Captivated by Her Innocence

She was sinking and falling into a black hole, into him. Waves of knee-trembling sensation were washing over her, back and forth until they became seamless on a deep, dark maelstrom of wanting.

In a few moments she wouldn’t be able to so she had to do it now. From somewhere Anna dredged up enough strength to push him away, hands flat on his chest. She shook her head. How could something so wrong on so many levels feel so damned...so incredibly, gloriously right?

‘No.’ Once more with feeling, and this time, Anna, say it like you mean it. ‘No, I need...’ She gasped as his hand slid down her right thigh, then up under the hem of her nightgown.

His glittering eyes swept her face and he smiled. ‘I know what you need.’

She shuddered as the words cut like a surgical knife through the layers of pretence. The awful, terrifying part was he did know. He seemed to know exactly what she needed, or at least what she craved. She struggled against his sensual dominance, knowing the moment she accepted it, the moment she gave herself up to the waves of pleasure, it was all over.

Hands flat on his chest, from somewhere she managed to summon up some superhuman strength to push him away one last time.

Cesare’s hands went to her elbows as he immediately, casually jerked her back, bringing her body in knee-sagging contact with his lean, hard length. Her vision blurred. His lips were a whisper away from reclaiming hers; she had raised herself up on her toes to meet him halfway. She blurted through lips that didn’t feel as if they belonged to her, lips swollen from his kisses, lips that wanted to beg ‘don’t stop’...

‘Jasmine, she’s ill...come...you...’

There was a few seconds’ delay before he reacted to her inarticulate plea. Cesare blinked and shook his head like someone waking from a dream. His massive chest lifted as he inhaled and he released her.

‘Why didn’t you say so sooner?’ he demanded harshly.

Her jaw dropped at the reprimand.

How was it possible for someone to kiss like that? Touch like that so hotly she could still feel the streaks of fire on her skin, and then sound so terribly cold?

She levered her back from the wall, trying to grab the ties of her robe, but, finding her hands were shaking too much, she settled instead for wrapping her arms around herself. ‘You didn’t give me much chance.’

The irony seemed wasted on Cesare as he continued to rap out questions. ‘Are you sure she was ill? When she’s distressed, she has nightmares—’

Arms crossed tightly over her chest, she rubbed her hands vigorously enough over her upper arms to cause a static crackle. She was shaking, her entire body racked by intermittent fine tremors.

Nightmares? Jas wasn’t the only one, Anna thought, her voice sharper than normal as she cut across him. ‘I’m sure.’

It seemed utterly surreal that they were talking like this. There was absolutely nothing in his behaviour to suggest that moments before he had been about to drag her to his bed. If they’d have got that far. Her heavy-lidded glance slid to her feet, to the floor. She let out a gasp of shame; she would have let him.

Hit by an aftershock tremor stronger than the others, she dug her teeth into her full lower lip and felt a strong surge of self-disgust. Strong, but not strong enough to cancel out the illicit excitement still swirling in her veins like champagne bubbles.

Was that really me?

Cesare dragged a hand through his dark hair and pinned her with an accusing glare. ‘Jas is ill and you left her alone?’ And appeared at his door at exactly the wrong moment looking like that!

His gaze swept upwards over her bare calves, moving over the kimono-style silky robe that had been belted loosely around her middle and now hung open to reveal an oversized nightshirt that should not have been provocative but was, even if the top button hadn’t popped to reveal the promising swell of her satiny smooth, lightly freckled breasts and the shadowy suggestion of cleavage. Even if it had been buttoned up to the neck he would have had no control over the desire that twisted like a molten metal fist in his belly.

Wrong moment!

There was not going to be a right moment for this provocative little witch to appear half dressed at his door. His mistake was attempting to rationalise the attraction that existed. You could not rationalise insanity and that was what this was.

She actually had the nerve to turn those big stricken blue eyes on him like some virginal innocent he’d just defiled. ‘Get back to Jas. I’ll be there as soon as I get some clothes on.’

And not a moment too soon, Anna thought as he whisked back into the bedroom. Still shaking, she took a deep breath and made some massive allowances for his awfulness. Whatever his faults, he loved his niece. Some people hit out when they were worried. He might be one of them—he might also be a heartless womaniser.