‘Kelly, my love, give me a second chance.’ He took a deep, rasping breath. ‘I don’t want to rush you into anything you don’t want, but marry me soon,’ he pleaded huskily. ‘You know it makes sense.’
Kelly wasn’t aware she was giving him a second chance, she thought muzzily, but, as his arms drifted around her again and pulled her gently into the warmth of his embrace, she didn’t resist. She could not. His dark head lowered and his lips found hers. This was where the last hour had been leading; this was what she had been afraid of. She was incapable of controlling her own response. Why deny it, she asked herself with a flash of insight, when she wanted him so much? Her senses were swimming with pleasure, her mouth clinging to his as he held her tightly against him, his tongue darting between her lips, exploring her mouth with an urgent passion.
‘Dio, you feel so good. You don’t know what you do to me, cara.’ His deep voice shook as he eased her slightly away from him. ‘Say yes, Kelly.’
For months she had been telling herself she would be fine as a single parent. But was she being fair to her unborn child? Kelly asked herself, studying Gianfranco’s handsome face with brilliant blue eyes. Now she had a choice; he was offering marriage, and two parents must be better than one. It was no contest because, dear heaven, she loved him.
Instead of the ‘yes’ that trembled on her lips Kelly heard herself ask, ‘Who was the redhead?’
‘Natalie. The wife of an American cousin of mine. Her husband was in the Far East on business and I deputised for him at the charity dinner,’ he explained huskily. ‘Only at the dinner, I swear.’
For a long moment she stared into his incredible eyes, and she believed him. ‘In that case…’ She reached her arms around his neck, urging him back to her, ‘Yes, oh, yes.’ Her long lashes fluttered down over her brilliant blue eyes, her fingers tangling in the silky black hair of his head, her lips blindly seeking his again.
She never saw the flare of triumph in his night-dark eyes as he gathered her close and kissed her long and slow, and when she finally opened her eyes she gazed up at him, totally enslaved all over again.
‘You have made me the happiest man alive.’
‘Happiest man…’ she murmured, floating in a sensuous bubble. ‘Are you sure you want to marry me?’ She had to ask. It was like a dream, and she wanted to pinch herself to make sure it was true.
‘I have never wanted anything more in my life, except perhaps tonight I want to make love to you, as I should have done the first time. Long and slow, very slow.’
‘Sounds good,’ she sighed, and tightened her hands behind his head.
‘No, not here—the bedroom.’ And, lifting her in his arms, he carried her out of the room, up the stairs, and without hesitation walked into the first bedroom he came to. One glance at the double bed and Gianfranco wanted to lay her down on it. But he forced himself to lower Kelly slowly to her feet.
As if waking from a dream, Kelly stood in the middle of the floor and looked up. Gianfranco was towering over her, his arms linked loosely around her waist. His eyes, dark with desire, roamed over her small frame, but when his hands reached for the bottom of her sweater she froze.
Suddenly she was terribly conscious of her altered physical state. ‘No,’ Kelly whispered and grasped his hands with hers. ‘I’m not the same.’ She looked up into his handsome face and placed a restraining hand on his chest. ‘I’m fat—my waist has gone,’ she said, scarlet with embarrassment.
Gianfranco wanted to laugh, she looked so beautiful, so woebegone, but he had more sense than to do so. ‘You are not fat, Kelly, you are luscious and swollen with my child. I have never seen you more beautiful.’ And, lifting her hand from his chest, he led her to the bed. Then, squeezing her hand, he added, ‘But if you are nervous you can undress me first.’ His dark eyes held hers as he quickly removed his shoes and socks, and then, straightening, more slowly removed his tie, undid the first two buttons of his shirt. ‘Help me, Kelly,’ he husked.
Intrigued, she forgot her own embarrassment and, sliding her small hands over his chest, she quickly unbuttoned the rest of his shirt. He slipped it from his shoulders and Kelly slid her hands back up over the tanned hair-roughened chest with tactile delight. ‘You feel hot,’ Kelly murmured, lifting fascinated eyes to his. ‘And so hard.’
Gianfranco almost groaned out loud. She had got that right; he was so hard he thought he’d burst. But even if it killed him he was going to make it right for her this time, he vowed. He smiled gently. ‘Now the trousers,’ he prompted.
Her head dipped, her slender fingers making short work of the waist fastening, but she hesitated a second before pulling down the zip, her knuckles stroking the rigid length of him through the fine fabric of his shorts.
There was something very exciting, empowering, about undressing a man, Kelly thought, her heart racing as she gently eased his trousers down over his hips, then, dropping to her knees, she slid them down his long legs. Intent upon her task, she never saw the grimace of agony on his face as her long hair brushed against his naked thighs and the hard length of his arousal, barely covered by black silk.
Stooping, Gianfranco lifted her to her feet. ‘Enough,’ he said huskily as he bent to her mouth. ‘I can’t wait much longer.’
As his mouth covered hers his hand slipped under her sweater and lifted it, his hands gliding up over her breasts, caressing her with expert tenderness.
Kelly shivered, her whole body flushing with heat, and lifted her arms, but before she could put them around him he had whipped her jumper over her head, and claimed her mouth once more.
She forgot about her thickened waistline, forgot everything, and mindlessly kissed him back.
He lifted his head and pulled her arms from around him. Stepping back, he whipped off his shorts and slid his hands down the elastic waist of her leggings, easing them down her hips.
‘No panties, Kelly?’ He grinned, but his eyes darkened to black as he looked at her. ‘I didn’t know how beautiful a woman could be until now,’ he husked softly, blatantly scrutinising her high firm breasts with their rosy tips so hard, so tempting, the soft swell of her stomach, and lower to the long shapely legs and the cluster of pale curls at the apex of her thighs.
‘Kelly, you are the most utterly feminine woman I have ever seen,’ he declared, his breathing heavy. He lifted a finger and slowly stroked over the smooth skin of her shoulder, then lower in a line across the soft curve of her breasts.
Helplessly she swayed towards him, her own eyes raking
over his bronzed torso, the symmetry of muscle and sinew, the savage splendour of his powerful aroused body. She murmured his name and reached out to touch him, with a look in her sapphire eyes as old as Eve.
He groaned with sheer impatience and lifted her in his arms again, sinking to the bed with her.