Page 44 of The Virgin's Dance with the Devil
“Do you want me to keep an eye on the groom?”
His father shook his head and patted Rico’s knee. “Mattia’s on it. You enjoy your time with your unicorn. She’s a great girl.”
Rico had coaxed Marisa into sitting with his family during the previous evening’s ballroom entertainment, a spectacular cabaret act. As predicted, his father had been enamoured. Even his mother had nodded her approval, and she’d hated every female Rico had ever introduced her to. Threats of breaking kneecaps had worked in getting his brothers to behave around her. Threats of breaking elbows had worked in getting them to not even allude to that damned bet.
Rico had won the bet, but the only prize he wanted was Marisa, and only when he had his ring on her finger would he make his confession, no matter how hard his guts agitated for him to make his confession now.
Now that he had her, he would do anything –anything– to keep her, and if that meant smothering his growing conscience until they were married, then so be it.
Chapter Twelve
Marisa had managed to bag ‘their’Bali bed, the one closest to the sea, which, even with the drapes open, was positioned to feel like the only Bali bed on the beach. Stripped to her bikini, she was engrossed in The Heart’s Invisible Furies, a book that had already made her laugh and cry even if she did struggle with some of the translated Irish terms, when her phone pinged. She snatched it up and her heart did a dance to read Rico’s message:On my way xx
Figuring it would be quicker to go to the bar than ring the bell, she hurried over and ordered a couple of cocktails, deciding to hang around while they were made.
On her way back, she noticed the drapes were closed on all the other Bali beds and experienced a frisson between her legs to imagine what the lovers hidden behind them were doing. It was a thought she would never have allowed herself to have only days ago.
She sat back on the bed, sipping her mojito, and dreamily wondered how many of the lovers around her were napping, how many had their noses to their phones, how many were talking and how many were pleasuring each other.
When she’d arrived earlier, she’d followed a beautiful, glamorous couple down the path, watched them close the drapes of their bed, and had justknownthey were going to make love. There had been something about the woman’s confidence that had made Marisa think she would be the one to instigate it, a thought that had filled her with envy even while the spot between her legs had burned. Only now did she allow her mind open to what they could be doing… to what the woman could be doing.
Marisa had pleasured Rico with her hand that first time, but since they’d become lovers, she’d been too shy to instigate anything. In fairness to herself, she hadn’t needed to. Rico was an enthusiastic teacher, revelling in opening her up to the world of sensual pleasure. She knew he was holding back though, knew there was so much more to come from her highly sexed lover once he’d slowly and gently peeled away every layer of her inhibitions, and she could do nothing to stop the hot thrill of arousal to imagine how hedonistic their lovemaking could become.
So lost in her thoughts had she been that by the time he joined her, she was surprised to find she’d finished her drink.
After swooping for a kiss and flopping on the bed, he nodded at her glass that was empty except for mint and ice-cubes and raised a teasing eyebrow. “Thirsty?”
Her heart beating as hard as the pulse between her legs, she put her glass on the side table and lifted his cocktail in its place. Instead of passing it to him, she took a long drink.
Eyes glittering with bemusement, he raised his eyebrow again, his brow then furrowing a groove when she handed him the glass and immediately skipped off the bed before he could touch her.
“I’m going for a swim,” she murmured, closing the drapes on the right-hand side of the bed. “Why don’t you make yourself comfortable? I won’t be long.”
Fully aware that colour was high on her cheeks, she closed the drapes on the left-hand side and then, acting as if Rico were invisible, cupped her breasts before reaching behind her back to pull the string of her bikini top.
Naked from the waist up, she picked up a towel and sashayed to the shoreline.
Dropping the towel on the sand, she waded out to her knees. The water was cold, but it felt delicious. She could feel Rico’s stare on her, and that felt delicious too.
He was hers, she thought dreamily. That fun, gorgeous, hulking, sexy man was all hers, and he would be hers forever. With Rico, she’d found her heaven, and she wanted to take him there too.
Slowly, she gathered the hair he so loved to run his fingers through and drew it to the top of her head, tying it in a practised knot, and then she waded deeper, flinching when the waterline reached her pubis, flinching again when it reached her breasts, but pushing through it. When it reached the top of her cleavage, she casually turned around.
Still not letting her stare fall on Rico, she skimmed her gaze around the beach. All the drapes were closed. The bar was out of sight. No one could see her… except him.
She swam a lazy breaststroke before floating on her back. She’d never felt the sun’s rays on her naked breasts before, and it felt as delicious as everything else.
Nearing the shoreline, she stood back in the water, still not looking at him. Assuring herself that no one other than Rico could see her, she waded back to the sand and casually pulled her bikini bottoms down and stepped out of them. Now fully naked, she picked up her towel and dried herself, pressing the thick cotton onto every inch of her sensitised body, rubbing it over her breasts, patting it between her thighs…
No longer able to resist, she finally allowed herself to lookat Rico.
He’d stripped all his clothes off and was unashamedly masturbating.
For a moment, all she could do was watch him, heat bubbling like a cauldron between her thighs, her heart a staccato.
Not taking her eyes from him, she leant over to collect her discarded bikini bottoms and then walked slowly towards him.
Reaching their bed, she closed the drapes at the foot of it, then turned back to face him.
