came to me pure as the driven snow. That will set him back on his heels and teach him to respect you more.’
‘Leo, for goodness’ sake!’ Letty broke in, mortified by the idea.
‘No, you should be proud rather than apologetic or embarrassed,’ her bridegroom told her with conviction as he closed a hand over hers to tug her inexorably up the stairs. ‘I haven’t been with a virgin since my own first experience. I was sixteen and in the grip of first love. It was a demoralising episode.’
‘Why?’ Letty asked starkly.
‘She was lying—she wasn’t a virgin, and within the space of a week she was bedding one of my friends,’ Leo confided with a sardonic slant to his lean dark features. ‘Following on from my dysfunctional relationship with my stepmother, who was already giving me the come-on, it soured my outlook on women. I promised myself that I’d never fall in love again and I turned my back on the sentimental stuff. It was the most sensible move I ever made.’
Letty put that little fact along with the other stuff she had garnered about Leo’s background: the licentious and vindictive stepmother he had endured in his infatuated father’s hasty second marriage, the mother he barely remembered, the disillusionment provided by his first love. Grief and hurt and distaste had made him distrustful and pessimistic and his experiences as an adult had only reinforced that outlook. Yet, at the same time, he loved his nephews and nieces enough to surrender his freedom in an attempt to give them a happier and more secure life. There were two sides to Leo, Letty acknowledged, a loving side and a dark cynical side, and she wondered which side would take precedence in their marriage.
A practical sexless marriage about to become a real marriage. The shock of realisation that she was about to embark on that challenge shrilled through her taut length and jolted her because she was taking a risk on Leo, and Letty generally avoided risks. And Leo was a huge risk, a man only prepared to accept the concept of fidelity at the point of a gun. In a tempest of doubt, Letty turned pale and flicked at one of the dried flowers scattered across the silky bedspread.
‘What are these?’
‘Rosemary.’ Leo shrugged. ‘An ancient Greek belief in the power of rosemary to enhance fertility.’
‘I thought rosemary was for remembrance,’ Letty muttered uncertainly. ‘But I suppose I should mention that I’m not on the pill.’
Leo laughed with rich appreciation, dark golden eyes alight with amusement. ‘With four little children up in that house on the hill, that’s not a risk I will take…unless, of course, you ask me to.’
Letty coloured. ‘Er…no, thanks, not just yet.’
‘Relax,’ Leo purred, enclosing her taut body in the circle of his arms. ‘You don’t have to worry about stuff like that. I will take care of everything.’
Letty bridled at that assurance, her fierce independent spirit rebelling. ‘I take care of myself, Leo,’ she said drily.
Leo quirked an ebony brow. ‘Not any more. That’s my department now.’
‘We’ll see,’ Letty muttered.
‘No, we won’t,’ Leo contradicted, long brown fingers knotting into the breeze-blown tangle of her hair to tug her head back as he crushed her parted lips under his, every ounce of mastery in his erotic repertoire powering that kiss.
HEATED ARGUMENT WAS swirling in Letty’s busy brain and then she was pierced by heat of a different kind.
A long shiver snaked through her and she trembled, desire like a living flame flaring low in her belly. She didn’t understand her response or the sudden dimming of rational thought and, being Letty, she struggled to comprehend how her physical response could overwhelm her mental reactions. And in that moment of disconcerted stasis Leo tangled his tongue with hers, skated it over the roof of her mouth and her legs literally went weak. Ultimately that didn’t matter because he was already leaning her up against him for support while tugging down the straps on her maxi dress and letting it fall to the floor.
Eyes fluttering in dismay, Letty found herself lying back on the bed with no clear awareness of how she had arrived there. She gazed up at Leo worriedly, painfully sober, painfully aware of the size of her bare breasts, which had always been larger and more noticeable than she was comfortable with, but then bosomy women ran in the family genes and she hadn’t got a choice in the matter.
‘Theé mou…’ Leo groaned with unashamed appreciation. ‘You have gorgeous breasts.’
Taken aback, Letty peered down at her attributes in bewilderment as Leo curved what could only be described as reverent hands to the bountiful swell of her breasts, shaping and moulding them, fingers grazing the stiffened peaks, lingering to rub the sensitive tips and provoke a breathy gasp from her lips as an arrow of heat ran down to her pelvis. Leo liked her body, Leo accepted her as she was, and a whole slice of her anxiety fell away in that moment. He closed his mouth to a tender pink nipple and she jerked in surprise, unprepared for the pulsing ache stirring at the heart of her body.
A sensual daze cocooned her as a tightening sensation banded her womb, her hips pushing up for relief as he teased a swollen bud with the edge of his teeth and moved hungrily to the other. Answering heat sizzled through her quivering body before the slowly heightening delight just seemed to explode deep down inside her, sending streamers of multi-coloured fire darting through every nerve-ending she possessed and dragging a cry from deep in her throat. Stray convulsions of pleasure continued to tug at her as she flung her head back in reaction, her honey-blonde mass of hair spreading across the pillows in a silken tangle.
‘You’re very sensitive there, meli mou,’ Leo murmured with satisfaction, long fingers gently brushing an almost painfully tender pink nipple. ‘I love that.’
Letty lifted a hand to frame one high cheekbone, utterly mesmerised by the smouldering blaze of his dark golden eyes. Her other hand curved to a bare bronzed shoulder with a new sense of intimacy that pleased her almost as much as it unnerved her. She liked the feel of his hot smooth skin and that was fine, perfectly acceptable as long as she accepted that that physical connection was as much as she could allow herself to feel for him.
‘What are you thinking about?’ Leo demanded with a disconcerted frown.
‘Nothing, nothing at all,’ Letty fibbed, lashes veiling her eyes as she drew herself up to put her lips against his again and he took the bait with alacrity, kissing her breathless while her restive hands roved over the smooth taut muscles of his spine to inch down into the waistband of his jeans to tug him closer still.
‘There’s so much more for us to discover,’ Leo murmured huskily, darting a trail of kisses down the slope that ran from her ear to her shoulder, singling out sensitive spots that even she had not known she possessed and reawakening the hunger he had briefly sated.
Somewhere during that moment, her last garment disappeared but she was much more preoccupied by the line of kisses Leo was tracing down over her midriff to the honeyed, throbbing core of her. She closed her eyes tight, surrendering control for the first time ever, knowing that the more aroused she was, the easier her introduction to sex would be. Before very long, she was no longer capable of such practical reflections and her body was writhing without her at the controls.
