Delucca's Marriage Contract

Something in Gianni’s chest tightened to see her bravery, when clearly this had to be bringing back some memories.

‘It’s okay, I’m not stopping. We’re just going to do i

t a little differently.’ He came down on his back and encouraged Keelin to straddle him. When her legs were either side of his hips and he could feel that hot centre of her body slide against him he had to clench his jaw tight for a moment.

She sounded incredibly vulnerable when she said, ‘What are you doing?’

Her hands were on his chest and he put his on her waist. ‘I thought this might make it easier. Just now, you were scared for a second, weren’t you?’

He could see her bite her lip, loath to admit it, but then she nodded. ‘A little, but it’s okay. I know you won’t hurt me.’

Gianni shifted and felt his erection rise against her buttocks and bit back a groan. ‘This way you won’t feel so threatened...you can control the pace.’

She looked deliciously tousled, hair tumbling around her shoulders. Subtly Gianni moved her up, so that his erection was between them. He could see when she felt it—when her cheeks flushed. The centre of her body was poised over him, pushing him to the very limits of his control.

And then, with some kind of innate feminine understanding of her body and his, she slowly slid down and took him inside her. He could see her wince when her body clamped around his thick length again and he soothed her with words in Italian and English, hands moving her slowly up and down so that gradually she took more and more, until he was past the resistance and he was buried so deep he saw stars.

They were both breathing heavily. And then slowly, Keelin started to move her hips in a sinuous exploratory rhythm. He could feel her body grow slicker, her eyes widen as pleasure registered, cancelling out everything else.

He moved easier inside her and it made him even harder. He pulled her down over his chest and her hands went either side of his head, her breasts moving against him with the thrust of their bodies. Sweat slickened their skin. Gianni brought a hand down and caressed her bottom, squeezing the flesh as he gave in to the urge of his body to hold her still so that he could thrust up, harder and deeper.

His mouth found Keelin’s nipple and tugged it deep, making her moan. ‘Gianni, I need—’

He drew his mouth away and looked at her face. Her eyes were glazed, cheeks flushed. Their bodies were locked in a relentless dance.

‘What do you need?’ His voice was hoarse with restraint and longing.‘Oh, God, I need you.’ The half-coherent plea made him clasp her close, driving his body even deeper. Their mouths met and clung as they both finally tipped over the edge and fell crashing and burning to the ground.

In the minutes that followed, arms wrapped tight around her, Keelin’s head tucked into his neck, and still buried deep inside her, Gianni had the rogue and very disturbing urge to never move again, loath to break the connection.

* * *

Keelin had never known such an intense feeling of satisfaction. Her whole body was throbbing lightly as her blood flow finally slowed down to normal, along with her heart rate.

And she had also never known what it was like to truly connect with someone else—when he’d pushed past her resistance, she’d had the sensation that he’d pushed past something much more than the physical. And that moment when Gianni had recognised her momentary fear and had pulled her over him so that she was on top—it was all too huge to think about now.

They were still connected and when he moved from underneath her she had to resist an urge to tighten her thighs around him so that he couldn’t pull free.

When he lay beside her, she was too languorous to move, and too cowardly to open her eyes.

‘Did I hurt you?’

She couldn’t not open her eyes now. How could he think that? It had been the most profound experience of her life. But somehow she knew he might not appreciate that. So she just shook her head and said huskily, ‘No, you didn’t hurt me.’

He smoothed some damp hair off her cheek. He smiled but she could sense a tension in his smile. ‘Good.’ He drew her close then and the soporific effects of lovemaking made it easy for her to shut out all the scary revelations of what this now meant for their relationship. Or wonder what the tension behind his smile meant.

And then he just said, ‘Go to sleep, Keelin.’

And almost before he’d finished saying it, her body had grown slack against him.

CHAPTER EIGHT

GIANNI CAREFULLY UNWRAPPED his arms from around Keelin’s sleeping form. Climbing out of the bed, he went to the bathroom, and after dealing with the protection, he washed his hands and risked a look at himself in the mirror. He almost expected to look somehow different, because he felt slightly altered.

But he didn’t. It was as if someone had turned the world upside down, shaken it about and then put it upright again. Everything looked the same, but it was all subtly different.

Not wanting to analyse why, beyond the fact that it had been the most amazing sex he’d ever experienced, he went back out to the room and dragged some sweatpants from a drawer, pulling them on.

As if drawn inexorably, he went back to stand beside the bed and looked down at the prone figure of Keelin for a long moment. Already he itched to touch her again, taste her, feel her body climax around him. Dio. Next time he might even be able to wait until she came first.