You’re still so responsive, tesoro mio,’ he rasped. ‘I thought my fevered imagination had conjured it up in the hallway two weeks ago, but I know different now. You’ve never lost it.’
‘Does that please you?’ she asked in a husky voice.
‘That sex between us has always been raw and intensely special? I’m a red-blooded Latin man, am I not?’ came the smug response.
Her fingers closed over his rock-hard bicep, renewed need clawing through her. ‘Maybe you should demonstrate, before I die of anticipation?’
A curious expression flitted over his face, gone quickly before she could decipher it. She started to ask him what was wrong, but lost her train of thought when he chose that moment to kiss her again.
By the time he raised his head to rasp, ‘Are you still on the Pill?’ she could barely string coherent words together to answer.
‘Yes,’ she croaked.
He recaptured her mouth, then rolled them over so she was on top of him. The first touch of his bare chest against her breasts sent her fevered pulse rocketing once more. Unable to resist, she rubbed herself against him. His deep groan only fed her hunger.
* * *
Against her thigh, Cesare’s erection pulsed, hot and insistent. She rolled her hips against him, the friction driving her quickly to distraction. His hands clasped her bottom, impatient fingers diving beneath the elastic to brand her flesh.
Another moan filled the room, her heart’s frenzied beats echoing in her ears until she could hear nothing but the promise of bliss, feel nothing but the equally intoxicating pounding of Cesare’s heart.
One hand fisted in her hair and drew her back. Tawny heat-filled eyes caressed her face. ‘Perdono, cara, but I have to do this.’
Before she could ask what he meant, the sound of tearing fabric ripped through the room. ‘God, that is so macho,’ she teased on a pant.
He grinned. ‘I don’t have time to ease it from your hips.’
‘What do you have time for?’
‘This,’ he whispered, raised his head and rolled his tongue over one nipple before sucking it into his mouth.
Her cry was loud, desperate and tinged with pain as pleasure arrowed forcefully through her. Her back arched under the intensity of her delight. Cesare suckled harder, then relented to lick her burning flesh. Before she could draw breath, he repeated the action. Her fingers convulsed in his hair as pleasure consumed her.
Once again bliss beckoned and she rushed blindly towards it. But, just as she was about to dive into the abyss, he pulled back.
With a quick motion, he flipped her underneath him and knelt between her thighs. He pulled open a drawer and extracted a condom.
Watching him rip open the contraception sent a bold thought through her head. Rising to face him, she placed her hands on his. ‘Let me.’
Cesare’s eyes widened. ‘You’ve never done that before.’
‘I’ve had a long time to think about us, like this. Will you let me?’
He nodded and handed it over. That her offer pleased him and intensified the fire of arousal in his eyes only spurred her on.
She crawled on the bed until she was behind him. With an open-mouthed kiss between his shoulder blades that sent a fevered shudder through him, she took over the task. The powerful breadth of his shoulders meant she couldn’t see what she was doing, but her touch was enough.
Slowly, glorying in his potent, silky arousal, she slid the condom over his erection. Smooth, velvety skin veined with his thick blood surged underneath her fingers.
She bit the flesh she’d kissed moments before and felt her own fever rise as he trembled.
‘Tesoro, I fear your disappointment if you don’t cease this torture.’ His voice was pained, tinged with a desperation that matched her own.
Equally desperate for him, she completed her task quickly, but couldn’t resist a last caress of his hard flesh.
‘Per favore, I need you,’ he pleaded hoarsely.
Twisting around, he grabbed her and returned her to her original position.
Sure hands grasped her thighs and spread them wide. Her scent rose between them like a potent aphrodisiac. Cesare’s gaze dropped to her open sex and his eyes darkened to a burnished bronze.
Swallowing hard, he murmured, ‘I had forgotten how exquisitely beautiful you are down there.’
Sweet pleasure stole through her. Reaching up, she curled her hand into his smooth, hard chest. ‘I never forgot, for a single moment, how beautiful you are.’
