Page 28 of ‘I Do’ for Revenge
He tipped her chin back up and looked at her. ‘No, it’s not too much at all. I want you too. But this time...we’re going to take it slow...’
He heard the hitch in her breath as his hand moved over her belly and down, exploring her tender flesh and bringing them both back to an urgency that didn’t remain slow for very long.
CHAPTER SEVEN
WHENFLORAWOKEit was bright daylight outside. She looked at her watch and jackknifed up to sitting. Lunchtime. Again. She’d never been so slovenly in her life.
And then she went still as several things registered. She wasn’t in her own room. She was in a very rumpled bed.Vito’s bed.She was naked. And she had a delicious feeling of languor running through her veins. As if she wanted to just lie back down and luxuriate in the feeling of having been so thoroughly...loved.
A little shiver went through her. It wasn’t love. It was just sex. Amazing sex. She’d never known it could be like that. So...all-encompassing. So transformative. She did feel transformed. As if her cells had been realigned and now she was a different verison of herself.A woman.Who had awoken to her sensuality.
But the thing that loomed largest in her head now was how considerate and gentle Vito had been.And not gentle.But that had been because she’d been urging him on, to stop taking such care.
Heat filled her face now as she remembered how at one point she’d bitten his shoulder. She’d bitten him. Like a mad thing. She buried her face in her hands and cringed.
‘What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Sore?’
A small bundle of fur landed beside Flora on the bed at the same time as she heard the voice. Benji. Her dog, who she was neglecting terribly, expecting everyone to take on her responsibility.
And Vito, standing in the doorway, dressed in dark trousers and a short-sleeved polo shirt, looking as if he’d just stepped out ofVogue Italiafor men. She pulled the sheet up over her chest and drew her knees up, while scooping Benji up against her chest, like a shield. He licked her face.
She felt vulnerable and prickly. ‘You should have woken me. I should’ve been up, walking Benji and—’ She stopped.
Vito raised a brow. ‘And what? You don’t have anything to do. Relax.’
Before her life had imploded on that fateful wedding day she’d been busy running the palazzo for her uncle and aunt. And in the last six months she’d been in survival mode. She felt redundant. ‘I need to get a job.’
‘And I’m sure you will...but after last night I think we’re back to Plan A.’
‘Which is?’
‘Pretending we’re back together. I don’t think the PDA will be an issue now, do you?’
Flora wanted to scowl at his arrogant self-assurance even though she’d been the one who had all but seduced him!
‘I...yes, I guess so.’ She couldn’t very well say no, now, could she?
Vito glanced at his watch. ‘Sofia has prepared some brunch for you and then the glam team will be arriving.’
‘The glam team?’
Vito looked at her. ‘A stylist and her team of hair and make-up staff. We’ll be attending our first function this evening.’
‘This evening!’ Flora squeaked.
Vito looked at her. ‘You’ve been to social events before.’
Flora shook her head. ‘Not really, not outside my uncle’s palazzo. He didn’t really approve of me attending events that weren’t hosted by him.’
Vito was silent for a long moment. ‘Did he ever let you out of that palazzo?’
Flora said, ‘Of course, I was free to come and go. I’d go to the market with the housekeeper. Or when they were away that’s when I’d go out to museums and art galleries.’
‘You didn’t meet with friends? Go to parties?’
Flora felt self-conscious. ‘Not really.’Never.She confided reluctantly, ‘I had no friends. Like I told you, I was home-schooled.’
Vito came into the bedroom. ‘Have you ever left Italy?’