Deserving of His Diamonds (10 page)

deep inside her, each throbbing second bringing it closer and closer …

Emilio tipped up her chin, his eyes so dark she couldn‘t make out his pupils.

‗Are you fighting me or yourself, cara?‘ he asked. She sent the point of her

tongue out over her lips, testing his hold but it remained firm. ‗I hate you,‘

she said, but somehow the words didn‘t sound as feisty and determined as

they had even a day ago. ‗That doesn‘t mean that the sex between us won‘t

still be good,‘ he said as his mouth blazed a hot trail over the sensitive skin

near her left ear. Gisele felt her senses go into a tailspin as his teeth gently

tugged on her earlobe. It sent a delicious shiver down her spine as he moved

back towards her mouth, slowly, tantalisingly, awakening each and every

nerve beneath her skin, making her lips tingle in anticipation for the hot,

urgent pressure of his. She gave a soft little whimper and turned her head

just a fraction, just enough to make that final devastating contact.

His mouth sealed hers but it was nothing like the bruising kiss of the other

day. This was a kiss that was sensually soft, exploratory and yet

unmistakably commanding and arrantly sexual in its intent. She felt the

stroke of his tongue at the seam of her lips and she opened to him, their

breaths mingling, their tongues mating in an erotic ritual that sent lightning

bolts of need straight to the heart of her femininity. One of his hands slipped

to the nape of her neck, the warm cup of his palm causing the entire length

of her spine to shudder in delicious response. His mouth changed position,

his lips still moving gently against hers, but she still sensed an undercurrent

of urgency, of his control still tightly leashed but straining for freedom. His

other hand pressed her in the small of her back, bringing her closer to the

pulsing heat of his erection. She felt its thickness, the potent power of it

stirring her body into a maelstrom of feeling. Her skin tightened, her heart

fluttered, her legs trembled and still the kiss went on and on. It was so

wonderful to feel again. To feel alive and vibrant with sexual energy, to feel

the way her body inflamed his by its closeness. His hand at her back pressed

harder, a low groan emitting from his throat as she rubbed against him, her

feminine mound aching to feel his possession. It was a deep ache inside her,

a pulsing, throbbing ache that she could feel vibrating in his body as he

ground himself against her, hungry for relief. ‗I want you,‘ he growled like a

wolf against her mouth, the primal deepness of his voice and the scrape of

his teeth as he tugged at her lower lip making Gisele melt like honey under

intense heat. She didn‘t need to say she wanted him too. Her body was doing

all it could to relay the message of how much

she needed him to relieve her of this voracious need that was clawing at her

insides. She pushed herself closer, her breasts jammed up against the hard

wall of his chest, her mouth feeding greedily off his. Emilio pulled down the

zip of her dress, his hands moving over the naked skin of her back in

tantalising strokes that made her legs feel as if they were going to go out

from beneath her. He deftly unhooked her bra and it slid to the floor along

with her dress, leaving her in nothing but her knickers and her heels. He

brought his mouth to her achingly tight breast, sucking on her erect nipple

before doing the same to the other. Gisele whimpered as her senses

screamed in rapture. It was so good to feel him on her naked flesh, to feel

the sexy rasp of his masculine jaw with its pepper of stubble on her soft skin.

She took her hands from around his neck and worked her way down his

shirt, button by button, tasting the sexy saltiness of his skin with her tongue,

teasing each of his flat male nipples with her teeth. He shrugged himself out

of his shirt as she moved her hands down to the waistband of his trousers.

She ran her hand over the proud jut of his body, her insides clenching with

feverish anticipation as he moved against her hand with a guttural groan. ‗I

knew you would come back to me,‘ Emilio said in a gravel-rough tone as his

lips hovered above her mouth. ‗I knew you wouldn‘t be able to resist.‘ The

ice-cold water of common sense doused the flames of Gisele‘s desire at the

hint of arrogant assurance in his tone. Did he really think she was that

predictable? That he only had to beckon to her and she would come running

back as if nothing had happened? ‗Wait,‘ she said, dropping her hands from

his body.

