But she didn’t go out of her way to seek out sexual arousal. There had never been a point to it.

He was the first. And he was... He was beautiful.

Just as she had known he would have to be. Because he had called to her, always, in a way that no one else and nothing ever had.

If there was one thing she trusted about herself, it was her instincts. When it came to people and what they were concealing. And she had sensed that what he was concealing was something that she wanted. She had been correct.

“Have you looked your fill?” he asked.

“No,” she said. Because she knew, somehow without a doubt, that this would never be enough.

“Touch me,” he said, his voice hard.

She reached out and pressed her fingertips against his chest, dragged them down his stomach, all the way down to that hard, masculine place between his thighs. She wrapped her hand around his shaft, biting her lip as she did so. Experimentally, she stroked him. She thought about telling him that she was inexperienced, but ultimately changed her mind. She didn’t want anything to alter the experience between them. She wanted to have him. All of him, as he would have any other woman.

He closed his eyes, his breath hissing through his teeth. And then, it was like he couldn’t bear it any longer. Then, he was kissing her. Then he had her pinned to the mattress. She wrapped her arms around his neck, parted her legs for him, and he pressed that hot, hard length against her slick flesh. She groaned, arching against him. He kissed her neck, down to her breast, sucking her nipple in deep. She couldn’t breathe for how glorious it was. He moved down, so that his face was between her legs. He cupped her rear and lifted her up off the mattress, devouring her most intimate heat as if it were a delicacy he couldn’t get enough of.

She didn’t even think to be ashamed. She didn’t think to hold back. She moved her hips in time with every stroke of his tongue, every scrape of his teeth. She was lost in it. She felt like she might die. He called yet more and more desperate sounds from her body, and met them with sounds of masculine hunger.

He pushed two fingers inside her slick channel, filling her. She cried out in pain and pleasure, her internal muscles pulsing around him as an orgasm was extracted from her with the most intense precision.

It was Luca Salvatore to his core.

Even in this he was unmatched.

Even in this he was everything.

When he looked up at her, his eyes were nearly black, his pupils expanded so much he was pure predator. And she could see that he had lost all control. He moved his body up the bed, gripped her thigh and hooked it over his hip as he kissed her, as he thrust himself inside of her with one brutal stroke.

It hurt. She cried out into his mouth, but he swallowed her pain. And turned it into pleasure. He began to move, hard and unyielding, taking no quarter, taking no prisoners.

He was so deep inside of her she could scarcely breathe. She could feel him, each dominating inch as he claimed her over and over again.

Whatever she had been before this, she couldn’t remember. For now, she was simply Luca. And he was hers.

He was not her boss, and she was not his assistant.

She was not leaving.

And he was not cold.

They were together. They were a conflagration. An expression of need burning so hot, so bright, that nothing would ever be able to dampen it.

With each stroke, her pleasure built. Until she was at the end of herself. At the end of everything. She came again, a hoarse cry of need escaping her. And his own release came on a roar as he poured himself within her.

She was left storm-tossed, sweat-slicked and exhausted.

He did something entirely unexpected. He pulled her into his arms and held her fast as their breathing calmed. And then she found herself drifting off to sleep. When she woke, it was with a start. She was still lying next to Luca. They were both naked.

And she knew she had to leave. She had no other option. Because if she stayed, she would never be able to go.

She felt like she had been slashed with broken glass.

She felt like she was destroyed. And she couldn’t be destroyed. She had to remake herself. That was the whole point of taking this other job. It was the whole point of leaving him in the first place. It was the whole point of taking this chance and having one passionate night with him.

She had to leave. She sneaked out of the hotel room, and he never once stirred. She went back to her room and gathered her things.

Then she went straight to the airport, and got the first flight back to Italy.