The Scorsolini Marriage Bargain (3 page)
She’d been soaking for thirty minutes when she heard sounds in the bedroom. She’d let her mind float, so it only registered on the periphery of her consciousnesses what those sounds meant.
“If you’ve fallen asleep in there, I’m going to be more than mildly annoyed with you.”
Her eyes slid open and the impact of his presence slammed into her like it always did. No man should be this beautiful. “Not sleeping. No need to be irritated.”
“You certainly looked asleep,” he said accusingly, but his dark eyes were eating her up in a way that said bathtub safety was not the only thing on his mind.
His obvious interest found an answering hunger in her body. The effectiveness of the hot bath and painkillers meant she could act on it if she wanted to and she did. Once she told him the truth and he accepted there was only one practical solution for their future, she would have to live the rest of her life without feeling the things his touch invoked.
“I don’t suppose you would consider being my bathtub buddy?” she asked, giving his magnificent body a once-over. “Purely for safety’s sake, you understand.”
His eyes narrowed. “Is that an invitation?”
“What do you think?”
“I think I don’t understand why you forced me to sit through an hour of fishing stories if you were feeling like this.” He made a sound that was suspiciously like a growl of frustration, while his lower body reacted in a basic and obvious way to her suggestion.
She hid her smile of satisfaction at the evidence that if nothing else, the man wanted her. Then she looked up at him from between her lashes. “Are you saying you’re not interested?” she asked in a tone that said she didn’t believe it. “Your body says otherwise.”
“Maybe my body isn’t the one in control here.”
She arched her back, relief coursing through her when the shift in her pelvis the movement caused didn’t so much as result in a tiny twinge of discomfort. “Maybe it should be.”
“Damn it,
He never swore in front of her. It shocked her so much that she relaxed back into the water. What if he didn’t want her? A man might not be able to control the physical responses of his body, but he didn’t have to give in to them. Not if his mind was turned off in spite of his body’s cravings.
He was upset with her for turning him down earlier. She should have realized he would be, but normally he acted as if her diminished desire didn’t impact him at all. After all, he was a busy man. He had about as much time for sex as he did for meaningful conversations with her, which meant he had almost no time at all.
Saying nothing because she was afraid she’d beg if she did, she stood to get out of the tub.
“What are you doing?” he asked in a low growl.
“What does it look like? I’m getting out.” He could turn her down, but he didn’t need to rub her nose in it.
He made a sound that sent a shiver down her spine. “Stay where you are, you provoking little witch.”
Chapter 2
“I wasn’t trying to provoke you,” she denied.
He yanked his tie off and started on the buttons of his shirt. “Then I don’t want to see what you are like when you do try.”
It suddenly occurred to her that he wasn’t turning her down, but intended to get into the oversize tub with her. She smiled in pure relief. “Are you sure about that?”
He jerked his pants down, pulling his shorts with them and revealing the impressive length of his angrily throbbing erection. He really wanted her, but from the expression on his face, he wasn’t happy about it.
He stepped into the tub and pulled her to him all in one movement, rubbing his rigid length against her in a blatantly sexual gesture. “I’m not sure about much of anything with you anymore.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck, reveling in the feel of his hard muscles and heated skin against her. “I thought you were always sure of me…about everything.”
“I wish.” His mouth slammed down onto hers and there was none of the seductive finesse she’d come to expect from him.
Something had really upset him and he was barely in control. Her ultraurbane husband was showing a basic side to his nature he’d always kept carefully hidden. She doubted he even knew it was there. She had always suspected, though. She saw glimpses sometimes when they were making love, but this was the first time she sensed his control was really at risk. She didn’t mind. In fact, she loved it.
Uncomplicated passion was exactly what she needed right now to get her mind off things she could not stand to think about. She kissed him back, letting the desperation she felt translate into a physical need that more than matched his. A growl rumbled low in his chest and he deepened the kiss with a thrust of his tongue that took total possession of her mouth.
She let her fingers run down the hard contours of his chest, tangling in his black, curling hair and tugging gently.
His mouth broke from hers. “
She did and then bent forward to taste the salt of his skin with the tip of her tongue. If only he could love her and not merely what she could do to him. But thinking along those lines would bring pain, not pleasure and she slammed the door shut on that part of her mind with a ferocious clang.
She nuzzled him, loving his scent and the feel of his warmth against her face. He was so perfect for her physically.
His big hands cupped her bottom and he lifted, rubbing his erection against the juncture of her thighs bringing forth a damp throb of response that she wallowed in. She made a mewling sound, her need so intense she dug her fingers like claws into his hot skin.
She loved him so much and in this—for right now, he was absolutely and totally hers.
She pressed her breasts against his chest and rubbed side to side, the stimulation to her aching peaks along with the way he was bringing their bodies together intimately almost enough to send her over the edge.