He frowned at her. ‗Is everything all right?‘ Gisele took a deep steadying

breath and covered her naked breasts with her crossed arms. ‗I can‘t do this,‘

she said. ‗Not like this … not here …‘ ‗Then we‘ll take it upstairs,‘ Emilio

said. She sent him a speaking glance. ‗No.‘ ‗No?‘ ‗I‘m sorry,‘ she said,

bending down to retrieve her dress and her bra, her cheeks so hot they felt as

if they had been scorched. She got dressed with as much dignity as she

could, putting some order to her hair as she faced him once more. ‗I‘m sorry,

Emilio. I know I should have called a halt earlier. I don‘t know what I was

thinking. Maybe I wasn‘t thinking. I don‘t seem to do a lot of that when I‘m

around you.‘ She made a self-deprecating movement of her lips. ‗I guess

that‘s one thing that hasn‘t changed in two years.‘ He gave her a wry smile

as he brushed her cheek with the tip of his index finger. ‗I like it when

you‘re not thinking,‘ he said. ‗I like it best when you‘re just feeling.‘ Gisele

chewed at her lip. ‗It‘s been a long time for me,‘ she said softly. He cupped

her cheek with the warmth of his hand, his eyes dark and surprisingly tender

as they meshed with hers. ‗I know,‘ he said. ‗That‘s why I want our first

time back together to be special. I don‘t want to rush things just for the sake

of it. I want to savour every moment with you.‘ ‗You sound like you missed

me,‘ she said a little wistfully.

His thumb brushed over her bottom lip like a teasing feather. ‗Those first

few days after you left I was unbearable to be around,‘ he said. ‗The contract

I was working on securing fell through. The man I was negotiating with was

a very conservative family man. He gave the contract to the other architect

who, unfortunately, was my biggest rival. I was so blind with rage I felt sure

you must have had something to do with it. I thought you had been planted

as a spy.‘ His mouth twisted. ‗I became totally obsessed after that. I had to

work hard to make up for the loss of that commission. The first real block of

time I‘ve had off since then was when I flew to Sydney to see you.‘ Gisele

thought of him working himself to the ground in an attempt to put her out of

his mind. He had always been an intensely driven man. She had recognised

that when she‘d first met him. It had inspired her to think of how hard he had

worked for his success. He had told her once it had been his dream since

childhood to become an architect and he had determined nothing would get

in his way. And it hadn‘t. He had become one of the world‘s leading and

most innovative designers with a string of accolades to his name. To

suddenly find out he had been wrong about the accusations he had hurled at

her must have come as a horrid shock to a man with his level of pride. The

fact that he had put everything on hold to fly out to see her to make amends

was certainly admirable, but she still suspected it was his pride and

reputation that was at stake, not his heart. His heart was for no one.

Whatever had happened in his childhood had left scars that cut deep. That

was another thing Gisele had suspected right from the start, but she had been

determined to be the one to heal him. How deluded had she been to think

that the strength of her

love could unlock his fiercely guarded heart? He had trust issues that no

amount of love would ever heal. She had been a casualty of that lack of trust,

and she very much doubted that she was the first or even going to be the last.

‗Have you spoken to Sienna about us?‘ he asked. ‗I didn‘t go into a lot of

detail,‘ Gisele said. ‗I didn‘t want her to feel responsible for what happened

between us. You have to remember that although we‘re identical twins we‘re

virtual strangers. It will take some time to get to know each other properly.‘

‗Do you like her?‘ Emilio asked. ‗Is she someone you could warm to?‘

Gisele thought of her vibrant, vivacious twin, with her generous and

impulsive nature. From what she had picked up so far, Sienna had got

herself into plenty of scrapes because of her somewhat reckless take on life,

but it was impossible not to like her. ‗I think she‘s lovely,‘ she said. ‗She‘s

smart and sassy and sophisticated. But I think the press misrepresent her.

