Kissing her, Nero backed her towards the sweet-smelling bed of hay. She kept hold of his shirt as she sank down, dragging him with her. This might be a dream that lasted one night, but she had no intention of waking yet. She softened as Nero pressed her to the ground. Each of his touches was a caress, and each glance a promise to keep her safe…
Unfastening the straps on her dancing shoes, he tossed them aside.
‘I’m not wearing very much beneath my dress,’ she explained haltingly, having a sudden fit of the same self-consciousness that had dogged her all her life.
‘Excellent,’ Nero approved, lowering the zip on her dress.
‘Nero—’ She flinched as he pushed her bra straps down.
‘You’re not frightened of me, are you?’
‘You? No,’ she answered. She was more frightened of the way she felt about him. ‘I’m not frightened of anything.’
‘Only a fool doesn’t know fear,’ Nero reminded her as his kisses moved to her shoulder and then the swell of her breast. And when she sighed in his arms, he took her bra off and tossed it away. ‘If I ruled the world—’
‘You’d be unbearable?’ she suggested, rallying determinedly between gasps of pleasure.
‘It would be a crime to construct lingerie out of reinforced canvas,’ Nero advised her as he teased her nipple with the tip of his tongue. ‘How did you fit that ugly contraption beneath this divine dress?’
‘With the greatest difficulty,’ Bella admitted.
‘Are you a virgin?’
‘What sort of question is that?’ she demanded.
‘It’s a perfectly reasonable question. And if you are, now would be a good time to tell me. Come on, Bella, your answer can only be yes or no—’
‘Or yes…and no,’ she said, stalling.
Nero frowned as he shifted position. ‘I think you’d better explain.’
When had she ever found it easy to discuss intimacy—or met a man who cared enough to ask? ‘Of course I’m not a virgin. At my age?’ she added with an awkward laugh.
Nero shrugged this answer off. ‘Plenty of women your age are virgins—they haven’t met the right man—they’re flat-out not interested. It isn’t a crime, Bella.’
Right. But she hadn’t thought to hear Nero say it. She had always believed it was almost as taboo for a woman to admit to being a virgin at her age as it was to admitting she slept around.
‘So what’s your reason?’ he prompted gently.
Surrender. That was Bella’s reason. Loss of control. Putting her trust in someone else. She had never trusted anyone enough to be able to completely let go. But how to tell Nero that? ‘People can control your life,’ she murmured.
‘Only if you let them,’ Nero murmured between tender kisses. ‘I would never do that. I have too much respect for you, Bella.’
She searched his eyes as Nero stroked her hair back. ‘You have to let the past go,’ he insisted gently. ‘Learn from it, by all means, but move forward.’
‘I have moved forward,’ she said fiercely.
‘Hey.’ Nero was laughing softly as he brought her into his arms. ‘No one’s achieved more than you, tiger woman.’
‘I had to…I had to defend my father.’
‘Your hero?’ Nero prompted, understanding.
‘He was always my hero,’ Bella admitted, eyes shining as she remembered all the wonderful times she had shared with a man who was flawed in the eyes of the world, but just about perfect where she was concerned. ‘I had to stand my ground.’
‘And fight?’ Nero supplied. ‘I know something about that,’ he said wryly.
‘I had to show all those people, Nero.’