The Billionaire's Bridal Bargain

‘Sex without a condom...I’ve never done that before and it excites me,’ he admitted huskily, shifting against her thigh, letting her feel the smooth, hard length of his erection.

Lizzie was trying not to think about the size of him in that department. She was a modern woman, well acquainted with averages and gossip and popular report. Being a virgin didn’t mean she was entirely ignorant, she told herself in consolation, striving not to stress as her excitement built and built. Hands biting into his strong shoulders, she lifted her hips upward, succumbing to an almost uncontrollable urge to get closer to him. He toyed with her lush, damp opening, honeyed quivers of sensations rippling through her womb, and circled the tiny bud of her arousal until almost without warning a wild, seething force of irresistible sensation engulfed her like a flood. Her eyes flew wide and she bucked and jerked and sobbed in the grip of rush after rush of intense and enthralling pleasure.

He tipped her up, hooking her legs over his shoulders in a move that unnerved her. He plunged into her tight channel and for a moment she was preoccupied with the sense of fullness, the certain knowledge that this was exactly what her body had craved throughout his teasing foreplay. In fact everything was wonderful until the hot glide of his flesh within hers sank deeper and a sudden sharp, tearing pain made her stiffen and cry out in dismay.

Cesare froze as though a fire alarm had gone off and stared down at her, dark golden eyes like hungry golden flames in his lean bronzed face. ‘You can’t be...’

Enraged by her own bodily weakness and chagrin, Lizzie dealt him a look that would have dropped a grizzly bear at ten paces. ‘Well, don’t stop now.’

‘You’re a virgin?’ Cesare emphasised, his incredulity unconcealed as he held himself at an angle above her, muscles straining in his bulging forearms.

‘How’s that your business?’ Lizzie slung back argumentatively.

Cesare swore long and low in his own language and cursed her stubbornness. He burned for her but he was fighting his hunger with all his might. It struck him as unjust that the hot, tight hold of her body on his gave him pure pleasure while she had only experienced pure pain.

‘It’s my business,’ he told her grimly. ‘I think this is my cue to back off.’

‘No... No!’ Lizzie exclaimed in consternation. ‘You don’t get to go that far and then stop... I want to know what it’s like...’

In receipt of that plaintive plea, Cesare groaned out loud, belatedly recognising that marriage was proving a much bigger challenge than he had expected. She was experimenting with him, he thought in all-male horror.

‘Please...’ Lizzie added, tugging him down to her, pale fingers framing his cheekbones as she reached without success for his beautiful, passionate mouth.

In the mood to be easily encouraged, Cesare shifted his hips, his entire attention nailed to her flushed and expressive face so that he could register the smallest wince she might make. Instead Lizzie smiled up at him with a look of wonderment that was uniquely soothing to his momentarily threatened male ego.

Lizzie closed her eyes again, mortified at the fuss she had made, the lengths she had had to go to to persuade him to continue. She had always believed that a man found it hard to stop in the middle of sex, so the fact that he had offered to withdraw altogether did not strike her as a compliment. But she had wanted to know, had wanted so badly to know what all the fuss was about.

He moved against her and tingling, driving sensation awakened in her pelvis again. She relaxed a little. The slow, almost provocative thrusts became enticing and she relaxed completely, indeed began to arch up to greet him with an enthusiasm she had never expected to feel. His skilled acceleration delivered sensation like nothing she had ever experienced and her excitement

soared to delirious heights that climbed and climbed until she reached a peak and soared effortlessly over it and then down and down into the cocoon of lethargy and satiation, exhaustion pulling at her every sense.

Cesare settled her back down on the pillows and smoothed her tangled hair off her damp brow. His hand trembled a little because he was struggling to do two opposing things: firstly treat Lizzie like the bride she was and, secondly, suppress the anger tearing at him. ‘Why didn’t you tell me I’d be your first lover?’ he demanded in a roughened undertone.

His tone, his exasperation, cut through Lizzie in her sensitive state like the sudden painful slice of a knife and she sat up abruptly, clutching the sheet to her chest. ‘I didn’t see that it was anything to do with you.’

‘In other words, you chose to deliberately conceal it,’ he condemned, leaping out of bed in one lithe, powerful movement. ‘How the hell could you still be a virgin when you were once engaged?’

‘Don’t you dare raise your voice to me, Cesare Sabatino!’ Lizzie yelled back at him furiously, but she was trembling with an innate fear she could not have expressed at that moment. ‘As for why I was still a virgin, that’s private.’

‘You’re married to me now, cara. I don’t think it’s unreasonable of me to expect an answer to something so basic.’

‘When you have the right to ask me private questions, I’ll let you know,’ Lizzie slung back flatly, snaking out of the far side of the bed to avoid him and yanking the sheet free of the mattress with a violent jerk to wrap it round her body. ‘Now, I’m going for a bath.’

‘Lizzie...’ Cesare ground out in frustration to her rigid back as she reached for the door of the en suite.

‘I’m not feeling nice, wifely or the slightest bit chatty right now, so please excuse me,’ Lizzie breathed icily and stepped into the bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind her within seconds.

Lizzie filled the glorious antique bath to the brim, filled it with bubbles and lowered her body into the warm water. Angry, Cesare could be incredibly intimidating, towering over her, dark eyes glowing with hostility in his lean dark face. She couldn’t help that her first reaction to an angry man was to run to the nearest place of safety. Her mother’s violent second husband had taught her to get herself and Chrissie out of harm’s way fast.

But Lizzie refused to be intimidated by Cesare, whom she sensed would never be violent. What did he have to be so angry about? Hadn’t their lovemaking been good for him? It had certainly been good for her, apart from the hiccup as such in the middle when she had discovered that her first experience of intimacy could actually be painful. Ironically she was more hurt by Cesare’s withdrawal and grim mood in the aftermath, which had made her feel—all over again—inadequate. Why couldn’t he have simply let the subject go? Had he no sensitivity? Couldn’t he see that she didn’t want to talk about it?

Cesare paced the bedroom in fierce frustration. Why hadn’t she warned him? Had she been embarrassed about being untouched? He recalled the blushing and gritted his teeth, acknowledging that he was totally unfit to deal with sexual innocence when he had failed to recognise it even though it was right there in front of him. He had screwed up, screwed up even worse when he sprang an immediate interrogation on her.

This was not how he had pictured their marriage kicking off. She was all emotional now, very probably weeping in the bath and regretting their new agreement while wishing she had never laid eyes on him. And yet the sex had been amazing...so amazing he couldn’t wait to repeat it. Galvanised into motion by that shameless motivation, Cesare threw on a disreputable pair of jeans and padded downstairs, pondering possibilities to redeem himself in his offended bride’s eyes. Before he even got that far he heard the distant howls of Archie marooned in an outside kennel and he grinned at the sound. He was a very clever man and he would turn the wedding-night breakdown back into a honeymoon regardless of what sacrifices it demanded of him!

Archie broke off his cries mid-howl and pranced towards him on three little legs. Archie was not particularly attached to Cesare but he recognised him as a potential lead to his mistress...

CHAPTER SEVEN