Page 36 of On His Bride's Terms

Faye desperately tried to resist the spell he was weaving around her, making her think all sorts of things. She gestured at the invisible electricity between them. ‘Butthiswon’t last...it never does.’

He didn’t disagree with her. ‘And then we’ll still have enough to make a very successful marriage.’

‘You don’t like to fail, do you?’ Faye observed.

He smiled, and it was a shark’s smile. ‘Not an option.’

She shivered slightly. She wondered what it must be like to be on the other side of this man’s charm and interest. If you crossed him...

Like you, you mean? When you have every intention of walking away after six months? Not revealing the truth of your infertility?

Faye desperately reassured herself that she’d made it very clear what her terms were and couldn’t be accused of deception.

To stop thinking about that, she leaned forward and kissed him, pressing her mouth to his, revelling in the firmness of his lips. For a moment he let her kiss him, and then he reached for her with his free arm and pulled her into him, taking control of the kiss and showing her that any sense of control she might have had was just an illusion.

The wine glasses were put down and that electricity crackled in the air around them as they blindly made their way to the bedroom, shedding and divesting themselves of clothes as they went.

Faye vaguely wondered if it had been less than twenty-four hours since she’d slept with him. It felt like years ago. She was desperate, hungry, reaching for Primo as soon as he was naked, putting her hand around him and hearing his sharp intake of breath.

She was naked too, and Primo cupped her breasts, feeding her tingling flesh into his mouth, making her moan softly with need. She took her hand off him and moved under him, spreading her legs around him, and Primo needed no further enticement to join their bodies in one deep thrust.

Faye’s head was thrown back as pleasure climbed inexorably through her body, tightening every nerve-ending until she was held on the brink of shimmering ecstasy. But Primo wouldn’t release her.

She looked at him, and his eyes were on her. She had nowhere to hide. Bared utterly. And yet she couldn’t look away.

‘Please... Primo...’

His face was flushed, a lock of hair falling onto his forehead. He was in her, and around her, and they were one in a way that she knew terrified her. But she couldn’t unpack that now. When he reached down between their bodies, touched her where they were joined, he finally released her from the exquisite tension and they both fell over the edge and into pleasure so intense it almost hurt.

When Faye woke she was alone in the bed, like the previous morning in Paris, her body heavy with a bone-deep sense of satisfaction and her mind full of snapshots of the previous night. It had been as raw and elemental as the first few times and it didn’t look to be waning any time soon.

He’d followed her to Dublin.

The lightness she’d felt on seeing him yesterday evening lingered. It was an unusual sensation for Faye, who’d got used to barricading herself behind protective walls since her first marriage.

She rolled over and buried her head in the pillow, letting out a groan of embarrassment but also feeling a fizzing kind of joy.

A tap on her bare shoulder made her go very still. She dug her face out of the pillow and squinted at Primo, standing by the bed in a robe, holding a coffee cup. She was very dishevelled and naked. She pulled up the sheet, feeling shy, which was ridiculous.

‘Morning,’ Primo said cheerfully, putting the cup down near the bed. ‘Coffee. I seem to recall it having a positive effect.’

Faye might have scowled at him, but her face didn’t seem able to arrange itself into that expression. She leaned over and picked up the cup, taking a sip. The coffee had an almost instantaneous effect, waking her out of the dreamy state she’d been in.Good.

She put the cup back down and looked at Primo. ‘Don’t you have meetings in New York?’

‘I pushed them again. I’m extending our trip—if you can rearrange your schedule. We’ll be back in America in time for the Boston event.’

Her mouth dropped open in shock at this pronouncement. When she’d recovered, she asked, ‘And in the meantime we’ll be...?’

Primo sat down on the edge of the bed and placed his hands either side of her. ‘Enjoying a honeymoon—which I believe is a normal event for most newly married couples.’

Faye gulped. ‘I thought we weren’t most married couples, though.’

The sizzle in the air between them made a lie of Faye’s words. Primo confirmed it when he said, ‘On the contrary, I think we’re proving to be no different to most newlyweds, and if anything it would serve us well to indulge this...phase.’

‘Phase...?’

Primo very deliberately pulled the sheet down, exposing Faye’s chest. His hungry gaze moved from her mouth to her breasts and back up. Instantly she was wide awake and burning inside.

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