When she made a small gasp of pleasure, his eyes lifted to hers. ‘You like that, don’t you?’ he said, smiling softly.
‘Yes,’ she choked out.
‘What about this?’ he asked, taking the nipple furthest from him between his thumb and forefinger, and slowly but firmly starting to squeeze.
‘Oh, God!’ she cried out as an electrifying shard of sensation rocketed through her body, making her belly tighten and her thighs quiver.
‘And this?’ he went on, holding the nipple with a hard grip and twisting it from right to left.
She moaned. It was not a moan of protest or pain. But it wasn’t pleasure, either. This wasn’t making love, she thought wildly. This was something else, something dark, delicious and troubling. Troubling because she liked it too much.
‘No, don’t,’ she half-sobbed after he kept doing it. ‘Don’t.’
To give him credit he stopped straight away. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt you,’ he said, his expression remorseful.
‘Just kiss me,’ she said shakily.
He did. And it was lovely. She wrapped her arms around him and drew him down on top of her. Soon, the kissing wasn’t enough, of course. Dear heaven, but she wanted him so much. Her legs moved out from under him, spreading wide, her knees lifting in blatant invitation. He groaned, then obliged, sliding into her after only a momentary hesitation. It was fantastic, the feel of his flesh filling hers, the way he rocked back and forth inside her. Her hips moved with him, urging him deeper and deeper. He groaned again, the sound one of torment and frustration. When his rhythm picked up, the sensations were mind-blowing. She’d never felt such pleasure. Or such tension. She was panting and praying, wanting to come but not wanting it to end.
‘Dio,’ he growled, then came, his violent ejaculation propelling her into an orgasm that was as powerful as it was primal. Her fingernails dug into his back as her body bucked under his. Her mind was just as splintered, uncaring of anything but the ecstasy of the here and now.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
LEONARD COULDN’T BELIEVE he’d done it again. He’d lost control and not used a condom. Yet he’d put a couple on the bedside chest earlier, along with his phone and his watch.
Not that it mattered, he supposed.
Or did it? Could he really trust that Veronica was on the pill, like she’d said?
He withdrew abruptly, rolling away from her with a worried sigh.
‘What is it?’ she asked straight away. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing,’ he muttered, angry with himself now. ‘Just…’ He glanced over at her, not wanting to spoil things between them, but he simply had to say something. ‘I didn’t use a condom again.’
‘Oh,’ she said, blinking as though she herself had only just realised. ‘I meant to ask you to use one. But I forgot.’
‘I guess it doesn’t matter, since you’re on the pill,’ he went on. ‘But let’s face it, even the pill isn’t one hundred percent safe.’
Now it was her turn to sigh. ‘True.’
He wished he hadn’t brought the matter up. What they’d just shared had been incredible and he hated that he might have ruined the chance of more of the same.
‘Look, Leonardo,’ she said with an edge to her voice. ‘Trust me when I say there’s nothing for you to worry about. Aside from anything else, my period is due on Monday. If by some perverse twist of fate the worst happened, then I would handle it. I certainly wouldn’t use a baby to trap you into marriage.’
He couldn’t help being shocked. ‘You’d have a termination?’ He didn’t believe in abortion; he had been brought up to think of all life as sacred.
‘I didn’t say that,’ she snapped, sitting up and swinging her legs over the side of the bed. ‘I need to go to the bathroom.’
* * *
Veronica just made it onto the toilet before the tears came. She didn’t know why she was so upset. Perhaps because one minute she’d been lying underneath Leonardo’s utterly gorgeous body, thinking she’d died and gone to heaven, and the next he’d rolled away from her, leaving her feeling both abandoned and unloved. He’d spoiled her little romantic fantasy with his worries about having unsafe sex.
It did bother her a bit that once again she herself hadn’t thought of protection, especially after she’d planned to insist on it this time. But of course at the back of her mind she’d known she was ninety-nine percent safe. Did he honestly think she’d deliberately risk falling pregnant to a man like him?
The very thought appalled her. At the same time, it upset her that he would think she was anything like that other girl who’d lied to him so shamefully.
But you lied to him too, Veronica. By omission. You let him think you’re on the pill but you aren’t. Just because you know it’s the wrong time of the month to conceive is not an excuse. You still lied to him.