To her he would always be a god among men, the powerful, captivating figure who had gripped her attention from the moment they’d met and had never let go, despite everything that had happened between them since.
He glided his fingers down her inner thighs, trailing a path of fire that threatened to ignite her very core. She bit her lip, fighting the haze that encroached, the promise of heaven suspended just out of reach. But this time she wanted more, wanted the power of Cesare deep inside her to be the only thing that triggered her ecstasy.
Which was why she wasn’t prepared for the skilled finger that slid inside her sensitive opening.
Her spine arched clear off the bed. ‘Cesare!’ His name was a cry ripped from her throat, a cry that sounded again when his thumb swiftly found her nub of desire. Blood pounded through her veins, crashed through her head until it was the only thing she could hear.
He groaned as her fingers bit into his shoulders. Her head thrashed against the pillows, fighting but knowing she was losing the headlong flight into rapture. The brief reprieve she experienced when he gently removed his fingers was easily lost again when the blunt head of his powerful erection replaced his fingers.
‘Open your eyes, Ava.’
Weakly, she obeyed.
Curling her legs around his hips, he plucked her hands from his shoulders and placed them both above her head. ‘Now don’t move.’
His gaze stayed on hers as he rocked forward. At the first thrust, every instinct urged her hips to move. ‘I can’t not...it’s too much...’
‘You can. Just do it.’ He fed more of himself into her, stretching unused muscles and sending her senses into near freefall. Her heart hammered, her lungs begged for air and the sheer pressure of being filled by Cesare threatened her sanity.
Finally, he was deep inside her. His gaze fixed on hers, he held still, allowing her to savour the full force of his possession. Time suspended between them, the only sound their shared breath as the power of being joined held them in thrall.
At last, he breathed, ‘Now.’
They moved at the same time, slamming together with a force that rocked worlds. His grunt of pleasure triggered her shuddering moan. Pleasure like she’d never known surged through her. Clamping her legs tighter around him, she met him thrust for thrust, falling into a long-forgotten rhythm like a song to a lark. The world fell away.
Nothing else mattered but Cesare, his sounds of ecstasy filled her ears as he thrust over and over inside her.
Her flesh welcomed him, enclosing him in a tight, silken embrace that gradually milked his pleasure. His face contorted in a mask of pained pleasure as he crept closer to the edge.
In the single moment before all became lost, Ava glimpsed a connection, an unspoken bond that drew at her heartstrings and made her catch her breath. Before she could analyse it, she was swept away. Holding back was not an option so she flew towards ecstasy and a release that annihilated every single thought. Unable to bear the assault, she clamped her eyes shut. Firelight rained again, showering her in pleasure so profound, tears prickled the back of her lids.
Above her, triggered by her relentless convulsions, Cesare hurtled towards his own release. For a split second, he stilled, his whole being gripped tight in indescribable sensation. Her legs around his back strained to keep him locked against her. With a final desperate groan, he gave up control, managing just in time to adjust his position before he collapsed on top of her.
Ava drew her arms around him, her fingers slowly caressing his sweat-slicked flesh as shudders chased through him. Somewhere in the lost minutes, he turned his head and planted kisses along her jaw, but no words were uttered. None were needed.
She couldn’t recall when he finally disengaged from her but she had a vague sense of being settled against him. But something different tripped her senses. It wasn’t until she was drifting off to sleep, his strong arms coming around to anchor her to him and soft words gently ushering her into sleep, that she realised what it was.
In the moments before his climax, Cesare had pulled out of her.
CHAPTER TEN
CESARE STOOD AT the foot of the bed, gazing down at his sleeping wife. Guilt bit hard into him. Although a careful inspection of the condom had set his mind at ease somewhat, he didn’t delude himself into thinking that would be the case every time.
