Angelo surveyed her with fierce intensity and it was a look that brimmed with ravenous desire. ‘I must,’ he contradicted. ‘I love your body, querida mia.’
He slid upright and dispensed with his trousers and boxers in one impatient movement. The hard thick contours of his erect manhood bore witness to his declaration and at the sight of his arousal Flora felt absolutely weak. He came back to her, pushing her knees to her chest to explore the slick damp pink folds she would have hidden from him, had she not been limp with the desire he had already awakened. He slid a finger into her tight passage while he used his tongue on the little pearl at the heart of her. As the sweet, tormenting pleasure began to build, she moaned out loud and jerked, her hips giving way to a feverish twisting motion. She had never reached such a high of sensation and when she could no longer withstand that sensual assault she went spinning over the edge of it with a keening cry and fell into the depths of writhing ecstasy, her every fantasy fulfilled.
‘Oh … Angelo.’ Struggling even to speak, Flora gasped as Angelo kissed her and rearranged her limp body on the bed before returning to her with urgent intent.
His bold shaft nudged at her damp entrance and then sank deep. He groaned out loud in satisfaction. ‘You’re so tight, querida mia.so wonderfully tight.’
‘I’ve not had a lot of practice at this,’ she admitted, exulting in the sensation of her inner muscles stretching to accommodate him while wondering if it was humanly possible to die from an overload of pleasure.
Briefly, Angelo frowned down at her as if he was seeking her meaning, but her eyes had closed and at that instant she was in the mood to sa
y no more. Her head rolled back as he gripped her hips to surge deeper into her tender channel, answering her need with the long sure strokes of his urgent possession. Quivering with delirious delight, she arched up to him, catching his rhythm and ready to reach for the stars again.
The sensations were getting sharper, the fiery ache in her pelvis stronger, and then her body jerked and flew into orgasm and she was crying out and shaking in receipt of the indescribably intense waves of devouring pleasure. For a minute or two she lay with her skin hot and damp with perspiration, cradled in the warmth of his embrace.
‘You were more than worth waiting for, querida mia,’ Angelo declared, smoothing her hair back from her flushed face with gentle fingers.
Her lashes lifted and she focused dreamily on the lean, darkly handsome face so near to hers. She shifted closer still and hugged him, all the deep affection of her nature surging to the fore in the aftermath of that powerful physical release. She wondered when it had happened, when exactly she had fallen head over heels in love with a guy she had continually told herself she felt nothing for. That day on the houseboat? The weeks afterwards when she had denied herself even the pleasure of speaking to him on the phone for longer than thirty seconds? The afternoon she had learned she was pregnant and he had responded with laudable cool and the immediate offer of his support? In truth Flora didn’t know when or even how she had fallen for Angelo van Zaal, only that just then it felt good to have taken that leap of faith and for once not to expect the worst from a man.
‘You said I was worth waiting for. How long is it since you’ve had someone else in your life?’ Flora asked boldly, already seeking to establish boundaries and know where she stood.
Angelo vented a roughened laugh and dark colour demarcated his superb cheekbones. ‘I haven’t been with anyone else since I was with you.’
Flora gave him a dazzling smile in reward and thought that he was showing great promise in the relationship stakes.
As if wary of having made that admission, Angelo added with a frown that drew his ebony brows together, ‘I don’t know why. Other women have seemed less appealing … somehow. Perhaps it’s because—’
‘No, don’t spoil it by trying to explain it! ‘ Flora urged, laying her forefinger against his wide mobile lips in a silencing gesture.
‘I don’t think I could explain my recent weakness for a particular tall, spirited redhead but it does seem to be working out very well indeed, enamorada mia,’ Angelo murmured with satisfaction, and he sucked her finger into his mouth and laved it with his tongue while watching her with slumberous shimmering blue eyes awash with hot expectation.
Heat swept through Flora even before he kissed her again and she responded with a fervour she could not restrain. Everything had fallen into place when she was least expecting it to do so and they had shifted into the role of lovers quite naturally. No longer was she holding back, checking out every word she spoke in advance and searching for double meanings in everything he said. She had abandoned the intense caution that had guided her and kept her heart whole and safe for several years and without that defensive barrier she did feel vulnerable. Yet turning her back on the uniformly low expectations she had of the male sex and putting Angelo into a category all of his own also left her free to enjoy being happy for a change.
And, in the aftermath of yet another bout of passionate lovemaking, Flora was on a high such as she had never experienced with a man before. Within the hour they sat down to eat in the panelled dining room, the home of a wonderfully colourful collection of Chinese porcelain, stored in elegant white cabinets that kept the room looking airy and light. Undaunted by their earlier non-appearance, Franz had put together a chicken salad and an array of mouth-watering desserts for their enjoyment. Skipper, who snored like a little steam train, was noisily asleep beneath the table, though once the food was served he stirred a little to maintain a mistrustful if drowsy watch on Angelo’s every move.
It was only while Flora was toying with a dessert that was a little too sweet for her taste buds that she remembered what she had meant to ask Angelo to explain earlier. Glancing up from her plate, she casually tucked a straying strand of coppery hair back behind her ear. ‘I have something I’ve been meaning to ask you …’
Angelo studied her with a lazy smile. ‘Ask away.’
Flora straightened her slim shoulders. ‘Why didn’t you tell me that Mariska was going to inherit your stepbrother’s trust fund?’
And the instant she asked, she knew she had strayed into dangerous territory, for Angelo perceptibly tensed, his brilliant eyes veiling to sharp arrows of blue while his lean strong face shuttered. ‘Who told you about that?’
‘Bregitta Etten called in to wish me well this afternoon and she mentioned it,’ Flora explained in a rush of nervous energy. ‘Naturally it felt a little weird that I had no idea that my niece was in line to come into Willem’s money! Why was I the last to be told?’
A heavy laden silence stretched between them like a treacherous sheet of ice that could not be crossed and mentally she told herself off for being so fanciful.
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘I SAW no reason TO discuss the matter with you,’ Angelo fielded with measured cool. ‘After all, surely it was fairly obvious that my stepbrother’s trust fund would go to his only child?’
‘Yes, I suppose, if you think about it from that angle perhaps it was rather obvious. But it didn’t occur to me because while Willem was alive he didn’t have access to that money,’ Flora pointed out, unimpressed by his explanation, indeed smelling a rat and a cover-up in his guarded response. ‘I didn’t consider it … I genuinely had no idea.’
‘It is a private matter. Bregitta shouldn’t have broached the subject with you,’ Angelo remarked flatly.
‘But she did and it made me feel rather foolish—why was I kept in the dark?’ Flora enquired a little more forcefully, for, unless it was her imagination, Angelo’s handsome mouth had curled with a hint of scorn when she had contended that she had had no idea that her niece was an heiress. ‘Why, Angelo?’ she repeated with greater emphasis.
Angelo expelled his breath in an impatient hiss and sprang upright to his full intimidating height, forcing her to tilt her head back to look up at him. His brilliant blue eyes collided with hers and held her gaze stubbornly fast. ‘I didn’t know for sure whether you knew about her inheritance or not, but I was concerned that your desire to adopt Mariska could be influenced by the reality that she will one day be a rich young woman. What’s more, were you now to win custody of her you would be legally able to apply to the trust fund for a sizeable income with which to raise her.’