Page 210 of Modern Romance Collection May 2024 Books 1-4

‘Domenico, is this madness? Us doing this?’ she breathed against his mouth, too needy for him to pull away but unable to quieten those thoughts.

‘Possibly,’ he murmured with a laugh. ‘But it might be madness not to do it too.’ His body seemed to move closer to hers. ‘As long as both of us are clear on the terms and time limits, I see no danger in it.’

Rae was almost certain she could see bright flashing red danger signs up ahead but they were dim, and with the sinuous slide of his hands taking her to a place where there were no negative feelings they seemed too far away to be of any immediate importance.

‘Do you want me to stop?’ he asked in between swipes of his lips over her neck.

The answer was on her lips before he’d even finished asking his question, rising from the very heart of her. ‘No.’

Even if it was madness, it was a madness Rae wanted. Badly. With every breath she took and with every beat of her heart. Surely if she focused only on this physical need for him and not on the possibility of anything more significant, there could be no harm done.

Reaching for his mouth again, Rae responded to the gentle probe of his tongue by parting her lips and granting him entry to her mouth. She slid her tongue against his, hungry and needy and wanting. His fingers searched for the fastening on her dress and, with a deft move, undid it, gently sliding the straps from her shoulders and down her arms until the dress slid down her body to the floor in a whisper of sound. Domenico tore his mouth from hers to survey her body and his eyes burned with a shimmering flare as he took in the ivory lace lingerie set.

‘I’m so glad I didn’t know you were wearing this. I would never have been able to keep my hands off you,’ he purred, his fingers lightly, teasingly skimming up and down her sides, touching and then melting away.

‘You not being able to keep your hands off me was the whole point of wearing it,’ she replied, laughing, the sound turning to a gasp as he turned her, his strong arms banding across her middle as they faced their reflection in the mirror.

Her need for him was painted all over her face. She had never been able to control it. There had been times when she could hide it, but now...now her longing was too big, too overpowering for her to exert any power over it. From the moment Domenico had started to dismantle his walls, she’d been lost to her desire completely. Lost to him. And she was sure he could see it too.

Eyes alight with a wicked kind of fever, he lowered his head to her neck and dusted her skin with light kisses, simultaneously moving his hand lower and lower, sliding it under the thin line of her panties in search of that bundle of exquisitely sensitive nerves. Pushing back her slick folds, he stroked a fingertip against her pulsing flesh, drawing a shattered sigh from her lips.

Domenico had always known how and where to touch her to make her scream, always seemed to sense how she wanted to be taken by him, but lately his touch had assumed a new power. It was reaching all the way into her, erasing her fears and caressing her soul. It was a way of being known that made her feel completely safe and yet utterly terrified.

Because surely that was everything one could hope to find in a lover. There was no greater connection, but if that was true... Rae was in even more dangerous territory than she’d thought. If only the danger wasn’t so addictive.

Her mind sent into a spin by his touch, her head arched against his strong shoulder as his probing and caressing fingers sent the most magical, fluttering feelings unfurling within her like a flower responding to sunlight. The rhythm of sensations built, soaring higher and faster, and her knees were slackening with each beautifully torturous second that passed.

‘Domenico,’ she gasped out brokenly, unable to withstand it any longer.

‘Open your eyes,’ he commanded throatily. ‘I want to watch you when you come.’

Rae hesitated. No doubt he had watched her orgasm before, but that wasthen. To do so now, to be looking into his eyes as she came apart under his caress would be extremely intimate and exposing, the forging of another deep connection, another unbreakable link between them, and that was the last thing she needed.

‘Open your eyes for me, Rae. Let me see you.’

The silky murmur of his words worked their magic and, her resistance overridden, she slowly opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was his face, his eyes dark and commanding and fixed on her, ready to devour. She wanted to look away, look anywhere but at him, but she couldn’t. With the devastating flash of his smile, Domenico sent his finger in a long, powerful stroke and that was all it took for Rae to implode, stars exploding behind her eyes and her whimpers filling the air around them.

His strong arms cradled her as she floated back down to earth but hunger was still yawning inside her and so she turned, fastening her hands behind his head, pulling his mouth down and kissing him greedily, hoping to distract them both from her ecstasy, which had filled her expression.

Sex. It was just sex.

But the reminder felt hollow and so Rae poured everything into the kiss in a bid to prove it. Evidently as eager as her, Domenico’s fingers moved to his shirt, ready to tear open the buttons, but Rae stilled his hand with her own.

‘No. Let me,’ she said, thrilled at the thought of undressing him, of revealing him inch by inch, the way she most loved.

Moving his hands away, Domenico stood still, breathing deeply as Rae smoothed her hands up to his broad shoulders and pushed his jacket off them, letting it fall to the floor. His eyes followed her every move and revelling in the freedom to touch him and determined to do to him what he had done to her, to make him feel as unsteady and exposed as she did, Rae traced the outline of his chest, her fingertips playing over the solid muscles and the hard ridges of his ribs. Each time she felt him quiver she danced her fingers a little further, her vulnerability diminishing with the thrill of feminine power rolling over her.

Had she ever before realised what she could do to him? Unsurprisingly, Domenico had always been the dominant sexual partner, but Rae was suddenly understanding that she had underestimated her power over him, that he was in thrall to her as well, and that was intoxicating...

She undid the buttons of his shirt slowly, one at a time, feeling his impatience mount, his breathing change as her fingers grazed purposefully against his bare skin. Once all the buttons were open, she pushed the sides of the shirt apart and pressed her lips to his warm chest. Domenico tensed and hissed beneath her, his fingers flexing at his sides as she teased a path of tender kisses down his hard stomach, following that line of faint dark hair that disappeared into the waistline of his trousers.

‘Rae...’ he groaned warningly as she neared the band of material, a plea she ignored to kiss her way back up his chest and manoeuvre him free from his shirt.

She tasted his lips again, her fingers continuing to roam across the planes of his upper body until his breathing was ragged and his chest was heaving and only then did she move her hands lower, unbuckling his belt, sliding down his fly and guiding his trousers and boxers down his strong legs.

And then he was completely naked, proud and erect before her eyes, and Rae had no desire to draw her gaze away. Only looking wasn’t enough, not by a long shot. She needed to touch, to feel him, and so she pressed her hand against him, her body jolting in response.

When she felt him grow harder under her touch, that feeling only arrowed even deeper and her need to conquer even more of him,all of him, intensified to a treacherous degree...

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