Their passion hadn’t abated in their time apart. If anything, the opposite was true. He’d had to stop himself from taking her in the raw and earthy way his senses had clamoured for him to, and he didn’t fool himself into believing he would always remain in control. Ava needed only to be within touching distance to erode his willpower.
His senses sprang to life again as she shifted and stretched on the bed, baring a little more of her body.
He locked his knees to stop himself from crawling back beside her. When his feet disobeyed, he clung to the bedpost, gritting his teeth as arousal fired deep inside. For a split second he resented the unrelenting need Ava had always elicited in him.
From the first moment he’d laid eyes on her at that busy intersection in London, something vital had shifted inside him, knocked him sideways. He’d labelled it as lust back then, but now he wasn’t so sure it was mere lust. Lust faded. But the thought of Ava walking out of his life permanently made his chest tighten in fierce rejection.
She murmured in her sleep. Every sinew in his body protested at the idea but he forced himself to take a step towards the door.
‘Cesare?’ Her soft voice stopped him in his tracks.
She was sitting up, the sheets slipping to her waist. Her lush curves gleamed in the ambient light. Her nipples, half hidden by the heavy fall of her fiery hair, crested breasts he longed to mould and caress again. His body’s instant reaction made him swallow hard. It was that or risk choking. He hadn’t had sex in a year. His need was more than great, but staying would mean pushing his luck way above acceptable levels.
‘What are you doing out of bed?’ she asked.
‘Letting you get some sleep, amante.’
Slowly she sagged back against the pillows. Her hair parted, revealing the full allure of her breasts. In a slow, seductive sweep designed to drive him insane, her gaze left his and caressed its way down his nude body.
His heart hammered as she boldly stared at his erection. When she moistened her lips, a rough tremor coursed through him.
‘I’m wide awake now,’ she stated in a husky murmur.
Heat rushed through him, propelling him forward before he could form a single thought. When he reached the side of the bed, he paused. ‘I don’t want to make you sore.’ She’d been tight when they’d made love. There’d been no one else. The thought sent a powerful surge of primitive possession through him. If he got his way, and he would once he dedicated enough strategic thinking to the issue, his wife would know no other man but him.
‘It wasn’t that bad.’
Unable to help himself, he traced his finger along the warm colour that crept up her neck into her cheeks. ‘Are we rating my performance or your soreness? My delicate ego seeks clarification.’
Her gaze dropped to his engorged male flesh, one brow raised as her sinful mouth curved. ‘There’s nothing delicate about you, caro.’
His breath fractured. Somewhere inside it registered that this was the first genuine smile he’d witnessed from her in a long time.
The thought that he’d missed it without realising his loss hit him squarely in the chest. Before he could assess his actions, he lifted the sheet and slid in next to her.
‘On the contrary, I’m as delicate as a baby when you look at me like that.’
‘Like what?’
‘Like I’m the sole focus of your world.’
Her smile slowly faded. ‘You were my only focus, Cesare. For a very long time. Then you took yourself away.’ Her voice caught and his heart caught with it.
Leaning down, he kissed her, his chest tightening with the need to offer reassurance he had no right to give.
‘I’m here now,’ he offered instead.
It was inadequate, and her darkening eyes told him so. But he had no solution. Not yet. So he did the next best thing. He deepened the kiss, infusing her with his crazy desire for her, savouring her immediate and complete response. Pleasure, hot and fervid, rose inside when her hands moved around his back and held him tight.
Ava’s thigh slid between his, creating mind-altering sensations that washed away his troubled thoughts.
When her hand closed over him, a groan erupted from his very soul. Feeling himself slide closer to the edge, he quickly reached for another condom.
‘Not yet,’ she rasped in between planting hot open-mouthed kisses on his chest. With a firm hand, she propelled him onto his back and rose onto her knees. Her nails scraped along his torso. His dark curse brought another smile.
‘You’re enjoying your power?’
‘I’m enjoying...something.’ Her eyes danced with delight, then she leaned down and boldly tongued his nipple.
