Rising Stars & It Started With… Collections. Кейт Хьюит

late. More lonely than content, more restless than happy.

      Tina, however, excited him again. He’d been so hot for her that he’d taken her on a table in the living room with the lights of Rome stretched out below. He should have made it more special for her, but he’d been unable to wait. She’d asked him not to ruin her dress—he hadn’t, but he’d damn sure creased it. After that first frantic coupling, he’d carried her to the bedroom and taken the time he should have taken initially. He’d explored her, aroused her, and satisfied her over and over.

      He loved the sounds she made when she came, the way she said his name, her soft voice breaking at the end as if he were the one thing she needed in this world to survive. It was a plea, each and every time—and yet it wasn’t. He sensed there was something about her he could not touch, and it drove him crazy wondering what that was.

      Did she purposely hold a part of herself back? Or was he imagining things?

      He turned in the bed and slid a hand along her hip before pulling her into the curve of his body. She felt good there, and he lay beside her and just listened to her breathing.

      Valentina D’Angeli. Valentina Gavretti, he corrected fiercely.

      How was it that he lay here with Renzo’s little sister and the only thing he felt was protective? He should feel triumphant, as if he’d finally found the way to get beneath Renzo’s skin—but he didn’t.

      She turned in his arms then, her hand coming to rest on his cheek. It made him feel fierce inside. If Renzo tried to take her away …

      “Nico,” she sighed.

      “Yes, cara?”

      He could see her smile in the dark. “Nothing.”

      His body was already reacting though he tried to think of something other than sex. But his penis was throbbing to life regardless. Sometimes it definitely had a will of its own. He did not doubt that women were right when they accused men of thinking with their genitalia.

      He pushed a lock of curly hair out of her face. “Tell me something, Tina.”

      “What’s that,” she asked sleepily, burrowing into him even more.

      “I don’t understand how you were still a virgin.” He’d been thinking about it since she’d blasted back into his life. She was so passionate, so honest and open in her sexuality, that it didn’t make sense. She burned him up with her heat, and he craved more of the same—had since the first night he’d been with her.

      She shrugged. “I never found anyone I wanted to be with.”

      He’d never claimed to understand women’s minds, so he didn’t argue the point. To her, it made perfect sense. “Then why did you choose me?”

      “Actually, I chose someone else,” she said, and he couldn’t stop the slice of jealousy that slammed through him. “But he smelled like garlic. You didn’t.”

      Nico blinked. “You mean it came down to garlic?”

      She nodded. “Yep. Garlic. One really shouldn’t eat garlic if one expects to seduce a woman.”

      He couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Then I suppose I should be grateful I skipped the garlic.”

      She tilted her head back on the pillow to look at him. He could feel the intensity of her gaze, even if he couldn’t actually see what was in her eyes in the dark. “Do you really mean that?”

      Everything inside him grew still. He didn’t know what he meant, but he wanted to tell her not to read too much into it, though he knew that she already had. She was young and naive, at least as far as relationships went, and he couldn’t tell her the truth right now. He couldn’t tell her that he didn’t believe in love between a man and a woman. He only believed in sexual chemistry —which they had an abundance of—and that usually fizzled after a while.

      Except nothing was fizzling at the moment.

      “I don’t regret being your first lover, Tina.” That was most definitely true. He shifted his pelvis so she could feel the evidence of his continuing need for her.

      “Oh,” she said, her voice husky. And yet he sensed she was somehow disappointed in his answer. Was it because of the baby? Or because she hoped there could be something more between them than simple lust?

      He didn’t know, and he didn’t want to ask. He didn’t want to talk about expectations, or about what he thought might happen when they tired of each other. It was too soon, and he was still growing accustomed to the idea of a wife.

      He wouldn’t allow this to disintegrate to the point it harmed their child, but he knew they would have to address it one day. What happened when they were ready to go their separate ways?

      “Go to sleep, Tina,” he told her somewhat gruffly. He was aroused, but he’d get over it. “You need your rest.”

      She made a disapproving sound. “And if I don’t want to sleep?”

      He didn’t think he could grow any harder than he was in that moment. “What do you want, tesoro?”

      “I think you know.”

      He gathered her closer, nuzzled the hair at her temple. “Can I possibly be so lucky?”

      She slid a hand over his hip. “Enjoy it while you can. I imagine things will change once this baby really starts to grow.”

      She pressed her mouth to his chest, her tongue swirling against his skin as she wrapped her fingers around him and squeezed.

      “Tell me what you want,” he said—groaned, really. He didn’t expect her to push him onto his back and straddle him, but he was damned happy she did. He groaned again as she sank down on top of him. Her movements were slow at first, inexpert, but they increased in tempo until he didn’t care about anything but what she did to him. He gripped her hips and thrust up into her while she gasped and moaned. When she stiffened and choked out his name, he came in a hot rush that left him gasping and spent.

      “That was lovely,” she said huskily. Then she leaned down and kissed him slowly, clearly pleased with herself. His heart tapped an insane rhythm in his chest as he lay beneath her and concentrated on breathing evenly. “Really lovely.

      “And, Nico,” she added when he was still trying to catch his breath and couldn’t manage to say a word. “I’m glad you were my first, too.”

      A stab of unexpected emotion pierced him as he keyed in on one word. First.

      First implied there would be a second. It twisted his gut into knots.

      Chemistry, he told himself, as he closed his eyes and hugged her to him. It was only chemistry that made him want to punch something at the thought of her with another man.