A Whisper of Disgrace

He should have been contemplating matrimony with a high-born royal from a neighbouring country but instead he found himself with Rosa Corretti, the daughter of a nefarious Sicilian family with a terrifying reputation. One who flaunted her body like a hooker, but who had since denied him all but the briefest kiss.

His mouth twisted into a hard smile. He could feel the exquisite hardening of an erection beneath the fine cloth of his Italian trousers and he shifted his body a little. Why should he have to wait a second longer to enjoy all the sensual possibilities which her beautiful body offered?

From the galley, the steward appeared with a tray and Kulal said something terse in his own language, so that the man set the drinks down on the table and then quickly disappeared.

Rosa saw the way that Kulal’s knuckles had suddenly clenched against the hard outline of his thighs. ‘Is something wrong?’ she asked.

‘Something is very wrong.’ Turning to her, he lifted his hand to touch her face, his finger slowly tracing the outline of her lips. ‘You are driving me crazy, Rosa. I am aching to possess you and I cannot wait much longer.’

Rosa swallowed as he moved his hand downwards so that it was now lying directly over her breast and she wondered if he could feel the wild beat of her heart. His words were so … brazen. He made sex sound so straightforward—as if doing it and wanting it was perfectly natural—but she had no idea how to answer him, because she had been brought up to think that it was wrong and forbidden.

‘You are silent,’ he observed, his fingers now drifting down over her belly before coming at last to rest on her knee. ‘That is good. So often a woman destroys the mood of love with her inane chatter.’

Part of her wanted to scream at him for his arrogance, but no scream came—and how could it, when his hand had now drifted beneath the hem of her dress and she was holding her breath to see what he would do next?

His fingers began to slide upwards and Rosa’s eyes closed as desire began to flicker over her skin—a desire which was powerful enough to obliterate any lingering feelings of guilt. He was drawing little circles just above her knee and, while it was exciting her, it was also frustrating the hell out of her. She began to wish that he would touch her somewhere else—touch her where she was beginning to ache like crazy. And maybe her restless little wriggle told him that, because his fingers had now crept up to reach the bare skin of her thigh. The warmth coiling somewhere deep inside her began to spread over her whole body and she could hear the loud thunder of her heart. Her thighs seemed to be parting without any conscious action on her part, and she expelled a breath of disbelieving pleasure as his fingers brushed intimately against the searing heat of her sex.

‘Mmm,’ was all he said.

‘Kulal,’ she breathed.

Waves of shock and excitement washed over her as he pushed aside the moist panel of her panties and began to move his finger against her aroused flesh and Rosa thought that nothing had ever felt this good. Nothing. She could hear strange, gasping little sounds echoing around the cabin, which she realised must be hers. She could feel the tension as her body strained towards something tantalising which seemed just out of reach. Something which surely promised more than it could ever deliver. And then it happened—almost without warning—like a shower of fireworks exploding unexpectedly in the sky. She found her body contracting with the most exquisite sensations, the force of them taking her by surprise. It felt like flying—and then afterwards it felt like floating down into some dreamy place, all boneless with the pleasure which was still washing over her. She gasped aloud as her head fell back. Her tongue snaked out to touch her mouth and even that made her sensitive lips tremble and for countless minutes she just lay there, drifting in and out of the most incredible daydreams.

‘Unzip me,’ he whispered.

His words broke into her dreamy thoughts and Rosa’s lashes flew open to meet the opaque smoulder in his eyes. But there was no softness in them—nothing but hard-edged desire. Her gaze flickered to his groin and her nerve failed her.

‘I can’t,’ she whispered.

‘Why not?’ He frowned. ‘What’s wrong?’

Rosa bit her lip and felt the sharp indentation of her teeth. A million things were wrong and, stupidly, the one which seemed to bother her most was the fact that he hadn’t even kissed her. She realised that she had just had her first orgasm but Kulal had made it happen with all the cold-bloodedness of a scientist performing an experiment in a laboratory. She might want to learn all about sex but she hadn’t intended her first real lesson to take place on an aircraft, and she certainly didn’t want to be treated like some sort of faceless puppet.