nvey her need for something more.
'You are too impatient,' he murmured against her skin. 'We have all night before us, your skin is as sweet and tender as a fresh peach, tempting to the tongue and firm to the touch.'
His hand left her hip to stroke wantonly across the soft tension of her stomach, his lips following a downward path.
'Sebastian…'
'How sweetly you say my name,' he told her huskily, 'and how much sweeter it would be to feel your lips against my skin. Surely, querida, I don't have to tell you that?'
He moved, and Jessica was instantly aware of his arousal, but a languid yielding sensation was spreading through her, driving out fear. Her fingers trembled over the buttons of his shirt, exploring the moistness of the skin beneath. His skin was warm, silk shielding hard muscle and bone, and merely to let her fingers drift over the smooth muscles of his back provoked a racing excitement that seemed to invade every nerve. His skin burned against her palms, his husky moan inciting her to press quivering lips against the smooth column of his throat, tasting the salty male scent of him.
'Dios, Jessica,' he protested hoarsely as her tongue delicately probed the curve of his throat, her hands clinging to his shoulders, the soft movements of her body inviting his touch. His hand cupped her jaw, imprisoning her as his mouth possessed hers with hot urgency, forcing her lips to part, tasting the moist inner sweetness. His hands moved urgently over her body, desire burning hotly in his eyes as he urged her to help him with his pants. He had none of the self-consciousness she possessed, his body golden and taut in the light from the lamps as he stood up briefly, watching her eyes move wonderingly.
'You look at me as though you have never seen a man before, querida,' he told her softly. 'Such a look is a temptation to any man, and I am more than willing to be tempted.' He leaned over her, tanned fingers gently cupping first one breast and then the other as he bent his head, stroking the pulsating nipples lightly with his tongue, his mouth finally closing over the aching core, and waves of sensation beat through her as she gasped and trembled at the sensations he was arousing. A need to press wild, scattered kisses against his body seized her, his husky growl of pleasure reverberating along her spine.
His mouth left her breasts to stroke delicate kisses across her stomach, quivering with shock at the unaccustomed sensuality of his touch, but it seemed it wasn't enough simply for him to kiss her, she had to kiss him, and the feel of the tautly male flesh against her lips seemed only to increase the deep ache she could feel inside her. Then, as though he sensed her need and shared it, Sebastian parted her thighs, the heated masculinity of him unbearably arousing, as his tongue brushed softly over her lips, making her moan and cling desperately to his shoulders, mutely imploring him to cease tantalising her.
His mouth suddenly hardened on hers, his body taut with a need that communicated itself to every part of her. He moved, and suddenly, starkly, all her fear returned. There was pain and anger in his eyes, an anger which she had to blot out by closing hers, and weak tears seeped through as the sharp pain ended, taking with it her earlier euphoric pleasure.
'A virgin! You were a virgin,' Sebastian accused her. He was standing beside the bed wearing a dark silk robe, his hair tousled, and his expression bitter. 'Why didn't you tell me?'
'How could I?' Jessica muttered. 'I was going to when you started telling me how glad you were that I was a woman of experience… Anyway, I don't see why you should complain,' she added acidly. 'It isn't many men who get to have two virgin brides… Although, of course, in Manuela's case…'
His jaw tightened in fury, all the muscles in his face tensing, and Jessica had the overwhelming suspicion that if she hadn't been a woman he would have hit her.
'You should be pleased,' she threw bitterly at him, refusing to give in to the tiny voice warning her not to go any further. 'I thought that was what all the Calvadores men expected in their brides—innocence, purity!'
'You should have told me,' he repeated icily.
'Why?' Tears weren't very far away, everything had gone disastrously wrong. In a corner of her heart Jessica had been hoping that somehow the discovery that she was a virgin might soften him towards her, but instead… 'So that you could have been less… excessive? Would it have made any difference? You would still have hurt me.'
It was a childish accusation, and her emotions were more bruised than her body, but his face closed up immediately, his expression grimly unreadable as he assured her curtly, 'In that case you may be sure that I will never… hurt you again. I want no unwilling sacrifice in my bed,' he added cruelly.
'And there is always Pilar, isn't there?' Jessica flung at him. 'She's no shrinking virgin, to be shocked and distressed by your…your demands!'
He laughed mirthlessly. 'My demands as you call them, are no more than any sensual aroused male experiences. My mistake was in hoping to share them with you. Plainly you prefer to remain frigidly prudish.Then you may do so!'
* * *
CHAPTER EIGHT
It had all gone disastrously wrong, Jessica thought numbly, listening to Tia Sofia while Lisa perched on her knee. The three of them were in the sola that Sofia had claimed as her own, drinking coffee and eating the cook's delicious almond biscuits.
Tia Sofia had been explaining to Jessica that they were expecting a visit from Sebastian's godfather and his daughter.
'Querida, are you not feeling well?' she broke off to ask Jessica with concern. 'You look pale— you have been indoors too much working on Sebastian's wretched designs, you must go out more.'
'Yes, you promised you would go for a walk with me,' Lisa reminded her reproachfully.
Assuring them both that she was fine, Jessica forced a smile to lips that felt as though they would crack from the constant effort of having to smile when it was the last thing she wanted to do.How could two people live as intimately as she and Sebastian did and yet remain so far apart?Initially she had expected him to suggest that they have separate bedrooms—he could hardly want to share his with her now, but to her dismay he did no such thing. Perhaps the terrible pride of the Calvadores would not allow him to admit that he did not desire his wife. Whatever the reason, she was forced to endure the humiliation, night after night, of knowing that he was lying merely inches away from her, but his attitude towards her was so cold and dismissive that they could have been separated by the Sierras.
And the strain was beginning to tell. More than once she thought she had glimpsed sympathy in Sofia's eyes, and she wondered if the older woman suspected the truth. She roused herself when Lisa repeated insistently that she had promised to go out with her.
The little girl was wearing another of her dainty dresses, and while they looked enchanting, Jessica wished she could see her in shorts and tee-shirts, getting grubby; living a more natural life.
'I wish Tio Sebastian was with us,' Lisa confided as they walked through the courtyard and past the swimming pool towards the outbuildings. 'When will he be back from Seville?'
'Tonight,' Jessica told her, trying not to admit to the sinking sensation she experienced whenever she thought of Sebastian. She had thought she had seen him angry before, but it was nothing compared with the icy hauteur with which she was now treated. How foolish she had been to think that her love was the key to his heart! He wanted neither her love nor her body.