Page 23 of Bound By The Italian’s 'I Do'

‘Want to take a shower with me before you go?’ he murmured.

Her throat moved and her chest rose before she managed to make her lips curve and huskily say, ‘A generous offer but judging by the size of you, you’ll hog all the water.’

‘Oh, I can be generous,bella.’ Dipping his mouth down to her neck, he traced his tongue over the delicate, toxically sweet skin, revelling at the quiver of her body in response. ‘Before our time here is done, I’ll prove just how generous a man I can be.’

‘Your self-confidence is staggering,’ she said, only the hitches in her voice betraying her nonchalance as a facade.

Dropping her hands, he dragged his fingers through her hair and down her neck until, for the very first time, he palmed a small, pert breast. A shock of electricity zinged through them both, so tangible he could swear he heard it crackle.

‘Dio, you’re sexy,’ he muttered into her mouth before kissing her. His arousal, a semi-permanent state since their first kiss in the swimming pool, sprung back to full length at the first flicker of her tongue against his and when she cupped his head and her fingers dug through his hair to scrape against his skull, his intention of merely teasing her was completely forgotten as the heat she evoked in him unleashed in all its power, a surge of energy that burned from his loins to every crevice in his body.

The way Issy Seymore made him feel was more than a mere game. He’d never wanted anyone like he wanted her.

This time, though, Issy was the one to keep her head, suddenly pulling her mouth from his and pushing him away from her.

‘I can’t do this,’ she croaked, breathing heavily.

‘Do what?’

‘This. Gianni...’ Clearly flustered, she pressed a hand tightly against her heaving chest. ‘I...’

‘You what?’ he encouraged. Would this be the moment Isabelle Seymore confessed? Or did the little minx have something else up her sleeve?

Her dark blue eyes gazed into his with something akin to desperation. ‘I’m saving myself for marriage.’

As soon as the words left her mouth, Issy wished she could take them back. She had no idea where they had come from. Of course she wasn’t saving herself for marriage—she wasn’t a Victorian!

But shewasfrightened. Terrified. Terrified at how easily her body overrode her sanity when it came to Gianni. Terrified at how deeply she was coming to crave him. So while her words of marriage had dredged themselves from nowhere, there was a slight calming in the wild thumps of her heart to know they were the words to make the commitment-phobic Gianni Rossi back off.

Gazing into his shocked eyes, she determined that when this was all over, she was going to find herself a boyfriend. She’d make Amelia get out there and find a boyfriend too. The Rossi cousins had stopped them living for long enough.

This craving for Gianni was all his fault. If Gianni and his hateful cousin hadn’t ruined their lives then they would have continued developing like other teenage girls, getting boyfriends and partying, not trying desperately to save their father from himself and then trying to save their mother, and all the while working and working to reach this point where they could bring down the men who’d turned their lives into rubble. Gianni’s actions all those years ago had stopped her forming the emotional and sexual attachments other twenty-three-year-old women took for granted. Something else to hate and blame him for.

Her loathing ratcheted up when his shock slowly dissipated and that hateful gleam flashed in his devil eyes. ‘You’re saving yourself for marriage,bella?’

Grinding her toes into her sandals, she jutted her chin. ‘Yes. I’m sorry if that disappoints you.’

He shrugged with the nonchalance she kept aiming for, and, leaning his face closer to hers, folded his arms across his naked chest. How her fingers itched to swirl through the dark hair covering it. The bastard had probably taken his polo shirt off deliberately. She wished he’d put it back on.

‘Why would I be disappointed? There are other ways to share pleasure.’

Oh, God, did he have to saypleasureso ruddy seductively? ‘I just thought you might have expectations...expectations that I’ve admittedly fed...’ There was no getting around that. She’d practically promised herself to him. Feeling more confident, she continued. ‘I am very much attracted to you, Gianni...’ She managed to flash a grin. ‘...as you’ve probably noticed.’

‘I’m pretty damned hot for you too.’

‘And I know I’ve led you on but it’s only because I fancied you from the moment I met you and I thought you could be the one I dropped my morals for, but they’re too strong. I can’t give myself to you without a ring on my finger. I’m sorry.’

His mouth curved and his forehead creased in understanding. ‘No need to apologise. If you have morals then you must stick by then.’

‘I’m so glad you understand.’

‘I understand perfectly. You’ll only have sex with me if I marry you?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then I accept.’

‘Accept what?’

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