‘Kelly, you are the most utterly feminine woman I have ever seen,’ he declared, his breathing heavy. He lifted a finger and slowly stroked over the smooth skin of her shoulder, then lower in a line across the soft curve of her breasts.
Helplessly she swayed towards him, her own eyes raking over his bronzed torso, the symmetry of muscle and sinew, the savage splendour of his powerful aroused body. She murmured his name and reached out to touch him, with a look in her sapphire eyes as old as Eve.
He groaned with sheer impatience and lifted her in his arms again, sinking to the bed with her.
The full contact of his naked body with hers made Kelly dizzy with desire. The blood drummed in her ears, and blindly she reached for him. Gianfranco reared up over her, filling her vision, and bent his head to her breast.
She felt the warm, moist pressure of his mouth taking the rigid tip inside and she moaned softly, her body arching towards the sensual pleasure of his mouth. Her hands clung to his wide shoulders, her fingers digging into his flesh, helpless captive to the erotic expertise of his tongue and teeth.
His hand moved to tenderly caress the soft mound of her belly, and all the while his mouth and other hand teased her breasts, his thumb scraping over the rigid tip, driving her crazy, her body writhing in an explicit demand for more. ‘Gianfranco,’ she pleaded.
He lifted his head, his black eyes glittering with passion. ‘Slowly, slowly,’ he rasped, and lowered his head to brush her lips with his.
Kelly eagerly opened her mouth for him as he eased his hand from her stomach down to the soft curls guarding her feminine core, making her body tremble. His fingers delved into the soft velvet folds to find the moist heat, and stroked and touched until she groaned out loud.
He lifted his head to look into her passion-glazed eyes. ‘You want me,’ he breathed. ‘And I want you.’
Kelly bit into the flesh of his chest, wild with need; she didn’t understand the urge, but her mouth found a small male nipple and licked and kissed it, her nails digging into his flesh harder and harder as his long fingers continued to mercilessly explore her body. Her heart hammered and she writhed against him. She felt him shudder and groan, and, made brave by the passion riding her, slid a hand down to his powerful body until she reached the rigid length of him and closed around him.
‘No,’ Gianfranco rasped, and, catching her hand, he pulled it from his body. ‘Not yet; I don’t want to hurt you.’ And, rolling onto his back, he lifted her over him, his night-black eyes dilated with passion. ‘Trust me,’ he grated as he slowly surged up into the sweet, hot heart of her femininity.
Her brilliant sapphire eyes widened, the pupils expanding until they almost eclipsed the blue. A whimper of sound escaped her throat as he drew her towards him, his mouth lifting to capture a taut nipple. He suckled her tender flesh with an avid enjoyment that drove her wild with desire as his strong hands held her waist, keeping her exactly where he wanted her. Her head fell back, her hands flat on his broad chest, fingers digging into his flesh as slowly, with subtle movements of his hands and hips, he rocked her higher and higher until she was drowning in the unimaginable wonder of pure sensation. He was hard and hot, and drove her to the edge of ecstasy—more pleasure than she had ever imagined existed. Her nails scratched across his chest and she cried out his name, as he swiftly reversed their positions. For a second he stared down at her, hunger and determination warring in the dark, taut features.
‘This time, Kelly, this time for you,’ he said hoarsely, and then moved again.
He filled her completely, and Kelly was lost in an all-encompassing passion, a primeval need, that drove her mindlessly onto another plane where time was suspended and her shuddering body reached and found the little death, the pitch of human passion, in a fierce, convulsive climax. Her blue eyes flew wide open in shocked wonder at the awesome joy of fulfilment. His harsh groan of satisfaction as he spilled his seed inside her mingled with her keening cry of his name.
Her hands clung to his broad shoulders, then softly stroked the sweat-damp skin. ‘I thought the first time was wonderful, but…’ She breathed unevenly, looking up into his night-black eyes.
‘Shhh.’ Gianfranco slipped onto his side. ‘I know.’ And, pressing soft little kisses to her face and hair, he held her tenderly against him.
‘I never knew…’ she whispered, breaking the silence, rubbing her head against a strong tanned shoulder like a satisfied kitten.
Gianfranco looked into her dazed blue eyes. ‘Now you know why I was so angry the first time,’ he said huskily, with all the confidence of a man who knew he had satisfied his lady.
Tension snaked through her. Sadly she remembered the aftermath last time. ‘Because I might get pregnant,’ she muttered with a slight frown. ‘But that hardly applies now.’
With a deep throaty chuckle, Gianfranco planted a swift kiss on her small nose. ‘No, my sweet. It wasn’t so much the fact you were innocent that made me angry, but because, though I was loath to admit it, I never gave you the satisfaction you should have had,’ he declared ruefully. ‘I lost control. You were too innocent to know the difference, but I did. It was quite a blow to my male ego, so I took it out on you, and for that I apologise.’
‘Oh, oh, I see.’ A dawning realisation lit her wide blue eyes as they met his. Gianfranco, her macho lover, feeling vulnerable as the next man about his performance in bed? The thought made her grin.
‘It wasn’t funny at the time.’ He nipped teasingly at the small lobe of her ear. ‘And I promise you it will never happen again. I am going to spend the rest of my life making love to you to prove it.’ He found her lips and kissed her long and lingeringly, then trailed kisses in an erotic path down her throat, her breasts, and to the soft swell of her stomach.
Kelly glanced down to where his dark head lay against her stomach and she wanted to believe a miracle had happened and he loved her. ‘You don’t have to marry me,’ she murmured reluctantly, not wanting to burst the miraculous bubble she seemed to be floating in, but knowing she had to give him the choice.
Gianfranco rubbed his cheek against her belly, and, caressing the smooth mound, he pressed worshipful kisses on her silken skin. ‘Our son,’ he said, and, rearing up on one elbow, he let his other large hand gently, almost reverently, massage her stomach. ‘And I do have to marry you, because I never want to be apart from you again.’
Kelly looked long and hard into his dark eyes, wanting to believe him. But was it her or a son he wanted? she asked herself. ‘It might be a girl.’
‘Girl, boy. I don’t care as long as I have you.’ Then he started to make love to her again, with a gentle seductive tenderness, an expertise that banished all her fears, and finally convinced her he loved her as he completely overwhelmed her all over again.
THEY were married four days later on the Friday, and Kelly, walking out of the registrar’s office with Gianfranco’s arm around her shoulders, was still reeling from the speed of it all.
‘Wait.’ Margaret, who had agreed with her brother Jim to be their witness, stopped them on the steps. ‘You have to have a photograph,’ she said, and raised her camera to her eye. ‘Say cheese.’
‘I’d rather say sex,’ Gianfranco whispered in Kelly’s ear, and brought a beaming smile to her face.
‘You are insatiable,’ Kelly chuckled a moment later, her blue eyes laughing up at him. The past few days they had made love morning, noon and night.