Page 52 of ‘I Do’ for Revenge

The champagne arrived. Vito handed Flora a glass. She smiled and took a healthy gulp, wrinkling her nose. Then the beat of the music changed and Flora put down the glass and said over the heavy bass, ‘Come on, let’s dance.’

Vito would have protested that he didn’tdance, he usually came here to choose a lover and leave. He’d never actually come to a place like this to enjoy the music. But Flora was leading him down onto the dance floor and turning to face him, lifting her arms in the air, swaying to the music. He noticed men around them look at her, and then at him, and then hurriedly away, once they saw his expression. He felt fierce. Possessive. In spite of the doubts he was suddenly entertaining.

He reached for Flora, telling himself that it really didn’t matter if she was out to get all she could from this liaison because he would have done exactly the same.

The fact that she might not be all she seemed shouldn’t disappoint Vito because he’d stopped believing in myths and fairy tales a long time ago and that hadn’t changed.

Flora still felt as if she were floating when they returned to Vito’s apartment a couple of hours later. The champagne had gone straight to her head, in spite of the food, and she felt deliciously tipsy. She swayed slightly when she bent down to remove her sandals in the hall and stood up again giggling, one sandal still on. Vito looked at her and then she hiccuped, which made her giggle again. She whispered loudly, even though there was no one to hear them, ‘I think I might have had a little too much champagne.’

Vito smiled, but there was something about it that registered with Flora as beingoff, but she was too tipsy to figure out what. She slipped off the other sandal and tossed it aside.

She threw her arms wide and declared, ‘Take me to bed and make love to me, Vito.’

He came towards her and said, ‘I think we might just get you tucked up for now, hm?’

He swung her up into his arms, and her head swirled for a second. She muttered, ‘Spoilsport.’ She spied the opening of his shirt and explored underneath with her fingers, caressing his skin.

‘Flora...’ Vito said warningly.

‘Hush,’ she said, suddenly feeling quite sober as another type of inebriation took over. Desire. She pulled his shirt aside, undoing a couple of the top buttons to give her access to more skin, and pressed her mouth there, drinking in his scent, tasting his skin with her tongue.

She felt his arms tighten around her. He was walking them into his bedroom now and he placed her down on the bed. Flora looked up at him. He stood for a long moment and said, ‘You should sleep.’

But Flora felt no more like sleeping than she did not breathing. He turned and went towards the door. Flora stood from the bed and said, ‘Wait, Vito...’

He stopped and turned around. Flora found the catch at the top of her shoulder and undid it, making the top of the dress fall to her waist, baring her breasts. It clung perilously to her hips. She made a minute move and the dress fell all the way off to the floor. ‘Oops,’ she said.

She could see Vito’s body stiffen. Her blood rushed in response. He came back towards her, shedding his jacket as he did. He stood before her, tall and intense. She shivered at the look in his eyes, shivered with anticipation.

‘Flora, are you trying to tempt me?’ he asked.

‘Is it working?’

A muscle in his jaw pulsed. ‘Yes, damn you. Are you sure—?’

Flora closed the distance between them and lifted her hands to undo the rest of his shirt buttons. ‘Yes, Vito, I’m sure. I’m a little tipsy, that’s all. I know what I’m doing and what I want.’ She looked up at him as she spread his shirt wide, revealing his chest. ‘And what I want is you.Now.’

Vito was naked in seconds and tumbling back onto the bed with Flora. She revelled under his delicious weight, his hard planes and surfaces and the very hard evidence of his desire for her. She wrapped a hand around him, widening her legs, inviting him in... The head of his erection touched her sensitive skin, Flora’s entire body waited on a bated breath and then Vito huffed a curse. ‘You’re a witch. I need to get protection.’

Flora hadn’t even noticed. She’d wanted Vito that badly. Or had she known on some deep level and been prepared to take the risk? Flora’s conscience pricked.

Before she could overthink it, Vito was back and sliding between her legs again, and with one smooth thrust he drove deep into her body, stealing her breath and sanity.

All of the emotions Flora had been feeling earlier and suppressing rose up inside her now. She was too raw to hold them back. As the storm broke over them, too strong to resist, Flora cried out with the pleasure and beauty of it. Her body spasming around Vito’s for long seconds, loath to let him go. Legs wrapped around his hips. Arms around his neck. Breasts crushed to his chest.

It hadn’t been like that before. She pressed her mouth to his shoulder, tasting the salty tang of his sweat, revelling in it. He went to move, to extricate himself, but Flora said, ‘Wait, don’t move.’

She had some instinct that she wanted to imprint this memory onto her brain for ever. How it felt to have Vito in her, over her. So entwined that she didn’t know where he ended and she began.

And at that moment it bubbled up inside her, the need to tell him, to let him know, and as he said, ‘Flora—’ she blurted it out.

‘I love you.’

CHAPTER TWELVE

FORALONGmoment there was silence. Then Vito detached himself from Flora’s embrace. She winced as sensitive muscles released their grip on his body. He got up from the bed in one fluid athletic movement and went to the bathroom, presumably to deal with the protection.

It gave Flora a second to pull a cover over herself and pray that she hadn’t actually uttered those words out loud, that she’d just thought them in her head. But she could already feel the chill in the air, chasing across her skin. Trickling down her spine. There was no hint of inebriation left. She was stone-cold sober.