Page 40 of 2 Books in One Bundle
Heaven and hell were this, standing here in the silvery moonlight with Louisa, soft and pliant. Relaxing into his body. As she nestled into him, he was struck by a startling sensation. In his arms was where she was meant to be. He didn’t want to let her go.
His body reacted in a way that he might have said was an inevitability, holding a beautiful woman. All the while a voice inside tried to tell him this was not right. He had a job to do here. She was work, another responsibility.
None of it mattered.
Everything about this was as right as a moment could be. Yet something niggled in the recesses of his brain. A warning that things were about to change.
What was life without change? As far as he was concerned, it remained the only constant. Anyhow, Louisa needed some care. Some kindness. He could never have imagined the deprivations she’d suffered. A little girl, losing her father. Hurt by her mother. Yet the family had tried to convince her to stay silent to preserve the Bainbridge name?
They were rotten to the core whilst pretending to be good. How many of them saw what was happening to her and simply ignored it? The volcanic sensation bubbled inside. Rage at the injustice of it all. The need to avenge what had happened to her rising up like magma inside of him. His arms tightened around her, drawing her even closer and then the heat turned into something else. A flame that simply flicked to life inside him like a pilot light. Desire for something else.
Forher.
He couldn’t unsee her fantasies inked into the pages of a book. Running like a film reel through his head. She was an adult with wants too and it seemed she’d been denying them for years. Living a solitary life in the country, hidden away. Jewels like her shouldn’t be hidden. They should be brought out to sparkle. He could show hereverything. Her hand lay on his chest, thumb gently stroking him. Did she even realise it? The way she was pressed into him, as if wanting to meld into his body? She might be an innocent, but she had desires. He wanted her. What did it matter if she wanted him too?
She shifted in his arms. He loosened his hold as she lifted her head from his chest. Louisa looked pale and ethereal in the moonlight. Wearing his jacket. Something primal and possessive gripped him.
‘I can’t thank you enough for tonight,’ she murmured. Her voice somehow lower, huskier. The sound arrowing right through him. His arousal sharp, all-encompassing.
She shouldn’t give him thanks. He was a bastard, both literally and figuratively. A cold, hard businessman who knew what he wanted and took it. People respected him and sometimes cursed him, but never gave him thanks. He found he wanted it, wanted hers, all for himself.
They were so close. The moment perfect and fragile, bathed by the magical moonlight, where it seemed anything could happen. Her hands smoothed over his chest. Almost as if she was trying him out. The slow slide over his pectorals and up to his shoulders where they rested.
He was hard. Aching. Matteo had sampled the earthly delights of any number of women and he knew the signs that someone wanted him. Yet part of him was all uncertainty, when uncertainty was something he didn’t do. For some reason he knewthat she had to take what she wanted from him. Make the first move. His instincts had served him too well to ignore that if he tried to push too hard the night would end.
He wanted this to be only the beginning.
Not of a relationship, but of an awakening for Louisa. If she could just open herself. To life...to him, she’d see what more she could have, and it would change her whole world.
‘You deserve all things good, Lulu. Never doubt that. You’ve denied yourself enough.’
‘You think?’
‘I know.’
He gently circled his thumb on her lower spine, and she trembled in his arms, pressed herself against him once more. She’d feel what she did to him. There was no hiding it. She flexed her hips against him and if he hadn’t already been standing in the moonlight under the night sky, he might have seen stars. Her little gasp, the soft intake of breath, was better than the music of an angelic chorus. He’d never experienced desire like it. Something lit inside him with a rush, like fuel to a bonfire.
‘It’s time to ask for what you want, then take it,’ he said, his voice rough with need. Yet he knew the value of waiting. The benefit of gentle to break down walls rather than hitting everything head-on, with a sledgehammer. He was a patient man, and he could wait for her.
‘Be brave, Lulu.’
Be brave...
She was in the arms of a man that she could no longer deny she was attracted to with a relentless craving. She’d pretended her interest was somehow detached, that he was a magnificent man but that it didn’t really affect her, that what she saw in him was somehow removed from who she was. Somehow...academic.
All lies.
Louisa wanted him with a ferocity that should make her afraid. He wanted her too. There was no mistaking how she affected him and that gave her a surge of something that felt a lot like power, when her whole life she’d been powerless.
Not any more. This man did things to her. Lit a fuse that made her come alive in his arms. She wanted more of it, needed it like her next breath of air, like the food on her plate.
Ask for what you want, then take it.
Him.
How did she ask for that? This was all new to her. Old fears began to chatter away in her head. That she didn’t know what she was doing. That she’d make a fool of herself. Louisa refused to listen to them, listening to her instinct instead.
She wanted to thank him, so she’d give him a kiss.
