Scene set-up
Lia and Niccolo have been trying to resist their passion for each other. Niccolo because he doesn't want to take advantage of a girl who he thinks looks on him like a brother and Lia because she believes Niccolo doesn't have romantic feelings for her, that he prefers the leggy blondes who follow him on the racing car circuit. Now, after a weekend pretending to be an item, tension has reached breaking point. Lia can't conceal her distress, believing he'll never return her feelings. An evening of putting on a smiling face at a big society party is too much, now they're back in the privacy of their suite.
Smooch -
‘Whatever it is, we’ll make
it better.’
She shook her head, almost
violently, her long hair flaring and slipping over his hand.
‘No.’ Her voice was stronger
now, with a whiplash undercurrent of bitterness. ‘This isn’t something you can
kiss and make better.’
Niccolo almost groaned,
wishing the words undone. His attention dropped instantly to her lips, finely
cut and lushly inviting.
There was a roaring in his
ears, a shaking in his belly and his hands tightened on her, one at her back,
one sliding round to cup her head. He couldn’t let go. Couldn’t force himself
to step away. His feet were cemented to the floor.
She tempted him beyond
endurance and she didn’t even realise.
‘Why not?’ His grating voice
was unrecognisable.
He told himself it would be
fine to touch her mouth. A tiny kiss from a friend, over as soon as it began. A
demonstration that he cared for her, was here for her. That whatever her
problem was, he’d help.
A brotherly kiss!
Except when he leaned in to
touch his lips to her cheek she moved, no doubt startled. He felt the shock in
her straining body.
Then somehow, surely without
intending to, his lips grazed hers. Grazed and clung.
Because to withdraw was
utterly impossible.
Lia’s lips were so soft, so
perfect, fitting to his as if made for that very purpose. Niccolo froze. Amazing
as it was to admit, he’d never felt so undone by a woman. Yet all he did was touch
her lips!
They tasted like honey.
Honey and Lia, the most beautiful woman he’d ever known.
Niccolo inhaled sharply,
strengthening his resolve to draw back. Except now he dragged in air warm from
her flesh, scented with the lily and woman perfume of Lia. There was no turning
back. Not yet. He stood unmoving, one hand cupping her skull, the other splayed
over the sinuous indentation of her waist.
Until, shocking him to the
core, he felt the slick of her tongue along his mouth. And a warm vibration,
like a soundless hum of pleasure, resonate through her.
Niccolo tried to summon the
will to move, to break the embrace. Then it came again, tentative but real, her
tongue sliding across his bottom lip.
A man was only human after
all.
He’d done his best, tried to
be strong, but there was a limit to endurance.
Angling his head, pressing
closer, he opened his mouth and sucked her questing tongue into his mouth.
Sucked hard, drawing his own tongue against it in a duel that was all
invitation and pleasure.
Niccolo’s hands trembled as
they never did at the wheel of a racing vehicle. He felt as if he held sunlight
and innocence in his arms and was torn between protectiveness and the need to
possess.
He moved his hand, changed
his grip to angle her head for easier access and, instead of stiffening in
rejection, Lia melted in his arms, her curves sliding against him, her head
bowing back under the pressure of his, and again that wordless vibration of
pleasure. He tasted it, swallowed it, then plunged deep into her mouth,
demanding more.
It was like admiring a daisy
and discovering it was a lush, sensual rose in disguise.
Her mouth was rich velvet,
tempting and seductive. Her body undulated against him in blatant, needy
invitation, and Niccolo found himself backing her up against the dressing table.
He crowded her between his thighs, his erection instant and powerful, jammed up
against her belly.
Somewhere, in the back of
his brain, his conscience commanded he pull back. But then Lia’s hands crept up
his chest, over his shoulders and she wrapped her fingers around his neck,
pulling him down towards her as if she too couldn’t get enough.
It was bliss.
It was torture.
Devastatingly fantastic yet
not nearly enough. Already his hand was roving her body, down over the ripe
curve of her buttocks, then digging in through the thin fabric till she gasped
and rocked her pelvis into him, her head falling back.
Niccolo had never seen
anything more alluring than Lia, her kiss-swollen lips open as she gasped for
air, a flush of arousal tinting her throat and cheeks and her eyes glowing
gold. They were a siren’s eyes, luring him on, inviting him to forget
restrictions and taboos and take her. Here, now.
His breath came in harsh
gulps that couldn’t quite fill his lungs. His skin was tight and uncomfortable
and he needed to rip off his clothes.
But more than that, he
needed to have Lia. The pain of not tearing himself free of his trousers and
taking her right here was making him dizzy.
‘We should—’ He’d been about
to say something about stopping, except Lia tilted her hips in a sinuous move
that brought her pelvis high against him.
His conscience disintegrated
in a ripple of lust that began at the base of his spine and raced straight
round to his groin.
Lia knew what she was doing.
She wasn’t that innocent.
Her heavy-lidded stare
invited and challenged.
With a growl of triumph,
Niccolo swept his mouth back down to hers, possessing her with a bruising
thoroughness that still couldn’t allay the need thrumming in his veins. He
hungered for Lia, for all of her, writhing and gasping beneath him as he took
them both to heaven.
He slid his hand from her
face, down past her collarbone to her breast. His hand trembled as he cupped
her fullness in his fingers. Was it because she fitted him so perfectly or
because this was Lia, the woman who’d been secretly driving him crazy for so
long? Whatever the reason, she made him want to slide to his knees and worship
her. To give her everything he had. And to please her as no man had ever
pleased her before.
He smiled as her eyes fluttered
closed and she arched up high into his touch, a tiny sound of delight falling
from her open lips.
It was then that Niccolo
knew he was utterly lost.
