or righteous anger at how vulnerable he made her feel drained away. She was drowning in his strength. Mouth clinging to his, skin tightening all over as he coaxed her lips apart to explore deeper with his tongue. His kiss seven years ago had seared itself onto her memory like a brand. This was like being woken from a deep sleep. She’d never really enjoyed kissing or being touched by men...until him. And now this.
Barely aware of the fact that Luca was pulling down the zips of their sleeping bags, she only knew that there was nothing between them now, and that he was pulling her on top of him so her breasts were crushed against his broad chest.
Both hands were on her head, fingers thrust deep into her hair, and Luca positioned her so that he could plunder her mouth with devastating skill. Serena could feel herself getting damp between her legs.
Luca drew back for a moment and Serena opened her eyes, breathing heavily. With a smooth move he manoeuvred them so that Serena was on her back and loomed over her. He looked wild, feral. Exactly the way she imagined the marauding Portuguese conquistadores must have looked when they’d first walked on this land.
He smoothed some hair behind her ear and Serena’s breath grew choppier. Her fingers itched to touch him, to feel that chest, so when his head lowered to hers again her hands went to the buttons of his shirt and undid them, sliding in to feel the dense musculature of his chest.
She was unable to hold back a deep sound of satisfaction as her hands explored, revelling in his strength. She dragged her fingers over his chest, sliding over the ridges of his muscles, a nail grazing a flat hard nipple. Her mouth watered. She wanted to taste it.
His beard tickled her slightly, but that was soon forgotten as his tongue thrust deep, making her arch up against him. He was pulling down the strap of her vest, taking with it her bra strap, exposing the slope of her breast.
When Luca pulled back again she was gasping for breath. She looked up, but everything was blurry for a moment. She could feel Luca’s fingers reach inside the lace cup of her bra, brushing enticingly close to where her nipple was so hard it ached. He pulled it down and Serena felt her breast pop free of the confinement. Luca’s gaze was so hot she could feel it on her bare skin.
He breathed out. ‘Perfeito...’
His head came down, and with exquisite finesse he flicked his tongue against that tip, making Serena’s breath catch and her hips move of their own volition. He flicked it again, and then slowly expored the hard flesh, before placing his whole mouth around it and suckling roughly.
Serena cried out. Her hands were on his head, in his hair. She’d never felt anything like this in her life. Sex had been something to block out, to endure, an ineffective form of escape...not something to revel in like this.
His hand was on her trousers now, undoing her button, lowering the zip. There was no hesitation. She wanted this with an all-consuming need she’d never experienced before. His hand delved under her panties as his mouth still tortured her breast.
When his fingers found the evidence of her desire he tore his mouth away. She could see his eyes glitter almost feverishly as he stroked her intimately, releasing her damp heat. Serena whimpered softly, almost mindless, her hips jerking with reaction.
‘You want me.’
His words sliced through the fever in her brain.
Serena bit her lip. She was afraid to speak, afraid of what might spill out. Luca was a master torturer. With his hand he forced her legs apart as much as they could go, and then he thrust a finger deep inside, where she was slick and hot. She gasped.
‘Say it, Serena.’
He sounded fierce now, his finger moving intimately against her. Oh, God... She was going to come. Like this. In a tent in the middle of nowhere. Just from this man touching her...
Feeling vulnerable far too late, Serena tried to bring her legs together—but Luca wouldn’t let her. She could see the determination on his face. The lines stark with desire and hunger. One finger became two, stretching her, filling her. She gasped, her hands going to his shoulders.
The heel of his hand put exquisite pressure on her clitoris. She was unable to stop her hips from moving, rolling, seeking to assuage the incredible ache that was building. And then his fingers moved faster, deeper, making Serena’s muscles tighten against him.
‘Admit you want me...dammit. You’re almost coming. Say it.’
Serena was wild now, hands clutching at him. He was looking down at her. She knew what was stopping the words being wrenched from her: the fact that Luca seemed so intent on pushing her over the edge when he appeared to be remarkably in control. The fact that she suspected he just wanted to prove his domination over her.
But she couldn’t fight it. She needed it—him—too badly.
‘I do...’ she gasped out, the words torn from her as her body reached its crescendo against the relentless rhythm of Luca’s wicked hand and fingers. ‘I do...want you...damn you.’
And with those last guttural words she went as taut as a bowstring as the most indescribably pleasurable explosion racked her entire body and broke it apart into a million pieces before letting it float back together again.
Serena had orgasmed before. But never like this. With such intensity...losing herself in the process.
* * *
Luca’s brain had melted into a pool of lust and heat. Serena’s body was still clamping around his fingers and he ached to be embedded within her, so that the inferno in his body might be assuaged.
But something held him back—had held him back from replacing his hand with his erection. At some point he’d become aware that he needed this woman on a level that surpassed anything he’d ever known before.
And, worse, he needed to know that she felt it too. So making her admit it, making her come, had become some kind of battle of wills. She’d confounded him since she’d turned up in his office, just days ago, and this felt like the first time he’d been able to claw back some control. By making her lose hers.
But now, as he extricated his hand and her body jerked in reaction, it felt like an empty triumph. Luca pulled back and gritted his jaw at the way his body rejected letting Serena go. He pulled on his shirt, feeling wild. Undone.
Serena was moving, pulling her clothes together. He saw her hands shaking and wanted to snarl. Where was the insouciant, confident woman he remembered meeting that night in Florence? She bore no resemblance to this woman, who was almost impossibly shy.
Luca lay back, willing down the throbbing heat in his blood. Cursing the moment he’d ever laid eyes on Serena DePiero. She went still beside him, and even that set his nerves on edge. Sizzling.
Eventually she said hesitantly, ‘You didn’t...’
She trailed off. But he knew what she’d meant to say, and suddenly her unbelievable hesitance pushed him over another edge. He’d cursed this woman for a long time for sending his life into turmoil, and yet again she was throwing up another facet of her suddenly chameleon-like personality. The most in control he’d felt around her since she’d come back into his life had been just now—when she’d been surrendering to him even though she’d obviously hated it.
He
