The Italian Billionaire's Pregnant Bride

Amused by that sudden lurch from feisty cool to panic, Sergio hit a button and flicked another to put on the lights. He shed his jacket and his tie while he watched her with the single-minded golden gaze of a predator. Her beautiful eyes were wary, her colourful hair tousled. He recognised her extraordinary magnetism. On his bed she was as unusual and exotic as a tiger strolling through a drawing room.

Beneath that forceful scrutiny, Kathy was uneasy and she twisted away to conceal her bare breasts. Her shyness infuriated her, for she saw it as yet another weakness and her conscience was already shouting at her. She had kissed him back with more than toleration. How could she have responded with that much enthusiasm to a guy she loathed? On the other hand, wasn’t it as well that she could? But why could she still respond to him?

‘Madonna mia,’ Sergio was staring in shock at the jagged scar that marred the white skin of her back. ‘What the hell happened to you?’

When Kathy realised what had grabbed his attention she thrust herself back against the pillows so that that part of her body was hidden again. She was mortified that he should have seen the ugly evidence of the attack she had suffered three years earlier. ‘Nothing—’

‘That was not nothing—’

Her vivid green eyes were screened, her lithe, slender length taut. ‘But I don’t have to talk about it if I don’t want to.’

Clad in designer boxers, Sergio came down on the bed. He was tall, bronzed and boldly masculine, his powerful muscles laid over the lean, strong frame of an athlete. ‘Are you always this ready for a fight?’

Kathy was feeling incredibly tense. ‘If you don’t like it, send me home.’

Dark golden eyes intent, Sergio stared down at her with the aggressive potency of a hunter. She couldn’t take her attention from him. In response, he curved lean fingers to the nape of her neck. ‘Maybe I could get to like fighting, delizia mia,’ he husked, tipping up her mouth to the wide, sensual promise of his.

Her nerves were as lively as jumping beans; she was rigid. But the kiss was a teasing provocation that enticed and promised. Her breath feathered in her throat. The taste of him intoxicated her but she fought that truth, determined to endure his attentions rather than respond to him. He found the delicate swell of her breasts and massaged the velvet peaks to sensitive rosebud crests. Arrows of exquisite sensation were slivering through her. But still she struggled to withstand his sexual mastery.

Sergio tugged her down into his arms to combat her resistance. There was more urgency than patience in the possessive stroke of his hands over her slender curves. There was greater demand in the heated force of his mouth. She twisted and turned beneath the onslaught of his increasing ardour. No matter how hard she tried to stay separate he was sweeping her up into the same storm of passion where pride had no place and only fervent need ruled.

‘You want me too,’ he told her thickly. ‘It’s reciprocal. I saw it in you the first time you looked at me.’

Her lashes swept down to conceal her apple-green eyes. She wouldn’t answer but she was powerless to control the desire he had aroused. Her fingers were digging into his wide brown shoulders. The aromatic scent of his skin entranced her. At first meeting he had imprinted on her senses and she had recognised him on every level since then. The bewildering strength of that initial bonding scared her and infuriated her but it also exhilarated her.

‘You are so stubborn,’ Sergio growled in the simmering silence.

‘I’m not here to stroke your ego!’ Kathy declared.

He ground her lips apart with devouring heat and punished her with pleasure. Every nerve-ending in her body leapt in response. He worked his erotic path down over her squirming length, lingering on the rosy crowns of her breasts with his tongue and his teeth and exploring the hidden places to discover the exquisite sensitivity of her most tender flesh. The excitement became overwhelming. Her heart pounded in her eardrums, for in no time at all the yearning became a ravenous need. His caresses pushed her to an edge of frustrated torment that she found unbearable.

‘Sergio…’

‘Say please,’ he urged breathlessly.

She gritted her teeth. ‘No!’

‘Some day I’ll make you say please,’ he swore.

But Kathy wasn’t listening. Trembling with desire, she was already pulling him closer. Hot and impatient, Sergio required little encouragement. Golden eyes ablaze, he slid between her thighs and entered her with energising heat and strength. She cried out in startled acknowledgement of his invasion. He had made her burn with an irresistible hunger and now the dark, delirious pleasure began. It was glorious and her capacity for enjoyment knew no limits. His passionate intensity drove her wild with excitement. Sensation gradually became a raw, sweet agony until he sent her careening to a tumultuous peak of explosive release.

There

was a timeless moment of pure ecstasy and joy. In the sensual ripples of delight that followed, she felt wonderfully close to him, transformed and at peace. And then her brain kicked back into action and blew all those fine feelings away again. She remembered how things really were between them and felt angry, mortified and earth-shatteringly bitter. As a deep sense of hurt threatened to surface she squashed it flat and wrenched herself free of his arms in a fierce gesture of rejection.

‘Can I leave now?’ Kathy asked, snaking over to the far side of the bed and sliding her legs off the edge with an eagerness to depart that spoke more clearly than any words. ‘Or are you really going to insist I stay the whole night?’

Sergio was accustomed to women who voiced compliments and witty remarks in the aftermath of intimacy. He thought her attitude offensive.

Kathy didn’t wait for an answer from him. She rose upright in a hurry and was quite unprepared for the wave of dizziness that engulfed her. The room tilted in front of her bemused eyes and the floor threatened to rise and greet her. Her face damp with perspiration, she swayed and staggered before she sank hurriedly back down on the bed again.

‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.

Kathy was fighting an attack of nausea while taking slow, deep breaths in a desperate effort to clear her swimming head. ‘Maybe I stood up too fast.’

‘Lie down.’ Sergio pressed her back against the pillows. ‘I thought you were going to faint.’

‘I haven’t eaten in hours. That’s all that’s wrong,’ she muttered, feeling foolish at having her big exit halted in its tracks. ‘I’ll be fine in a minute.’