He’d accepted that he couldn’t abandon her and his baby, and as he’d watched her walk towards him, he had been impatient for their wedding day to be over so that he could take her to bed. Their passion was white-hot and when he was buried deep inside her he did not care that he was marrying her out of duty. She was his exclusively and she was carrying his child. At least that was what he had believed then.
Nico jerked his mind away from the past and declined the glass of sherry a waiter offered him. He could do with a drink but his preferred poison was oak-barrel-aged cognac. As he strode up the sweeping staircase to his private suite of rooms, he told himself that he could take a short break from his best-man duties. Danny and his elegant bride were mingling with their guests while canapés were served on the terrace.
Entering his sitting room, he went straight to the bar and poured himself a drink. The cognac was smooth and mellow with a pleasant heat at the back of his throat. He looked across the room, puzzled that his bedroom door was open. He was sure it had been shut when he’d left the suite earlier. His heart kicked in his chest when he saw a white hat decorated with yellow flowers on the bed.
‘I’m intrigued, cara,’ he murmured, strolling into the bedroom just as Sienna emerged from the en-suite bathroom. ‘First you were at the church and now I find you in my bedroom. Not that I am complaining,’ he assured her. Far from it. Lust as hot as molten lava rushed through his veins when she ran her fingers through her hair. Was the gesture a deliberate ploy to make him notice the glossy waves that had been hidden beneath her hat in the church?
Her hair was the same shade of dark red as a vintage burgundy wine and he knew the colour was entirely natural. When she was younger her hair had been waist-length, but now it fell to just past her shoulders with layers framing her face and drawing attention to her peaches-and-cream skin and wide grey eyes.
‘Your bedroom?’ Sienna frowned. ‘I thought your grandparents occupied the master suite?’
‘They did when my grandfather was alive. But my grandmother has become less mobile in the last few years and when she moved into the new annexe on the ground floor I had these rooms refurbished.’
‘That would explain why I can’t find her medicine. Iris gave me the impression that she still used the same rooms as she did when I lived at Sethbury Hall. I expect she was confused. She asked me to fetch her angina pump spray, but I couldn’t find it on the bedside table and I’ve been looking for it in the bathroom cupboards.’
‘I don’t understand why Nonna asked you.’
‘She was having an angina attack.’ Impatience flashed in Sienna’s eyes. ‘Don’t just stand there. Your grandmother looked in a bad way and she needs her medication. How do I get to the annexe?’ She went to step past him and stiffened when he caught hold of her arm.
‘I meant why did she send you to get her medicine rather than one of the household staff who know where her rooms are?’ Nico’s eyes narrowed. ‘Iris seemed perfectly well when I saw her a few minutes ago. She does suffer from angina but she takes tablets to control it. As far as I am aware she hasn’t had an attack since she was diagnosed with the condition and she carries a pump spray merely as a precaution.’
‘Well, maybe she forgot to take her tablet and that’s why she had an angina attack.’ Sienna threw her hands in the air. ‘Don’t you believe me? Why would I make something like that up?’
‘To give you an excuse to visit my bedroom?’ Nico had no idea what was going on but when he flicked his gaze to the four-poster bed, his libido didn’t give a damn why his incredibly sexy ex-wife was in his room.
She whirled away from him and he noted how her silky dress clung to the rounded curves of her pert derriere. Fire licked through his veins and burned even hotter when she faced him and put her hands on her hips, causing her dress to pull tight across her breasts. Despite her slender build, Sienna had always been full up top, and Nico was definitely a breast man.
‘That’s right.’ Her sarcastic tone forced his gaze up to her face and he was fascinated by the gleam of temper in her eyes. The girl he’d married had been timid and amenable and would not have dreamed of disagreeing with him, let alone glare at him as if she was itching for a fight. ‘I was desperate to be alone with you so I invented the story that your grandmother had sent me to find her medication.’ Sienna gave him a withering look. ‘Your ego must be enormous if you think I was so blown away when you kissed me in the church that I want you to do it again.’
His ego wasn’t the only thing that was enormous, Nico silently derided himself, conscious that his arousal was uncomfortably hard beneath his suit trousers. As for that kiss. Of course it shouldn’t have happened. But he had seen the lascivious look in his brother’s eyes when Danny had stared at Sienna, and he’d been overwhelmed by a fierce possessiveness, a need to claim her in front of Danny. Especially Danny.
That wasn’t the only reason he had kissed her though. There had been something deeply primitive about his compelling need to put his mouth on Sienna’s. It had been the same the first time he’d met her ten years ago. He had taken one look at her and known that he had to have her. He’d kissed her within the hour and slept with her three days later.
He knew every gorgeous dip and curve of her body; the little mole on her inner thigh that he’d always kissed before spreading her legs wide so that he could flick his tongue over the tight nub of her femininity until she writhed and begged him to possess her. Not that he’d needed any persuasion. Sex with Sienna had been wilder and hotter than with any other woman—a theory Nico had put to the test many times since his divorce.
He’d told himself that it couldn’t have been as good as he remembered. But when he had kissed her in the church a little while ago, their chemistry had been combustible. The soft gasp she’d made as she’d parted her lips beneath his had decimated his self-control and for a few moments he had forgotten that they had an audience of his brother and grandmother.
Now though they were alone, and as he watched Sienna’s tongue dart out and slide over her slightly swollen lower lip a carnal hunger tore through Nico. ‘Of course you want me to kiss you again, cara,’ he drawled. ‘I can read the signs.’ He lifted his hand to the front of her dress and traced the outline of one pointed nipple, wildfire coursing through him when she drew an audible breath. But she made no attempt to move away and her pupils had dilated so that her eyes were inky pools edged with silvery grey.
‘This is crazy,’ she whispered. ‘I did not have an ulterior motive for coming to your room. I wasn’t even aware that this is your room.’ She lifted her chin and said in a firmer voice, ‘I don’t care what you think, Nico. I’m not the besotted teenage bride who was in awe of you. I’ve changed.’
‘But this hasn’t changed,’ he said roughly, threading his fingers into her hair so that he could tug her even closer and angling her head. Her breasts rose and fell jerkily and her lips parted in readiness for him to claim her mouth. The sexual chemistry between them was tangible and his nostrils flared as he dragged oxygen into his lungs. But as he lowered his face to hers, she put her hand on his chest to stop him.
‘What about your grandmother?’ Sienna drew a shuddering breath, as if she was struggling for control as much as he was. ‘She needs her angina medicine.’
‘Like I said, I saw Iris just before I came upstairs. She was on her second glass of sherry and regaling the new vicar with lurid tales of her youth.’ Nico exhaled heavily, aware of the dull throb of unfulfilled lust in his groin. ‘But regrettably this will have to wait until later. We need to get down to the marquee in the garden for the wedding dinner, and I have various duties to perform as best man.’
He dropped his hands down to his sides but could not bring himself to move away from her. His senses were inflamed by her perfume and the sharp, sweet scent of desire—hers, his—was thick in the air.
She shook her head and walked over to the bed to pick up her hat. ‘There won’t be a “later”,