he said.
“My mother put it together for me. A charm for each birthday.”
Lowering her wrist, he searched her eyes.
“Until you were fourteen?” he said. Until the year your mother died.
“I knew about the bracelet all those years before. It was supposed to be my sweet-sixteen gift. But then Dad refused to give it to me, so …”
“You took it anyway?”
“No. This bracelet belonged to me but I would never have taken it without my father’s consent. When my sixteenth birthday came and went, I begged for him to give it to me. It was a connection … a link to my mother that I’d waited for all that time. He said he wasn’t certain I could look after it, but he didn’t have the right to keep it from me.”
“He gave it to you in the end.”
“He never really spoke to me again after that.”
“Sounds as if you both miss her very much. You’d have a lot of memories you could share.”
She huffed. “You tell him that.”
“Why don’t you?”
“He wouldn’t listen.”
“You’ve tried?”
“Too many times.”
He sat back, absorbed in the crackling fire. After a time, he said, “I’d give anything to speak with my biological father.”
“What would you say?”
He thought for a long moment and then his eyes narrowed.
“I’d ask him why. But I’ll never have the opportunity.” He found her gaze again. “What would you say to your father if you could?”
She pondered the question as she never had before.
“I guess I’d ask why too.”
“One day you’ll have your answer.”
When she shivered he wrapped his arms around her, bringing her close to the comfort of his natural warmth. His breath stirred her hair.
“Is that better?”
Looking up into his eyes, she spoke from her heart. “Everything’s always better when you hold me.”
When his brow furrowed, Bailey shrank into herself. Despite the atmosphere, she’d said too much. Not that her words were a lie. She’d never meant anything more in her life. She felt safe, protected, in his arms. But the way that admission had come out …
Too heavy. She’d bet that kind of “I can’t live without you” talk had got a number of his previous love interests gently bumped away. But it wasn’t too late to reshape her confession, to season it with the tone they were both more than comfortable with.
Pressing closer, she skimmed her lips across his sandpaper jaw, then hummed over the full soft sweep of his mouth. “On second thought, I think I need to have you hold me a little closer.”
She felt his smile, heard the rumble of approval vibrate through his chest.
“But there’s something stopping that,” he murmured as his palm cupped her nape and she nuzzled down to find a hot pulse throbbing in his neck.
“What’s that?”
“Clothes.”
Delicious heat flushed through her. They’d made love so many times these past weeks, she’d lost count. But something about his voice, his touch, tonight went beyond anything that had come before. Every cell in her body quivered and let her know … whatever they shared would never get any better than this.
But this time she wanted to be the one to lead … to tease and control and drive the other insane with want.
She lifted her face to his and let his lips touch hers before she slid away from his hold and stood in the firelight before him.
“You build a good fire,” she said.
He sat straighter. “You’re warm now?”
“Beyond warm.”
She caught the hem of her lighter shirt and drew it up over her head. The heat of the flames kissed her bare back while Mateo’s intent gaze scorched her front. Her heartbeat thudding, she reached around and released her bra and let the cups fall from her breasts to the soft-pile rug at her feet. When he tipped forward, her flesh tingled and nipples hardened beneath his gaze.
She could see in his eyes that he wanted to drag her to him … wanted to kiss and taste her as much as she wanted to devour him too. But she didn’t go to him. Instead she recalled how he’d entered the hotel suite bathroom the night before, without a stitch on, ready to stroke and tease.
She first released the clasp above the zip of her dress pants then eased the fabric past her hips, down her thighs. As the pants came down, she leaned over, nearer to where he sat and waited. Close enough for him to reach out and touch. When she straightened, only one item of clothing separated her from her birthday suit.
His breathing was elevated now, his chest beneath that black shirt rising and falling in the firelight. She recognized the fiery intent in his gaze. How long would he go before hauling her in?
She edged a step closer and a muscle in his jaw began to jump. When she reached for his hand and set his hot palm low on her belly, he came forward and traced his warm mouth over her ribs. Trembling inside, she drew his hand down over the triangle of silk at the apex of her thighs then slowly, purposefully, back up again. His kisses ran higher, brushing the burning tip of one breast as his touch trailed and fingers twined around the elastic of her panties sitting high on her hips.
Groaning, he nipped her nipple at the same time he dragged the scrap of silk down.
Time melted away when his head lowered and his mouth grazed what a second before her panties had concealed … tenderly and then deeply as he cupped her behind and urged her ever closer. She didn’t resist when he lifted her left leg and curled her calf over his broad shoulder. She only knotted her fingers in his hair as he continued to explore, his tongue flicking and twirling at the same time the heat at her core kindled, sparked and caught light.
A heartbeat from flashpoint, she recalled she hadn’t wanted to surrender to these burning sensations this soon. Now it was too late. This felt—he felt—too good to stop.
As she was sucked into that void, all her muscles locked, the fire raged and, dropping back her head, she gave herself over to the tide and murmured his name.
She was barely aware of being lowered down upon that soft pile rug or Mateo’s hard frame lowering on top of her. As the waves began to ease and, sighing, she opened her eyes, she found the wherewithal to smile. He hadn’t taken the time to take off even his shirt before he thrust in and entered her, filling her in every sense while whispering French and Italian endearments in her ear.
Her legs
