Dark Angel

Kerry froze, lifted her lashes, focused on his enraged dark features and had not a doubt in her head that she was hearing the whole, the absolute and ultimate truth: I was crazy about you. That declaration rang like a jubilee chorus of bells in her ears, for it freed her from a suspicion that had murdered her self-esteem. In the grip of those heightened emotions, her eyes shining, she moved closer. ‘So why couldn’t you have told me that then? It would’ve made such a difference.’

‘You shouldn’t have needed to be told.’ Luciano was furious that temper had betrayed him into making that revealing admission but he was already getting distracted by her proximity. It disturbed him that even in that weird tent thing she was wearing she still looked incredibly feminine, and then his glittering gaze zeroed in on her full, soft mouth and a different kind of tension altogether seized him.

‘Were you ashamed of it?’ she whispered in confusion.

‘What is this? An interrogation?’ But Luciano had already lost his angry focus on what for him had been the main issue of his integrity.

‘I just want to know…’ Kerry collided unwarily with his drugging golden eyes and was caught and held. It was so quiet in the room that all she could hear was the rush of her own breathing and the crackle of the fire in the hearth.

‘Know what?’ Luciano framed thickly, lifting his hand to let his forefinger trace the voluptuous curve of her lower lip, all recollection of the previous dialogue wiped from a mind taken over by far more primal images.

Although it was the merest, briefest touch, her heartbeat went haywire. Locked into his mesmeric scrutiny, she quivered with the force of the longing that had come out of nowhere and taken her prisoner. Her breasts stirred, the sensitive tips abraded by the coarse cotton of her nightdress, and a dulled ache clenched tight at the very heart of her. The slow, heavy pulse in the atmosphere made the tip of her tongue steal out to moisten her dry lower lip in a nervous flicker.

In one sudden movement, Luciano reached for her, spreading his hands to her narrow ribcage to propel her right off her feet, up into his arms, so that he could bring his hard, hungry lips crashing down on hers. A muffled gasp of shock sounded in her throat but the explosion of inner heat that seized her when his tongue probed the moist recesses of her tender mouth with ruthless masculine expertise only made her cling to his broad shoulders, her head swimming, all awareness of time and place torn from her. When she surfaced from that devastating kiss, Luciano was in the act of tumbling her down on the bed.

Molten golden eyes flaming over her, lean, dark, handsome features taut with desire, he breathed in a roughened undertone, ‘Share my bed tonight. Let me make love to you…’

CHAPTER FIVE

IN A daze, Kerry stared up at Luciano with warm, vulnerable eyes. I was crazy about you. Like a magic key those words had unleashed a flood of hope and happiness inside her, washed away the bitterness, left her barely knowing whether she was on her head or on her heels.

His wonderful smile sealed that effect. ‘Ever since you walked into my office last month, I’ve been burning for you, cara mia,’ Luciano admitted.

Deep down inside, Kerry melted like snow in hot sunshine. He came down on the bed beside her and lifted her back into his arms. He made her feel like a doll, for she was awesomely conscious of his strength and masculinity.

‘Is that a fact?’ she muttered unevenly.

He anchored one hand into her bright fall of curls to tip her head back, and studied her with intense golden eyes. ‘I’ve imagined this so often, I can’t believe it’s real.’

‘It’s real…’ Gathering her courage, Kerry smoothed her fingertips shyly along the hard plane of one proud cheekbone. Her heart raced so fast at that contact, that sweet freedom to touch again, that she trembled.

‘No…you, me and a bed could never feel real,’ Luciano quipped, turning his cheek into her palm to catch her forefinger between his lips and suck on it with an erotic intent that startled her even as it sent an equally surprising little frisson of heat feathering through her. As he took in her widened eyes, he laughed huskily. ‘I do believe I’m going to shock you tonight.’

For Kerry it was as though time had slipped, bringing back the male without the hard, abrasive edges, the male who could still be tender. She couldn’t take her spellbound attention from his lean, strong face; it was as if that cold indifference might never have been. He pressed his lips to the tiny pulse flickering like crazy at the base of her fine collar-bone. He tasted the delicate skin there, lingered, finding pleasure points she had not known existed, and her head fell back, her whole body thrumming and almost painfully responsive to his every caress. She sank her fingers into the luxuriant depths of his black hair and struggled to breathe.

Cooler air brushed her skin and she tensed as she realised that he had already undone the buttons hidden below the lace on her nightdress. Lifting his tousled dark head, he took her willing mouth with a raw, passionate urgency that made her heart race and then he stood her up between his spread thighs. With sure hands he slid the nightie from her taut white shoulders. As the heavy fabric fell in a heap, a tide of colour washed her fair skin and she crossed her arms over her nudity in instinctive concealment.

‘Per meraviglia…’ His dark deep drawl ragged with emphasis, he caught her hands in his and parted her screening arms again. His slumberous golden gaze roamed over her pale curves with unashamed masculine appreciation. ‘You’re my every fantasy.’

‘No need to get carried away,’ she mumbled.

‘I intend to get very carried away,’ Luciano intoned, tugging her back to him.

He curved his hand to her pouting breasts and watched her jerk against him in quivering response. A whimper of sound broke low in her throat. She pushed her sensitised flesh into his palm, tormented by the throb of her distended nipples. He bent his head there and closed his mouth round a tender pointed bud and her breath rasped in her throat at the sweet gathering torment of sensation beginning to cascade through her. She could feel her own body slipping away from her, eager and wanton, ready to go out of control, and it was almost as scary as it was exhilarating.

‘Luciano…’ As his handsome dark head lifted and she collided with shimmering golden eyes, she trembled against the hard, muscular wall of his chest. ‘Is this going to mean anything to you?’

She heard herself say it even though she didn’t want to say it, and then she wanted to die for herself, lose herself in some dark, deep hole where she could convince herself that she hadn’t voiced that so obvious and pathetic leading question. The taut silence that followed chipped away at her nerves like a chisel.

His brilliant eyes narrowed. Closing his arms round her again, he swept her off his hard thighs and set her back against the tumbled pillows instead. He smoothed the tangled curls back from her white brow. ‘It means more than you would ever believe, cara.’

Which told her precisely nothing and she knew it, knew it even as he sent a lean brown hand trailing with innate provocation down over her slender thigh to distract

her. But she couldn’t prevent the leap of her own response any more than she could stop herself from reaching for him and dragging him down to her by his shoulders so that she could clumsily find his beautiful mouth for herself again. And finally she understood what really wanting was: all caution, all pride sacrificed in the desperate hope that something better would come of it.

‘You’re still mine…that’s why,’ Luciano informed her with scorching assurance as she let him come up for air again, her lips red and moist from the wild hunger of his.

He sprang off the bed in a fluid, graceful movement and arched his narrow hips to unsnap his jeans.