Scarlett pulled ineffectually at his hold but her heart wasn’t in it, and she could tell he knew it. She drew in a gasping little breath as he picked her up in his arms and carried her to the bedroom she had designed only months ago, her excitement building as his eyes burned into hers with sensual promise.
‘You are so very sensual, Scarlett,’ he said as he joined her on the bed, his weight pressing her into the mattress. ‘I cannot get enough of you. I have craved this for so long—to see you again, to feel you again, to make love to you again as we used to do. I have missed what we had so much.’
‘I’ve missed it too,’ she said in a soft whisper as she stroked the lean line of his jaw. ‘You have no idea how much.’
He traced the point of his index finger from her belly button to the tiny landing-strip of dark-blonde hair that shielded her femininity. ‘I have never forgotten the taste of you,’ he said in a low growl. ‘God, the nights I have lain awake thinking of the taste of you.’
Scarlett drew in a ragged breath as he bent his head to her moist warmth, his tongue moving against her swollen point of pleasure with exquisite expertise. She had no control over her response; it shook her from the inside out, each movement of his tongue sending her into a vortex of feeling that reverberated throughout every part of her body.
He moved back over her, his thighs entangled with hers in an erotic embrace as he entered her silken warmth in a strong, gliding thrust that sent sparks of pleasure from her head to her curling toes.
His mouth came down on hers, the sexy saltiness of her body mingled with his warm breath as he played with her lips, tugging at them with his teeth, teasing her tongue into a passionate duel. She nibbled at his bottom lip, sucking on it, pulling at it with her teeth and then sweeping over it with the tip of her tongue, the deep groans of pleasure he was emitting from the back of his throat thrilling her, and inciting her to do it all over again and again.
He responded by increasing his pace, his body driving into hers with tender force, the thick, hard length of him caressing her in all the right places. She only had to tilt her hips upwards to feel the first flicker of release, the second and third quickly following, until she lost count as she shuddered her way through another mind-blowing orgasm.
Her body was still pulsing with the aftershocks when she felt his whole body tensing above hers in that final second or two before he finally lost control. His face contorted with pleasure as he sucked in a harsh breath before releasing it in a rush as he spilled himself with explosive power.
In the silence that followed Scarlett felt her conscience begin to prod at her. She wasn’t a sleep-around sort of woman, she never had been. She had only had one lover apart from Alessandro and now, with the responsibilities of a small child, she could never treat any relationship with a man as just physical. And certainly not this man—the father of her son.
Alessandro propped himself up on his elbows to look down at her. ‘This feels so right,’ he said with a wistful look coming and going in his dark, intense gaze. ‘This part always felt so right between us.’
She compressed her lips, trying not to show how emotionally affected she was. ‘But I want much more than you are prepared to give…’
He got off the bed, reached for a bathrobe, and tied it around his waist. ‘I have told you the rules,’ he said with a curt edge to his voice. ‘This is all I can offer you, Scarlett. Believe me—you should be content with that.’
Scarlett reached for her wrinkled clothes and struggled back into them, hoping she wouldn’t betray herself by crying uncontrollably. ‘I need to go home. It’s getting late.’
He came from behind and held her against his solid, hard male warmth. Her breath whooshed out of her lungs as she felt his growing arousal behind her, the thin barrier of her clothes not enough to stop her from responding with a soft whimper of pleasure as his mouth began to nuzzle against her neck, and his hands cupped her already tingling, peaking breasts.
‘You do not really want to go home right at this very minute, do you, Scarlett?’
‘No…’she whispered huskily as he turned her to face him, his mouth coming down to hers. ‘God help me but, no, I don’t…’
CHAPTER EIGHT
ROXANNE WAS out on a call at a client’s house when Alessandro arrived at the studio the next morning. Scarlett heard his car first, and a ticklish feeling ran up her spine as she swivelled on her office chair to look out the window.
She watched as he unfolded himself from the vehicle. His hair looked like black satin in the morning sunshine, his lean face cleanly shaven, his dark pin-striped trousers emphasising the length of his legs and trimness of his waist, and his light-blue business shirt highlighting the olive tone of his skin.
Her stomach flipped and then flopped as he stepped onto the pavement, his eyes meeting hers through the window. She pushed herself away from the desk and stood up as he came in the door, her hands going to her thighs to smooth down her skirt.
He moved across the small space of the studio and, cupping her cheeks with both hands, kissed her thoroughly. Scarlett breathed in the heady fragrance of musky male, sharp citrus and tortuous temptation. All her carefully rehearsed reasons for not agreeing to a resumption of their relationship were suddenly deleted from her brain as his tongue flicked erotically against hers.
Still cupping her face in his hands, he lifted his mouth off hers and smiled down at her. ‘I knew you would be here waiting for me,’ he said.
She screwed up her mouth at him. ‘It is my studio after all,’ she pointed out. ‘Where else would I be?’
He tucked a strand of silver-blonde hair behind her ear, the brush of his fingers against her face making her tremble deep inside. ‘You are still fighting it, yes?’
She lowered her gaze. ‘I don’t want to get hurt…’
He brought her chin up. ‘I am only involved with you, Scarlett. You have my word.’
Scarlett wondered if she was being fobbed off. How could she tell? He was a notorious playboy; women flocked to him wherever he went. He had said it himself: he wasn’t the settling-down type.
‘If you do not believe me, read this morning’s paper,’ he added.
Scarlett’s gaze went to the folded newspaper lying on Roxanne’s desk. They usually had a quick flick through it during their coffee and lunch breaks, but with Roxanne still out at a client’s house, and with the number of calls Scarlett had had to make in her partner’s absence, there hadn’t been time to even put on the kettle.
‘There is a short article about us on page three,’ he informed her.
‘About us?’ she asked, her eyes going wide. ‘What do you mean “about us”?’
He walked over to Roxanne’s desk, picked up the paper and opened it to the page where a small paragraph was headed: Billionaire Hotelier involved with Local Interior Designer.
Scarlett read the accompanying paragraph with her heart kicking like a wild brumby in her chest. It was only a few words about her and the studio, and thankfully no photograph accompanied it. It simply stated she was the new love interest of Alessandro Marciano.
She closed the paper and handed it back to him. ‘Well, that just goes to show you can’t believe everything you read in the press,’ she said with an embittered look. ‘I am not your love interest, am I, Alessandro? I am just someone to sleep with, someone to slake your lust with. You just want a fill-in affair while you are here—let’s not go calling it anything else.’
His hazel eyes caught and held hers. ‘Love is a favourite word of yours, is it not?’
‘It’s not just a word,’ she said. ‘It’s a feeling, and in some ways almost a way of life. You’ve always shunned it, but you don’t know what living is all about until you allow