Million Dollar Christmas Proposal

“Enzu. Please…” She didn’t know what exactly she was asking for.

Thad had touched her down there, but she’d never felt so desperate for something.

He lifted his head, catching her gaze. “You will trust me to take care of you.”

“I will.” She did.

Her body reverberated with need and something deep inside her told her he was the only one who could meet it.

His gaze warmed with approval that increased her desire as much as the touch of his hand on her body.

She licked her lips, tasting Vincenzo and the slightly salty water of the pool. He made a primitive sound of arousal and his mouth descended on hers, his kiss just as primal.

She responded with all of the sexual and emotional need surging through her, allowing him access, but using every technique of tongue-play she’d learned kissing this master of sensuality.

He touched her clitoris, a swipe and circle of his middle finger against swollen flesh that he repeated over and over again.

She squirmed, her body moving restlessly in the water, her thighs parting of their own volition, but somehow her hands never came down from above her head. Dark delight coiled inside her, tighter and tighter, until it was a compressed ball of energy in her womb. It sent little electric shocks directly to her core, making her most intimate place pulse.

She couldn’t breathe, but she didn’t want the kiss to end. Her heart was beating so fast she was getting lightheaded and she didn’t care.

With a final swipe of his tongue, Vincenzo broke the kiss. He nuzzled her, placing open-mouthed kisses on her face.

His tongue drew a line up from first one temple to the corner of her eye and then the next.

“You cry with your pleasure,” he whispered into her ear.

She didn’t feel the tears, had none of the other indicators of crying, just drops of moisture leaking from her eyes. She hadn’t even known they were there. “I’m sorry.”

“No. You will not apologize for being so perfect. It is a rare woman who allows herself to feel so deeply when making love.”

“How could anyone hold back from you?” Least of all a twenty-seven-year-old virgin.

“All that matters is that you do not.”

“I can’t.”

“Then give your pleasure to me, amore. Come for me, now.” The demand was whispered against her ear as a second finger joined the first against her clitoris, the double stimulation on either side of the bundle of nerves too much to deny.

She climaxed with a scream, her entire body arching against him, the sensual joy too intense too contain. He lightened his touch, but did not remove his fingers, pulling her through aftershocks that made her cry out and finally whimper with the surfeit of pleasure.

The whole time he whispered into her ear.

“Bene. Sweet Audrey, you did so well.” And, as she floated on the euphoria following the cataclysm of her soul, “Molto bèdda. So very, very beautiful, my precious innocent.”

She let her eyelids flutter closed, floating on a cloud of exultation, at peace in a way she had not been in all her adult life.

Vincenzo tugged her bikini bottoms off and Audrey let him without a murmur of protest. The sound of the wet fabric hitting the floor beside the pool told her he’d tossed the bottoms to join the top.

Strong arms slid under her back and knees and then water cascaded off her naked body as he lifted her from the water to rest against his solid chest.

His heartbeat was heavy and fast, his breathing rapid like he’d been for a run. Because he wasn’t done yet. Not with her and not with his own pleasure.

A small secret smile curved her lips. They were not done.

He carried her to an extra-large lounger, laying her down on it before standing up.

She watched in sated expectation as he took off his trunks. His erection was dark with blood and so rigid the tip pointed upward.

Maybe it was her virgin sensibilities talking, but it looked like he had a loaded cannon between his legs. Thick and long, ready for action. The sight of him naked stole what was left of her breath.

Lassitude left her as excitement began thrumming through her blood again.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“YOU’RE BIG.” SHE licked her lips, the tiniest flicker of worry lighting inside her. “Maybe I should have had my first time with someone less impressive.”

“No,” he growled out, his expression going from lustful to saturnine.

Oh, he did not like that idea. Not one bit.

“I didn’t.” She pointed out the obvious.

His jaw hardened, a slight tick indicating her comment had not tamed the savage beast. At all.

“You gave me your trust?”

“Yes.”

“You will trust me not to hurt you?”

“First times hurt, Enzu.” She wouldn’t let him make a promise he could not keep.

“There are ways to mitigate that pain.”

“A lot of experience dealing with a woman’s virginity, have you?” she asked, irritation pricking the haze of pleasure in a way her anxiety had not.

“None, in fact.”

“Then how would you know?”

“Really? You must ask this?”

Once again she felt he was laughing at something she did not understand.

“Yes, I must.”

“Research.”

Speechless, she stared at him with all the undeniable hero-worship she felt. He’d researched how to make her first time best for her.

She narrowed her eyes, an idea coming to her. “Recent research?”

“Sì. I had no reason in the past to concern myself with such things.”

“Oh. That’s really sweet.”

His smile was as delicious as dessert, but without a bit of sugar in it. “Sweet is not a word to describe me, amore, believe me.”

“I believe you.” And she had no desire to have him feel the need to prove how not sweet he was.

The man was already overwhelming in his sensual mastery; she did not think she would survive him if he felt he had something to prove.

“Did you enjoy our time in the pool?” he asked, with every evidence of actually wanting her to answer.

“It wasn’t beyond obvious?”

“I prefer a direct answer, biddùzza.”

“You have control issues. You know that, right?”

r /> “I run a Fortune 500 company and an international commercial bank. I would not get far if I was indecisive.”

“It’s more than that. You like having major control in the bedroom.”

“Are you complaining?”

“No.” How could she after the mind-blowing orgasm and its extended aftershocks he’d given her in the pool?

“So you enjoyed it?”

“Yes.”

He nodded. “Good.”

It occurred to her that maybe the control thing was part of him making her first time good for her. She blurted out the thought as soon as it was fully formed in her mind.

Vincenzo joined her on the double-wide lounger before replying to it. “That is a real consideration, yes.”

“But it’s not all of it, is it?”

“No. I am most satisfied when my partner cedes control to me during sex.”

“You’ve had a lot of partners who did that for you?” she asked with irrational jealousy.

The man was thirty-six and had never claimed to be a monk.

“None who have given themselves so beautifully to me. You are something special, Audrey.”

She liked hearing that a little too much.

Unsure if she really cared, but wanting to move away from the dangerous thoughts and emotions trying to form in her mind, she asked, “Do you ever allow your partners to take control?”

“I never have.”

“Hmm.” That was an interesting way to put it.

If he never wanted to, wouldn’t he have just said no?

If intimacy could be this good all the time, she didn’t think it mattered to her who appeared to be in charge. Because there was no question in her mind that Audrey’s pleasure had driven every moment in the pool.

So, ultimately she had been the one in control. Not that she felt the need to point that out to him.

“It is possible I would be willing to explore things with you that I have not in the past,” he said, shocking her into silence. “But I can make no promises.”

“What about making love when no one is in charge?”

“Someone is always in control, Audrey, whether the participants acknowledge it or not.”

“But some couples share that control.”

He shrugged. “It is possible.”

“You don’t want to, though?”

“Not tonight.” He pushed her back onto the lounger, kissing her swollen lips softly. “Tonight you have put yourself in my hands.”