VITTORIO'S LOVER (Vittorio Series) (22 page)

Still tingling and
sexually charged from the carnal dream she’d been having made her irritable. Being around Raffaele was like basking in a tropical sun one minute and jumping into an arctic ocean the next. He blew hot and cold so fast she didn’t know where she stood with him, which left her confused and frustrated and taking showers in the middle of the night. Alone.

The dream had been accurate right up to the point when he’d said, “It’s strange that such a tiny, delicate thing can wield so much power.” For a few, brief, breathless seconds, Jenesa
thought he was going to kiss her. But he didn’t. Raffaele had been the perfect gentlemen for the rest of the evening, charming her with his wit, making her feel beautiful and intelligent and desirable. Stealing another piece of heart and breaking it too, because he hadn’t made the slightest overture despite giving her the distinct impression that he wanted to.

He truly was an honorable man and
she admired him for it, but right now Jenesa had to admit she would be ecstatic if Raffaele shuffled some of that nobleness aside and do what she was too afraid to do; make the first move. 

Stepping out of the shower, she
dried off and wrapped the towel around her wet hair. The shirt she’d worn to bed was damp with sweat so she opted to wear the fluffy terry cloth robe Raffaele had given her rather than put the soiled shirt back on. She’d washed her panties in the sink earlier and hung them up to dry but there didn’t seem to be any reason to put them on since she had to sleep in the nude anyway. A quick search of the linen closet in the bathroom presented a problem; it was loaded with extra towels, wash clothes, and a variety of shampoos and lotions, but not a single change of sheets or pillow cases.

She wasn’t about to go wandering around the dark mansion in search of clean linens, and the idea of waking Raffaele to ask for a fresh set of sheets made her laugh out loud. She could just imagine his reaction to her confession:
You see, I got all hot bothered while having this erotic dream about you and now the sheets are drenched in sweat. 

The faint glow of light peaking through the curtains told her dawn was breaking.  It seemed the storm was breaking
as well because the rain was merely a light patter against the window. She’d hardly noticed the thunder and lightning when she was with Raffaele, but it had kept her from falling sleep for quite some time when she’d gone to bed. Well, that and trying to figure out how she was going to tell him the truth about Jillian and Luca and the reason she let him go on believing she’d slept with his brother.
 

She’d nearly talked herself into traipsing downstairs to make a pot of strong coffee when there was a light tap on her door.
Checking to make sure the robe was properly secured by the cloth belt, she hurried to the door and opened it to find a barefoot Raffaele standing there in a pair of loose fitting sweat pants and nothing else.  Even with disheveled hair and a night’s growth of stubble, Raffaele Vittorio was the sexiest man she’d ever seen. 

“Looks like you’ve been up for a while,” he said.

Jenesa grimaced, painfully aware of the turban on her head and how plain she must look without make-up. If Raffaele noticed, it was lost in the warmth of his smile.

“Come on, I want to show you something.”

Without waiting for a reply, he grabbed her hand and tugged her down the hallway, making a right just before the grand staircase, down another corridor to a narrow set of stairs leading up. Curious now, because he hadn’t shown her this part of the mansion before, she stayed close on his heels until they finally reached the top.  She wasn’t sure what she expected to find, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Nothing could have prepared Jenesa for the delightful surprise awaiting her.

Rendered speechless, she
could only stare in awe at her surroundings as he took her hand once more and led Jenesa to the east side of room. The walls were made of glass, as was the domed ceiling, and the 360 degree view from this high up was simply spectacular. The sun was just beginning to peek up over the horizon, sneaking between a gap in the storm clouds which had lost their ominous black coloring in favor of a soft gray. A light drizzle still lent a gloomy aura to the sky, but it was quickly dissipating as the sun slowly rose higher.

Even the ocean waves seemed to bow to the bright rays that streaked through the patches of blue sky; the white capped peaks
gently curling to create a scene of such breathtaking beauty and serenity, Jenesa was shocked to feel the prickle of tears. Beside her, Raffaele was also held spellbound by the stunning view, although he must have witnessed it on many occasions. The fact that he’d chosen to share this with her made Jenesa feel special; it was a memory she would cherish forever.

“Thank you,”
she smiled up at him. “I’ve never seen anything so beautiful in my life.”

“Neither have I,” Raffaele replied,
gently tugging the towel from her head and letting it drop to the floor. Lifting a lock of partially dry curls, he let it sift through his fingers. “Your hair is pure sunshine, it shimmers like spun gold.  And your eyes…they are the same soft gray as the clouds right now.”

Remembering how poorly she’d read
Raffaele the night before and the disappointment that followed when he didn’t kiss her, Jenesa pulled away from him and moved closer the glass. Was that the same type of practiced smooth talk Luca used to lure Jillian into his bed? What made these Vittorio men think they could seduce women into giving away their hearts only to have them returned, battered and busted and of no use to anyone?

“You’re
very poetic when you want to be,” she said, surprised by the acidic tone of her voice.

“I wasn’t trying to be poetic. I was simply telling you what I see when I look at you.”

Jenesa’s laugh was bitter. “I’m sure you have the perfect analogy for every make and model of the women you date. Eyes like the deep blue sea, hair as dark as midnight, lips as soft as rose petals; I suppose they fall for it every time, and why wouldn’t they? You look at a woman as if she’s the most beautiful creature on earth and she believes it because she wants to, because you’ve twisted her emotions into such a tight knot, she can’t think straight.”

Raffaele moved so silently, she wasn’t even aware he was behind her until he gripped her shoulders and whirled her around to face him. “
Dios
, what is wrong with you? I do
not
shower women with false compliments, and you are no exception.”

