Love Islands: Passionate Nights. Louise Fuller

then stopped thinking altogether as he began to kiss her, slowly, taking his time.

      She could taste herself as their tongues meshed. She reached down to hold him; he was massive, a hard shaft of steel that sent her senses spinning.

      But she wasn’t scared. She knew that he was going to be gentle.

      And she wasn’t filled with regret either. So what if this didn’t make sense? So what if he had offered her the way out she had asked for without the blackmail? He had told her that she could walk away and that she wouldn’t walk away penniless and she believed him.

      But walking away would have opened the door to, if not regret, then a life of wondering what this husband of hers would have been like in bed, what it might have been like to have touched him.

      No. She was doing the right thing.

      He cupped her breast and played with it, idly stroking her roused nipple while he remained kissing her until she felt like she was drowning.

      Then slowly, oh, so slowly, his hand smoothed over her stomach to cup the mound between her legs. Only then did he caress her down there, but so lightly that she had all the time in the world for her body to crank back into full gear, until she was throbbing and aching for more.

      She wanted to push his hand in deeper, but instead she twisted so that she could taste him.

      She’d never done anything like this before. She took him into her mouth and heard his sharp intake of breath as she began to lavish attention on the rigid shaft. She ran her tongue exploratively along it, sucked it, filling her mouth; cupped him between his legs and felt him expand under her attentions.

      This time, he was the one spiralling out of control, but he pulled back before she could do what he had done to her and bring him to an orgasm with her mouth only.

      Their bodies were slick with perspiration.

      ‘Don’t be nervous,’ he whispered as he settled between her legs.

      ‘I’m not nervous.’ She felt the thickness of his erection and shivered with a mixture of wild excitement and apprehension.

      ‘No?’

      Lucy heard the amused disbelief in his voice and some of her apprehension drained away. ‘Okay. Maybe a little.’ Though he was someone whose very being posed a threat—who could be daunting and intimidating; whose presence she had contrived to avoid as much as possible from the very instant she had overheard that conversation on her wedding night—she trusted him wholly and completely with her body.

      ‘You’re so wet,’ he murmured unsteadily, barely able to control his shaking hands as he blindly reached for protection in the little drawer by the bed, fumbling like an amateur. He nudged into her, feeling her tightness expand to hold him and fighting against a natural urge to ram himself in her right up to the hilt. ‘You’re going to enjoy everything I do...’

      ‘I already have,’ Lucy confessed honestly. She sensed him taking his time and knew that it must be difficult for him. She didn’t think that her husband was at all accustomed to taking his time with anything if he wanted it badly enough. It just wasn’t in his nature. But he was taking his time now, gently probing deeper, but making sure to ease out before continuing to penetrate her in little stages.

      ‘I like that.’ He whispered things in her ear, sexy things he wanted to do with her, that had her blushing to her hairline. With each nudge, her nerves dissipated until she was desperate to feel all of him in her, desperate for the surge of his formidable strength inside her.

      With the intuition of experience, Dio felt the change in her and offered a prayer of thanks because holding back was sheer torture.

      He thrust deeper and more firmly inside. Rearing up on both hands, unable to hold back any more as he gazed down at her small, perfectly formed breasts, Dio moved with assurance, building up a rhythm until each thrust took her closer and closer over the edge.

      Lucy had never thought that sex could feel so good. He’d been right. He had fitted into her as perfectly as a hand fitted into a glove; had fitted into her as though their bodies had been crafted to slot together. And now...

      Her fingers dug into the small of his back as he continued to thrust, deeper and deeper, until she felt as though they were fusing into one. It was indescribable.

      She hurtled over the edge in a wave of pure ecstasy. There was no room in her head for thought or analysis. Pure sensation took over. Every part of her body was on fire, soaring high, swooping thrillingly, until at last the crashing waves of pleasure became ripples and finally subsided, leaving her limp and utterly sated.

      She clung shamelessly to him as he withdrew. Her mind was still in a whirl. She couldn’t think straight; her body was tingling and burning and as weak as a kitten.

      ‘Enjoyed?’ Dio didn’t immediately feel his usual compulsion to vacate the bed the second love-making had come to an end but, then again, he told himself that it wasn’t every day he made love to a virgin who also happened to be his lawfully wedded wife.

      ‘It was lovely.’

      ‘Lovely?’ He gave a low growl of laughter and swept her damp hair away from her forehead. ‘I prefer sensational...’ And she had come to him without any pressure at all. Triumph made him heady with renewed desire.

      ‘So, I guess that now we’ve...made love...’ She shifted to disentangle herself from his embrace and he tightened his grip.

      It had been easy not to think when she had been caught up in the wonder of making love but now reality began to drip in.

      This was her first time and, yes, sensational was definitely the word to describe the experience. But for him this was all routine stuff. He had already given her a time limit of a fortnight, after which he anticipated getting bored, but perhaps she should establish a bit of cool and restraint herself. She’d acted like a limpet and the last thing she wanted was for him to get the idea that this strange situation was one that was out of her control.

      Out of control were her physical responses. But that was where it ended.

      She wasn’t the foolish romantic she’d once been. She’d toughened up.

      ‘Yes?’

      The low timbre of his voice was a drag on her senses. ‘Would you say we’ve put this thing between us to rest?’ She chuckled lightly.

      ‘What do you think?’ Dio murmured. He’d been prepared to do the decent thing and let her escape with the money she wanted but things had changed since that bout of decency. He curved his hand possessively between her thighs and felt the slick moisture between her legs.

      ‘You had your chance to fly away, my dearest wife, and you decided not to. Well, fair’s fair, wouldn’t you say? Ten days of happily wedded bliss and then we part company. Like I’ve said to you, Lucy, it won’t be a hardship for either of us...’