Italian Mavericks: Bound By The Italian's Bargain. Miranda Lee

to her in such a fashion. She wanted to say yes. She really did. But finding that one little word was so hard.

      ‘I don’t usually go to bed with a man just to get some sleep,’ she hedged.

      He shrugged. ‘There’s always a first time for everything.’

      ‘I...I don’t know, Sergio,’ she said, trying to find some reason—any reason—to say no, panic a heartbeat away. ‘People say sex has a way of spoiling friendships.’

      ‘Come now, Bella, it’s not as though we live in each other’s pockets. When this month is over, you’ll wing your way back to New York and we probably won’t see each other again for another decade.’

      Bella frowned, not liking that thought one bit.

      ‘What’s that expression?’ Sergio said with a wry smile, reaching out to take her by the shoulders and pull her towards him. ‘Friends with benefits? That is what we can be, Bella. Friends with benefits.’

      Bella made no comment. She couldn’t. Because by then his mouth had covered hers.

       CHAPTER TEN

      SERGIO TRIED TO keep his head. Tried to take things slowly. But this was Bella he was finally kissing. Bella who was melting against him and moaning in that soft, sexy way women did when they were turned on. Any momentary worry he’d had that she might not respond to him was banished at the sound of that first little moan, his control banished at the same time. His hands shook as they lifted from her shoulders to clasp her cheeks, holding her face captive while he pried those luscious lips apart and sent his tongue deep into her mouth. She welcomed it avidly, her own tongue entwining with his in an erotic dance that had him fully erect in seconds.

      His groan was half passion, half pain. With great reluctance he dragged his mouth away from hers, knowing that he needed a breather or he would never last the way he wanted to last. No way could he disappoint her. Not this first time. Not if he wanted Bella to want more than just a one-night stand.

      ‘Wow, Bella,’ he said lightly as he returned his hands to her shoulders. ‘You are some kisser.’ Of course, she’d had a lot of practice. Not a thought he relished. ‘Unless you want to have sex out here on the balcony,’ he went on drily, ‘I suggest we adjourn to the bedroom.’

      She blinked up at him, face flushed, eyes somewhat glazed.

      ‘Bella?’ he prompted when she said nothing. ‘Your room or mine?’

      She still didn’t speak, seeming disoriented. Maybe she hadn’t expected to like kissing him as much as she obviously had. Whatever, Sergio wasn’t about to let her go cold on the idea of having sex with him. So he bent and scooped her up into his arms and carried her swiftly into the master bedroom. She made no protest, though her eyes rounded when he laid her down on the black satin sheets that graced the king-sized bed.

      She still didn’t say anything.

      ‘Look, if you’re one of those women who don’t like to talk during sex, then say so right now,’ he said, deliberately using conversation to dampen the urgency of his own desire.

      ‘I don’t like to talk,’ she said, her voice low and husky.

      He shrugged. ‘Pity, it’s good to know what a woman likes or doesn’t like, especially the first time.’

      ‘I see,’ she said, her lovely eyes clinging to his in a way that made him want to kiss her again. But he didn’t dare.

      ‘So is there anything you especially like?’ he asked. ‘Besides kissing, that is. I can see you like that.’

      She frowned as though she was at a loss to answer. ‘No...not...not really,’ she said at last.

      ‘Fine. What about things you don’t like?’

      A small smile pulled at her lips. ‘I don’t like to talk.’

      He laughed. ‘Right. No more talking.’

      He didn’t mind. He’d had his breather, his body back under control. Sort of.

      Propping himself up on his left elbow, he reached to undo the top button of her silky top, telling himself all the while not to look at her breasts. Just get her undressed.

      If only she hadn’t gasped when he’d peeled the top open. If only she hadn’t closed her eyes and tipped her head back on the pillows, the action lifting her breasts towards him in the most inviting fashion. Impossible not to look after that. Impossible not to touch.

      She wasn’t too thin at all. At least, her breasts weren’t. They were perfect, twin globes of pearly flesh with the sweetest, pinkest, pointiest nipples. They demanded to be licked and kissed, then sucked in deeply, all of which he did, uncaring of the danger to his control. She started whimpering, then thrashing her head from side to side on the pillow. Her hands found his head, her fingers winding their way through his hair, not to pull him away but to press him down closer and harder. She cried out when he abandoned her breasts to slide downwards, stripping off her bottom half as he went and tossing it aside. She voiced only the weakest protest when he pushed her legs apart. But there was no further protest once his mouth reached its target. She writhed, then bucked with pleasure, moaning and groaning as his tongue and fingers set up a twin attack on her most erogenous zones.

      From that moment her orgasm was assured. As was his.

      They came together. Yet not together, any dismay on Sergio’s part put aside once he realised that this was only the beginning. She was his now, he thought as he moved to sit on the side of the bed. Sexually, at least. All he had to do was keep satisfying her and she would come back for more. For that was the nature of the beast.

      At last, she opened her eyes and stared into his, her expression full of wonder.

      ‘I had no idea it could be like that,’ she said, sounding stunned.

      ‘Like what?’ he said, his still-hungry gaze roving over her delicious nakedness.

      She immediately closed her legs, looking more than a little confused. ‘I thought... I thought I had to be in love to...to...you know...’

      Sergio was taken aback that a thirty-year-old woman of Bella’s experience could be so naïve.

      ‘Sometimes, sex without love is better,’ he told her, thinking he wouldn’t really know since he’d never been in love. ‘You can concentrate on the physical rather than the emotional. Emotions complicate things.’

      ‘You’re probably right,’ she murmured. ‘Have you ever been in love, Sergio?’

      ‘No,’ he returned abruptly, annoyed that Maria had put silly thoughts of love into his head earlier. He was not in love with Bella. Definitely not. ‘Now I have to go to the bathroom for a sec. Then we’ll get down and dirty and have some real sex.’

       CHAPTER ELEVEN

      ‘DEAR HEAVEN,’ Bella whispered to herself after Sergio closed the bathroom door behind him.

      What had happened to the Bella who hated being naked in front of a man? Who hated oral sex? Who never ever came?

      Gone, she thought with a dizzying wave of pleasure. Gone. Gone. Gone.

      Her hands lifted to touch the still-burning tips of her breasts before drifting down over her suddenly tense stomach, a shiver running down her spine as she opened her legs once more. Not as wide as before, but wide enough for her hand to slide between her thighs.

      ‘Oh, yes,’ she groaned when her fingers brushed over her still-swollen and very sensitive clitoris. She closed her eyes, her hand moving between the slickened folds of flesh till she found the soaked entrance to her body. Never before had she been as wet as this. Or as excited. She moaned at the thought