Revenge (32 page)

She nipped at his lower lip playfully, then
pushed him away and took off running, rounding a corner that led
down to the beach. He loped after her, smiling when he heard her
laughter, feeling both the urgency of sex and the excitement of
being free and on his own in the dark. When was the last time he’d
been like this? Years and years. Always it had been one worry after
another. He hadn’t taken a real vacation in far too long.

Kate dashed down a lane lined with trees,
then popped through a gate that opened onto the beach. Enrico
followed her, his shoes slipping in the sand. When she stopped to
remove her sandals, he caught up to her. Wrapping her in his arms,
he hoisted her off the ground and twirled her around as she
shrieked with laughter.

Setting her down, Enrico smoothed the hair
back from her face and kissed her, his tongue slipping into her
mouth. When she sucked on it, he felt the sensation all over his
body.

After they parted, both breathing fast, she
said, “Let’s find someplace.”

He took her hand and headed for a thicket of
trees. When they reached the low stone wall edging the beach, he
helped her over it, then braced his arms on top and swung his legs
over. “Not bad for an old man,” she teased him.

“Old man,” he growled, kissing her with
force, cupping her buttocks in his hands and pressing her against
his erection. “Does that feel like an old man?” He didn’t wait for
an answer. He took her hand again, tugging her up the hill, into
the trees. Grass grew thick and long there, brushing against their
legs.

Kate looked around and apparently decided it
was secluded enough. “Here,” she said, stopping and putting both
her hands on his chest.

Enrico brought his lips to hers, cradling her
face in his hands before sliding them along the sides of her neck.
Kate’s fingers wound into his hair as she deepened the kiss. When
they parted for a second, Enrico stripped off his shirt and laid it
on the grass, then drew Kate down with him. At last, he was where
he wanted to be most. Alone with her, in the dark.

Moonlight filtered through the trees as
Enrico bent over Kate. He kissed her cheek, then her mouth, then
the side of her neck. Between kisses, he murmured, “It has already
been too long.” He rolled on top of her, his body almost fully over
hers.

The weight of him holding her down and
something about the way the moonlight hit his face reminded Kate of
Vince, of her nightmares. Of the attack. Fear ripped through her,
making her shiver from a chill only she could feel. She shoved
Enrico hard in a panic, and he quickly let her up. She sat up,
panting for breath.
Damn it
!

Her eyes blurred, and she swiped at the tears
leaking from them. “God, when am I going to be
normal
again?”

“Shh.” He stroked the side of her face.
“
Per favore
, do not cry,
cara
.”

“I don’t know what else to do.” She looked at
him. “I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

“Much has happened these last few days. Too
much,” he said, leaning back on his elbows. “Maybe this—you and
me—maybe it is moving too fast.”

Kate lay back beside him, staring up at the
stars through the branches. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

He was silent for a while, then he said,
“Only recently have I stopped wishing I was dead.”

She snapped her head toward him. “What?”

“Ever since Toni died, I have wished I did
not have to go on without her.” He put his arms behind his head,
then he cleared his throat. “After she was gone, I carried on
conversations with her all the time in my head. Sometimes all
day.”

The tightness in his voice moved her. Kate
rolled over and placed a hand on his chest. “I can’t decide if
that’s sad or romantic.”

“I prefer to think of it as romantic.” His
words hung in the air for a moment, then he said, “I still love
her, Kate. But I feel it fading the more time I spend with
you.”

She smiled. “Put a little pressure on me, why
don’t you.”

“I do not mean to. Not exactly. I have felt
like an impostor for a long time. I smiled and nodded in the right
places, and I laughed when someone made a joke, but I was just
pretending. With you, I feel alive again.”

Her hand flexed against his chest. “You
do?”

“Ever since I met you, I have hardly been
able to think of anything
but
you. Having you. Making you
mine.” He picked up her hand and kissed it. “You have become my
obsession.”

“Now you’re scaring me,” she said, but kept
her tone light.

“You should be scared,” he joked. “I do not
like to be denied anything I want.”

“I’m sure that rarely happens.”

He rolled up onto his side to look at her.
“Somehow, you manage to deny me all the time.”

“Only because you’re under my thumb.” She
smiled and stroked his cheek.

Grabbing her hand, he planted a kiss on the
palm. “Indeed, I am your slave.”

She bit her lower lip. “That conjures up so
many interesting possibilities.”

He looked at her, her hand still upturned in
his, his lips hovering over her skin. When he spoke, his breath
tickled her palm. “Would one of those possibilities involve any
sex?” he asked. He pressed his lips to her palm again, then his
tongue followed the path of her lifeline.

Tingles traveled along her skin in the wake
of his tongue. “You have been such a good slave, I suppose a little
sex won’t spoil you.”

He kissed the inside of her wrist, the
touches fleeting as his mouth moved up her arm. “I live to serve,”
he murmured, reaching her neck and the sensitive skin there. He
parted her blouse, kissing along the hollow of her throat, then his
lips moved down between her breasts. He made short work of the
bra’s front clasp, his hands and mouth seeking her nipples
greedily. Kate lay back beneath him, winding her fingers in his
thick hair, a bit amazed they were actually doing this. Somehow
he’d managed to cope with her and change her mood for the better.
Maybe he wasn’t the only one who needed this connection between
them.

One of his hands slipped down between them,
pushing her skirt up to her waist, his fingers smoothing up her
thighs, and Kate felt her anticipation rising as his hand drew near
her sex. But he veered away from it, instead letting his fingers
play along the outside of her hip, squeezing the flesh there.

