Watching him rip open the contraception sent a bold thought through her head. Rising to face him, she placed her hands on his. ‘Let me.’
Cesare’s eyes widened. ‘You’ve never done that before.’
‘I’ve had a long time to think about us, like this. Will you let me?’
He nodded and handed it over. That her offer pleased him and intensified the fire of arousal in his eyes only spurred her on.
She crawled on the bed until she was behind him. With an open-mouthed kiss between his shoulder blades that sent a fevered shudder through him, she took over the task. The powerful breadth of his shoulders meant she couldn’t see what she was doing, but her touch was enough.
Slowly, glorying in his potent, silky arousal, she slid the condom over his erection. Smooth, velvety skin veined with his thick blood surged underneath her fingers.
She bit the flesh she’d kissed moments before and felt her own fever rise as he trembled.
‘Tesoro, I fear your disappointment if you don’t cease this torture.’ His voice was pained, tinged with a desperation that matched her own.
Equally desperate for him, she completed her task quickly, but couldn’t resist a last caress of his hard flesh.
‘Per favore, I need you,’ he pleaded hoarsely.
Twisting around, he grabbed her and returned her to her original position.
Sure hands grasped her thighs and spread them wide. Her scent rose between them like a potent aphrodisiac. Cesare’s gaze dropped to her open sex and his eyes darkened to a burnished bronze.
Swallowing hard, he murmured, ‘I had forgotten how exquisitely beautiful you are down there.’
Sweet pleasure stole through her. Reaching up, she curled her hand into his smooth, hard chest. ‘I never forgot, for a single moment, how beautiful you are.’
To her he would always be a god among men, the powerful, captivating figure who had gripped her attention from the moment they’d met and had never let go, despite everything that had happened between them since.
He glided his fingers down her inner thighs, trailing a path of fire that threatened to ignite her very core. She bit her lip, fighting the haze that encroached, the promise of heaven suspended just out of reach. But this time she wanted more, wanted the power of Cesare deep inside her to be the only thing that triggered her ecstasy.
Which was why she wasn’t prepared for the skilled finger that slid inside her sensitive opening.
Her spine arched clear off the bed. ‘Cesare!’ His name was a cry ripped from her throat, a cry that sounded again when his thumb swiftly found her nub of desire. Blood pounded through her veins, crashed through her head until it was the only thing she could hear.
He groaned as her fingers bit into his shoulders. Her head thrashed against the pillows, fighting but knowing she was losing the headlong flight into rapture. The brief reprieve she experienced when he gently removed his fingers was easily lost again when the blunt head of his powerful erection replaced his fingers.
‘Open your eyes, Ava.’
Weakly, she obeyed.
Curling her legs around his hips, he plucked her hands from his shoulders and placed them both above her head. ‘Now don’t move.’
His gaze stayed on hers as he rocked forward. At the first thrust, every instinct urged her hips to move. ‘I can’t not...it’s too much...’
‘You can. Just do it.’ He fed more of himself into her, stretching unused muscles and sending her senses into near freefall. Her heart hammered, her lungs begged for air and the sheer pressure of being filled by Cesare threatened her sanity.
Finally, he was deep inside her. His gaze fixed on hers, he held still, allowing her to savour the full force of his possession. Time suspended between them, the only sound their shared breath as the power of being joined held them in thrall.
At last, he breathed, ‘Now.’
They moved at the same time, slamming together with a force that rocked worlds. His grunt of pleasure triggered her shuddering moan. Pleasure like she’d never known surged through her. Clamping her legs tighter around him, she met him thrust for thrust, falling into a long-forgotten rhythm like a song to a lark. The world fell away.
Nothing else mattered but Cesare, his sounds of ecstasy filled her ears as he thrust over and over inside her.
Her flesh welcomed him, enclosing him in a tight, silken embrace that gradually milked his pleasure. His face contorted in a mask of pained pleasure as he crept closer to the edge.
In the single moment before all became lost, Ava glimpsed a connection, an unspoken bond that drew at her heartstrings and made her catch her breath. Before she could analyse it, she was swept away. Holding back was not an option so she flew towards ecstasy and a release that annihilated every single thought. Unable to bear the assault, she clamped her eyes shut. Firelight rained again, showering her in pleasure so profound, tears prickled the back of her lids.
Above her, triggered by her relentless convulsions, Cesare hurtled towards his own release. For a split second, he stilled, his whole being gripped tight in indescribable sensation. Her legs around his back strained to keep him locked against her. With a final desperate groan, he gave up control, managing just in time to adjust his position before he collapsed on top of her.
Ava drew her arms around him, her fingers slowly caressing his sweat-slicked flesh as shudders chased through him. Somewhere in the lost minutes, he turned his head and planted kisses along her jaw, but no words were uttered. None were needed.
She couldn’t recall when he finally disengaged from her but she had a vague sense of being settled against him. But something different tripped her senses. It wasn’t until she was drifting off to sleep, his strong arms coming around to anchor her to him and soft words gently ushering her into sleep, that she realised what it was.
In the moments before his climax, Cesare had pulled out of her.
CESARE STOOD AT the foot of the bed, gazing down at his sleeping wife. Guilt bit hard into him. Although a careful inspection of the condom had set his mind at ease somewhat, he didn’t delude himself into thinking that would be the case every time.
Their passion hadn’t abated in their time apart. If anything, the opposite was true. He’d had to stop himself from taking her in the raw and earthy way his senses had clamoured for him to, and he didn’t fool himself into believing he would always remain in control. Ava needed only to be within touching distance to erode his willpower.
His senses sprang to life again as she shifted and stretched on the bed, baring a little more of her body.
He locked his knees to stop himself from crawling back beside her. When his feet disobeyed, he clung to the bedpost, gritting his teeth as arousal fired deep inside. For a split second he resented the unrelenting need Ava had always elicited in him.
From the first moment he’d laid eyes on her at that busy intersection in London, something vital had shifted inside him, knocked him sideways. He’d labelled it as lust back then, but now he wasn’t so sure it was mere lust. Lust faded. But the thought of Ava walking out of his life permanently made his chest tighten in fierce rejection.
She murmured in her sleep. Every sinew in his body protested at the idea but he forced himself to take a step towards the door.
‘Cesare?’ Her soft voice stopped him in his tracks.
She was sitting up, the sheets slipping to her waist. Her lush curves gleamed in the ambient light. Her nipples,