She stepped free of her suit and stood nude before him in acres of skin turned blush-pink beneath the benevolent kiss of a ruby sun. She thought she’d feel nervous or apprehensive or self-conscious. Instead she just felt the rightness of being with him.
“Your turn,” she informed him.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her. “I’m a little busy.” He cupped her breast and stroked the tip with the rough pad of his thumb. “I’ve never seen anything so beautiful.”
Her nipple tightened in response and she shuddered, the intense pleasure arrowing straight to her core, making her painfully aware of her femininity. She burned with it, a melting heat that made her want to dissolve into his arms.
She shook her head to clear the sensual fog. “There’s this interesting rumor going around that what you have in mind can’t be accomplished unless you’re naked, too.” She shot him a teasing smile. “Besides, it’s only fair.”
“Normally I’d say you shouldn’t listen to rumors.” His voice deepened. “Though in this case, there may be some truth to them.”
His fingers dragged across the peak of her breast again, the sensation a delicious agony, and she lost it. With a muffled cry of demand, she yanked him to her, kissing every inch of him she could reach. Touching every bit of him. The endless width of his chest. The ripple of hard, curving muscle and toned sinew. The rumble strips down his abdomen. An endless, beautiful display of burning hot skin. And it was all hers.
God, he was in incredible shape, especially for a man who spent his life in an office. Or maybe he didn’t. Maybe he helped out with the actual restoration process. Something had put all those delicious ridges of muscle on his chest and shoulders.
Unable to help herself, she pressed a kiss just above his heart. He groaned softly and caught her close. “You undo me, piccola,” he whispered. She reached for his swim trunks and he stopped her. “Considering my current state, I think I’d better take care of this part myself.”
In one swift move, he stripped off the trunks. He was painfully heavy with desire and she shivered before the intense maleness of him. As though sensing her skittishness, he corralled her in the direction of the bed, tossing aside the covers. She tumbled backward onto the thick, soft mattress, the cotton sheet like velvet against her back. He braced himself above her, hovering for an endless moment. Inch by inch, he lowered himself onto her, pressing her into softness while covering her with delicious heat.
“Constantine!” His name escaped in a pleading sigh, asking for something she couldn’t quite bring herself to express in any other way. She couldn’t get enough. Not close enough, not fast enough…just not enough. “More. I want more.”
“I’ll give it to you, I swear.” He touched her, a soothing stroke, while determination filled his expression. “But for your first time, slowly. With care. And I need to make sure you’re protected.”
She wanted to argue, but couldn’t. She was too swept up in the moment. He disappeared briefly. When he returned, she realized he must have brought a condom with him…just in case. He returned to the bed and his mouth came down on hers, the gentle joining of lips and tongue at odds with the fierce hunger that underscored it. There was a familiarity to their kiss, as though they instinctively understood each other’s needs and wants and were intent on supplying it. It took them to a new, unexpected level of intimacy. Passionate, yet generous. Arousing, yet open and vulnerable.
He cupped her breasts, teasing them into hard peaks with tongue and teeth. All the while he whispered the most exquisite words of love, the soft Italian making them all the more beautiful. He pressed kisses slowly downward, over her quivering belly and lower still. She gripped his shoulders to stop him.
“Don’t.” He interlaced her fingers with his. “Let me know you. All of you.”
He reared back, so dying sunlight spilled across her, exposing her. She gazed into his black eyes and her heart rate kicked up, a fierce pounding in her ears as she waited for his reaction, waited to see what he’d do next. A slow smile curved his mouth, one of love and intense pleasure. Without taking his eyes off her, he lowered his head to her abdomen again and kissed her, sliding steadily lower.