‘Please, Tino, let me go… I have nothing inside me… I’ve got nothing to give you.’
‘No, Lisa, you’re wrong. I can see inside you, and you’re beautiful.’
And when she searched his face, and he saw the doubt fighting with her need to believe him, he shook his head and smiled tenderly at her. ‘Don’t you see, Lisa? We’re the saving of each other…’ And then he held her as if he would never let her go until she finally relaxed, and began to shudder uncontrollably in his arms.
‘Do you really think so?’
Her voice was tiny like a child’s and it made him want to cry for the first time he could remember…for both of them. ‘I know it.’
Still sensing her doubt, he cupped her chin and brought her to face him again. ‘I know it’s true, because I love you, Lisa. I love you so much you’ve got no idea.’ He kissed her then, and it was a beginning… It was as if they had never kissed before; it was a revelation to them both, like coming home.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
LISA was still warm from the bath. How could he have forgotten how wonderful she felt in his arms when the need rose in them both like a white-hot flame?
‘It was good, wasn’t it?’ she whispered when he finally stopped kissing her.
‘Is good,’ Tino corrected, still holding her, staring into her eyes. ‘Better than good.’
How could she hold back her feelings when she didn’t want to? How could she hold firm when her body, her heart, her mind, her soul called out to him, and when she only felt complete when she was with him? ‘I love you, Tino.’
‘Are you asking me, or telling me?’
They both laughed, and she buried her face against his chest. ‘Do I still sound so uncertain?’ She watched his lips tug up in a half-smile, ‘I…love…you.’
He swept her up into his arms and carried her to the bedroom to seal the pledge they had made to each other. Lowering her down onto the bed, he dropped the towel he had been wearing round his waist, and slipped beneath the covers, drawing her into his arms. Stroking her hair, he dropped kisses on her eyes, on her cheek, on her brow…
‘This is good,’ he said tenderly. ‘The best thing in the world is being in bed with you.’
‘It’s so much softer than a table,’ she teased him. ‘The worktable in a florist’s shop,’ she reminded him, ‘the boardroom table.’
‘Yours, or mine?’
‘Both, if I have my way.’
‘Then it’s to be hoped you do—I‘m keen to make sure our lovemaking never becomes predictable.’
‘No chance of that—’ Lisa gasped as Tino moved down the bed, kissing every inch of her on the way. He flung back the covers so that the subdued light from the bedside lamp played across her naked body, turning it a deeper shade of peach.
‘You’re so beautiful,’ he murmured, tracing the contours of her breasts and belly with the lightest touch to bring her pleasure. ‘I want to taste you.’
Throwing her head back on the soft bank of pillows, Lisa moaned softly as he moved between her thighs, pressing her legs back with his warm palms until she was completely open for him, completely ready… She could refuse him nothing…not even her heart.
His dark hair was so glossy in the lamplight, so silky to her touch as she laced her fingers through the thick waves to urge him on… His tongue was every bit as skilful as his fingers, and there was no part of her he did not understand, or know how to play for the greatest pleasure. But as her excitement grew to fever pitch he drew back, smiling down at her, his eyes dark with passion, and his smile wolfish in the half-light.
‘Don’t keep me waiting—’
‘Or?’ he demanded.
‘If you’re naughty, I shall have to punish you.’
Arousal hit them at the same moment, and as their eyes locked Tino knew they were thinking the same thing. They had both suffered the consequences of violence, but they had worked through their fears together, and it had brought them closer than either of them had anticipated. They could push the boundaries because they loved each
other, and because they could trust each other completely, and because, at last, they both knew without any doubt at all that they were safe.
‘Better?’ he asked Lisa later when she lay quiet in his arms.
‘Can’t speak…no strength.’ Her body was floating on another dimension. She couldn’t have called it back even had she wanted to.