eyes as Rocco’s own movements became more urgent. She knew from the tension in his body just how close he was to the edge and she gripped his shoulders as he drove into her like a man possessed. And didn’t she revel in the fact that she could still do this to him? Could still make him moan like that as his body jerked with his own powerful orgasm?
There was silence in the room afterwards as his dark head lay pressed against her neck. Staring over his shoulder at the moon-dappled ceiling, Nicole wanted to say something reassuring. To make some cool and clever remark which would make him realise this meant nothing to her. Something to reassure him that she wasn’t reading too much into what had been just sex. But instead she found herself whispering the only thing which was on her mind. ‘Rocco.’
Rocco grew still as he heard her murmur his name like that, trying to regain the control he’d lost from the moment he’d entered her voluptuous body. The way she touched him unsettled him and the way she said his name unsettled him even more because she sounded confused. And wasn’t the truth that he was feeling pretty confused himself? Tangling his fingers in the curls which flowed down her back, he told himself this was all he had wanted. Having her underneath him and hearing her gasp out his name one last time had been the whole point of the exercise. He’d wanted her and now he’d had her—which meant he could just walk away. Could give her the divorce she so desperately wanted and set them both free.
But suddenly it didn’t seem that simple and walking away no longer looked such an attractive prospect. Instead he found his hand straying to her breast and his fingers teasing a pouting nipple into life all over again as he waited for her little murmur of assent. For the silent wriggle of her curvy hips to indicate that she’d acknowledged his hardness growing inside her and wanted it to happen all over again. Only this time she wasn’t so accommodating and instead of wrapping her luscious thighs around his back, she was pulling out from under him and wriggling away, until she was lying on the far side of the mattress—so far away that she might have been on a different planet. He turned his head to see the set of her profile as she stared up at the ceiling, where the moon shadows were dancing in an undulating display of light and shade.
‘Is that it?’ he questioned.
The slight nod of her head was the only indication she’d heard him and when she spoke it was in a voice he didn’t recognise. ‘What were you anticipating, Rocco? Another bout of wild sex? Round number two?’
‘Why not?’ His gaze settled on her hardened nipples, dark against the silver wash of her breasts, and he thought how her body was contradicting the conviction of her feisty words. ‘The first time is simply the appetiser—the second time is the feast. Surely you remember that, Nicole?’
He watched her throat constrict as she swallowed and he could hear the stiffness in her voice as she answered.
‘The circumstances are rather different this time around.’
‘In what way?’ he drawled.
She shrugged. ‘We obviously both enjoyed that—in a physical sense, certainly. Perhaps it’s better not to tempt fate by doing it again.’
‘And if I don’t agree?’
‘I’m afraid you don’t have any choice but to agree, Rocco.’
There was a pause and when he spoke his voice was very calm. It was the same kind of thoughtful response he might have used if someone had raised an awkward question in a board meeting. ‘I thought you wanted me to be accommodating about the forthcoming divorce.’
Slowly, she turned her head to meet his eyes and he thought how beautiful she looked with her dark curls all wild and free and the faint flush which had spread from her cheeks to her breasts.
‘Is that a threat?’ she demanded. ‘Are you saying that if I don’t agree to have sex with you again, you’ll block the petition?’
‘Please, Nicole. Do not insult me. I would not dream of asking you to do anything you don’t want to do.’ He reached across the bed to place his palm over her thigh, pleased but unsurprised by the instinctive quiver of her flesh in response. ‘I’m merely pointing out that it seems a waste for us not to capitalise on our remarkable chemistry while we have the opportunity to do so.’
She pushed his hand away even though he could sense her reluctance.
‘You mean the chemistry which got us into so much trouble in the first place?’
‘Is that how you see it?’
‘Of course it is. Because it’s the truth, Rocco, and one I made myself accept a long time ago. I was just another body. Just another face. Just another one of the long list of women you seduced. The only difference between me and the others was that I was a virgin.’ She reached for the rumpled duvet which lay at the foot of the bed before yanking it up, though he noticed she didn’t include him in the protective cover she gathered round herself. With only her face visible, she stared at him and her bottom lip was jutting out stubbornly. ‘And you felt differently about that. Perhaps you were jaded because you’d had so many experienced women throwing themselves at you. Wasn’t that the way of it, Rocco?’
His answering smile was hard. ‘That first night with you blew my mind.’
‘The thrill of breaking through my hymen, I suppose? That unique tightness which you can never get back.’
He stiffened, unfamiliar with the sudden steel which had entered her voice. ‘You have become very cynical, Nicole.’
Shivering violently despite the warm cloud of duvet which enveloped her, Nicole wanted to ask what on earth he expected. Had he thought she’d just walked away from him without having learned anything? Because if you didn’t learn from your mistakes then what hope was there? She’d realised that in order to survive she needed to view what had happened dispassionately, and there was nothing to be gained from trying to put a sentimental slant on her failed marriage. The giddy virgin who’d fallen for the powerful Sicilian was now just a distant memory and she’d worked hard on gaining a whole load of perspective in the interim. She didn’t fabricate myths or believe impossible things any more, just to make herself feel better. And a single bout of fantastic sex with the man she had married was not going to make her change her opinion.
She realised there was something else they hadn’t talked about—something far bigger than a young women being introduced to sex for the first time—but she couldn’t face bringing up the subject of their baby. Her fingers tightened around the duvet. Not tonight. Maybe not ever. He hadn’t wanted to talk about it at the time, had he?
And neither had she, she realised, with a sudden flash of insight. Rocco’s reluctance to communicate had suited her very well. He hadn’t wanted to talk about what had happened to them, while she had simply been unable to articulate her pain. Had that made the void even deeper?
She sucked in a deep breath, resolutely bringing her thoughts back to the present. ‘Maybe I needed a touch of cynicism. Maybe I was too much of an innocent in all senses of the word,’ she said, aware of the sudden prick of tears at the backs of her eyes and terrified he might see them. ‘And now I think it’s time you went back to your own bed.’
He shifted his weight slightly on the mattress. ‘Or I could stay here and spend the night making love to you. Since that is what we both want.’
And despite everything which was wrong between them, Nicole was tempted. Who wouldn’t be tempted by such a man? He looked like a lion lying there, so certain of his own strength as the
