Annabelle’s knees trembled. She twisted her arms around his neck, holding on for dear life. His hands moved to her hips and he held her firmly, keeping her close and tight against his body.
His tongue teased her mouth, tasting the corners of her lips, entwining and dancing with her trembling tongue. Pleasure cascaded in waves down her body. His kiss was hungry, his body hot and hard against hers. He held her against him, not allowing her to escape or deny his sensual demand. As if she could …
Her first kiss. She was lost in sensation, overwhelmed with desire. The whole world seemed to shrink to their physical points of contact, to his strong arms around her, to his hard, naked chest, to the fiery heat of his lips against her own.
His kiss changed. His lips no longer softly lured her. They became more demanding. Stefano no longer tried to convince her. He simply took what he wanted. He kissed her savagely, hungrily, hard enough to bruise. Clutching his shoulders, Annabelle kissed him back with the same force, with all her pent-up need of her lonely life.
Her mind was long gone, her body possessed. She only knew she had to kiss him or die. And it was so good she almost wept …
It seemed minutes or hours later that Stefano pulled away.
“And you still say,” he breathed against her temple, “that you did not need to be kissed?”
Eyes still closed, Annabelle pressed her cheek agains
t his chest. Her heart was beating so fast. Her lips were bruised. She felt warm sunlight on her skin. His strong arms felt like a shield, protecting her from the hard, cold world.
He stroked her hair tenderly. “How long has it been, querida?”
“What?” she whispered, dazed.
He smiled down at her. “Since you last took a lover.”
She blinked. Then she stared up at him in slowly dawning horror. Her heart pounded in her throat as all the passion and heat and fire turned to cold ash inside her.
You’ll never have me, Stefano, she’d said. Never.
She’d lied. The playboy was seducing her.
Annabelle sucked in her breath as waves of fear whipped through her. She couldn’t let it happen. She couldn’t! If she gave her virginity to a playboy like Stefano, she would lose everything. Her heart. Her soul.
While thirty seconds after Stefano had possessed her, he would forget her and move on to his next conquest!
With a gasp, she pulled away. Turning, she started to stumble back through the shadowed forest.
“Where are you going?” he demanded.
She tossed back over her shoulder, “I quit!”
“Running back to London? The fearless Annabelle Wolfe?” he taunted behind her. “Over one small kiss?”
She paused, looking back at him, her heart still pounding. “It wasn’t small.”
Stefano stood motionless, staring at her. Overhead, the green trees swayed in the warm breeze, causing dappled sunlight to scatter over them both like topaz.
“You hated it so much?” he said softly.
Hated it? No. She hadn’t hated it. That was the problem.
Stefano’s kiss had exploded her world. For the rest of her life, her memory would be divided in a new before and after. Today would forever be the day when she knew, without a doubt, how deep her loneliness and hunger went. And that she’d always be alone.
Annabelle felt a painful sting beneath her eyelids. She wanted to rush back into the warmth of his arms, to cling to him and beg him to kiss her again, to hold her tight and never let go.
But she knew how it would end.
You won’t be able to resist him. No woman can.
The broken hearts he’s scattered are as infinite as stars.