Claimed by the Sicilian. Kate Walker

      Hooking his thumbs over the lacy edge of the white silk basque, he pulled it down, exposing her breasts to his arousing touch and his even more exciting mouth. Moaning aloud again, Amber moved her head restlessly on the fine cotton of the pillows, arching her back, pressing herself against his mouth so that the sensations were increased, making her head spin with pleasure.

      But she didn’t just want to feel. She wanted to touch, to match him caress for caress. She wanted to know the heat and softness of his skin, to have the power of his muscles, the hardness of bone under her fingertips.

      ‘Too many clothes…’ she muttered again complainingly, her hand clutching at his shirt, tugging, twisting, trying to wrench it from him.

      ‘Impaziente…’ Guido muttered, laughter once again threading through his voice.

      But he helped her out, shrugging off the loosened shirt, and somehow still managing to concentrate his attention on the tightened, aching breasts he had exposed. The feel of his hot skin, the bunched muscles, made Amber sigh with delight and she let her hands roam where they could. Under her caresses, Guido’s spine arched, burning eyes closed.

      ‘Talking of too many clothes…these have to go.’

      Through the heated delirium that filled her head, Amber barely noticed the feel of his strong fingers closing over the fine lace that was her only covering at the most intimate spot between her thighs. There was a swift, hard tug, the sound of material ripping and her eyes opened wide in shock at the realisation of what had happened.

      ‘Guido…’

      But Guido showed no sign of any sense of guilt, or even concern as he smiled down into her stunned face and kissed the stunned protest from her lips as he tossed the tattered remnants of her knickers carelessly to one side.

      ‘I’ll buy you a dozen more—a hundred…’ he promised against her mouth. ‘Besides, they were in my way.’

      To prove his point, he trailed his knowing hand down her body, following the lines of one of the boned strips that stiffened the corset to the point where it ended just on her waist. From there he let it wander even lower, tracing a path of fire through the curls that hid her femininity, slipping between her thighs, easing them apart. With practised ease he found the tiny, swollen spot that was burning with a hungry need for just this moment and stroked a soft caress over its throbbing tip.

      With her body already ablaze with longing as a result of his enticing attentions elsewhere, that single touch was enough to have Amber convulsing underneath him, crying out his name in the heat of her need.

      ‘Guido—Guido—please…’

      Her vision was hazed with passion but she caught the quick flashing smile that showed his delight at her response, the triumph he didn’t try to hide.

      ‘I knew it would be this way…Knew how it would be between us…’

      Knew…

      Just for a second, his muttered satisfaction stilled Amber, as a cold shaft of something uncomfortable and disturbing almost but not quite reached through to Amber’s rational mind. But just as a flicker of awareness of something she wanted to resist, to armour herself against, threatened to pierce the heated haze of delight, Guido stroked her again, his touch knowing, tormenting, even more arousing than before. Instantly, the flames of passion swept over her, taking with her that momentary doubt as she clung to him, melting into him, not knowing where she ended and he began.

      Long, powerful legs edged between her own, easing them apart. She felt the strength of muscle even through the delicate covering of the stockings she still wore, the fine material of his trousers. She heard her blood thunder in her veins as the heated hardness of him nudged against the sensitised core of her body.

      ‘You’re mine,’ he whispered in her ear, rough and thick and disturbingly raw. ‘Mine. You always have been and you always will. This is how it was in the past, how it is and how it will be in the future. Si? Si?’

      ‘Yes…’

      It was all that Amber could manage. All she could force from her, dry mouth, her parched throat. The heat of her need seemed to be burning her up, shrivelling her brain in its fire.

      ‘Oh, yes…’

      She didn’t want to think—didn’t want him to wait. Even the seconds of hesitation that he kept her waiting ticked in an agony of frustration. Impatiently she moved, shifting underneath him, bringing her hips up slightly, opening herself to him even more.

      ‘Ah, yes, belleza…’

      Firm hands clamped on her hips, hard fingers digging into the swell of her buttocks. In one smooth, powerful movement, he raised her slightly, positioned himself in just the right spot and thrust, hard and long, deep, deep inside her.

      ‘Gui—’ Amber began but he caught her cry in his own mouth as he sealed her lips with his. And kept them closed while his powerful body worked its primitive magic on hers.

      At first his movements were in total control, each hard, fierce movement, each thrust inwards taking her close—so close—to the wild peak of fulfilment but then slowly, agonisingly, letting her down again, holding her, tantalising her…before he moved again. And each time Amber had to bite down hard on her lower lip as frustration stung at her, the sensation of being so near and yet so far an agony of disappointment at the same time as it seared a further brand of delight on her already shuddering body.

      But then, in the space of a heartbeat, it seemed, even his iron control snapped. The slow, deliberate rhythm fractured, became harder, faster, fiercer. The primitive power of passion overtook him, shattering his command of his senses, of his body, and with a harsh, wild cry of abandonment he gave in to the force of need that took them both out of the world they knew and into a space of light and heat and pure, uncontrollable sensation.

      Her name was a harsh shout, mingling with her own cry of ecstasy as they reached the peak and fell from it, tumbling into the darkness of oblivion in perfect unison.

      Amber had no idea how long it was before the total devastation of her senses started to ease, to ebb away so that she could hear and feel again. She still felt blinded, too numbed to find the energy to open her eyes, to even try to see, and so it was as she lay in total darkness, exhausted, satiated, unable to move, that she felt Guido stir, rolling his heavy body from hers and coming to lie beside her on the bed.

      She heard his sigh, deep and satisfied, but blended with a dark thread of rough laughter that pricked at her uncomfortably, sending a quiver of unease right through her body.

      ‘Never say never,’ Guido muttered softly, his voice still thick with the aftermath of the passion that had shaken him to his core. ‘Oh, cara, cara—never, ever say never.’

      CHAPTER EIGHT

      THIS was not supposed to have happened.

      Guido sighed, low and deep, as he flung his head back against the pillow and closed his eyes again. Raking both hands through his hair, he faced the fact that he had probably just made one of the biggest, most stupid mistakes of his life.

      This was damn well not supposed to have happened.

      Not here, not now. Not like this. Not yet…

      And not, most definitely not, when he was not prepared. When he had no protection with him, and even if he had, would not have had the presence of mind, the control, to even think of using it.

      And not just physical protection either.

      ‘Dannazione…’ The curse and others more violent, much more basic in his own language slipped from him as he looked the facts squarely in the face and acknowledged what a stupid bloody mess he had made of things.

      So much for taking things slowly.

      So much for waiting and seeing, watching, learning. So much for acting on his thoughts, his intelligence