A shiver that ran through her as she thought how much more there was to know, and that soon he would ravish her.
He lifted her onto the granite bench, so she was at eye level with him. She looked deep into his black eyes…
One day she would count those thick dark lashes, Aurora decided. One day, when she could hold off for a moment, she would count every last one.
But there was no holding back for Nico.
There should be sparks between them, Aurora thought as his mouth moved to claim hers. He was kissing her so hard it was as if he had been starving for her—as if the air in her mouth was the air he needed to breathe.
It wasn’t elegant sex.
Nor was it serene.
She kissed him back—not just his mouth but his face, his eyes, his neck. She gave up trying to undo his shirt and moved down to his belt, but Nico had already taken care of that.
She looked down and saw him, huge and aroused. His impatient hands were tearing at her sophisticated underwear as he berated her for wearing knickers when he had to have her now.
‘Is it too soon after…?’
He was trying to slow down even as he tore the last items off…even as he confirmed that she was ready with his fingers. He was trying to be measured and controlled and…well, a responsible new father.
‘It’s not soon enough,’ she moaned. ‘Are we sorted, though?’
She meant the Nico loving her thing—for it was all too new and too much to fully take in.
‘We’re sorted,’ he told her.
And then he slipped slowly inside her, stretching her and filling her as only Nico could.
And then his hands were everywhere, shredding the flimsy dress, baring her breasts as he had wanted to on that first day in Rome.
He was the man she had first made love to—he was Nico unleashed and untamed—and he was everything Aurora needed tonight.
She wanted the fierce possession of his kiss, and she wanted the full power of Nico Caruso.
And he gave it.
Over and over and over.
She felt as hot in his hands as she had when the mountains had been ablaze in Sicily that night. And she felt as safe as she had been on that cold morning in Rome when she’d looked up into his eyes.
‘I’ve kept on wanting you,’ she told him as he thrust into her and dug his fingers into her hips.
He turned the blood in her veins into champagne and he took her body to places that would have otherwise remained unseen and unknown.
‘Aurora!’ he said, and his voice sounded like a car skidding and careering on gravel.
Aurora felt just as out of control until she heard the delicious sound of Nico calling her name.
‘Nico…’
She wrapped her legs tight around him and buried her face in his neck, inhaling the scent of Nico aroused. It was the scent she craved from the man she adored and she wanted to linger there a moment, to imprint that scent combined with the delicious feel of Nico unleashed upon her, but then she felt a lurch inside her and the swell of him within.
He summoned an orgasm from her. He simply demanded it—this very instant.
The tears and frustrations of the day seemed to gather and tighten, pulling her into a frenzied peak, and Aurora sobbed in frustration—for she simply did not know what to do with all the love she had for this man.
Except give it to him.
So much for elegance.
Nico helped Aurora down from the bench and then zipped himself up. He pocketed her bra and knickers to save the nanny finding them.
And then he surveyed the chaos.
There was spaghetti on the wall, and he felt the thump, thump of his swelling heart as he looked in the pot on the stove and smelt the herbs and the garlic, and saw the remains of the perfect dinner she had prepared for them.
No, not exactly elegant. But he warmed it up, and she grated pecorino cheese, and then they ate standing up. Like two filthy beggars, they shared what was left in the pot.
‘Your father was right,’ Nico said.
‘I’m not talking to my father,’ Aurora said.
‘But he was right about one thing,’ Nico said, as he wiped a little bit of passata from her chin. ‘“Good food and family and my day is complete. What more could I want?”’
‘You should raise your voice a little when impersonating my father,’ Aurora said.
‘But I wasn’t impersonating him.’
HE TOOK HER TO BED.
And he did not close the drapes.
They just lay there, sated and spent, with her head on his chest, his fingers playing idly with her hair, and the steady thump, thump of their hearts.
Aurora still had many questions, and she could not stop herself asking the important one. ‘Nico, where have you been all day?’ She looked up at him with urgent eyes. ‘And until so late in the night.’
She simply had to know.
‘Where do you think I’ve been, Aurora?’
‘You don’t want to know my thoughts. In them you have been to many places.’
‘Okay—where do you think a man goes when the love of his life shows up?’
She went pale in his arms.
‘I went to Silibri to speak with your father.’
‘You have told him that Gabe is yours?’
‘Of course I have.’
Nico was quiet for a moment, for it had taken great restraint not to tear into Bruno and his wife for their treatment of Aurora. He could not stand to think of all they had put their daughter through when she had needed them the most.
But they would soon be family, and he had chosen to remember that.
‘What did he say?’
‘He huffed and puffed,’ Nico said.
‘And Mamma?’
He could hear the anguish in Aurora’s voice.
‘She asked how you were and then she started crying. She asked me what Gabe looked like.’
‘Yet all she had to do to find out was pick up the phone.’
‘Of course,’ Nico said. ‘But they spoke of your dating app…’
Aurora did not laugh.
‘It was confusing for them,’ he said gently. ‘And then your father got out a bottle of—’
‘Limoncello.’ Aurora finished his sentence for him.
‘I always wondered why he did not stop speaking to me after I refused to marry you,’ Nico admitted.
‘And me,’ Aurora agreed. ‘I thought your name would be mud in our house, but he kept insisting you join us.’
‘He said he would believe that I