Page 45 of On His Bride's Terms

In the elevator, he’d asked roughly, ‘What floor.’

‘The top,’ Faye had answered, breathless. Apparently they weren’t playing any more.

As the lift had ascended Primo had pressed the stop button and said, ‘This is taking too long.’

It had been exactly the same thing she’d been thinking.

In the next second they’d been pressed together, mouths fused, kissing desperately. Primo’s hands had moulded her body to his, finding the slit in the dress, exploring beneath to find the place between her legs where she was embarrassingly ready. She’d gasped into his mouth as he’d stroked his fingers into her, tilting her hips towards him.

She’d climaxed around his fingers, unable to stop herself. She would have drawn back, mortified, but Primo hadn’t let her. He’d taken her hand and put it on him.

‘Feel what you do to me,’ he’d said. He’d rested his forehead against hers. ‘You have a hold over me, Faye...like nothing I’ve ever known before.’

And you over me, she would have said, if she’d been able to speak.

She’d felt a moment of tenderness for him. He’d sounded almost bewildered for a moment. As if he genuinely didn’t understand what was going on.

‘Do you mind that I came?’ she’d asked, before realising the double meaning and burying her face into his shoulder with fresh embarrassment.

He’d chuckled softly and tipped her chin up, not letting her hide. ‘No,’ he’d responded. ‘I absolutely don’t mind. I wonder if I’m dreaming you up.’

Faye had leant forward and nipped at his lower lip. She’d squeezed his firm flesh. ‘I’m real. Make love to me, Primo.’

The air had been so white-hot around them, Faye had wondered how their clothes hadn’t melted off.

Primo had said, ‘Not here.’

He’d pressed the button again, and somehow they’d managed to get to her suite without scandalising the respectable residents of the hotel. And then it had become a heat haze of desperation, and sinking into flesh, and wrapping her legs around Primo’s hips and begging, pleading for release, over and over again, until the dawn had streaked across the sky...

And now...

Faye lifted her head and squinted, and let out a little yelp. It was almost lunchtime. Then she noticed the note on stiff white hotel paper on the pillow.

She picked it up and turned onto her back to read it.

See you in Boston. P (Your husband)

It took Faye a second to realise she had a soppy smile on her face. And, as much as she tried, she couldn’t seem to rearrange her facial muscles.

The notion that Primo had permanently altered something in her very cells was a little disconcerting.

CHAPTER NINE

WHILEFAYEWASwaking up, Primo was already high above the Atlantic Ocean—he had a meeting in Manhattan that evening, and Faye had arranged to meet a client in London before she left. He was still marvelling at the previous evening. It was the hottest thing any woman had ever done to him. Surprising him like that. In that dress. The image of her sitting on that high stool would be burned onto his brain for ever.

He felt a burst of pure satisfaction that went deeper than the lingering sensual pleasure—because he had chosen his wife well. He foresaw a long and happy union, in which inevitably this intensity of desire would wane—it had to—but would be replaced with something far more manageable. Not this...fevered need to have her, driving him—andher—to bouts of spontaneity that he was enjoying—there was no denying it—but which ultimately weren’t sustainable.

Being distracted away from his business dinner meeting the previous evening had been an anomaly. It unsettled him a little now to acknowledge how easy it had been to walk away. And how unlike him. It was the kind of behaviour his father would have exhibited. Getting distracted by a beautiful woman.

But Faye was his wife. Not just a lover. Perhaps even she would have to concede that all the signs pointed to a sustainable union. But something niggled. Even though he knew every inch of her intimately, and knew how to push her over the edge with just a flick of his finger, she was keeping something in reserve.

After all, she was still maintaining her independence in the relationship. There was no talk of moving in together yet, and while Primo appreciated that on one level—because of course he didn’t intend for this to be an emotional union—spending time with Faye had made him rethink the need for such boundaries. It wouldn’t be a hardship to live with her. The thought of having her in his bed every night was...ridiculously seductive.

To his surprise, for the first time in his life he was actually envisaging having a family with someone. Not just as a duty to create the next generation of Holts, but really creating a family, even though he wasn’t sure what that looked like. But Faye did. She’d grown up with loving parents. She would be a good mother—he knew that instinctively.

She was inspiring Primo to think that maybe—just maybe—there was a chance that their marriage would prove to be fulfilling in ways that he hadn’t fully appreciated.

Boston, a few days later

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