They paint her as a hedonist, a wild child without morals. I don‘t think she‘s

anything like that. I think she‘s very sensitive but hides it behind the party

girl façade.‘ ‗I have a client to see in London towards the end of the month,‘

Emilio said. ‗I‘d like it if you came with me. You can introduce me to

Sienna and perhaps spend some time with her while I‘m at work.‘ ‗I‘d like to

see her,‘ Gisele said. ‗But I don‘t want to lie to her about our relationship.

Putting on an act for the press is one thing, lying to my sister is another.‘

‗Perhaps by then it won‘t be an act, cara,‘ he said, brushing her lip again

with his thumb.

Gisele felt the sensitive surface of her lips tingle from the gentle caress. It

was true what he had said: she was fighting herself rather than him. Her

unruly desires were annihilating her resolve like a hurricane against a house

of cards. She had no hope of withstanding him, not while her feelings for

him were still so ambiguous. She stepped back from him, giving him a brief

on-off smile. ‗I think I‘ll go to bed,‘ she said. ‗Good night.‘ Emilio didn‘t

answer but Gisele felt his scorching gaze follow her as she left the room.

GISELE was pulling back the covers of her bed when she heard the bedroom

door open and Emilio came in dressed in a bathrobe, his hair still damp from

a recent shower. ‗What do you think you‘re doing?‘ she gasped in shock.

‗Coming to bed,‘ he said, slipping off the robe. Gisele‘s eyes drank in the

sight of him: that hard muscular chest, that gorgeous flat washboard

abdomen and the arrantly masculine heart of him that was already partially

aroused. Her heart gave a jerky kick inside her chest and her throat almost

closed over. ‗But I told you I —‘ ‗And I told you how things were going to

be,‘ he said before she could complete her sentence. ‗We will share a bed for

the month even if we don‘t make love. I will not force myself on you. You

should know me better than that.‘ She swallowed deeply, wondering if it

was possible to share a villa of this size with Emilio without wanting to

make love, let alone a bed. It was a big bed certainly, but not big enough for

her to avoid those long, strong hairroughened legs coming into contact with

hers. ‗That‘s not the point,‘ she said, running the tip of her tongue out over

lips so dry they felt like ancient parchment. ‗What is the point, Gisele?‘ he

asked with a glittering look. ‗You don‘t seem to know what you want. One

minute you look at me as if you want to throw yourself back in my arms and

never leave, and the next you look like you want to claw my eyes out. At

some point you‘re going to have to make up your mind.‘

Gisele had thought she had made up her mind but her body had chosen an

entirely different path. It was calling out to him now in a secret sensual

language he couldn‘t fail to misinterpret. But in her haste to disguise how

much she wanted him she swung away from the bed and in doing so

accidentally knocked the glass of water and her pills off the bedside table.

The glass landed with a thump on the carpet and the little bottle of pills

rolled across the floor and came to a stop right in front of Emilio‘s left foot.

She watched, dry mouthed, as he bent to pick them up. ‗What are these for?‘

he asked, frowning as he read the label. ‗Give them to me,‘ she said, trying

to make a grab for them but he held the bottle just out of her reach. He

frowned as he read the label. ‗Sleeping tablets?‘ he asked, looking at her

again. ‗So?‘ she said, throwing him a defensive look. ‗Lots of people take

them.‘ ‗How long have you been taking them?‘ he asked. Gisele folded her

arms mutinously, her mouth in a flat line. ‗Gisele?‘ He tipped up her chin,

forcing her eyes to meet his. ‗How long have you been taking sleeping

medication?‘ She let out a shaky breath. ‗A while … a few weeks … a

couple of months maybe …‘ ‗Sleeping tablets are meant to be a temporary

thing,‘ Emilio said reprovingly. ‗You shouldn‘t be on them any longer than a

few weeks. They‘re highly addictive.‘

Gisele rolled her eyes. ‗You sound just like my doctor.‘ He caught her just

before she made to turn away from him. His eyes were dark and a concerned

frown sliced deep into his forehead. ‗Cara, did I do this to you?‘ he asked

hollowly. Gisele thought of the weeks after his rejection when she had done