Suddenly he dropped into the water with her on top of him, sending hot, scented waves sloshing over the sides of the tub and onto the marble floor. He spread her legs so she straddled him and thrust upward pulling her down with a near-bruising grip on her hips. His aim was perfect and his rigid length speared into her, filling her completely in one powerful thrust.
Her body jerked at the shocking intrusion, but it didn’t even sort of hurt.
It felt so good, so right…so tight. They fit each other so absolutely perfectly in this way…how could her body make her imperfect for him in the one way that mattered most?
His mouth tore from hers. “What is it? What’s the matter?”
She stared at him, her eyes burning with tears she would never let him see. “Nothing. You feel so incredible inside me,” she panted.
“You went stiff.”
“It’s always a little tight at first.”
He smiled, masculine ego glowing from his dark eyes. “Yes, but you like it, no?”
“I love it.” I love you, she whispered deep in her heart. Forever.
“Then let me take you again.”
“Yes.”
And she did, thrilled by the lack of pain and hoping it would last the entire lovemaking session. She was careful not to take him too deep and he let her control things. She’d often teased him this way in the past and it was highly pleasurable for both of them.
Putting his head back and breathing harshly, his face contorted with pleasure, he said, “You are so good at this.”
“And you are incredible.”
He went stiff beneath her, his body filled with a tension that had nothing to do with sensual delight. “Then why do you turn me down so often lately?” he asked, his voice edged with dark emotion.
She didn’t have an answer…at least not one she was prepared to discuss right now when the pleasure was on the verge of letting her forget everything. So, instead of saying something that might mess that up, she kissed him.
He kissed her back, his mouth quickly taking control and then claiming her lips as if intent on punishment. Only she didn’t feel punished. She responded with ferocity of her own and increased the pace of their lovemaking until she felt the pleasure spiral tight inside her and she went through the stratosphere, all rational thought flying from her mind as her body convulsed with the ultimate satisfaction.
He grabbed her hips and thrust upward, once, twice…three times and sent her into a second climax, so close to the first that her lungs seized along with everything else.
He shouted and she felt his warmth inside of her as she took a long shuddering breath into her oxygen-starved lungs before collapsing on top of him.
She kissed his chest. “That was wonderful.”
“Yes,” he said, his breathing still heavy. “It always is.”
“Yes.”
“So, why—”
She put her hand over his mouth. “No talking. Just enjoy. Okay?”
He frowned.
“Please,” she pleaded.
He nodded, one quick jerk of his head.
She smiled and let her head settle against his chest again. “I wish we could stay like this forever.”
“You said no talking.”
“So I did.” She kissed him again because she couldn’t help herself and then relaxed there.
His hands moved from her hips to her back and she cuddled in the circle of his arms, their bodies still connected in the most intimate way possible.
Eventually he carried her to the oversize glass shower stall and they made love again under the cascading spray before washing and then going to bed where she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
She woke up alone and buried her face in his pillow, wallowing in
The night before had been incredible. He’d woken her sometime in the early hours of the morning and made love to her with such tender gentleness, she had cried when she climaxed. He’d held her afterward, rubbing her back and whispering how much he enjoyed her body and how beautiful she was in Italian.
But after three years, she realized being beautiful to him was not enough. It was not love and could not last forever because outer beauty did not last forever. And outstanding sexual satisfaction could not make up for her inability to give him the one thing he expected from her.
Heirs for the Scorsolini throne.
It was time to tell him the truth.
But when she went downstairs, it was to discover he’d flown out for a meeting in
She didn’t miss the fact that he’d left without bothering to wake her and kiss her goodbye, either. Somehow, that made everything worse. Maybe because it was a huge indication of the lack of true intimacy in their relationship and any real reliance he had on her.
There wasn’t any. They were married, but she was no more necessary to his life than any of his other many employees. If it wasn’t for the sex, their relationship would not be any more personal than it was with any of the others, either. And when the sex wasn’t on, neither was their relationship. How many business trips had he scheduled during her monthly? Had he ever once asked her to accompany him? No.
She was a convenience to him and she might as well admit it.
But damn it, it hurt.
She needed to be more to him. The only hope for their future was for her to mean something more to him. Which meant there was no hope at all.
Her mobile phone chirped and she scooted up in bed to answer it. When she saw that it was
“Good morning, bella.”
For some reason that endearment hurt this morning. Wasn’t she more than a face and a body to him? Was her value truly determined by her outer looks and her poise as her mother had always insisted it was?
“Good morning,
“I’m on my way to my hotel and wishing you were with me.”
Her heart stopped. “Are you really?”
“Sì. I do not like when our schedules separate us.”
“Then why didn’t you ask me to come with you?” she asked, hope uncurling like a slow bud inside her heart.
“You have your obligations. I have mine.”
“And do the obligations always come first?”
“They must. It is our duty.”
“They don’t always for Tomasso and
One of the things that had hurt the most this past few months was seeing what a Scorsolini prince in love acted like and acknowledging it was nothing like
