from his eyes. Now there was something else there, a tenderness that made her lungs close even tighter.
Her fingers uncurled from the pillow of their own accord. At that moment Elena wasn’t capable of rational thought. She wrapped her arms lightly around his back.
His skin felt so smooth.
‘Breathe,’ he whispered. He placed his forearms either side of her head and captured locks of her hair in his fingers. ‘Breathe.’
She tried, drawing in choked air.
‘Breathe.’
He moved inside her gently, his eyes holding hers, his hands stroking her hair.
‘Move with me,’ he said in that same low tone.
‘I...’ She didn’t know how.
He must have understood.
A thumb brushed along her cheekbone. ‘Do whatever feels good for you.’
He moved again, pulling out a little then pushing slowly back. ‘Move with me,’ he urged.
She raised her thighs a little and immediately the friction deepened.
His jaw clenched but his eyes were open, feeding her messages that there was nothing to be afraid of. Slowly, very slowly, he increased the movements.
From all Elena knew of sex, it was something to be hurried, a carnal event for the man to take his pleasure and for the woman to endure.
She had never known it could be tender.
She had never imagined Gabriele could be tender. But he was. His only concern was her pleasure and making this as good for her as it could be.
A swell of something she couldn’t discern grew inside her chest and her fingers dug into the planes on his back, feeling the muscles beneath the smoothness.
Instinct took over and she found herself moving with him, hesitantly at first but with slow-increasing confidence, meeting his still-restrained thrusts as her body adjusted to these wonderful sensations spreading through her.
And they were wonderful. Like nothing she could ever have imagined.
The pulsations that had been building in her core grew stronger. Gabriele rocked gently in her, letting her have control of the tempo and strength. She raised her thighs a touch more, deepening the effect, and pressed herself tightly against him, locking her cheek next to his, feeling his hot breath on her skin.
And then she was crying out as the swelling exploded within her, rippling through every part of her with a strength that made her cling even tighter to him for support.
Through the heavenly yet shocking delight of what she was experiencing, Elena heard Gabriele’s breathing deepen.
He whispered endearments, coaxing her to ride the waves until he let out a ragged groan and gave one last, lengthy thrust.
And then he collapsed on her.
With his face in her neck, his hands still running through her hair and the thunder of his heart echoing through her skin, Elena gazed at the ceiling, too shocked at what she had just experienced to think coherently or attempt to wriggle out from beneath him. The weight of his body on her and the heat of his breath in her neck...
Had that really just happened?
A strange lethargy crept through her sensitised body and a lump formed in her throat.
A lifetime of listening to her brothers and their friends discuss women with what amounted to contempt, and witnessing them treat the women in their lives as mere possessions, had convinced her that sex was a tool for men to assert their dominance. She’d assumed the phrase making love was from the realm of movies.
She hadn’t been prepared for Gabriele to be so tender and gentle with her.
Even now that it was over, she would have assumed he would roll off her, let out a snore and, job done, go to sleep. She hadn’t thought he would continue to caress her as if she mattered in any way; and this man was her enemy.
She hadn’t expected to feel so close to him.
She could only imagine how he would make love if he was actually in love with the woman in his bed.
With that bitter thought, she finally psyched herself to move out from beneath him. He obliged, shifting his weight off her so she could roll onto her side and turn her back to him.
She could feel his eyes upon her, and waited for the dissection of what had just occurred to begin.
Instead, he hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her back so she was spooned against him.
Inexplicably, her eyes filled with tears. She blinked them away.
This was what she’d signed up for, she reminded herself for the umpteenth time.
Just because having sex with Gabriele had been the most incredible, fulfilling experience of her life didn’t change any of the facts about him or them.
Yet, with his warmth permeating through her and his strength cocooning her, she drifted into sleep with a contentment in her limbs she had never known she could have.
GABRIELE PAUSED IN the doorway of the bedroom and peered at Elena’s sleeping form.
The sheets looked as if she’d been wrestling them, a leg hooked around them, her arms thrown outwards.
He’d slept fitfully, waking half a dozen times, not touching her, just gazing at her with a chest so tight breathing was painful.
Staring at her now, he still couldn’t comprehend that she’d been a virgin.
A virgin.
She shuffled and then raised her head. Opening a bleary eye, she stared at him for a moment before saying, ‘What time is it?’
He looked at his watch. ‘Six o’clock.’
Sitting up, she brushed her hair away from her face and hugged the sheets to her. ‘Have you been working out?’
He looked down at his shorts and T-shirt and the training shoes still on his feet. ‘What gave it away?’
The glimmer of a smile played on her lips.
‘I went for a jog around Central Park.’ Always up before the birds, that morning he’d risen even earlier, which was hardly surprising as they’d both fallen asleep in the early evening. ‘Are you hungry?’
She rested her chin on her knees and nodded, almost shyly.
‘I’m going to take a quick shower then I’ll get some breakfast for us. Any requests?’
She shook her head.
She