His heartfelt groan earned him another flick of her tongue. He clenched his fingers in her silky Titian hair, holding her close as he lost himself in the pleasure that filled his every cell. With every breath, every inch lower she went, he skated closer to the edge of madness. She sank her teeth into the skin below his navel and his heart stopped.
‘Ava...’ He wasn’t sure whether he warned or pleaded.
In response, she closed both hands on him, caressed him up and down.
‘Dio mio. Again.’ A definite plea this time.
She complied, her gaze rising to snag his as she moved her firm grip over him. She maintained eye contact as she caressed him, a boldness in her actions he’d never witnessed before. The look, coupled with the mind-bending effect of her hands, scattered his thoughts. She leaned in closer, parted her lips and took him in her mouth and it was in that moment Cesare knew the true meaning of insanity.
He barely remembered passing her the condom when she demanded it. He was so consumed with her, he couldn’t see straight. He welcomed her when she positioned herself over him, her beautiful body poised to take him inside her heat.
Her gasp of pleasure triggered his own, and just like before they found their own unique rhythm, the sheer bliss of their coming together so mind-blowing he was at the point of no return before he knew it.
Cesare forced himself to hang on despite the teeth-grinding need to let go. The effort it took was monumental, especially in the moment when Ava slammed down onto him one final time before losing herself in her blistering orgasm.
‘Oh God,’ she rasped as she collapsed onto him, her spasms causing him to see stars as he waited...waited... ‘God, Cesare, I’ve missed you so much.’
The heartbreak in her voice made his gut tighten painfully.
‘I’ve missed you too,’ he responded gruffly. Her spasms gentled. He gripped her hips and pushed his hard length inside her, finally permitting himself to take his own pleasure. It didn’t take long. With one final thrust, he pulled out of her. Ava jerked in surprise. He kissed her and she melted into him. He groaned in pleasure, unwilling to entertain the tinge of regret permeating his pleasure as he lost himself in his climax.
Several minutes later, their breaths calmed. Against his chest, Ava murmured sleepily. As he caressed his fingers through her hair, Cesare knew without a shadow of a doubt that he would fight Fate herself for a solution if he had to.
* * *
Ava walked into the large sunlit kitchen and immediately saw the note pinned to the fridge door. She’d woken to an empty bed, an empty apartment and troubled thoughts.
Her intention last night had been to find a definitive solution to the state of her marriage. Instead she’d fallen under her husband’s spell. Again. Pulling her robe around her, she padded further into the kitchen. Plucking the note from the magnet, she read Cesare’s sprawled, bold writing.
Gone to get breakfast. Present for you on coffee table. C.
She studied the complicated-looking coffee machine for several minutes before pressing the least harmful-looking button. Crossing her fingers that it wouldn’t end in disaster, she trod on cool wooden floors to the all-white, stunningly decorated living room that boasted floor-to-ceiling windows.
Her heart skipped a beat as she eyed the large, exquisitely packaged box. Raising the lid, she gasped at its contents.
The camera was one she’d coveted for a long time but had never thought she’d own because of its astronomical price. State-of-the-art, with a zoom lens and sharpness beyond anything she’d ever seen, it was the crème-de-la-crème of cameras.
Her fingers tingled as she lifted its heavy but comfortable weight. It had already been assembled and a gleeful smile curved her lips when she turned it on.
Rushing out onto the terrace, she focused and snapped a series of panoramic pictures, making sure to catch the iconic St Peter’s Dome in the frame. She took a few closer still—Campo de Fiori a few hundred metres away, the ever-present fountains that could be found all over the city, and the awe-inspiring statues that Rome was famous for.
Leaning over, she focused her camera on the street below. Several residents enjoyed breakfast at outside cafés that shot off from the square. She zoomed in with her finger poised to click, only to pause when a familiar figure swung into view.
Ava lowered the camera and stared.
