‘Not like this. Never like this.’
‘Truly?’
‘Truly.’
She pressed her hand lightly against his chest, absorbing his words, the truth of them, and then she resumed unbuttoning his shirt. This time her fingers didn’t fumble, and soon she was parting the material, sliding it over his shoulders so he was bare-chested.
‘I never did get a good look at you before,’ she remarked, her hands resting lightly on the sculpted muscles of his chest. His heart still thudded.
‘You can look all you like now.’
‘I am.’ She ran her hand lightly down his chest, her fingers tracing the hard ridges of muscle, exploring his body in a way that made him feel dizzy with hunger for her even though her fingers were barely skimming his skin.
‘Mia, you have no idea what you do to me.’
She ran her fingers along the waistband of his trousers before flicking open his belt as she gave him a mischievous look from under golden lashes. ‘Don’t I?’
He let out a choked laugh. ‘Maybe you do, you imp.’ He couldn’t stand still any longer, submitting to her intoxicating touch. ‘Now perhaps I need to discover what I do to you.’ He put his hands on her arms, sliding them up to her shoulders, enjoying the feel of the silk of her skin, before he hooked one finger underneath the spaghetti strap of her nightgown and tugged it down.
Her breath came in a shudder and she swayed as he pressed a kiss to the pure line of her collarbone before moving lower to the soft swell of her breast.
‘Alessandro…’
‘It seems we affect each other in a similar way,’ he murmured. Already he was blazing with need, on fire with it, and they’d barely touched.
‘It does seem that way,’ she admitted shakily. Her legs nearly buckled as he drew the other strap down, and then with one gentle twist of her shoulders the beautiful gown pooled at her feet, leaving her naked and beautiful. So very beautiful.
‘I didn’t wear that for very long,’ she remarked with an attempt at wryness, although he could see the pulse beating wildly in her throat, her pupils dark and huge.
‘It was in the way.’
‘So are these.’ She nodded towards his trousers, and Alessandro spread his hands.
‘You may do the honours.’
With a gulp, she reached for the button, her fingers fumbling once more as she undid it and then started to tug down the zip, her slender fingers brushing the pulsing length of him, making him groan.
‘Mia…’ he began, and then he found he couldn’t finish his sentence. He drew her into his arms, and in a tangle of naked limbs, he brought her to the bed and laid her on it like a treasure.
He kissed her deeply, drinking her in, feeling how her mouth and her whole body opened to him, an offering freely given—and utterly accepted.
He stretched out on top of her, relish
ing the feeling of her pressed against every inch of him, her arms wrapped around his shoulders, her breasts pressed to his chest, all his to explore and savour.
And he did, taking his time, coaxing an unfettered and glorious response out of Mia, his wife.
His wife.
The words, the truth of them, reverberated through him as he finally slid inside her welcoming warmth, uniting their bodies in a way they had never been united before, because this was for ever. One flesh, bound by a sacred vow.
For ever.
Mia’s cry of pleasure was muffled against his shoulder as he began to move and she joined him, finding a rhythm they claimed for their own as it took them higher and higher, united in this, united in everything.
As one.
The realisation of it thudded through him in the aftermath of their joined explosion as Alessandro rolled onto his back, taking Mia with him. He never wanted to let her go.