The Heat Of Passion

Carlo dealt her a genuinely amused smile that quite transformed his powerful dark features. He anchored one hand in the tumbled fall of her silver hair before she could take evasive action. 'Don't worry about it. You're not in an all-girls dorm and sleeping late doesn't mean you miss breakfast,' he murmured, deliberately mimicking her schoolgirlish speech. 'Why did I ever call you stupid?'

Breathlessly, Jessica attempted to keep some space between them. 'I don't know.'

'You outgunned Doris Day last night,' he said softly, appreciatively. 'You stitched me up like a professional. I went out of here feeling like a cross between an oversexed and clumsy teenager and a complete bastard.'

'If the c-cap fits '

His free hand curved to one slanted cheekbone, his gaze probing her wide violet eyes intently. 'And then you got into bed and slept like the dead. When you're asleep with your hair lying over the pillows, you look about sixteen. And incredibly untouched...' His husky

voice deepened. 'Like a story-book princess. The day we met, you looked just like that lying on the road in a white summer dress with a lace collar. Then you opened your eyes and they were the colour of pansies after the rain... Madre di Dio, I never wanted any woman in my life as I wanted you then!'

His deep, rich voice had a hypnotic quality that made her quiver. His palm felt warm against her cheekbone and her feathery lashes dropped low over her gaze, screening her sudden confusion from him. Every breath she inhaled seemed inadequate.

'I never had to fight for a woman before either... but I love to be challenged and you made yourself a challenge with your frigid little smiles and your icy stares,' he told her. 'I knew that that wasn't the real Jessica. It

was an act, a deception '

'No!' she objected shakily. 'You saw something that wasn't there, a woman you created in your own mind, who never existed except in your imagination!'

'She existed here in this bed. She came alive in my arms. Passionate, fearless and irresistible. And I want her back again.'

Jerkily, she ducked her head away, but he wouldn't let her escape his hold. Her angry eyes clashed with suddenly thunderous gold and the long fingers in her silky hair tightened their grip. 'You are very stubborn,' he grated.

'And you're an egotistical jerk! I won't give you what you want. I'll play the part of your fiancee but the acting stops at the bedroom door,' Jessica slammed back at him, imperious in her fury.

'Like

hell it will.' Carlo's enunciation was succinct.

'You want your pound of flesh?' Jessica demanded hotly. 'OK, take it!' She wrenched her hair free of his hold, flung herself flat on the bed again and said, 'Well, what are you waiting for?'

She tensed as his dark head lowered, eyes wide glimmering with defiance and scorn, breathing stilled. He wouldn't get any enjoyment out of it, she promised herself. If his idea of entertainment was making love to ah inanimate body, let him go ahead.

Carlo took her mouth in an explosion of silencing heat, his dark head blocking out the light, his hands on her shoulders hard and rough. The heat was like a red-hot wire shooting through her and she gripped his arms frantically in a last-ditch attempt to break the connection. But he wouldn't let her go.

Her hands curled into fists and struck blindly out at his chest. In response, he darted a powerful hand under her limbs and flattened her to the bed. There was a rich, enveloping darkness beckoning behind her closed eyelids and she knew what it was and she fought it, struggling for breath, for control, for anything that would wipe out the sensations he was forcing her to feel.

But her body was treacherous in pursuit of those same sensations. Her nipples tautened into tight little buds, her thighs trembled and every inch of her quivered with anticipation. Excitement was taking over in hot, drugging little spirals that peaked as he stabbed his tongue deep into the moist interior of her mouth. Her hands tangled in his hair and she kissed him back, passionately and wildly, twisting up to him to get closer.

Hard hands wrenched the nightdress from her shoulders, down her arms, effectively imprisoning her, and she couldn't bear it, her hands tugging for freedom from the sleeves. But no sooner had she freed herself than he pinned her wrists to the sheet with an earthy sound of amusement.

The tip of his tongue flicked over the thrust of one swollen nipple and a sob of tortured sound escaped her. His lips enclosed the aching bud slowly, teasingly, and her back arched, her teeth gritting. 'No!' she almost sobbed.

'Yes...' Carlo said thickly, exploring the proud swell of her flesh with his mouth and his tongue and his teeth until she was torn from that last shred of control and frantic only for continuance.

He released her hands and eased her out of her nightdress in one smooth movement. Long, sure fingers caressed her now tender breasts, playing on the sensitivity he had awakened, and a low moan of growing frustration escaped her. Dragging him down to her, she found his mouth again for herself, a long sigh of pleasure torn from her as the black curls of hair on his chest nibbed an abrasive course against her erect nipples.

A blunt forefinger traced the length of one slender thigh and she trembled, jerked as he slid his hand over the flat, silky skin of her belly. It was as if a hot wire were tightening inside her. She couldn't stay still. He made love to her mouth slowly, erotically, every thrust of his tongue making her quiver with unbearable need. She gripped his shoulders, felt the heavy thud of his heartbeat against her, and craved more, shuddering with wave after wave of raw excitement as he lazily trailed one hand through the silvery curls at the apex of her thighs.

He lifted his head and looked down at her hectically flushed face and nibbled teasingly at the reddened curve of her lower lip. She was pitched on an agonising high of arousal as his fingertips flirted with the smooth skin of one inner thigh, maddeningly refusing to touch her where she ached to be touched.

'Please...' she panted, lost to everything but the screaming demands of her own body.

'Are you begging me?' Carlo whispered in a black velvet undertone, his breath fanning her cheek, burnished golden eyes scanning glazed amethyst.

'Carlo...' She trembled against him.

'Tell me.' His dark head lowered and his carnal mouth found an incredibly sensitive spot below one small ear,