Italian Boss, Proud Miss Prim

‘So what would it take to bend you to my will?’ he suggested wickedly.

‘A miracle?’ she countered, deliberately provoking him.

‘A miracle?’ he murmured. ‘Or this…’

He claimed her mouth, teasing her lips apart—punishing her with kisses. As she responded he cupped her bottom and memories of sensation came streaming back. Was it only last night? How could she be so hungry? This wasn’t decent—she would go mad. She was composed of sensation and need, she was all hunger, all mindless, searching, craving, desire. ‘Oh, please…’

Briefly, he lifted his head to stare down at her.

‘Please, touch me…’ She was so swollen and aching. Winding her fingers through his hair, she dragged him close, demanding more, demanding everything he had to give her.

‘Is this any way to behave?’ he whispered with amusement.

‘Now…’ She cried out with frustration. ‘Don’t tease me…’ Edging her legs apart, she gave him the most brazen invitation yet. She had to have him. She had to draw him deep inside her. It was a primitive imperative she had no will to resist. Her inhibitions were cancelled out by the demands of a body that craved his touch. She needed more contact, more touching and stroking, more pleasure. Memories from last night were too vivid for her to ignore this opportunity.

‘Tell me what you want,’ he taunted her softly. ‘Direct me…’

‘I want all of you now…’

‘Explain.’ His voice was stern. He held back.

‘I want you to touch me again.’ She said this in a clear and lucid voice. ‘I want you to touch me exactly as you did before…’

‘Exactly?’

‘But this time I don’t want you to stop.’

There were no more words spoken between them. Rigo undid the fastening on her skirt and let it drop to the floor. Her new lace briefs followed. She closed her eyes as he enclosed the luscious swell between her legs. The touch of him there was indescribable.

‘More,’ she insisted in a groan, clinging helplessly to him. ‘Give me more—’

‘Like this?’

‘Oh, yes…’

But he was teasing her with almost touches. He would stroke her deliberately the way she liked and then return to a touch that was far too light.

‘Don’t tease me,’ she begged, and as her legs buckled he took her weight.

Somehow her legs were locked around his waist, and as he freed himself and protected them both, he insisted, ‘Use me.’

She gasped with shock as if the idea had never occurred to her. Rigo had given her the key to a new world, and one she had been longing to open since the moment they met. Taking him in her hands while he supported her, she touched him to her swollen flesh.

‘Again,’ he commanded.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

SHE used Rigo for her pleasure, not once, but many times, although there came a point where using him that way wasn’t enough. As her hunger rose Rigo backed her against the wall. ‘Yes,’ she groaned, clinging to him. ‘Yes,’ she husked gratefully on a long note of satisfaction as he eased inside her. Still cupping her buttocks with one hand, he added to her pleasure with the other and as he thrust deeper, faster, she arced towards him, urging him on with impassioned pleas. She had never thought, dreamed anything could feel so good, but this was more than a craving; for the first time in her life she felt complete.

He had never known sex like it. She was insatiable. She was passionate. She was perfect. But for him this was only the appetiser and now he wanted the feast. He wanted to take Katie to bed and make love to her all night.

He had lost count of how many times she had climaxed by the time he withdrew. He did so carefully, making sure she was steady on her feet when he lowered her to the ground. Embracing her, once, twice, his heart throbbed with unexplored feelings. The next step had to be bed, but to his astonishment when he suggested it she pushed him away. ‘Not again.’ He shook his head, refusing to believe she could do this a second time.

‘I can’t—’

‘What do you mean, you can’t?’ Drawing her close, he kissed her passionately, tenderly, but she wouldn’t or couldn’t respond. It made no sense. Anger grew inside him. She wanted him for sex—for instant gratification, but when it came to something deeper, more meaningful…

He had been used. A surge of disgust swept over him. Had he misjudged this? Was it all an act? Was Katie Bannister in love with someone else? He stepped back. Seeing his expression change, she reached out to him. ‘Rigo, please—you have to believe me when I say there’s a very good reason—’

‘For sating yourself and moving on?’ He shook his head in disbelief. He had only felt this level of betrayal once before, as a child whose pure love had been wasted on a man whose lust for a woman had taken precedence over love for his only son. ‘Give me the key.’

Fumbling through her pockets, she finally found the door key and gave it to him.

Clutching it in his fist, he left the spa without a second glance.

As the door slammed behind Rigo Katie slowly crumpled to the floor. Burying her head, she sobbed in a way she hadn’t been able to cry since the fire. She had never grieved for what she’d lost. She had never let the feelings inside her come out. Only her love for Rigo could open those floodgates. She had never felt anything as life-changing as this before—or directed so much loathing at her scars. She was crying because they could never be together and because sometimes it was easier to be strong than to break down, because being strong meant putting on an act, but when the mask dropped and there was just Katie Bannister facing up to her new life Katie wondered if she was strong enough or if too much had been lost.

Strong enough? Dry your eyes this minute, Katie’s inner voice commanded.

Picking herself up from the cold tiles, she rebuilt herself breath by ragged breath. There was no reprieve, no easy way, because deep inside her was a determined little light that kept on shining however hard she tried to put it out. She would get over this. She would get over Rigo. She would go on living. Scarred or not, she knew there would always be problems. She could sit here on a hard floor in an empty spa, wailing for a past that had whistled away, or she could pick up her mental armour and go back into battle.

Which was it to be—wailing or winning?

She would do more than survive; she would make a difference.

‘What’s this?’ Rigo stared at the letter Katie had just placed in his hand. They were in the library where she had found him pacing.

After what had happened in the spa she had no option but to do this. ‘It’s my resignation…You don’t have to accept it, but I’ll understand if you do.’

‘That’s very good of you.’ He eyed her brown suit with distaste. ‘So, are we right back where we started, Signorina Bannister?’

‘Hardly.’ She had barely finished the denial when Rigo’s look communicated all he thought of her in wounding detail.

‘I don’t accept your resignation.’ He handed the letter back. ‘You agreed to stay until I could find a replacement.’

‘That was before—’

‘Before what?’ he snapped.

She looked away, unable to meet his gaze.

‘As you may be aware, I haven’t had time to find a replacement for you yet. So I’d be grateful if you’d stay.’

He sounded so cold, so distant and, yes, so contemptuous. She flinched as he threw himself from his chair and stalked to the window, where he remained with his back turned to her, staring out. ‘If I weren’t so pushed…’ he grated out, leaving Katie in no doubt that he would get rid of her the moment he could.

‘I could resign. I still have my open ticket home—’

‘You can do what the hell you want—and seem to do just that, from what I’ve observed.’ Rigo’s eyes were narrowed with fury and suspicion as he looked at her.

‘I’m sorry—’

‘Don’t even go there.’

‘You don’t make it easy, Rigo.’

/> ‘I don’t make it easy?’ he demanded incredulously. ‘You’re guilty on that count too—and if it’s easy you’ve come for you might as well leave now.’

Turn her back on him for ever? Face life with no possibility of seeing Rigo again? ‘Is there any way we can work together now?’

‘You tell me.’

Could he sound any more hostile? ‘If we kept it on a strictly business footing?’

‘Let me assure you right away there’s no chance of anything else.’

Less than an hour ago there had been fire in those eyes. And now…

Digging her nails into her palms, she agreed to stay on. ‘If you tell me what the job entails.’

‘That’s very good of you.’

‘Rigo, please…I’ve said I’m sorry—’