Kate shifted restlessly beneath him, parting
her legs slightly, though he didn’t take the hint. Instead he slid
his palm across her belly in slow circles, just feeling her skin.
His eyes followed the progress of his hand, and she studied him,
surprised at how mesmerized he was by what he was doing.

“You really like touching me, don’t you?”

His eyes flicked up to hers. “Of course I do.
You are so soft. So lovely.”

She smiled and pulled him into a kiss. “My
slave gives the best compliments,” she said when they parted.

“So what would my mistress like?” His index
finger circled her belly button.

“Anything.”

“That is such a broad category.” His hand
stilled, lying flat and warm against her belly. “Tell me. Fingers
or tongue?”

She turned her smile wicked. “Why stop at
one?”

He laughed, soft and low, a sudden exhale at
her neck that made her shiver. “Why indeed.” He bent his head,
mouthing the tips of her breasts again, then slowly kissed down her
belly, lingering just below her navel, his breath hot on her
flesh.

With the slowest of movements, he peeled her
panties to just above the triangle of her sex, planting little
kisses across her belly until she twisted her hips and let out a
moan of frustration. She felt him smile against her skin. “This is
for making me wait so long,” he said.

“I knew I’d pay for it somehow. But it is
better this way, isn’t it?”

He nodded and finished taking her panties
off. “Definitely.” Parting her legs, he kissed the insides of her
thighs, then blew on her curls, making her shiver. He ran a finger
down the center of her pussy, finally slipping it between the lips.
His finger went in easily; she was soaking wet.

Kate moaned when he pressed a second finger
inside her. As he slid them in and out, he lowered his mouth to
her, his tongue finding her clit and working around it in slow
circles, a merciless tease.

She closed her eyes and heard the tide coming
in, waves crashing against the beach in rapid succession, her own
breathing the only sound she could hear above it. Clutching his
hair, she raised her hips to meet his mouth, his wonderful,
teasing, taunting mouth.

He brought her close to the peak several
times, then backed off each time, making her groan with
frustration. “Why are you torturing me?” she finally asked in a
ragged voice.

He smiled up at her, then placed a hand below
her breasts and urged her to lie back as he continued to skirt
around her fulfillment.

At last he took her all the way. Her face
flushed hot and she came in a belly-clenching, thigh-shaking rush,
letting loose a cry that surprised her in its rawness.

Moving up her body, he caught her lips with
his. “I want you, Kate,” he whispered, his voice husky. “I want you
so much.”

“I want you too.” She held his jaw and
delivered a kiss fierce with her hunger. She felt him fumbling with
his belt and unzipping his trousers. She let go of his face and
dragged his trousers down, her hands seeking his hips to pull him
over her. But he surprised her, grabbing her around the waist and
flipping onto his back so that she straddled him. She placed her
hands on his chest and leaned forward. Both of them moaned as she
slowly lowered herself onto him.

She rocked over him, enjoying the freedom of
the position. How had he known what she’d needed, when she hadn’t?
Moonlight striped his face as she looked down at him, but he didn’t
look like Vince now. He was so beautiful. Inside and out. Not
perfect, not at all. But wonderful, nevertheless. Maybe she
even….

She pushed the thought away. She couldn’t be
in love with him. She wasn’t going to make the same mistake again,
she wasn’t going to allow herself to be swept away by a man she
barely knew. Especially not by a man who was hiding something, a
man who still loved someone else. A man who wasn’t truly available,
who could never be hers.

All he could give her was this, this ecstasy,
this monumental pleasure. This bliss. And that was all she was
going to take from him before she left.

Enrico watched Kate sleeping. It was just
after dawn, a little light filtering into their room. He thought
back to those moments on the beach, what he’d said to her about
Antonella.

It was all true. Even while he and Fiammetta
were involved, Antonella’s presence had hovered close to him. But
now—well, more and more, especially the last few days—he’d stopped
constantly thinking of Antonella. Which didn’t mean he’d stopped
loving her. He always would. Would Kate ever be first in his heart?
He didn’t dare hope for that.

All he wanted was to soothe the ache in his
chest, to banish the loneliness that coiled around his heart. To
stop wishing he was dead. And on those three counts, Kate was the
answer he heard. He’d make her his wife—if she’d let him.

He watched the rise and fall of her
breathing, the to and fro of her dreaming eyes.
Cristo
, he
was a fool. Kate wasn’t really his. She was in his bed, but that
was all. If he demanded anything from her, she’d bolt. His stomach
knotted. Could he suffer that loss, that emptiness, again?

No. He had to keep coping with Kate’s
indecision, her chaotic moods. Once she knew who he was, she’d come
to see that she could trust him, that they could make each other
happy. And if he had to hide the divided nature of his heart from
her, he would.

When they were talking in the trees, a truth
had risen unbidden in his heart: he wasn’t yet fully in love with
her, as much as he wished for it. He didn’t love her the way he’d
loved Antonella. If he truly loved Kate, he would put her needs
first, not his. He would have sent her away, would have married
Delfina to keep Kate safe from Carlo.

Instead, he’d followed the dictates of the
selfish, greedy side of his heart. And that side said to keep her
with him. And it whispered to him, as it was doing now: How could
he ever be sure she was safe? How could he trust Carlo’s word?
Better to keep her close than to have her far away and in danger.
That was the right thing to do, yes? The safest thing?

But if that was true, why did his conscience
keep niggling at him?

He sighed. Maybe it was just nerves.
Introducing her to Don Battista, that was monumental. His approval
of Kate was necessary. Without it, there could be no wedding, no
matter what Enrico wanted. And without Don Battista’s approval, she
couldn’t leave either. At least not alive.