In the morning sunlight, the sight of Cesare in a torso-hugging T-shirt and jeans stole her breath. He held a container bearing her favourite breakfast trattoria’s logo in one hand, a newspaper tucked under his arm and his phone to his ear. A slight breeze ruffled his hair, and several women seated outside a smart café turned to ogle his long-legged body as he passed.
He seemed oblivious to the looks. In fact he seemed far away. Slowly, she lifted the camera and zoomed in on the man she’d shared her body with last night.
She clicked several times, the professional in her adjusting the camera to make the most of every single frame. But with each picture she took, her heart lurched.
Without warning, he stopped. The newspaper fell from his arm and Ava saw his face whiten. For several minutes he stared into space, until a scooter backfired in the distance, galvanising him into motion, the newspaper discarded.
When he disappeared from view to enter the apartment building, Ava slowly lowered the camera. With dread, she glanced down at the pictures she’d captured.
Ice clutched her heart as she reviewed each frame. Far from looking like a man who’d just left his wife’s bed sated and happy, Cesare looked as if he was caught in the middle of a living nightmare.
The sun disappeared behind a cloud, momentarily casting the terrace in shadow. The portentous effect wasn’t lost on her.
She’d risked her heart again by sleeping with Cesare last night. A heart that had never completely healed from being battered once. Now she knew she’d placed it in harm’s way again.
Her fingers clenched around the camera when she heard Cesare’s key in the lock. Taking a deep breath, she walked into the living room just as he entered.
He saw her and paused. Wordlessly, his gaze raked over her, sending her pulse on a roller coaster dive.
‘Thank you for this—’ she indicated the camera ‘—it’s very kind of you.’
‘Prego.’ His gaze stopped at her bare feet, then climbed back up. ‘I wasn’t sure what I’d hope for more on my return—to find you still in my bed or to have the temptation of making love to you again taken away from me by you being out of it. Not that a bed is necessarily a means to an end.’ The grim delivery of his words made her heart drop further into despair.
‘You don’t sound like you would’ve preferred the former option.’
His ragged laugh as he veered towards the kitchen caught at her insides. ‘Trust me, cara, I would’ve enjoyed it. I would take sweet oblivion with you over reality any day.’
She trailed behind him. ‘So, you don’t regret last night?’
The carton containing their breakfast landed on the countertop none too gently, followed by his phone. He came at her, stopping a bare inch shy of touching distance.
‘I explored your body so thoroughly that every inch, every kissable freckle is imprinted on my memory. I should be sated but my hunger for you burns with a force that almost hurts. Right this minute I would love nothing more than to spread you over this counter, bury my mouth between your legs, lap my tongue over your sweet spot until you come for me, again and again. Does that sound like regret to you?’ he breathed, his eyes fixed on hers in studied concentration.
Ava wasn’t sure how it was possible to feel hot and cold at the same time. But she did. Somehow, she managed to croak, ‘No.’
His body tight with tension, he stepped back and strode over to the coffee machine. ‘I’ll make another cup for you. This one’s cold.’
‘Cesare, what’s wrong?’ she asked because something was wrong. Desperately wrong. Despite her bold words, she quaked inside.
His shoulders stiffened, but he carried on pushing buttons. Only when the familiar sound of coffee percolating echoed through the kitchen did he face her.
‘You know that bit in a movie when you know the good guy has done something really bad and is going to get it in the neck but you keep rooting for him anyway?’
Ava set her camera down before she dropped it. ‘Yes?’ Her voice emerged shaky.
‘That’s not me, Ava. I’m the bad guy, who selfishly took what he shouldn’t have, then compounded his situation by making things a million times worse.’
‘How have you made things worse?’
He shook his head as if words failed him. She moved towards him, her feet hardly making a sound across the hardwood floor.
Cesare heaved a breath, struggled to calm the riotous feelings rampaging through him. He raked a hand through his hair, unable to bear the thought of telling her what he’d woken to—what the future held for them.