“That’s a TV show.”
“Television shows are made popular by the way they exaggerate real life.”
“Marco, that makes no sense.”
“You are simply saying that because you don’t agree with my theory.”
“Okay, if you’re right about TV echoing life, how do you feel about movies?”
“I think that, to a certain extent they reflect the view of what they are representing. You know, I’m not saying that movies and television programs are real life, simply that they mirror an attitude of the culture that produced them.”
She was so bubbly with her passion for discussing this. He liked it because he could tell that she wasn’t planning what she would say to him. She wasn’t keeping this conversation all about him, the way she had during dinner. This was something real. An indication of the woman who was Virginia.
He still didn’t know her last name, but he would before morning. He hoped to spend this night uncovering all of her secrets.
He would know everything about her body, of course—he was already intimately acquainted with the sounds she made when her body was suffused with pleasure. Now he wanted to know what made her mad. What made Virginia cry? What made her laugh and smile? He needed that knowledge and he would be ruthless about getting it.
“Did you see the movie Talladega Nights?” she asked him.
“Yes. It was quite funny, with that Will Ferrell.”
“Um…by rights I should assume you are like the French driver in the movie.”
It took him a moment to figure out that she was trying to say he might be gay. He saw the sparkle in her eyes. She was teasing him. He knew he shouldn’t feel good about that fact, but he did.
He closed the distance between them, tired of not holding her in his arms. The last month had been too long. He’d focused on racing and on the promo events that went with the Formula One season, but every night he’d had passion-filled dreams of Virginia and he wanted to make them a reality.
“I think I’ve proven that I’m more interested in women than men,” he said, drawing her into his arms. “But perhaps you need another demonstration?”
She put her hands on his face and rose up to kiss him with the gentle passion he associated only with Virgina.
“I have no doubts that you are interested in women. I was trying to make a point,” she said.
“Instead, you proved that Americans think Frenchmen are gay. It matters not to me. I’m Italian, and interested in only one woman tonight.”
“Me?”
“You,” he said, sweeping her up in his arms and carrying her down the hallway and into the bedroom.
He put her on her feet next to the bed. As he stroked one finger down the side of her neck and traced the soft fabric neckline of her dress, shivers spread down her body. His fingers were warm against her skin and she wasn’t really listening to what he was saying.
She simply watched his lips to see if he was going to kiss her. That was what she really wanted and needed. She had missed him. And though she’d had other relationships before Marco that one night in his arms had far exceeded what she’d expected. He’d marked her indelibly and she’d been unable to forget his touch.
“I’m almost afraid to believe that you are really here.”
“I am here,” she said. Truly, she was afraid to believe that he’d taken her back into his arms so easily.
He leaned down, his lips brushing over hers. They were so soft, yet so commanding. And as he sucked her lower lip into his mouth and laved it with his tongue, she stopped thinking and just gave herself over to the feelings that were swamping her.
When she was standing naked in front of him, he traced the scar under her breast. “Do you realize that this is one of the only things I know about your past?”
She felt a frisson of fear at his words. He could never know about her past. His family and hers were enemies. Real life Capulet and Montague stuff.
“My past isn’t important, Marco. Only what we have when we are together. Make love to me.”
“Why?”
She felt more vulnerable now than she had just a second before. “I want to know that I’m really here in your arms.”
He bent down to trace the scar with his tongue. His hands cupping the weight of both her breasts, one long forefinger stroking up and over her nipples. She shivered in his embrace, needing more of him. He made her react so quickly…he was like a flame she couldn’t stay away from.
She tunneled her fingers through his thick black hair and held his head to her body. He murmured something in Italian against her skin. Then she felt his lips against her breast. His mouth moved over the skin, tongue licking and teeth lightly scraping until she was desperate for more of him. She needed more than just his mouth lightly touching her.
His hand on her other breast just kept stroking lightly, until she couldn’t stand it a second longer. She pulled his head up to hers and kissed him deeply, sucking his lower lip into her mouth and biting him. She shifted in his arms until her breasts were pressed to his chest.
The cool fabric of his shirt shocked her naked skin. She hadn’t realized he was still fully dressed and she was wearing nothing but her silky thong. The thought of being naked in his arms was very arousing.
He stood back up and lifted her onto the bed. Pulling his mouth from hers, he bent down to capture the tip of her breast. His hand still played at her other breast, arousing her, making her arch against him in need.
She reached between them and stroked his erection through the fabric of his pants, spreading her legs wider so that she was totally open to him. “I need you now.”
He lifted his head. The tips of her breasts were damp from his mouth and very tight. He pressed his chest against them.
She reached up to unbutton his shirt. “Leave it. I need to be inside you now.”
She nodded, and instead fumbled with his belt, finally getting it unfastened. Then she couldn’t get the button at his waistband open. “Damn it.”
He laughed softly and brushed her hands aside so that he could unfasten his own pants. She heard the swish of fabric and then felt the warmth of his erection against the center of her body. He rocked his hips against hers, rubbing the length of his arousal against her feminine core.
She needed him inside her. She reached between them and took him in her hand, positioning him for easy entry. But she could get no more than the tip inside her body.
He held his hips still, and no matter how she squirmed or moved, he wouldn’t budge. Finally she looked up at him. “What are you waiting for?”
“I’m waiting for you to really want me.”
“I do. I want you inside of me right now. I feel like it’s been a lifetime since we were together, and I’ve missed you so much.” The words wouldn’t stop coming, and she knew she’d revealed too much, but she couldn’t help herself. “Please, Marco,” she said again. She ran her hands down his back, cupping his buttocks and trying to draw him closer to her.
He gave her barely an inch. “That’s all you get.”
His words were breathed right into her ear and almost made her climax. She shifted in his embrace, trying to take him deeper.
“Marco, please, I need more.”
“No. You were a bad girl.”
“When