crushing her, his heart drumming strongly enough for her to feel it against her own hammering heart. Their lips entwined in another deep, hungry kiss and he ran a hand up her thigh to take the hem of her dress and raise it to her waist.
Needing to touch him, she ran her fingers down his back and revelled in the smoothness of his skin, the muscles that bunched beneath her touch, then traced lower to the tight buttocks. Grasping frantically, she found the waistband of his boxers and tugged at them. Felipe’s hand covered hers and together they shifted them down his hips, allowing his erection to spring free.
Her eyes flew open to feel the weight of his excitement against her inner thigh, a deep throb pulsing through her to know this was for her. Her own arousal had melted into a mass of heat and dampness, all concentrating in the one area he was so close to taking possession of.
Francesca had never dreamt she was capable of such wanton, reckless carnality, that her flesh could feel like a living being, that desire could beat like a drum with a rhythm felt in her every pore.
This, she thought dreamily... This...
Instinct had her raising her thighs and wrapping her legs around Felipe’s waist, urging him on, her body speaking the language she had never learned.
The tip of his erection found where it needed to be with no guidance from either of them and in one driving thrust he was inside her.
It happened so quickly that it took a few beats for her brain to register the sharp pain and when it did register, the gasp of relief at his possession that had flown from her mouth turned into a gasp of shock and stilled on her lips.
Felipe froze.
The heady urgency of his desire deflated like a punctured balloon. He gazed down in horror at Francesca’s whitening face.
It wasn’t possible...
His head pounded loudly, bells clanging, sirens wailing.
It wasn’t possible.
With as great a care as he could manage, he withdrew from her and swung his legs over to rest on the floor then grabbed the back of his neck and dug his fingers into it.
The beat of his heart was out of time.
She didn’t move.
He didn’t move.
For the longest time he sat on the bed staring incomprehensibly at the thick carpet while she lay on the bed gazing mutely at the ceiling.
He wanted to be sick. There was movement beside him as Francesca slowly sat up.
A trembling finger was placed lightly on his shoulder.
‘Felipe...’
Slowly he raised his head and caught sight of himself in the mirror on the wall.
The reflection gazing back was a man he didn’t recognise.
He didn’t think he would ever recognise himself again.
WHEN HIS THROAT had loosened enough so he could breathe, Felipe got to his feet and put his boxers on. Only then did he turn to the hunched figure in the centre of the bed. She still had her dress on.
Francesca’s eyes were huge but when he met them he saw they were filled with defiance as well as misery.
With a sigh, he sank back onto the edge of the bed and buried his face in his hands. ‘You should have told me.’
Her voice was low but steady. ‘If I’d told you, you would have stopped.’
‘Damn right I would have stopped.’ He swore loudly as he remembered something else that made the hairs on arms lift. ‘We didn’t even use protection.’ Not that they’d needed it. It had been over almost as soon as it had begun.
‘I’m on the Pill,’ she mumbled.
‘Are you?’ he demanded. ‘You’re not just saying that?’
A quick shake of her head. ‘I used to have terrible pains every month. The Pill helped.’
‘Francesca... Dios...’ He raised his head and met her gaze. ‘What were you thinking?’
She didn’t answer.
‘Was it your intention to make me hate myself?’
She shook her head and blinked rapidly. If she cried, he thought there was every chance he would lose the plot completely.
How was it possible she’d been a virgin?
‘For God’s sake, will you say something? Tell me what’s going on in that head of yours?’
‘I thought you wanted me to shut up,’ she whispered with a forlorn smile.
His hands clenched into fists and he swore loudly.
She screwed her eyes tight shut.
He fought to control his tone, to soften it. ‘Francesca, please, tell me why you didn’t think fit to inform me you were a virgin. Don’t you understand how sick I am at myself for what just happened? My self-loathing would have been high enough but discovering that...’ He threw his hands in the air. His affairs had always been conducted with experienced women who knew better than to expect anything from him. Did Francesca giving her virginity to him mean she wanted more? ‘Why didn’t you stop me?’
‘Because I wanted it to happen,’ she said so quietly he had to strain to hear.
‘But why? There can never be anything between us, don’t you understand that? Even when this is all over and you’re no longer my client, you and I can never be.’
‘Why? Because I’m too young for you?’ Her voice shook. ‘I’m twenty-three, not thirteen, old enough to marry, to vote, to drive, to work, to make mistakes and be judged old enough to know better.’
‘No!’ His voice rose as he lost the battle with his temper. ‘I don’t do relationships. I told you this. You were a twenty-three-year-old virgin for a reason, I assume because you were waiting for the right man or for marriage. I could never be that man!’
‘I don’t want you to be that man!’ Francesca shouted back. Her shame and Felipe’s anger had pushed her to breaking point. ‘Stop making assumptions about me. I wasn’t saving myself. Haven’t you listened to me? I’ve told you more than once I don’t intend to settle down for years, not until I’ve set up my own law firm. I want a career first, thank you, and when I do marry it will be to someone who can treat me as his equal. You are not that man.’
‘Then why?’ He gripped the back of his head and breathed deeply. ‘Please, explain it to me so I don’t spend the rest of my life hating myself for taking advantage of your vulnerability. And do not deny that you’re vulnerable, you buried the brother you loved only days ago and something like that does affect you even if you don’t see it at the time.’
She