“Oh, come on
,” she scoffed. “You really expect me to believe you think I’m beautiful when I’m standing here in a robe with no make-up and hair that’s still wet and tangled from the shower? I’d bet my life that the women you usually take to bed would be mortified to be caught looking like this. They probably get up early to primp and then slip back into bed looking as if they’d just come straight off the cat walk.”

Raffaele’s eyes flashed with anger.
“Are you finished?”

“Yes,”
she shot him a mutinous glare, “I believe I am.”

“Good, then I don’t have worry about that pretty mouth spouting nonsense while I talk.
I
do
think you’re beautiful, with or without your make-up. And I wouldn’t know if the women I’ve slept with intended to get up and primp because I don’t normally stick around for the morning after. You’re right to assume the women in my past have predominantly been models, but you’re dead wrong if you think I find that type appealing anymore.”

Raffaele
leaned into her, pinning Jenesa to the glass wall with the weight of his body.  She didn’t know whether to be frightened by the predatory look on his face or excited by it. 

“
You
have done this to me,” his tone was accusatory, his accent more pronounced. “Never again will I be able to look at their stick thin bodies and find them attractive because they do not have
these
.”

Jenesa moaned out loud as his hands molded to the soft flesh of her breasts.  Her body instantly responded
, arching towards him in an effort to relieve the aching need created by his touch. The skin grew taut over her engorged breasts, the peaks pebbling beneath his palms as the sexual pleasure intensified; a full scale ambush on her senses that forced another low moan to escape before she could stop it. 

“Or this,” he said more softly, pressing his lips to the wildly beating pulse at her throat. “No clingy perfumes to assault my senses…” he trialed hot, moist kisses to her jaw line and followed it to her mouth, “no powders or creams or lipstick
on my tongue.  Only the sweet taste of…you,” Raffaele murmured, slowly tracing her lips with the tip of his tongue.

There was no fighting the whirlwind Jenesa was caught up in when
his mouth crashed down on hers. He dominated her completely; mind, body, heart, and soul. She thrived on it, spurred him on with eager willingness, grinding her hips against his rock hard erection and begging him to take her. Here. Now. Now.
Now
.

One strong arm clamped around her waist like a ste
el vice, locking their bodies together as he dragged her away from the glass wall and stripped her robe off. A low growl rumbled deep in his chest as his fingers twined in Jenesa’s hair and tugged her head back at an angle that guaranteed full access to her mouth. His kiss was ravenous, a marauding invasion that seemed to rob the air from her lungs even as it breathed life into her bruised heart.
This
was what she wanted, what she’d longed for from the first moment she’d set eyes on him.

Their need for each other was too strong and too urgent to deny any longer; even the pleasures of foreplay could not tempt them to wait another second.
Raffaele hastily shoved his sweats down and kicked them way before lowering himself to the ground and taking her with him. Jenesa watched through a hazy fog of shameless desire as his eyes feasted on her nudity for several seconds while the fire inside her belly turned to molten lava. 

Raffaele slipped his hand between her trembling thighs, a primal grunt tearing from his throat when he discovered just how wet she was. He was the pure essence of masculinity; his magnificent body
a sculpted masterpiece of muscle and strength as he levered himself over her and claimed Jenesa with one heavy thrust of his lean hips. There was no pain this time, only a blissful sense of euphoria and the inescapable certainty that no other man could ever arouse the depth of emotion inside her that Raffaele did.  

Through half closed eyelids, she noticed
the sky above her was no longer cluttered with clouds and that it was no longer raining. It was surreal, clinging to his broad shoulders as he drove himself into her like a man possessed while the sun bathed them in its warmth. Afterwards, as they lay in each other’s arms staring up at the sky in that mindless limbo when passion is spent and the body replete but incapable of movement, one undeniable truth filtered through: Jenesa was hopelessly, helplessly in love with Raffaele Vittorio.

                                                  ***

Raffaele lay on his side watching Jenesa sleep. He’d lost control in the observation room but couldn’t honestly say he regretted it. He didn’t regret the second time either, when he’d made up for the first lightning round by taking his time and making love to her properly. They’d been too worn out to do anything in the shower, but he pounced on her again in the kitchen after dinner and taken her from behind just as she started to wash the dishes. The last time was shortly after midnight when he’d been roused from a heavy sleep to the feel of Jenesa’s warm breath against his skin as she kissed her way down his chest to his belly and then…

Madre di Dio
, how could he want her again after indulging in a sexual marathon all day and half the night? And yet, he did. Raffaele ached to be inside her, to feel her inner muscles contract around him while she made those soft mewling sounds that set his blood on fire. He wouldn’t wake her, of course. She wasn’t used to such vigorous sexual activity and needed to give her body a rest. If she was up to it in the morning, however, Raffaele had no doubt he would be too.

Intimacy
, however, didn’t always revolve around stripping off clothes and having sex, as he had discovered throughout the course of the day. After lunch, they took a walk on the beach and exchanged more stories from their youth, gradually trusting one another enough to share some of the triumphs and tribulations of going into business with their siblings. Raffaele told Jenesa things he’d never told anyone else and it felt good…really good to reveal a part of himself no one really knew.

What gnawed at his gut now and kept him from falling asleep was the knowledge he was going to use that trust against her tomorrow when
he was forced to spin one last web of deceit. One last lie to protect his brother and the child Luca may have conceived with Jenesa. In a way, it would protect her too. He had to believe that or his plan would never work.

Yes, Raffaele decided, he would tell her first thing in the morning. Before breakfast, before they even got out of bed.
He would start by telling Jenesa his real name and explain that he only used Luca’s name the night of the party because he never intended to see her again. He would tell her what a mistake it had been because he realized later that they shared a connection he’d never had with any other woman, and that’s why he coerced her into coming to the island.