A Sicilian Husband - Kate Walker [42]
‘What else did you want?’
There was a definite challenge in the dark eyes now, almost, but not quite driving away the deep shadows of just moments before. Had he truly recovered so bewilderingly fast? Or was he just dangerously skilled at hiding his true feelings behind a careful, emotionless mask? The answer to that question was one that Terrie was not at all sure she wanted to know.
‘I…’
‘I’m not going to apologise for something we both consented to.’
Eyes the colour of the rich coffee in his mug seared over her face, probing like a dark laser under the black brows that drew together sharply in an ominous frown.
‘Or are you going to try and claim that I forced you?’
‘Oh, no!’
She wouldn’t dare! She couldn’t. It was impossible even to think of it when she knew that denying his claim would be the worst lie she had ever told.
‘No. I’m not saying that.’
‘Bene.’
His nod was curt to the point of dismissive.
‘Because I feel no guilt for something we both wanted…’
Dark eyes skimmed over her again, lingering appreciatively on her mouth, her throat, the swell of her breasts as they rose and fell with her uneven, nervous breathing.
‘Something we’d both like to do again.’
But that was too much.
‘Something you might like to do again!’ Terrie protested. ‘I don’t remember having said any such thing.’
‘Not said,’ was Gio’s drawling agreement. ‘But then sometimes there is no need for anyone to say anything. The signs are there, clear to read. In the glance of an eye, a smile…’
Slowly he leaned forward and trailed the back of his free hand softly down her cheek and under her jaw.
‘In a glow you can’t hide…’
The pad of his thumb smoothed across the fullness of her lips, awakening a deep inner hunger just with the single caress.
‘A softness of the mouth…’
‘Don’t!’
With a fierce movement that was totally unnecessary, considering the gentleness of his hold, she wrenched her head away from his grasp. The struggle to ignore the fizzing sensation along every nerve made her voice hard and tight as she rounded on him.
‘You’re reading the signs all wrong if that’s what you think!’
It was almost impossible to hear the words through the wild pounding of her heart.
‘Or perhaps you’re simply finding what you want to see, because I’ll tell you that your sordid fantasies are just not true!’
‘Is that a fact?’
Gio’s slow, faintly mocking smile almost undid her totally, sending shivers of reaction running down her spine, though for the life of her she couldn’t decide whether they were of fear or tingling excitement.
‘Well, you can protest all you like, carina, but just remember that I am the one who can see your face, look into your eyes… And I assure you that there is nothing sordid about my fantasies—nothing at all!’
‘I—’ Terrie began, but he swept on, ignoring the fact that she had even tried to speak.
‘They are simply that I wish to repeat the pleasures of our night together, over and over again. And I know that you do not consider those pleasures in any way sordid. How could you, when you were the one who instigated most of them—and who actively encouraged the ones I contributed?’
Expertly manoeuvred into a corner, mentally if not physically, Terrie admitted to cowardice and didn’t even try to respond, resorting only to turning a fulminating glare on his wickedly smiling face, a scornful, but inarticulate, ‘Huh!’ the only sound that escaped her.
But inside her mind was buzzing, replaying unwanted memories, projecting dangerously erotic scenes from their night together onto the screen of her thoughts. Just that brush of his thumb across her mouth had reminded her of the taste of his skin, the scent of his hand, the way that his touch made her feel. She felt unnervingly on edge, frighteningly restless and close to veering out of control.
All the secret, intimate places on her body seemed to wake, clamouring for more of that touch. Her mouth hungered to know again the deeply personal taste of his flesh. And the reason for all those feelings was right there beside her,