‘Why is it any of your business?’ she fired back, her eyes holding his even when she wanted to look away.
‘It interests me. You are an attractive woman who goes out of her way to hide her assets. It makes no sense.’
Emmeline turned away from him, surprised by how easily he’d surmised the truth of her situation. ‘Not everyone thinks their worth is derived from their appeal to the opposite sex.’
He made a sound of disagreement. ‘But to take pride in one’s appearance isn’t just about meeting someone, or attracting a lover. It’s a sign of self-love to want to look your best.’
‘I don’t agree,’ she murmured, even though she’d never really thought beyond the opinions she’d formed in her teenage years.
‘But don’t you feel better in this dress?’
He walked towards her, a glass in his hand, his eyes holding hers. She stared at him, refusing to cower even as nerves fluttered inside her.
‘Don’t you like the way you look tonight?’
‘I don’t like the way you’re looking at me as though you want to rip it off,’ she said thickly, sipping her drink.
His laugh was a slow, sensual cord, wrapping around her. And was she imagining there was something like tension in the harmless sound? The air in her lungs was burning, exploding...
‘We’ve already discussed that. I’m not interested in being the man who teaches you to feel.’
He lifted a finger and ran it across her lower lip, then dragged it lower, and lower still, to the fabric that joined at the centre of her chest. Then lower to her navel. She gasped as he ran it over her womanhood and paused, lingering there, padding his thumb across a part of her body that no man had ever touched.
‘Though I’d be lying if I said that right now it doesn’t hold at least some appeal.’ His words appeared to be almost dragged from him, as though against his will.
Confusion and doubt were back. Uncertainty. Her insides were swirling and without her knowledge her body swayed forward.
‘I wonder if you would orgasm quickly...’ he murmured distractedly, and a sharp swell of need made her groan.
She nodded—but what was she even nodding at?
His lips twisted into a hard-fought smile and he pulled his hand away. She made a small whimper of anger, and before she knew what she was doing her free hand had curled around his wrist, catching it and dragging him back.
‘Careful, cara. I don’t think you want to play with a man like me.’
‘Why are you tormenting me, then?’ she asked thickly, holding his hand still and pushing herself against him, her eyes wide, her body screaming with need. ‘Why stir me up and then walk away? Is that fun for you? Do you like seeing me like this?’
‘Fun? No. As for why I like doing this... I can’t say. I suppose I’m a little like a cat with a ball of wool. The idea of a twenty-two-year-old virgin is not something I can understand. You fascinate me and I just don’t seem able to help myself.’
‘Then don’t,’ she whispered, sipping the last of her drink. ‘Please.’ She lifted her arms around his neck, and her lips sought his. ‘Please.’
‘You’re Col’s daughter.’ The words were gravelled. Dark and husky.
‘And yet you married me.’ She ground her hips against him, her eyes showing her every need and desire.
He swore into her mouth in his own language, and then his hand was running down her thigh, finding the hem of her dress and lifting it, pushing aside the fabric of her silky underwear. He brushed his fingers over her throbbing heat and she gasped, the sensation unlike anything she could have imagined.
‘I’m not the right man for you to want,’ he said.
And he was so right. But sensual need had overtaken any vestige of common sense.
‘Shut up,’ she said hungrily, and he laughed against her lips.
‘Shut up and do this?’ he asked, pushing aside the fabric of her underwear.
Her heart skidded to a stop. All she could do was wait. Wait for what came next.
If Emmeline had been capable of rational thought she might have cared a little more that they were in a room anyone could have walked into at any point. But she didn’t. Fortunately her husband had his wits about him, and Pietro used his body to guide her back, so that she collided with a wall near enough to a corner to provide some cover.
His finger invaded her heat gently at first, nudging inside, preparing her slowly for the unfamiliar sensation. She whimpered as he pushed deeper, a cry catching in her throat as she throbbed around him, her muscles tensing and squeezing.
‘God,’ she groaned, grinding her hips, and he laughed softly, moving his finger in a swirling motion while his thumb found the cluster of nerves at her entrance and teased it.