'Go on.' An iron inflexibility had entered his voice and warned her against refusing to answer.
'And I thought with you it would be different,' she told him candidly. 'I didn't realise ...'
'That I'm only human?' he demanded wryly with a twisted smile. 'That I can only endure so much provocation without finding it physically impossible to draw back? Perhaps I ought to do something to get back on my pedestal, mm?'
For a moment she didn't realise what he meant, but when his fingers started to move seductively against her skin and her whole body trembled convulsively against him she realised, and tried to tense away. But Nico wouldn't let her. His skilled arousal of her body was something she had no defences against, and something that shocked and startled her after her earlier pain. Her body seemed to have no recollection of it, because it was responding to Nico as though it welcomed and accepted him as its lover. Her breasts peaked urgently beneath his sensual stroking, hardening at the first touch of his lips. Lips that teased and tormented until she was reaching towards him, her hands locking feverishly behind his neck, her fingers curling into his hair, her whispered 'Nico,' bringing the response she ached for and the warm possession of his mouth against the aroused centre of her breast.
And he didn't stop there. This time, without the heated urgency of before, his hands and mouth stroked lingeringly across her body, making her tremble when they caressed the vulnerability of her flat stomach and moved lower to the slender curve of her thighs, causing a frenetic response to his lovemaking that had her pressing mutely pleading kisses against his own body, touching it as she had not dared touch it before, letting him guide and instruct her until she was soft and pliant in his arms, and this time his possession was accomplished without pain or withdrawal as she was coaxed gently into relaxing until she was free to experience the pleasure he was giving her, his name muffled beneath his mouth as he carried her upwards with him to gaze spellbound and dazzled at the full glory of the sun before she sank into black velvet darkness, emotional tears leaving damp tracks against Nico's skin.
When at last she was capable of speech, and Nico's heartbeat had stopped sounding like thunder and resumed a normal reassuring thud, she pressed a shy kiss against his throat and murmured a hesitant, 'Thank you.'
She couldn't see his face, but there was a good deal of wryness in the way he said, 'It's more usual for the man to do the thanking, especially after an experience like that...'
Saffron didn't know what he meant and felt too shy and tired to ask, but she would ask him in the morning, she promised herself as her eyes closed, and sleep washed over her.
Saffron opened her eyes. Something was different. She frowned, trying to remember what it was, and then realisation came flooding over her. She was alone in the bed, but still naked beneath the cover that Nico had obviously tucked round her before leaving.
Common sense told her that she ought to feel shame, or at the very least regret, for what had happened, but she couldn't. What she did feel was an intense bubbling sensation of happiness, and a warm rippling pleasure in her own body. She stretched luxuriously, aware of herself in a way she had never been until Nico taught her. Nico. Warmth filled her. His lovemaking had been everything she had ever dreamed of, but where was he?
An alien sound reached her from outside, and she ran to the window, just in time to see a helicopter circling the farmhouse. Hope that she had suppressed for so long flared up inside her. Did that mean that they were actually looking for her? Surely a helicopter in these remote parts must mean something?
Tense and excited, she started to dress. Downstairs she could hear sounds of activity. Nico would be down there. He too would have seen the helicopter, but with very different emotions. For the first time she faced the sobering thought that they were on opposite sides; that her freedom meant he had failed, and Olivia had made it plain what happened to failures. A terrible fear engulfed her, but she forced it away. She felt nothing for Nico as a person, nothing at all. Heavens, if it hadn't been for her situation she would never have dreamed of letting him so much as kiss her, never mind. ..
The door opened and he came in, stern and unsmiling.
'Good, you're dressed.' He spoke in clipped accents. 'We're leaving.'
'Because of the helicopter?' she asked, greatly daring.
'So you saw it? Yes. Olivia has just reminded me that it was my idea that we stay here. She isn't feeling very kindly towards you this morning,' Nico added dryly, watching the colour run up under her skin with detached interest. 'So -we're back to being the aloof Miss Wykeham now that you realise that you haven't been completely forgotten by the outside world? Last night was just an aberration, something which is to be forgotten and swept under the carpet, is that it?' His mouth twisted. 'Very well then, so be it.'
Something not unlike regret shafted through her; a sense of having failed him in some way, which was ridiculous in all the circumstances, and yet as she brushed past him in the open doorway, her arm moving lightly against the bare skin of his, sensations not unlike those she had experienced during the night came rushing over her and for one weak moment she wanted to cling to him and beg him to leave, now, while there was still time. She looked up at him, tears blurring her sight, her throat aching with the pain of knowing that her rescue must mean his downfall, but his expression warned her against voicing her feelings, so she went downstairs to face Olivia's bitter hatred and the glowering menace from Guido as he watched by the window.
The plan was that they left immediately after they had eaten. Saffron gathered from what was being said that they had another safe house they had prepared before they kidnapped her, and it was to this that they were going to take her now.
'I told you we had stayed here too long,' Olivia snarled at Nico. 'I warned you that her father was playing with us, but oh no, you knew best, or was it simply that you wanted more time to bed her? I hope you enjoyed it,' she said pithily, 'because when Rome hears ...'
'Rome will hear nothing until I say so,' Nico told her curtly. 'Piero, go outside and help Guido with the Land Rover—something seems to be wrong, he's still trying to start it.'
He was, and for several minutes the sounds continued, until Piero reappeared, grim and angry.
'It won't start,' he announced. 'God knows what's wrong with it. Fuel's getting through all right, but the damn thing peters out almost as soon as it's fired.'
'Well then, start the other one,' Nico commanded him testily—and yet in spite of his outward manner, Saffron had the impression that he was not really concerned whether they got away or not, strange though it seemed.
Piero shrugged, 'Same thing.' He frowned suddenly, then turned and opened the canister used to store sugar. 'How much was in here last night?' he asked Olivia.
Puzzled, Saffron saw the other girl's eyes widen as she stared at the plastic canister.
'Your little girl-friend's put sugar in the petrol!'
Piero informed Nico savagely. 'That's why the damned thing won't start!'
'You mean we're trapped here?' Olivia looked bitter. 'When they come back, we'll be caught like rats in a trap!'
'If they come back,' Nico pointed out. 'We don't know for sure ...'
'Oh no, we don't know for sure, but we can make a pretty educated guess. It's the police all right, and they won't be coming back unarmed. Still, we've still got the girl. Daddy isn't going to like having her pumped full of holes in front of him, which is what we'll do unless he hands over the money and gives us a guaranteed free passage out of the country.'